How does Jesus calm the waves and winds?
In this well known walking-on-water passage, Peter falls into the water and the obvious and oft-told sermon advice is to keep our eyes on Jesus, not on the storm, and to go forth in faith.
Which is true – but difficult to interpret in the reality of the challenges of life. The problem I have had with this passage is that it seems to imply that as long as we do keep our eye on Jesus we can walk over the waves unscathed. But we can love Jesus, try to follow him and still be scathed by the world.
Jesus was crucified.
But then he rose from the dead.
Interestingly, this passage, in the Greek, says that Jesus ‘compelled’ the disciples into the boat alone, so that they would be out in the open stormy waters and experience the fear of death without him beside them.
Isn’t that cruel of Jesus? Maybe not, maybe it was because Jesus wanted them to truly know that the resurrection is real, and to know that the resurrection comes from God, and not from their own efforts. And that the real resurrection is the union of soul with God, and it comes only through a crucifixion, whether literal or emotional/intellectual.
Maybe Jesus is telling them something profound about who God is, but he knows they won’t be able to hear until they have shifted a few things in themselves first.
And one of those things that blocks our ears to God’s truth is the belief that resurrection/salvation equals our safety. Or, perhaps, that keeping our eyes on Jesus, being a good and loving Christian, means that we will not feel the fear and the pain, and the resentment and the hurt and all the other things that we do feel when we are challenged by people and events.
I remember a person I knew whose world fell apart when his son became a drug addict, started to steal from the family, was erratic and at times violent. All his hopes for his beloved child went down the gurgler. As the disciples in the boat were frightened by the wind and waves or, as the Greek says, tormented by the waves, as demons torment a soul, so was the father tormented by the demons of self-doubt, guilt about his mistakes in child rearing, fear for his son’s future, fear for his own self, confusion and frustration at the lack of facilities available to help the boy, and frustration that the boy would not accept help.
So he prayed to God. But God didn’t fix the boy. And the father kept praying even though he didn’t know what to pray for. And one night there came into his heart some words, ‘your will be done’. But what was God’s will?
Surely it was for the boy to be cured of his addiction and for the family to flourish. Yes, but God’s will is deeper than that. And God took the man deeper into himself and showed him his Son, hanging on the Cross. Innocent suffering was not God’s will.
God is not keen on torment, on the chaos and destruction that is wrought by the evil one in this world. But God is very keen on his beloved humans, whom he created in love and to reveal his image.
Yet so many turn inwards, away from God and look at what the chaos calls them to do – take the drugs, it will make you better, give you happiness. The chaos whispers in the ear of the father as well: it is your fault, you should do something that makes it all right, all will be disaster and there is no help for you at all. Waste, all is wasted in your life!
And these thoughts howled around the mind of the man, but God saw him, and his fear and continued to seek the heart of the man, until the man heard something profound. Seek my truth, said the words. You have done what you could as a father, but the chaos has stolen, at least for now, your son. The chaos is bigger than you; there is much you cannot do here. You cannot walk on water and make it all OK. But feel the strength of my hand as I hold you.
What did Peter feel as he held the hand of Jesus? I am here, said Jesus. Peter must have felt the power of the God who was before time, who created every atom of the universe, every atom in his own body. And held him in love.
Jesus said to the disciples: ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ The It is I is the same Greek I am, that is used in Exodus by God to describe himself when God meets Moses in the burning bush.
The great I am, the source of all being, all life, was holding on to him. Peter was absolutely connected to this life force, and nothing can separate us from the love of God and his being. The chaos has no power over that connection, but our fear can close our ears and eyes to it.
That night, the man I knew felt his hand held by the hand of God, and knew in a new way who he was. And that changed everything. Because this presence of God was eternal and this man knew that it was far more powerful than anything he could ever do.
Jesus in his humanity could not overcome the Roman forces of execution.
The man could not solve the addiction or the lack of government support. But that was not his task; the task of overcoming the chaos is God’s. Ours is to surrender ourselves in love of God and others. Surrender of control is a huge humility. Did the man give up on his son? Not at all, because God doesn’t give up on his Son, or on his creatures.
But the man gave his son to God for God‘s will to be done, if not in this world then in the next. And in the letting go there was deep inner peace.
And that is faith. That is keeping his eyes on Jesus, the word from before time, who revealed the truth about life, and the truth about death, to us.
And part of that truth is that we are, indeed, limited creatures. We will feel fear, and frustration, and hurt. The feelings do not interfere with God’s will. His will is for salvation; which is the union of God and soul and that occurs in the will. It is what Jesus did on the Cross, and what we can imitate in our lives.
The man I knew did not stop having all those feelings but they did not torment him. In the deep love of God, knowing he could hold the hand of Jesus, knowing he was standing with Jesus who is held by the Father, his life was not finished. In that knowledge, and in that experience, he found new love for his son and family. He could carry on, with safeguards for himself and his family, but with faith in God’s love. That is resurrection.
We cannot walk on water, but we can invite Jesus into our boat. When Jesus entered the boat, the wind died down. This is the image of the church. We are safe, saved, when we are together with Christ as our source of life.
What would it be like to have Jesus move into your heart, your inner boat? To know that the God from before time, who created you from nothing, chooses to be in you, to pour his amazing love into you, that you may see the world, with the storms, but also to see his kingdom filtering into this world, his light and colour shadowing and illuminating the grey and black?
In times of suffering, are we praying for God to change things, or to help us love him more, to open ourselves in our weakness and inability, to the amazing, powerful, enormous love that alone is worth everything?
‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)’ says Paul. It is not out there for us to somehow capture and control, it is inside us to free us into new life.
May your week be truly blessed as you know the calm of the presence of the Lord.