For the past few months we have taken a closer look at Jesus, the miracle worker. Like the first disciples who traveled with Jesus, we’ve revisited all these miracle stories in a succession almost as if we were there. We’ve seen blind people receiving their sight, lame people walking, demons being cast out of people, lepers cleansed, a multitude of people fed, even a raising from the dead. We get it … right? Jesus is pretty amazing, he can do all sorts of things and now this? Jesus walking on water … I mean … what’s the point of that? So what? It’s a little bit showy isn’t it? I mean healing someone who is suffering or feeding a hungry crowd is one thing but what benefit does walking on the water actually have? The Sea of Galilee was pretty small, surely Jesus could have seen the boat in trouble and just calmed the sea from the land … why this flashy display? … Had he run out of cool tricks?
I wonder … perhaps … if today’s miracle story kind of brings us to the heart of what this whole series is about – why did Jesus perform miracles? Jesus was not the only character in the bible who performed miracles. There were miracles in the OT. There are recorded miracles that the apostles performed in the Acts of the Apostles in the NT. Other Jewish and Greek literature of the first century was also rich with miracle-stories. Yet by far the highest concentration of miracle stories in the Bible is found in the Gospels! So clearly this is a significant aspect of WHAT JESUS DID throughout his earthly ministry.
So I put this question to you: Why?
Prayer and Action – A Delicate Balance
The context of today’s passage is this takes place immediately after the feeding of the 5000 (Chris preached on this a few weeks ago). And prior to that the disciples were out on mission, God worked amazing miracles through them and their egos were just about as big as they could be as they recounted to Jesus all that THEY had done …these guys were pumped! So following the magnificent meal of bread and fish, Jesus, recognising the need both for himself and his disciples to retreat from the crowds, tells them to get into a boat and cross to the other side (presumably where he will meet them later). So the disciples go, the crowds go and finally Jesus has some time to pray. This is very consistent with Jesus’ behaviour – the disciples are all pumped about their experience and Jesus says … right! a bit of down time for all of us … you get in a boat … I’m gonna go up into a mountain so that we can all have a bit of rest and prayer.
It’s the first break that any of them have had in a while!
And though this is perhaps a more minor point of this story – we see here how important it is to balance our action (or our missionary work) as disciples with our faithfulness to prayer. Jesus was constantly modelling this to his disciples.
And it can be true of us. Heather and I tried really hard, as did the whole Alpha team, to be really faithful in prayer during the Alpha Course. But I know when I had run the Alpha Course previously that until the final second before each evening began there were tables, chairs, food, cutlery, plates, projectors, laptops, music, last minute tips for the leaders and helpers … and then we’d squeeze in 2 seconds of prayer as the guests were arriving. [Sometimes ‘Church’ can be a bit like this on Sunday morning at 9.47 am…] In my case, I was wrapped up in ‘the doing’ … the doing is important but if we are not attentive to God and faithful in prayer … ‘the doing’ will be fundamentally flawed. Before, during and after ‘the doing’ we’re called to pray as it is God who gives us all we need to do his work.
Trouble at Sea
OK, so that’s the context, but we still haven’t resolved this walking on water ‘showy’ stuff!
So we see at v47 that quite some time has passed. When evening came they were in the boat and Jesus was on the land and v48 tells us that it was morning by the time Jesus comes walking by on the lake.
v48 – also tells us that the disciples were straining at the oars against an adverse wind and that’s when Jesus came towards them … GOOD … well that makes good sense – they were in trouble and Jesus came to save them. But then Mark offers an unusual detail (he does this a few times). Look at the end of v48 – He [meaning Jesus] intended to pass them by …
Hang on! What’s that doing there?
Jesus sees them, they’re in trouble and he comes out on the water to save them? Or does he?
He intended to pass them by … I wonder whether you might just hold that thought for a second – he intended to pass them by – I’m gonna come back to that in a couple of minutes, because it will hopefully make more sense then. [but keep your finger there at v48]
So he was going to pass them by but-v49-they saw him walking on the lake and thought ‘oh great Jesus has come to save us …’ NO … they start screaming … oh my gosh, it’s a GHOST!
So v50, Jesus identifies himself and calms them down …
In v51, Jesus gets in the boat and the wind ceases and the disciples said ‘yep! We’ve seen him heal sick people, and raise dead people and feed a multitude, we’ve even seen him calm a sea two chapters ago … so we’re glad he's done it again as we knew he could’ … NO … the last part of v51 says that they were utterly astounded.
… and then … v52 (the next unusual statement in this passage), 'for they did not understand about the loaves …'
THE LOAVES! – What on earth has this got to do with the loaves?
So we now have at least three strange details:
1. Jesus actually walking on the water
2. Jesus being about to pass them by
3. And now this reference to the loaves
Let me share a story …
Ever since I was a child, I have had a very pronounced … walk. When I was a child I was teased for it, as an adolescent I learnt to laugh about it and over the years my friends have said some very funny things about it. One of the most memorable was when someone was introducing me to our Youth Group they said ‘Then there’s Adam’s walk … or should I say … the strut …. [he said] … Adam is a man on a mission … he always has somewhere to go … and then … he got up and demonstrated (much to my dismay) … some of my friends did something very similar as part of their speech at my twenty-first … and once I was walking through a dark carpark and a friend of mine still a long way off said ‘Hi Adam’ – she couldn’t see my face in the dark, she later said ‘I recognised you by your walk’.
OK … so this is trivial. But you know it’s true of tradesmen too, isn’t it? My dad is a great bricklayer, some people have looked at a job and said you can tell that your dad built this. And I can tell you … there are a lot of good cooks in our small group … but you can walk in on Tuesday night, smell the aroma from the kitchen, and say Nic must be cooking tonight. We have some great cooks, but only one has worked as a professional Chef. You see the acts and recognise the person.
And here we have these disciples who:
• have been with Jesus all the time,
• have been first-hand eye-witnesses to all these miracles which we have been looking at,
• Mk 6.13 says that whilst on mission, they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them,
• they came back still talking about what THEY had done,
• then helped Jesus distribute 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to over 5,000 people …
yet when they fear for their lives they neither recognise him nor trust that he can save them?
Usually you see the acts and recognise the person.
My friend saw me in the dark – she saw my walk and she recognised me.
So with that in mind, let’s revisit these three peculiarities about this reading:
Jesus walked on water
• What’s the other great water-event of our Christian story? – THE EXODUS STORY.
• The Israelites escaped from Egypt by passing through the Red Sea and eventually Israel entered the Promised Land by passing through the Jordan.
• This is the way God saved his people from captivity … disaster … death.
• So while people of the first century viewed a storm at sea as a symbol of peril and death, God historically has used it to bring life out of death. This is echoed in the language we use at Baptism and the reason why the use of water is so crucial.
• So when we see Jesus walking and saving in amidst the water, should we not identify Jesus’ acts with the acts of God?
Not Understanding the Loaves
• Then while the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness, God provides for their physical needs with manna – bread from heaven.
• In John 6, Jesus makes this connection between the feeding of the 5,000 and the bread from heaven even more explicit.
• In our passage today: this is what the reference to the loaves is about – the disciples saw all the bread and the fish and the twelve baskets left over and they said – WOW that’s great, we never have to go shopping again (they were men) – because Jesus can do cool stuff.
• What they were supposed to do was see the acts of Jesus – consistent with the saving work of God in the Exodus - and recognise who he is.
• WHEN WE SEE THE ACTS OF JESUS, WE SHOULD SEE THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
• Because these acts are consistent with the acts of God in the history of Israel.
• Had they understood about the loaves – the walking on water and calming of the sea might not have been so unexpected – they would be confident that God can do all things.
• But they couldn’t see past the ‘acts’.
Reference to ‘Passing By’
• There are very few uses of this verb in scripture in reference to a person passing by.
• We see it used in 1 Kings 19.11-12 when the Lord tells Elijah that he is going to pass by.
• And it is again found in Exodus 33-34 when Moses asks God to show him his glory and God responds by passing by him.
• The OT notion of passing by suggests divine revelation ….
• again … we’re supposed to see the acts of Jesus and recognise the presence of God.
• but they miss it.
Jesus identifies himself
• And then there is my favourite part of the story which is lost in translation … it was almost worth going to College and learning Greek just for this:
• Look at the end of v50 – what does it say? (“Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” NRSV)
• Very poor translation, I checked a few other popular translations: NIV, KJV, GNT, MSG –
• all of them bad translations: “Fear Not: I AM”
• So … if you’d missed the bread, the water and the passing by – Mark makes it clear to his Greek audience – the very presence of God is amongst you!
• And Mark enjoys making this point throughout his Gospel.
• The original manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel, end with the women running away scared (the men had already run away scared). At the very end of Mark’s account, Jesus’ closest followers still don’t get it and are afraid,
• Jesus says here, in amidst of calamity and crisis: “Fear Not: I AM”
• We’re supposed to see the acts and recognise Jesus.
• We’re supposed to see Jesus and recognise the presence of God.
• And I think Mark must have had a pastoral heart, because by emphasising the hopelessness of Jesus first disciples, he in turn demonstrates that there’s hope for us.
• And does Jesus despair at their hopelessness? No. He still saves, he still loves, he still shows compassion … and he does this for us to … Praise God.–
And it begs the question: Do we recognise the presence of God in our midst?
The disciples in Chapter 6 of Mark’s Gospel, they're caught up in the WOW. Their commitment cannot be called into question: they've left their families, their livelihood and everything to follow Jesus. They think he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread … he can do all this cool stuff and if they hang around him long enough, the evidence suggests that he will teach them to do cool stuff too, the only problem is – they’re still not getting what it’s all about. What are you doing walking on water, Jesus? We’re drowning here … it’s a very cool trick … but …? They haven’t realised that God is in their midst. They haven’t made the connection between the great acts of God delivering his people from captivity and slavery and the power of God in Jesus delivering people from captivity of sin, infirmity, death and calamity. It just takes a storm at sea for them to lose sight of that.
I don’t know about you, but I often get caught up in the ‘wow’?
I see God work powerfully in my life all the time, yet I spend a considerable amount of time whinging about how busy, or tired or overworked I am … how hard my lot is?
How about in our community here at St Thomas? We can be complacent about what God is doing. We can look with our blinkered vision and say: our site here at Station Street is looking pretty run down at the moment … or another six people have pulled out of the Sunday roster … OR we can recognise that even in amidst of the messiness of transition and change that people are coming to faith in Jesus, others are having their faith deepened and others still are having a meaningful experience of Christian community through any number of the new initiatives that have sprung up in the past few months. THAT’S GOD! Let’s not be like the disciples who say ‘LOOK AT WHAT WE’VE DONE’ but like Jesus who says, ‘Let’s get away for a while, pray and give thanks to God.’
Did you know that our community has this month started a Mandarin fellowship?
How exciting that we are now outreaching in yet another language?
Did you know that new non-believers each week are participating in the ESL ministry on Sunday nights? – I’m so encouraged when I see this! You know … I’ll let you in on a little secret … once or twice a month I’m rostered to serve at the ESL service on Sunday night and I grumble all afternoon that I have to go (not for anything to do with this ministry, but simply because I’m usually exhausted by Sunday night). And yet every time I attend, when the service is over, as I lock up the cottage and leave at 8.30 pm, I praise God for the people I’m seeing him bring to faith through this ministry. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m exhausted – but it makes my exhaustion seem like such a non-issue by comparison.
Why do I praise God? Because I look at what’s happening, and I see God at work. And yet like the disciples in today’s story, I forget so quickly. In two weeks’ time when I am rostered on again, I’ll probably be grumbling again. But isn’t reaching out with the Gospel the bread and butter of what I am called to do if I want to be a minister in the Church? Isn’t it the ministry that all of us are called to be engaged with?
Let’s have a quick look at the last few verses in our passage. This is where Mark packs a punch.
v54 - When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him.
You know – all the hints, all the wealth of Jewish understanding, all the intimacy of friendship … and the disciples didn’t recognise him. Here are a bunch of strangers who come out to the dock, see Jesus and say, here’s the one who can heal our sick and they bring them all out to him.
Sometimes, I feel like new Christians put me to shame, because I am so familiar with the Gospel that I can almost miss its power and they who are hearing it for the first time – say WOW! But they don’t say, that’s a cool trick that Jesus did, walking on the water, but rather they say: Isn’t it astounding what Jesus has done for me: That’s seeing the acts and recognising Jesus … and in him … the very presence and work of God.
And the simple reason that the Gospel has the highest concentration of miracle stories of people being freed from physical infirmities, natural disasters and even death is that a new period of salvation history had begun. In the ministry of Jesus and in the ministry of his disciples we should expect to see glimpses foreshadowing the future glory that is to come and in this time that we are living in we too are called to be disciples who do not simply say ‘WOW’ but who are expectant that if we are faithful in both prayer and action, God will be faithful in working miracles, through us, in our own time.
Shall we give thanks for that?