When The Way Is Long And Hard

August 9, 2020

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

Matthew 14:22-33

When the Way Is Long and Hard

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

There is a lot of fatigue and exhaustion going on in today’s gospel story. To begin with, Jesus and his disciples have just spent the entire day with a huge crowd of people on a remote hillside. Jesus spent the whole day healing their sick. Then they coordinated a mass feeding and cleanup.

That was a full day’s work! But there was more. Jesus had gone there in the first place because his heart was heavy. He’d gotten the news that John the Baptist had been beheaded. They went to this lonely place so that they could be alone and grieve John’s passing away from the constant demands of the crowds.

But once Jesus arrived, there were the people! So he laid aside his own grief and set about to care for their needs. How difficult it is to tend to other needs when your own heart is brimming over in grief and sorrow! Ordinary things take twice the energy

We’ve all been there. Sometimes the needs before you are so pressing that you just have to place your own needs on a shelf until you can get back to them later.

That’s exactly what Jesus did. But now he wanted to be alone. So he sent the disciples ahead in their boat, and then Jesus dismissed the crowds. At last, he was alone! He retreated to the mountain top, and there he prayed. His soul desperately needed one on one time with God.

Just like us, God was his source of strength and hope. In Jesus, we see a model for ourselves. We need God! And we need to tend to this holy fire within. God is our light and our life. When we neglect our connection to God, we become depleted in strength and hope.

Martin Luther was in the habit of praying at least two hours every day. He began each day in prayer. He remarked once,

“If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.”

President Abraham Lincoln knew this, too. Here was a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders! If you go to the Lincoln presidential museum in Springfield, IL, there’s an eye-opening display there. They line up portraits of Lincoln, every year from 1860 to 1865. Each year of his difficult presidency takes a dramatic toll on his features. He begins as the clean-shaven young lawyer. But in five brief years, he’s transformed into an aged, skeletal shadow of himself. Lincoln knew weariness. And he was no stranger to prayer. He said,

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”

Prayer and time with God are essential. They revive our heart and soul. The story is told of a certain village in Africa. The message of Christianity had been embraced by this village. As their regular devotional practice, each person had found a lonely spot in the nearby jungle. They went frequently to their spot to pray. Each person’s spot was sufficiently remote so that he or she could openly and pour out their heart to God in prayer and praise.

Over time, the pathways to these prayer spots became worn down. So it was evident to everyone if a neighbor started to neglect their prayer life. To encourage their neighbor in prayer, they said, “Brother, the grass grows on your path.” *

Jesus knew he needed to connect with God. He sent his disciples and the crowds away so that at last he could pray. He prayed from evening until the fourth watch of the night. That’s between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning. That was when the disciples spotted an apparition on the waters. That was a long prayer time!

So now we enter the second half of today’s story. And again, there is great strain and fatigue. The disciples also had put in a full day on that hillside. They were worn out, too.

When evening had come, Jesus sent them off in their boat. They set off for their destination across the lake. But then a stiff wind arose, and they were rowing right into it. Tired though they were, they had no option but to row on.

These were seasoned fishermen. They were no strangers to rough waters and hard rowing. On and on they rowed. But as they rowed, the wind pushed them back. They still had a long way to go before they reached the shore.