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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Aside from Jesus, do you know anyone who “walks on water”? As we use the expression “walks on water”, we might refer to someone who seems to be perfect, someone whom others think can do no wrong, or someone who acts as if he or she is better than others. All of those uses of the expression are based on the Bible’s account of Jesus’s walking on water, such as that which we heard for our Gospel Reading this day. To be sure, Jesus is perfect, can do no wrong, and is better than everyone else, but those are not the points of the Bible’s account of Jesus’s walking on water. Rather, we might say that the point of today’s Gospel Reading is that Jesus puts His disciples into a situation where He reveals Himself as the Saving Son of God. Thus, as we consider the Gospel Reading this day, we do so under the theme, “The Saving Son of God”
Today’s Gospel Reading telling of Jesus’s walking on water immediately follows last week’s Reading from St. Matthew’s account, which Reading told of Jesus’s feeding more than five‑thousand people (Matthew 14:13-21). Immediately that same evening Jesus made (constrained or compelled) His disciples to get into a boat and go before Him to the other side. Although St. Matthew does not say why Jesus made them go, St. Matthew does indicate that Jesus would be associated with their trip and later join them on it. Jesus dismissed the crowds and went up on the mountain by Himself to pray (often an indicator that something important was about to happen in His ministry). So later, He was there alone, but the boat was a long way from the land, despite an opposing wind and beating waves. In the final hours of the night, some time between 3 and 6 in the morning, Jesus as promised came to the disciples, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.
Very often people talk as if they want to see God in all of His glory, His unbridled majesty, His pure holiness. Yet, the truth of the matter is that they could not stand it if they did. They and we no doubt would react to such a sight as the disciples did in today’s Gospel Reading. They are terrified (troubled or shaken) not by the storm but by the sight of Jesus, walking on the sea. They think a ghost is coming at them, which could have been a sign of looming judgment and death. The storm alone had been enough to frighten them before (Matthew 8:23-27). As today’s Entrance Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 804) pointed out, “[God’s] chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, / And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.” But, in this case, here came this specter on the sea. When God reveals Himself in such a way, sinful human beings rightly call out in fear! And, that includes us! We all are by nature sinful. The original sin we inherit then leads to actual sins, our committing and omitting all sorts of thoughts, words, and deeds. We unholy people deserve judgment and death from the All-holy God. Like the disciples in the Gospel Reading, we, too, are in a situation where we need Jesus to reveal Himself as “The Saving Son of God”.
And, reveal Himself as “The Saving Son of God” is exactly what Jesus did for them and so also does for us. To the terror, Jesus immediately says and enables taking heart. To the misidentification as a ghost, Jesus immediately says, “It is I.” To the fear, Jesus immediately says and enables not being afraid. Three needs, Jesus immediately matches, in three ways. They and we can take heart because of Who Jesus is and what He gives. They were right to think of something or someone more than human, for only God can walk on water, as is made clear by the Old Testament, including today’s Old Testament Reading (Job 38:4-18). Yet, the All-mighty Creator coming to them walking on the sea in a fearful epiphany is God in the human flesh of the man Jesus, their loving Master. Speaking as God would speak, Jesus identifies Himself as such, “It is I.” He has come for their and for our benefit, so they and we do not need to be afraid. He has dominion over all things and brings salvation, which salvation He later earned by His death on the cross and so freely gives to all who turn in sorrow from their sin and trust (believe in) Him. That salvation (that forgiveness of our sin) chases away anxiety and distress and replaces it with peace and joy.
Lifeguards learn that people who are drowning do not look like what most people expect them to look like: the way it is often portrayed in the movies or on television, with dramatic splashing, waving, and yelling for help. Experts distinguish between that so-called “Aquatic Distress”, which may or may not be briefly present before what they call “Instinctive Drowning Response”, maybe a minute of sinking and reappearing above the water just long enough to exhale and inhale before sinking again. The experts might say that Peter in today’s Gospel Reading gets to the state of “Aquatic Distress”. As we heard, Peter answers Jesus, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come,” so Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid (again), and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Like Peter’s faith, our faith also is apt to have ups and downs, stronger and weaker moments, to be at times large and at other times little, but none of that matters, true faith in Jesus is true faith in Jesus. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 10:5-17), everyone who believes in Him—no mention of a lot or a little—is not put to shame; everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord—“Lord, save me!”—will be saved. For that reason, pastors are sent to preach, and people hear the Word of the righteousness based on faith, believe with their hearts, call on the Name of the Lord and otherwise confess with their mouths, and are saved.
As Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of Peter, so Jesus reaches out His hand and takes hold of us, time and time again. An appearance of God and rescue from water by the Hand of God would have been familiar to the hearers of the Old Testament (Psalm 17:16-17; 144:7). In the Old Testament, the Hand of God may have been a figure of speech, but in the New Testament the Hand of God was the hand of Jesus, as it was for Peter. Now for us, Jesus's hands are the pastor’s hands. Jesus preaches and baptizes, absolves, and communes with us, using the pastors He has sent in the Office of the Holy Ministry. At the Font, Jesus baptizes us through a pastor’s use of water and the Word. We privately confess the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, and Jesus individually absolves us through a pastor’s words. We come to this rail, and Jesus gives us from this altar bread that is His body and wine that is His blood, distributed by a pastor. These humble means may not be the ways we might expect God to come to us, but they are the ways He has chosen to come to us. When He has so reached out and taken hold of us—when we have repented and believed and received His forgiveness in these ways—then we are with Him into the boat of His Church, where, like the disciples, we worship Him saying to Him, “Truly You are the Son of God.” And, we know that He is not the Son of God Who terrifies or frightens but the Son of God Who saves!
What we do with that knowledge may vary. Today’s Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 717) was written by William Whiting in 18‑60 for a student traveling by sea to the United States, and, based in part on accounts like that in today’s Gospel Reading, the hymn rightly invokes the Triune God to keep safe all those who travel by air, land, and sea. Similarly, in the first Distribution Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 765), William Cowper writes of God’s moving “in a mysterious way” by planting “His footsteps in the sea”, and then he calls on us not to judge the Lord “by feeble sense, / But trust Him for His grace”. But, somewhat more tenuously, the other two hymns we have yet to sing this morning interpret the Gospel Reading more figuratively. For example, the second Distribution Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 715), which Edward Hopper wrote in 1871 for sailors in attendance at the church he served in the harbor area of New York City, likens our life to a “tempestuous sea”. And, in our Closing Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 754), called “the most comforting” of Paul Gerhardt’s hymns, we are assured that “He who guides the tempests / Along their thunderous ways / Will find for [us] a pathway / And guide [us] all our days.” That promise is true, of course, because of Who Jesus is and what He does, as He revealed in today’s Gospel Reading, but today’s Gospel Reading is about far more than that figurative interpretation, just as it is not really about those who walk on water being perfect, doing no wrong, or better than others.
As we have realized, in today’s Gospel Reading Jesus put His disciples into a situation where He revealed Himself as the Saving Son of God. His fellowship with His followers did not end when the feeding ended. He showed Himself to them in a way that terrified them at first, but, even in His majesty and power, He showed His willingness to comfort His disciples, even to endure Peter’s foolishness and to save him. That same Saving Son of God is willing and able to rescue and save all of us sinners who believe in Him and call upon His Name even with little faith. We who worship Him by so seeking His forgiveness now will also worship Him in His heavenly presence for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +