Come out on the water

Matthew 14: 22-33

Yonsei University Church, 2020. 08. 09

Today's Scripture (Matthew 14:22-33) showing Jesus "the miracle of walking on water" is often understood as a body that reveals "the divine authority of Jesus." Here, the incident of Jesus walking on water itself is of interest. The focus of the story is: "None of us can walk on the water, but Jesus walked on the water. "So Jesus is a man of divine power, and he is indeed the Son of God."

Taking one step further, the fact that 'salvation comes only through Jesus Christ' is emphasized. “Look! Peter walked on the water when he had faith, but did he not drown when he had doubts?” It is to do. That's why preachers sometimes ask us to 'walk on the water'. Of course, we haven't seen anyone who walked on water like Jesus did. Of course, for us Christians, Jesus is the Son of God and the way of salvation. But today, I want to look at this text from a slightly different perspective.

Looking at today's Scripture, Jesus boards his disciples and sends them first to “the other side” of the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:22). At this time, Jesus does not go with his disciples. In the Gospel of Matthew, information on place names is omitted, but in the Gospel of Mark, which reports the same incident, “the other side” is introduced as “Bethsaida” (Mark 6:45). As the disciples crossed the sea, Jesus scattered “the gathered crowd.” These are the people who appear in the preceding paragraph, those whom Jesus worked miracles and fed (Matthew 14:13-21). It is the people who have experienced the ‘miracle of five loaves of bread and two fish’ firsthand. However, the 'disciples' who left by boat are a different group from the group of those who remained here. Even if you personally experienced Jesus' amazing miracle, it seems that you are not included in the group of disciples just for that reason. Maybe the faith based on only seeking miracles is not enough to become a disciple.

After all, Jesus sent his disciples aboard a boat to the other side, scattered many who remained, and went up to the mountain alone to pray. The mountain is the place where Jesus taught (Matthew 5:1), This is “the Sermon on the Mount” Reported only in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is portrayed as a great teacher who gave authoritative teachings on the mountain. The mountain is also a place where the image of Jesus was changed into a' glorious image' (Matthew 17:1). This is the scene we call the ‘Transfiguration.’ The mountain is the place where the meeting with God took place. On such a mountain, Jesus is reported to pray “alone.” Even in Gethsemane, Jesus prayed “alone.” It is to experience God as a single person, breaking out of all conventional wisdom and expectations of the public.

While Jesus prayed all night long, the ship the disciples were riding on seems to have gone to the middle of the sea. However, the sailing was not smooth. A strong wind blew and there was a strong storm. The disciples have already had this experience once. This is the scene reported in Matthew 8:23-27. As Jesus and his disciples boarded together, there was a great storm. The ship was about to overturn in a tremendous wave. The terrified disciples awakened Jesus, who was sleeping, and said, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25). Then Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” When he said this, he rebuked the wind and the sea, calming the storm.

But this time the situation is different. There is no one who can calm the sea. The disciples were swaying about what to do, but they saw someone approaching the ship from a distance. The time is reported as “early dawn”, and in the original Greek text it is “the fourth watch of the night”, that is, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. It seems to be understood as ‘before the sun rises.’ It was dark, and it was rainy and windy, so it was hard to see, the disciples yelled, "It's a ghost!" They must have been terrified.

They can't handle the rough waves, but to make matters worse, even a ghost has appeared. But the ghost speaks. “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid..” Here, the expression “I am” (Ego Eimi) is God's form of self-revelation. Also, Jesus, who appeared in a storm, is reminiscent of the Old Testament God, who appears in a storm or thunder, thunder, and lightning (Ex. 19:16; Ezekiel 1:4). Only then do the disciples 'faintly' feel that the shadow in the dark is not a ghost, but the one who will save them. At this time, Peter asks by any chance. “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” So Jesus says. “Come!”

In the words of Jesus, ‘Come out on the water’, Peter steps out of the boat into the water. In response, the Bible says: “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” Even though it was only 'a moment', Peter could walk on the water like Jesus.

In the ancient Near East, water symbolized chaos. According to the creation story of Genesis 1, on the first day, God said, “Let there be light!” (Gen. 1:3), and there was light. What did God create on the second day? Doesn’t it come to mind? Of course. This is because God created nothing on the second day. What does God say on the second day? He said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” (Genesis 1:6). Originally, there was water, but it splits the water 'up and down'. As a result, there is a space between the upper and lower water. It is called the sky. Then we have to ask 'When did water come from?' and 'Is not water included in the things God created?'

Looking at Genesis 1:1 and 2, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” It is a report describing God's state before the creation of the heavens and earth, and 'water' already exists. Why did the ancient Jews believe that water already existed before God's creation? Why was 'water' excluded from the item of God's creation? That is because 'water' symbolizes' chaos and death', and there is no room for 'chaos and death' in God's good creation. Rather, the principle of God's creation is to give order to disorder (chaos).

The birthplace of ancient civilizations is the Mesopotamian region. 'Meso' means the middle, and 'potamos' means river. So Mesopotamia means ‘literally’ ‘in the middle of the river.’ Mesopotamia is surrounded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The world's four ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Yellow River, Nile, and Indus) are all along the river. The same is true of our Korean peninsula. The Han River, the Daedong River, the Nakdong River, the Geum River... There can be no civilization without a river. Because humans cannot live without water. People have been living by the waters since long ago, and civilization arose at the waters. That is why the river is also called the lifeline of civilization. However, the problem is that the river sometimes overflows. When the river overflows, it will sweep through the whole town. The place where flood scratches and passes becomes devastated. Anything drowned in the water will die. Water that has lost order symbolizes death and chaos.

Several ‘story of drowning and dying’ appear in the Bible. The most well-known is the story of Noah's Flood. There is also a story of Exodus. Pharaoh's army, chasing slaves escaping Egypt, fell into the Red Sea and died. Also, when Jesus healed a man possessed by the legion of demons, the impure spirits entered the herd of pigs, and the demon possessed pigs ran down the slope and drowned in the sea (Mark 5:1-20). Entering the water like this symbolizes death. So, from the time of the early church, people jumped into the water during the baptism ceremony. At the moment when an old self dies and a new self is born, in other words, when a person is reborn as a believer, he goes deep into the water and then comes out. Because entering the water means death.

In today's Scripture, these forces of death were about to strike the ships the disciples were riding on. It is a crisis of temperance. If “the disciples called by Jesus” symbolize “Christians called by God,” then “the ship on which the disciples are facing the threat of a storm in the middle of the Sea of Galilee” means “today’s church being shaken by the temptations of the world.” It is very difficult for the church to resist the temptation to stick with the “high social class” or the “economic upper class” and the “political ruling class.” Also, the church itself is tempted to become power. Of course, there are other kinds of temptations as well. It is also difficult to resist the temptation of the church to have a high wall, not to suffer from the winds of the world, and to live a life of faith joyfully and comfortably in it.

But God doesn't want us to remain locked in the fence of the church. He wants you to move toward a rough world. Even if that world is a world dominated by the powers of destruction and darkness, He wants you to come to the 'sea' boldly by relying on God.

Jesus stands proudly on the rough sea and commands us to 'come!' If we trust in the Lord, are not afraid of all threats, and live proudly following the footsteps of Christ, we can go into the world and not succumb to the forces of death. However, the moment we have fear or doubt, the moment we lose our confidence, we cannot overcome the forces of death and are swept away by the temptations of the world.

Peter shows this very well. When he began to drown, Jesus rebuked him. “Why did you doubt, man of little faith?” What did Peter doubt? The power of Jesus? In an instant, his firm faith in Christ and absolute faith in God disappeared. So he had to be accused of being a man "of little faith." The important thing here is that Peter was not rebuked because he left the boat, but ‘because he was suspicious and afraid.’ Still, the disciples, and we Christians, have a mission to leave the ship and move on to a world like a rough sea.

In fear of the forces of death, Peter loses confidence in what he can do—walk on the water. It is as if we are ourselves falling apart by the temptations of the world. When our unwavering belief in God's justice is shaken, we are bound to fall apart by the temptations of the world.

But don't be disappointed! Isn't the touch of the Lord's salvation closer to us in the moment of crisis? When Peter, who was floundering in the rough sea, cried out, "Lord, save me," Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. So the crisis is the time of grace. May all of our lives be filled with grace.