Pentecost 9
John 6:16-26
In quick succession John gives us the fourth and fifth of the signs or miracles of Jesus that he includes in his Gospel. Last week we looked at the feeding of the multitude. Now, with no interlude, discussion or
explanation, John goes straight into the account of Jesus walking on water. The two miracles belong together. In Matthew and Mark they also occur back to back without interlude. The discussion of their meaning comes only after the crowds encounter Jesus on the other side of the sea of Galilee, the next day. And we will be looking at that explanation next week. But today, our focus is on the briefest of the miracle accounts in John’s gospel, Jesus walking on water.
The story is well known and has found its way into popular culture and imagination. There is a lizard in Australia that can run quickly enough to go across the top of short stretches of water, so it is called, of course, the Jesus Christ lizard. If someone has to get across a river or lake and there is no boot, they will often quip, ‘pity I can’t walk on water.’
One of the first jokes I remember from my youth was about walking on water. Someone told it to my father, thinking he would appreciate it since he went to church regularly. I have heard it since in various forms and iterations. It goes like this:
Three preachers, a Baptist, a Pentecostal and a Lutheran, went out on a lake fishing one day in a dinghy. The Baptist and the Pentecostal pastor often went fishing together and had long invited the Lutheran pastor to joint them. He finally agreed. The day was going well, apart from the fact that no one had actually caught any fish. The Lutheran pastor was surprised during their discussions at how pious and knowledgeable about the Bible his colleagues were. He found he had rather underestimated them. After a couple of hours of fishing and conversation, the Pentecostal pastor sheepishly admitted that he needed to take a nature break. ‘We’ll bring our lines in and row you to shore,’ the Lutheran pastor said. ‘No need,’ said the Pentecostal pastor. And without hesitation, he stepped out of the boat and nearly skipped the thirty metres or so to shore. The Lutheran pastor was flabbergasted. He had never seen anything like it. He was going to say something to the Baptist pastor, but he continued fishing as if nothing had happened. The Pentecostal soon returned to the boat, skipping across the water in the same way as he had left it. About half an hour passed and the Baptist pastor announced that he too needed to take a nature break. And without another word, he hopped out of the boot and skipped his way across the surface of the water to shore. Well, the Lutheran pastor was not only in shock at what he had seen but was beginning to feel quite insecure about the level of his own faith. Another hour passed and the Lutheran pastor could not longer put off his own visit to shore. Common sense told him he should ask the others to row him in. But he couldn’t let himself and his own faith be shown up by his colleagues. So he said a quick prayer, asking God for enought faith. He announced to his two colleague that he, too, needed to head to the shore. He boldly stepped out of the boat, into the water, and sunk straight down. The Baptist pastor turned to his Pentecostal colleague. ‘You don’t suppose he didn’t know where the stepping stones were, do you?’
So the joke is that none of them had actually walked on water. Because that is simply not possible. And that is exactly the point of this miracle of Jesus. People do not walk on water. Not even in the Old Testament stories of the great miracle-working prophets, did that happen. When a great body of water was in the way, Moses tapped his staff to the ground and the Red Sea parted, letting him and the people walk across on dry land. Elijah made the river part with Elisha’s cloak (2 Kings 2:13-14). But no one ever walked across on top of the water. That is, not until Jesus walked more than five kms into the middle to the Sea of Galilea, during a storm, to join his struggling disciples in their boat. As was the case with the miracle of the feeding of the multitude, Jesus matched and exceeded the examples of Moses and the miracle working prophets who were seen as the forerunners of the Messiah. The symbolism was again not to be missed.
And not only did Jesus walk on water, but the boat they were rowing immediately was on the shore at the other side of the lake. If you have ever been stuck on the ocean or a large body of water in a storm, it is quite a frightening experience. You are not safe, not able to rest, not able to breathe a sigh of relief, until you are finally again on dry, unmoving land.
When I was 15 my cousin and I embarked on a week-long canoe trip down the longest river in the state. On the third night we came to a large, dammed lake that was 4 kms across and 10 kms long. We camped along the bank at the widest part. In the morning we needed to cross over to the other side where we could portage our canoe. We began at first light and the wind was starting to come up, but was manageable. But soon the wind was blowing steadily at 90 kms an hour. We later learned it was the strongest sustained wind in that area on record. Lucky us! Well, four kms might not seem like much, but the wind was coming straight at us and the waves had soon become so large that they were breaking over the bow of the canoe, causing it to slowly fill with water. We couldn’t turn around without capsizing. The only option was to go forward. But against the wind and waves, it was all we could do to keep the canoe straight. Like the disciples stuck on the sea of Galilee, rowing against the wind and the waves, we were stuck. And getting tired. Our arms ached but there was no possibility of taking a break. Soon, every ten strokes, my cousin, who was in the front, set down his paddle to bail water out of the canoe so we didn’t sink, while I did my best to keep us pointing into the waves. Then he joined me for 10 more strokes on the paddle, hoping to make some small headway before bailing more water out. A 30 minute paddle across the lake ended up taking us four hours. At one point, about 3 hours in, my cousin turned to me and said, ‘I can’t keep up. We’re not going to make it. Let’s just give up now. They saw drowning is over quick.’
‘We are going to make it,’ I assured him, though I didn’t really believe it. ‘I can see the shore getting closer when we crest each wave,’ I said. But I couldn’t see much of anything through the rain. I only knew we had to keep heading into the wind and the waves to get to the other side. So, we pressed on. When wefinally reached the other shore we were both relieved and surprised. We dropped our paddles and collapsed forward on our seats. And wept. Neither of us thought we would make it. We were not safe until we finally hit the other shore.
That’s what the disciples were experiencing in the midst of the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus didn’t simply show up and amaze them in the middle of the sea; he brough them safely do the other side. He finished the job. He got them safely to shore.
Nothing like that had been done before. Who can control the elements, walking on the surface of the water? Who transports a boat from the middle of the sea immediately to the other side? Once recovered they may very well have thought of Psalm 107. As fishermen who spent much time in sometimes perilous seas they would have known it well.
Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the mighty waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their calamity;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunkards
and were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he brought them out from their distress;
29 he made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad because they had quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind.
Or again, Psalm 77 may have come to their mind. ‘When the waters saw you, o God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. The very deep trembled …. Your way was through the sea, your path, though the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.’ (vv16, 19).
Who does something like that? Who walks on the surface of the water, and brings a boat instantly to the opposite shore, several kilometres away. God does. That’s who. The creator of the wind and the sea.
And that’s how Jesus identified himself to his disciples when he came to them on the sea. What our English Bibles generally translate as ‘It is me,’ is the Greek ego eimi. Literally, ‘I am’. They are the same unusual and brief order of words used in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that God proclaimed to Moses as his name. ‘I am’. John’s readers would have been familiar with these words. And used here with such brevity “I am. Do not be afraid’ there would be little doubt as to their meaning.
Like with the other miracle stories in John’s Gospel the message is clear. We are not dealing with just another prophet. Not even a great prophet like Moses or Elijah. We are dealing with one who can feed a crowd of thousands with a boys’ lunch of bread and fish. We are dealing with someone who controls the sea, the waves and the wind. We are dealing with someone who could fold space upon itself, causing a boat in dire strife to suddenly be safe on the opposite shore. We are dealing with the one who created the wind and the waters, the one who crated and controls space and time. Jesus’ walking on water was not some parlour trick to impress his disciples. They were already impressed. It was a sign. A sign that their teacher, the one they had come to accept as the promised Messiah, was God their creator.
And this God came to them in the midst of the storm. He told them not to fear, and brought them to the safety of the distant shore.
Jesus is not just God the creator who has power over the wind and wavs, who controls space and time. He is the God who cares for his people. He is the God who is willing to come to us in our time of need and distress. He is the God who notices when we are in strife and who comes to our aide.
Amen.
Pastor Mark Worthing.
Port Macquarie.