walking on water
It’s a dramatic story, and one which has captured the imaginations of millions of people round the world. It’s been a long day – Jesus has been teaching massive crowds who were following him around the Sea of Galilee, enraptured by his words and desperate for him to heal their sick. As Matthew records events in his gospel, he describes how Jesus miraculously feeds the enormous crowds with only only five loaves of bread and two fish, before sending the disciples out across the lake ahead of him and sending the crowds home. Jesus spends the evening praying alone, as the disciples are taken further across the lake by the strong winds.
It’s the fourth watch of the night and suddenly there’s commotion on the boat. Some of the disciples think they’ve seen a ghost. Everyone presses up to the edge of the boat trying to catch sight of the mysterious figure a little way out across the water – they’re terrified, and with good reason.
“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Jesus’s words ring out across the rough water. As he climbs into the boat, the wind drops – relief and amazement flood over the disciples as they take in what’s just happened. Who is this man who can walk on water? Matthew tells us their conclusion: “Truly you are the Son of God.”
identity crisis
You might think everyone Jesus met responded to him this way, but you’d be surprised. Jesus always has and probably always will get mixed reactions. It’s probably fair to say that some are pretty predictable – the sick and lost clung to the teacher who brought them healing and forgiveness – the religious leaders despised the one who stole their limelight. And it’s easy to come to Jesus with our own preconceptions. But what if by focussing on ourselves, we’re missing the point of who Jesus is? Like the crowd who came looking for Jesus because they were hungry and heard he was giving out free bread in John 6? Or the religious leaders who were more worried about their rules and restrictions than doing good in Matthew 12?
A little while after Jesus walked out to his disciples on that dark stormy night, he asked his disciples who people thought he was. Mixed reactions. People saw what they wanted to in Jesus. They couldn’t figure him out. Then Jesus put the question to his disciples – the people who knew him best. They had no agenda. But they’d weighed up the evidence They’d seen who Jesus was.
“But what about you?” he asked.
“Who do you say I am?”
who do you say i am?
Surely it doesn’t matter too much either way? Jesus thought it did. And if what Jesus said is true – it has massive consequences for us. So it’s not a decision to take lightly, or without first giving him a fair hearing.
Different people will tell you different things about who Jesus was. A moral man. A good teacher. A pleasant fairytale. When we come at the evidence with our own agendas, it’s pretty tough to sort out opinion from evidence. The author C.S. Lewis puts it like this:
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he is the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
We can’t push Jesus to one side. This is a man who really did walk on water. Like it or not, it’s something we all have to make our minds up about.
