Matthew 14:22-33
"Who This Jesus Is"
Thirteenth Sunday after
Pentecost - A Our
Pastor Troy Slater
I suppose there is always a danger
with our Gospel text for this morning - this account of Jesus walking on water and
calming the storm that was threatening to overtake the disciples. But I suppose there is always a danger to
read this account as an example of what can happen if you just believe
enough. Have a strong enough faith and
Jesus will come to you in the hour of trouble and calm all the storms of
life. All you've got to do is fix your
eyes on Jesus and life's tumultuous seas will become calm and tranquil.
But truth is - and I don't care how
strong your faith is - but truth is there are plenty of times in life when the
storms continue to rage and all is not well in the end. The job is still lost, the cancer is not
eradicated, the conflict is not resolved. No this account is not a promise
of smooth sailing through life for all those who believe enough, rather it is a
proclamation of who Jesus is. For that's
really what it all comes down to, right?
Who this Jesus of Nazareth, this one born of Mary, it all comes down to
who He is.
And
apparently that's just what the disciples needed on this night. They needed to be strengthened in their faith
as to exactly who Jesus was - they needed to be shown - they needed to be
brought to confess that Jesus is THE SON OF GOD. And that's where Jesus leads them, that's where Jesus takes them that night on the sea. And by His grace, it's where He takes us here
this morning.
For you see
there's a real temptation to try to make Jesus be whoever we want Him to
be. There was certainly that temptation
for the disciples that night. For the
previous day, as you might recall from last week's Gospel text, Jesus had just
miraculously fed the 5,000. Taking 5
loaves and two fish he had fed 5,000 men, plus women and children until they
filled - until there were leftovers even.
The people of course wanted more - in fact they wanted to make him their
bread king. And who wouldn't? I mean, you got a need, well just snap your
fingers and Jesus will take care of it.
Hungry - Jesus will feed you. Got
an enemy - Jesus will take care of them.
Of course that's not what Jesus is about - He is the Son of God come to "save
His people from their sins" as the angel told Joseph prior to Jesus' birth. Jesus did not come to be a lucky rabbit's
foot or a genie in a bottle who will fulfill your
every wish. But that's what the crowds
whom Jesus had just fed wanted and that's what they were going to try to get
even if it meant using force in trying to compel Jesus to be their bread king.
Now were the disciples in danger from
this false belief? Without true
strengthening of their faith, would they turn back and no longer follow Jesus
because he wasn't there to be their bread king?
Well sure, most certainly; that temptation was there. And Jesus knows this and so He sends the 12
away from the crowds and their false beliefs of who He is and what He is about;
He makes the 12 get into a boat and go on ahead of him to the other side of the
lake. He's going to hang back, dismiss the crowds
and then go by himself up onto a mountainside to pray.
In fact He stays up there for several
hours. Evening comes and goes. Night comes and Jesus is still praying. But meanwhile out on the lake in their boat,
the disciples are struggling. They
should have reached their landing site by about 9 in the evening but here it is
about 4 in the morning and their only in the middle of the lake and making no
progress against a great wind that has come up.
But things are only starting to get interesting for them. For all of a sudden - 3 miles from shore - here
comes Jesus out to them - walking on the water!
Now I think we would all agree, it's a miracle right? Actually at first the disciples couldn't
believe their eyes - it must be a ghost.
Of course it was no ghost. It was
Jesus. …
Now I've got to pause here for a
moment and warn you of something. You
see there are many who want to attack your faith. Many of whom even call themselves
Christians but in actuality they are unbelievers. Many of whom call themselves Biblical
scholars or even pastors but in reality - because they ultimately end up
denying who Jesus is and what He is about - in reality they are wolves in
sheep's clothing. For you see there are
some who will try to tell you that Jesus did not really walk on the water. They try to explain it away. They'll try to dismiss this miracle of Jesus by
saying that the disciples were tired and merely hallucinated
the whole thing. Others of these false
teachers will say that Jesus found a sandbar to walk on, or that Jesus was
still on the shore but the disciples were so confused by the darkness and the
wind and the waves that they only thought that He was walking on the
water. Others teach that "walking
ON the lake" should really be translated "walking IN the
lake." And finally others insist
that the early Christians simply made this whole story up to try to get people
to believe that Jesus had some divine powers.
Now hopefully all this sounds like
total nonsense to all of you. And if it
does, well then that's a good thing for it is a sign that the Lord has
preserved and shielded your faith from those attacks. It's a sign that He has provided you with
faithful pastors who take the Scriptures seriously as the inerrant and divinely
inspired Word of God.
For you see all that nonsense - denying
this miracle of Jesus walking on the water - it all boils down to one thing -
Satan trying to plant doubt in your heart.
Satan trying to cut you off from believing that Christ
is the only begotten Son of God who came to earth to save sinners. Satan doesn't want you to believe that -
Satan doesn't want you to confess that.
For you see, you deny who Jesus truly is, your salvation is lost. You deny Jesus is the Son of God, He becomes
only an example to try to follow, a teacher to try to learn from. Not the Son of God who died for sinners. It all hinges on who this Jesus is.
But of course that is Matthew's main
point in writing his Gospel from which our reading comes from this
morning. It's why he tells us what
happened on that dark and stormy night.
Matthew wants us to know how the light bulb finally went off in the minds
of the 12 disciples. Up to this point in
Matthew's gospel, God the Father, angels, demons, even the Devil have all
recognized Jesus to be the Son of God.
Now, 14 chapters into this book, 2 years into Jesus' ministry, the
disciples are confronted with irrefutable evidence that Jesus is who He says He
is - He is THE SON OF GOD. As good Jews
they were no doubt familiar with Old Testament passages such as Job 9:8 where
it says that "God alone treads on
the waves of the sea." Or Psalm
77 which states, "[O God] Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty
waters, though your footprints were not seen." In other words, who can walk on the water
besides the one who made the waters? Who
could walk on water other than the one who divided the waters on the second day
of creation and who told the seas this is how far you can go and no
further? Who? Who but God alone?
That's where Jesus takes the
disciples. Even after Peter's little
exchange with Jesus - stepping out of the boat and going into the water with
Jesus only to begin to sink because of his little faith. Even despite Jesus' rebuke "O you of
little faith", Jesus takes the 12 to the realization of exactly who He
is. For the first time the 12 disciples
know that Jesus alone deserves their worship as the Son of God and so they do -
our text says "they worshipped him saying, 'Truly you are the Son of
God.'" .. "Truly you are the Son of God." That's where the disciples end up - that's
where Jesus takes them that night.
And that's where Jesus takes us this
morning. Through His Word - through that
inerrant and inspired Word given to us today - this account of Jesus walking on
water - once again we are brought here in worship - singing His praises -
confessing the faith. "I believe in
God - the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. AND in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried." That's where Jesus has taken us. The realization - the faith that this one
born of Mary, this one who walked out to his frightened and helpless disciples
out in the middle of a lake, this one who would later die on Calvary's cross
for the sin of the world, this one who would rise victorious over death on the
third day, He is the Son of God come to save me and you from our sin and death.
Of course that worship, that
confession of our faith is only possible by God's grace. I mean it's like we say in the explanation of
the creed, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe
in Jesus Christ my Lord nor come to Him" - I can't do it or believe it on
my own - by nature I'm nothing but a lost and condemned creature. "But the Holy Spirit has called me by
the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one
true faith." On our own, apart from
that gift of faith, as you look at or consider the cross, you see nothing
good. It's just a plain, terrible death,
unable to do much if anything for any of us.
But with that gift of faith in the Son of God - that cross of Jesus it
is a life giving cross; it is the instrument upon which the Lord God has worked
your salvation and by it has given you forgiveness. Now, with Peter and the other eleven, despite
your fears and doubts, you can now say, "He is the Son of God. Jesus is the one who died on the cross for
sinners - yes, even me. He is the Son of
God who rose from the grave on the Third Day that I might forever have life
with Him."
You can say that, you will live
because you have been in the water WITH Jesus.
That's right, Peter has nothing over you - you have been in the
water with Jesus - those baptismal waters.
And in those waters He has reached out His hand to you; He has called
you by name and rescued you. Not from
the wind and the waves of life, at least not yet - but despite the wind and the
waves He has rescued you; granted you faith in Him.
And with a faith like that, you can
end up in only one place - with the disciples at the feet of our Savior
confessing, "Yes Lord I believe.
Yes surely you are the Son of God."
And with a Spirit-filled confession like that, there is no better place
to be. Amen.