Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33
Jesus and Peter walk on water
• Sometimes the gospel stories tell us what to do.
(Good Samaritan: show mercy radically.)
(Prodigal Son: Forgive radically / repent.)
(Sheep&Goats: Be charitable, especially to those who can’t pay you back.)
Sometimes the gospel stories tell us what Jesus did.
(Healed the blind & lame. Fed the multitudes. Preached the good news.)
Today’s story is one that tells us who Jesus is, and it does it a few ways.
• Some of you know I had a death in the family last week.
As is often the case, the family gathered photos together, trying to select the ones that best represented Tish. I heard the comment several times “See this one where the three of us are together? There were five pictures exactly like that. (click click click click)”
• Today's scripture has three different pictures of Jesus in one story.
1 - The Gospel of Matthew, the big picture: From its genealogy to its stories, identifications, and even self-identifications, Jesus is the Son of God (8 times) and the Son of Man (28) (a term distinctly identifying Jesus as a divinely chosen prophetic agent of God), the promised Messiah (20) (anointed one, set aside king and savior) of Israel, the Savior of the Nations. Today’s reading ends with one of the GoM’s identifications of Jesus: Then those in the boat worshipped Jesus and said, “You must be God’s Son!” – Matthew 14:33
2 - Within the Gospel of Matthew, the Story of the disciples in the boat at night on the stormy sea: Jesus is the one who calms the fears of his followers... “Be encouraged! It’s me. Don’t be afraid”.
He is supernaturally powered and present, and he is incarnational and invitational.
(also, Jesus is not warm&fuzzy, he’s terrifying. Miracles are scary because they’re unnatural)
3 - Within the story of the disciples in the boat at night on the stormy sea: the personal interaction with Peter. We get a picture of Jesus who simultaneously invites (Come), rebukes (You man of weak faith! Why did you begin to have doubts?), and saves Peter (Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him).
This tells about the grace of the Son of God who saved a disciple from death before his faith could qualify him for anything. Before Peter could earn favor with God, Jesus granted him mercy, saved him. This tells us that in the midst of Jesus’ grace, Jesus has high expectations for us, and in the midst of Jesus’ high expectations of us, Jesus has grace.
This episode leads Peter in another two chapters to confess
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (16:16).
• The motif in these pictures is that Jesus is God’s Son and the Savior of humankind, and if you take the first letter of each of the words of the phrase “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” (in Greek) it spells the word “Fish” (in Greek).
• May our lives from the macro to the micro point to our faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior, not by our own merit by but by God’s grace.
• Hymn 409: I Know Whom I Have Believed
Worship attendance: 122
Worship attendance: 122
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