Jesus Walks On Water

Jesus Calls Us Over The Water

Every day in the Catholic Church, She presents us with readings that are not meant to be abstract, but are mean t to challenge the Catholic faithful to see ourselves in the readings and to allow the readings to speak to the very depths of our beings.  Otherwise, they will be but nice stories that we listen to and will not have the life-changing impact they are meant to have on us. 

This weekend’s gospel is a very descriptive and dramatic one.  It is one that speaks to every facet of our church and our lives.  It gives a detailed account of what happened after Jesus fed the multitude, what happened after He ministered to the people.  But to really understand and appreciate the depth of this weekend’s gospel, I think it is important for us to understand what happened before. 

You see, John the Baptist had been imprisoned by King Herod for speaking the truth.  King Herod was living in sin because he had taken his brother’s wife, and John the Baptist spoke out against it.  So He was imprisoned and eventually was beheaded for speaking out against something that was wrong.  John was not afraid to pay the ultimate price for what was right.  He knew where his eternal place was.  You may recall that John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin and that they were born approximately six months apart, and it was John who pointed out Jesus as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  You may also recall the remark that Jesus made about John when He said “I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.”  So Jesus clearly loved his cousin John, and when he heard of his beheading, it must have hurt him as the passage tells us, “When Jesus received this news he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves” – Matthew 14:13.  It was while he was trying to find a quiet moment that the crowds came, and what did Jesus do?  Did he turn them away?  No he did not!  In spite of his pain and agony, “he took pity on them and healed their sick.”   

It was here that Jesus worked the first miracle of the loaves and fed the multitude with five loaves and two fish. Up to this point, Jesus still had not been able to set himself apart to deal with the death of his cousin as he was ministering to the needs of others – the broken, the sick, the hungry. 

After he had finished feeding the multitude, he sent his disciples ahead to the ‘other side’, he sent the crowds away, then he went into the hills to be by himself to pray.  Three completely different things are happening here:-

1. He sent his disciples ahead to the ‘other side’ and we know that when ever Jesus sends you to the ‘other side’, then it must be a good, if not a better place, or else he would not send you there; and we will see in a bit that sometimes in getting from where we are to a better place on the ‘other side’, we will face challenges.  We will face storms! For students, the other side will be passing your exams and reaping the rewards that goes with that.  The storms may be the months or years of hard work and dedication that you have to put into it.  For a single parent, the other side may be raising your child in the fear of the Lord to be a God fearing person who is not swayed by the whims and fancies of the world, but who is raised to seek the Lord above all else.  The storms may be the challenges that you face, the pain you experience from being all alone in your quest; abandonment by friends and family and maybe even rejection from the very child whose interest you seek.  For the married man or woman, the other side might be the unspeakable joy of a marriage that works and that is pleasing to God.  The storms may be the uphill battles that you face against a society that has lost its respect for God, the Church, family and marriage.

2. The second thing that is happening here is that after we have experienced Jesus, after we have experienced the love of God, he sends us, he commissions us to go; go back to your families, go back to your work places, go back into your situations knowing that you have been changed, knowing that you have been transformed, knowing that you have been empowered because you have encountered the Living God in Christ Jesus.  Does this sound familiar?  It should because this is what we should all experience each time we go to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and at the end the Priest says to the congregation, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” and we all respond by saying “thanks be to God!”  When we experience Jesus – and we should have an experience of him every time we attend Mass, he sends us out to make a difference.  Our experience of Jesus was not meant to remain with us, but as we have been fed by His real presence in the form of bread and wine, so too must we become bread unto others; so too must we feed others with the Good News, with new hope, with peace, with joy; all by the way we live out our experience of the Mass every day of our lives.

3. The third important thing that is happening in Matthew 14:  22-23 is that Jesus makes time for himself. After He had healed the sick, fed the hungry; after Jesus had ministered to the people, he needed time to regroup.  He needed to spend time with the source of his strength – His Heavenly Father.  There is a very powerful message for all who are involved in any form of ministry in the Catholic Church – you must make time to pray for it is communing with God through prayer that we gain the strength to continue in the ministry that he has called us to.  It is very important to note that Jesus did not go up the hill to be by himself to relax or to have some quiet fun, or to sleep for that matter.  He went to pray.  By his example, Jesus is saying to us all that if we really want to be his followers, if we really want our ministry to be effective, then our lives must be steeped in prayer.  If it is not, then we are not doing God’s work, we are doing our own!

Now very often when we experience the storms of life – particularly if they are prolonged – we tend to think that God has forgotten us, or that he has abandoned us or that he does not care.  Well this passage tells us that we’re quite wrong about that.  This passage tells us that in the middle of our storms, Jesus is there.  He even comes looking for us while we’re out in the deep amidst the raging storms.  The passage tells us that when evening came, Jesus was alone – still in prayer – while the boat was far out in the lake, and it was battling with a heavy sea for there was a head wind.  There are basically three kinds of wind that can be experienced out at sea:-

1. Headwinds that blow in the opposite direction to which you are travelling.

2. Tailwinds that blow in the same direction to which you are travelling.

3. Crosswinds that blow across the path or direction you are travelling.

Of the three, the headwinds are the most difficult to deal with because they directly oppose your travel.  The headwind can force you to change direction, to change your course if you do not have the strength to ride it out.  The tailwind will push you along your path faster and with the crosswind, you may be able to angle into it and still be able to reach your intended destination, or close to it.  However, with the headwind, because it directly opposes your path, you have no choice but to ride it out with the hope that your vessel is strong enough to withstand the battering.  If you try to navigate either to the left or the right, you stand the chance of being turned over by the force of the wind.  Remaining at a standstill is not an option as the strength of the wind will push your vessel back and may cause it to catapult backwards.  Your only real hope really is to stand your ground, hold your course, and hopefully by God’s grace, your vessel will hold out. 

It is no secret that the Catholic Church has been facing headwinds for quite some time now.  It is one storm after another.  One scandal after another.  But with each storm, She goes through a purification and so grows stronger. and will continue to grow stronger because the Words of Jesus are Mighty and True, and He promised the Church that “the gates of hell shall never prevail against you,” Matthew 16 : 18.   

What is your vessel made of?  The boat, the ship that you are going through life in, what is it made of?  Who built it for you? Was it made by Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter?  Was it built by, on and from His Word?  If not, then you need to get a vessel!  You need to get a real vessel.  You need to get a proper vessel.  One that is built on the Word of God!  One that is built from the Word of God!  One that is built by Jesus of Nazareth – the carpenter.  

For all of us who journey through this life, the ‘other side’ for us is eternal life.  Unfortunately many have been lost in the storms of life.  Many are heading to a place that is not Eternal Life because they have allowed the storms to change their course, because they did not stand their ground and trust ahead through the storms trusting in God’s grace. 

In verse twenty-five of the gospel passage, it tells us that “In the forth watch of the night, He went towards them walking on the lake.”  Now the time between when the disciples started experiencing the storms, and when Jesus came to them during the forth watch, is a very long time to be battling with a storm. That must have felt like an eternity.  Why did Jesus seem to have taken so long?  This episode came after several miracles and divine encounters.  The disciples would have experienced Jesus time and time again healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind, cleansing lepers.  They would have experienced several of his teachings including when he taught them how to pray calling God “Abba Father” in Matthew 6: 7-13.  This came after he taught them what effective prayer was in Matthew 7: 7-11, and in that teaching, he taught them, he assured them that His Heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him.  They would have experienced the cure of the centurion’s servant when, because he believed, his servant was healed just by the word of Jesus.  Jesus never touched him and he never saw him.  Peter would have experienced the healing of his mother-in-law, and they would have experienced several persons being delivered from evil spirits at the command of Jesus.   

Apart from all these experiences, they experienced Jesus calming a storm in Matthew 8: 23 – 27.  So this experience would not have been unchartered territory for them.  Maybe that is why Jesus took so long.  Maybe he was testing their faith.  Maybe he was testing them to see if they learnt or understood anything from past experiences with the Master. If we were in the disciples’ place, would we have understood?  Would we have had the faith to command the storms to be still?  In spite of the countless times that we have attended Mass, in spite of the countless times we’ve feasted at the banqueting table, do we understand that what we are partaking of is the real presence of Jesus Christ, His Body, His Blood, His Soul and His Divinity?  Do we understand this? Do we understand the implications of this?  Do we understand that if in faith we receive the real presence of Jesus Christ into our mortal bodies, then healing of our bodies, minds and souls will take place?  Again, do we really understand?  Do we believe? 

In spite of their weakness; in spite of our weaknesses amidst all the grace and blessings that God pours out on us, Jesus still comes to us, trampling on the very things that we fear, on the very storms that we face and are fearful of, and he calls us to do the same, not by our own strength but in His Mighty Name.  “Courage!” he says, “It is I!  Do not be afraid.”  In the bible, the lake, the sea, the ocean is symbolic of evil and of darkness, more-so where there was a storm.  So even though these men were fishermen, they feared storms out at sea.  So when in Matthew 8: 23 – 27, Jesus woke up and he rebuked the wind and the stormy seas, that tells us that if we allow Him, Jesus can and will take authority over the storms in our lives and reduce them to a whisper.    

In Matthew 14, when He came walking on the sea, Jesus was telling Peter and by extension all of us, “Look!  It is I.  Do not be afraid because I have already won the battle for you.  See I have your enemies under my feet.  They are defeated.  They cannot harm you.  Trust in me and do not be afraid.”  Then he invites us to do the same, to follow him and take authority over our fears, over the areas of darkness in our lives, over the things that concern us, over the hopeless situations that seem to overtake us.  He says to us, “Come!” “Come, not in your name nor by your strength, but come in my name and by my strength.  And when you come to me, do not even look at your fears; do not look at the darkness that surrounds you.  Do not look at the hopeless situation that had a hold of you.  Do not look at any of these!  Look rather at me for I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  I am the ‘Other Side’.  Come to me.”  Jesus says to us, “If you take your eyes off of me, then you stand the chance of losing faith like Peter.  If you take your eyes off of me, then like Peter, you stand the chance of losing your ground.  If you take your eyes off of me, then like Peter, you stand the chance of giving the upper hand back to your already defeated enemy.  So keep your eyes and your heart stayed on me!” 

The beautiful thing, the absolutely beautiful thing about our GOD is that HIS LOVE KNOWS NO END!  No matter how we may mess up, or how often we fail, HE is always there to reach out to us and raise us up.

 Prayer

Father in heaven, we acknowledge you as our Lord and Savior, the God who is, the God who was and the God who will be.  We pray a special blessing on each person who will read this article.  We pray that they will be strengthened and empowered to take courage knowing that you are always with them.  As they seek to have a deeper encounter with you, reveal yourself more clearly to them.  We ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord.  AMEN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6VnZZOFkRU

Gospel – Matthew 14: 22 – 33

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

When it was evening he was there alone.  Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.  “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.  At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  He said, “Come.”  Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.  But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.”