Sinking Faith
One of the most fabled and widely cited “stories” in the life of Christ is that of Peter walking on the stormy Sea of Galilee. While essentially the account is only detailed in Matthew, portions are also in Mark and John; the later two making no mention of Peters endeavor. Here’s what Matthew had to say…
Chapter 14
24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled , saying , It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying , Be of good cheer ; it is I; be not afraid .
28 And Peter answered him and said , Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said , Come . And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid ; and beginning to sink , he cried , saying , Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?
32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased .
33 Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying , Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
For further reading in the other Gospels, see Mark 6:45-56 & John 6:15-27. I’ll refer to these later on…
Last night at dinner, I asked my 9-year old brother if he could recite to me this account – which, he did. He said something along these lines: “…Peter and the Apostles were on a boat in the water and they saw Jesus and Jesus told Peter to come onto the water and then, the storm got worse and Peter sank” (emphasis and, obviously, underlining added by me). That does sum the story in Matthew up in less than fifty words and I’m willing to go so far as to say a larger portion of Christians would (being 9 or 109) have similar narratives. What I want to point out to you today is that we miss so much by a cursory reading of this.
As this is part two of my exploration into what faith means, and especially into what faith should look like in your journey, we’re going to break this chapter up because to me, in this single chapter (and if you haven’t, I demand you read chapter 14 in its entirety right now, all 36 verses – you can go here or here and even here - of course a good physical bible would be the best) the true gamut of faith is explored and expounded, the application is even overwhelming.
So, since you read the whole chapter, you now know this is the chapter that Jesus provides for the 5000 men and at least as many women and children with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Everyone was there, all the Apostles, the community and no doubt the horde of “followers” who trailed Christ’s each and every move throughout his ministry. But I want to stay focused on the Apostles here because we are about to see them go from simple pupils to totally acknowledging Christ as “…that Prophet that should come into the world” (see Deuteronomy 18:18). This is huge. This is like driving a compact car on Monday and on Tuesday driving a Tank. Only illustrated in John 6:14, the people, the average Jew had no issues then and there admitting to each other who exactly Jesus was; if only the Apostles were aware. What follows, I believe, is Christ’s tear-inducing and enriching experience of how awesome faith is, not just to the Apostles (for certainly they were the immediate illustrations of the Christian walk) but for us. Faith is what filled every single one (not counting Judas) of the Apostles as they boldly faced Martyrdom; faith, as our unspoken compass, points us to a life lived for God and breeds within us the heavy weight of Grace.
While I could go on and on about what exactly happens next, notably the idea that the Jews there wanted to forcibly make Jesus a king – John 6:15 (See the notes at the bottom of this post for more – no democracy will ever have the right to elect Him into office) – the paramount point of this verse that I need to emphasize is that it was Christ who constrained his Apostles to depart, and out of obedience they do, but notice here, to constrain is a verb, it indicates a forcible action by Christ on the twelve to leave and leave with a bounce in their step. Mark 6:45 puts it more into action, In other words, these guys were highly urged by Jesus to, turn around (the twelve obey their Lord and finally surrender, Jesus pats a few of the Apostles on their backs, and after some strong, reluctance and insistence for Him to leave with them) get in the boat and sail; Jesus can be like that to us sometimes, sometimes we need his stern, experienced-in-all-things approach. “Listen, stop what your doing, turn around and look at this Cross!”, He says, while we’re wrapped up in our selves, sinning and slowly (or faster depending…) sinking, having too long neglected what He did for us and what exactly that sacrifice should mean to us everyday we breathe.
A short detour here – this verse is very similar to an account found in Exodus (Exodus 33:12-23 to be exact) where Moses pleads to God on behalf of a people who had really messed up. Moses is one of a few of the early examples of a ‘type‘ of Messiah, a precursor and its illustrated well here. Moses, now having the displaced nation back in line, calls on the Lord once again for…mercy. How unspoken is God’s, Christ’s mercy through out the bible on those people who really mean it honestly; that is to purse God and God alone. This mercy is identical to the mercy Jesus is about to shower on His Apostles, but knowing that the testing on the sea will bring about an awareness – (just as the Israelite’s experienced as a collective peoples of God’s worthiness to truly be worshiped) – of who He is and why He deserves to be seen for who He said he is. Make sense?
The narrative now splits, Jesus going his way, alone to spend time with his Father. Do you see the type of faith Jesus demonstrates towards God here? In the midst of everything else going on, Jesus privately goes onto the mountain to pray. If you are following Christ and acknowledge that Christ is our firm foundation (I Corinthians 3:11) then realize that Christ also humbled himself before God just as a servant should. Jesus didn’t come to just perform miracles, but to realize God’s will; Jesus wanted only to bring honest glory to God. Think about this, Jesus just sent his Apostles right into a massive storm, being the Messiah, he absolutely knew this. He loved those men far more than himself, yet sent them out into this storm alone, just twelve, weak men.
Cue violent storm.
Each of the three Gospel accounts detail different aspects of this storm – Matthew at least gives us a time frame; in the fourth watch of the night – or early morning, probably 3am to 6am. John 6:19 says the dozen had rowed about twenty five to thirty furlongs, which at it’s widest point the Sea of Galilee is 7-8 miles so, they were halfway to the coast on the other side. Mark 6:48 says they were “toiling”, these guys weren’t getting anywhere. Rowing, toiling, pain-ridden using all their power to just survive another wave roll. Under their own power, the Apostles were able to make it halfway. To many people (irregardless of faith) are ok getting halfway; after all, that’s pretty standard nowadays – halfway must count for something.
…working on a few notes about Dogma and the Church