Apr 27 2008
signs 5
I got to hear two great sermons today. The first was at our main service. I hope to post on it in a couple of days. The second was at Fuel which is the Sunday evening youth service at Mountain. Seth Harkins was the speaker and he spoke on Jesus walking on water.
It was a great message. Seth focused on focus. His best sentence was, “If you want to live an unsinkable life, even through storms, then focus on Jesus.” In that way it was a very similar point to my previous post in this series. It was a powerful reminder that life has storms and following Jesus offers no assurance of a life without them. It does however assure us that we need not sink, and if we do, Christ is there to pull us up. (You can read Phil 4:10-13 for Paul’s take on this promise.)
There was another detail from the story that captured my imagination. If you haven’t read it recently, you can find the whole event in context in Matt 14. In the middle of the encounter, Matthew records this exchange.
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” Jesus said.
What captured my thoughts was Peter’s request. He apparently doubts that this is Jesus. Perhaps he still thinks it is a ghost trying to trick them. Jesus response offers no proof; “Don’t worry, it’s me.” Isn’t that exactly what a tricky evil spirit would say? So Peter, searching for a way to test this spirit says, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.”
Couldn’t he think of a better proof that that? Here are a few right off the top of my head.
- Lord, if it is you, come over here where I am so I can get a better look.
- Lord, if it is you, please calm the storm and send us a nice breeze so we can sail where we want to go.
- Lord, if it is you, please create a bridge between us so that I can walk over to you.
- Lord, if it is you, please do that trick with the bread again because we are hungry from all this rowing.
- Lord, if it is you, tell me who sat next to you at our last lamb roast.
But instead Peter asks, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Now we have to be careful about following Peter’s example in anything, because he often gets things wrong. But in this case, Jesus seems to approve of his request. Apparently Jesus thought that this was a pretty good way to test the identity of this strange apparition. I suppose the worst that could happen is that Peter gets a good soaking, and one can assume he was a pretty good swimmer.
Maybe instead of waiting for God to make the way clear, or “open the door,” I need to be more like Peter and call out. “If that is you God, out there in the stormy see, then tell me to come be with you, out there, in the storm, with the wind. If that is you, tell me to get out of the boat.”
Hey Jesus if that is you out there, please tell me to come to be with you (even on the water.)
on the walk
-Ethan
