Tenth
Sunday after Pentecost
August
13, 2017
Matthew
14:29
Jesus’
Promise
Pulls Us Out of Our Imagination
In
the name of the Father
and
of the ☩
Son
and
of the Holy Spirit.
Amen!
I.
Jesus
made them get into the boat. He had just finished feeding the 5,000
and then He made His helpers, the disciples, get into a
boat. Picking up the account:
20They
all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve
basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21The
number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women
and children. 22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get
into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He
dismissed the crowd.
MATTHEW
14:20-22 NIV
A
big reason for getting these men on the boat was their imagination.
They were thinking how nice it would be to have a king who could
provide bread without Adam’s
curse: no longer having to sweat to get bread. John reported that the
crowd was thinking pretty hard.
14After
the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely
this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15Jesus,
knowing that they intended to come and make Him
king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself.
JOHN
6:14-15 NIV
John
referred to the crowd, but it would wise to include the twelve
disciples in that crowd. They, too, were imagining this king of
bread. And why stop at bread? If this Man could make
thousands of loaves from five, why not wine? Olive oil? Or even gold?
You start with one bar of gold and He makes it into a thousand. Rumpelstiltskin, eat your heart out.
If
you think the disciples were immune from their imagination, go back
to Jesus forcing
them onto the boat. They needed a timeout after this glorious
miracle, so that they would not fall in love with power and come to
despise the real reason Jesus had come to earth.
II.
He
had come to rescue us with His Word. He had spoken His promise that
He would die. His suffering and death would grab us up and away from
the slow death we were drowning in. From the womb we are drowning in
our doubt, in our intentions, and in our bad ideas, to say nothing of
our actual sins. So He came by, reached out to us not with His hand,
but His tongue, and spoke us out of drowning and onto dry land,
Himself, the Rock of our salvation.
III.
Mark
tells us that while the disciples were on the boat in the storm,
Jesus went walking by without any intention of
stopping. But when they saw Him, they were scared. In His mercy,
Jesus stopped and spoke to them.
Shortly
before dawn He went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to
pass by them, 49but when they saw Him walking on the lake,
they thought He was a ghost. They cried out, 50because
they all saw Him and were terrified. Immediately He spoke to them and
said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
MARK
6:48b-50 NIV
Again
the disciples’ imaginations
were on overdrive. They thought Jesus was a ghost; what other
explanation could they imagine under the circumstances?
And
again Jesus’ word brought
them comfort
when their human imagination
only brought them only grief.
Their dream that Jesus had come to give them free bread pulled them
away from Jesus’ cross.
And now they must have thought that they were dreaming as a man was
walking on water—only ghosts can walk on water and soon they would
be surely be ghosts, too!
Oh,
how our minds bring us grief with visions of gold and of ghosts, of
power and poverty. What we need
and what Jesus gives us is Himself
and His dependable word.
27But
Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be
afraid.” 28Peter replied, “Lord, if it’s You, tell
me to come to You on the water.” 29He said, “Come.”
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came
toward Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid
and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31Immediately
Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. He said, “You of little
faith, why did you doubt?”
MARK
6:48b-50 NIV
Peter
heard the word of God, “Come.” By the power of that
promise, he walked on water. It is easy to forget that Peter actually
walked on water. But quickly his imagination took over and insisted
on being listened to. The little voice in his head got louder and
louder: “Peter, this isn’t
happening. You can’t
walk on water. Jesus can, but not you! You’re
just a man, and He’s
God! What would God care if you drowned?” And
his dying imagination doubted Jesus’
living word.
IV.
I
can’t
picture it. Jesus walking on water. And not calm flat water—wind
and waves. How do you imagine that? I’m
always interested how film makers are going to portray Jesus walking
on water, because you can’t.
You can never get it right. Even if Peter was an adviser to the film,
how does he explain to the
special effects guys? He can’t.
The Gospel writers don’t
try to explain it
either. They just say that He walked on the water.
What
more impossible than walking on water? Dying and coming back from the
dead. Jesus did that, too. He did it all so that when He comes near
to you, you no longer need to be afraid. You are, so to speak,
walking on water with Him. You
are doing the impossible because you have received
Jesus’
powerful and living Word. He tells you to come and by faith in Him
you walk with Him.
For
even the Son of Man
did
not come to be served,
but
to serve,
and
to give His life
as
a ransom for many.
Mark
10:45
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