Jesus Christ is the only person who has ever walked on water without having to be rescued by a “lifeguard” or a nearby boatman. Peter came close, but evidently was not a good swimmer because he had to be saved by Jesus and returned to the boat from which he had embarked for his stroll on the water (see Matthew 14:22-33 and Mark 6:45-51). The whole incident is about twelve weary and scared apostles who are making no headway to their destination as they are battling strong winds and turbulent waves on the Sea of Galilee in a boat that started out as “The Good Ship Lolly-Pop,” but was becoming ancient antiquity’s version of the “Titanic;” if I may indulge myself in a little humor and hyperbole. But just when it seemed that all was lost, Jesus is seen walking on water in the midst of the storm and coming towards the boat filled with terror stricken inhabitants who now think they are seeing a ghost.
But Peter, who often acted before he weighed the consequences, impetuously decides to also take a stroll in the water with Jesus. He does ask for permission and Jesus obliges him. Everything is cool until Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and turns his gaze and thoughts on himself and this neat thing HE is doing. Suddenly, he feels he is in trouble because of the raging sea. And besides that, it was still dark. As he is sinking Jesus rescues him.
Skeptics who have read this story or heard of it superciliously dismiss it as nothing more than a fable. They can’t understand why Christians “are taken in by such stories.” Some would go so far as to say that they might believe it if they could see a “real life” demonstration of such a feat as walking on water or some other miracle. Interestingly, there were those in Jesus’ day who were constantly demanding miracles before THEY would believe. They thought it was as simple as that. But Jesus challenged them because of their stubborn unbelief. First of all he would remind them of all the miracles or “proofs” he had already done which they conveniently ignored; but then he went to the heart of the matter by making it clear that believing that HE is truly the great miracle man, the personification of truth, and the Savior of mankind,” is not a mere matter of some sort of “objective” empirical investigation that leads to a compelling or forced conclusion. It is really all about what God gives and we gratefully receive. Believing in Jesus and what he did and does, is a matter of God given faith (see Ephesians 2:8,9.) In a give and take discussion between Jesus and those who doubted that He was The Lord who came from heaven, Jesus said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty (one of those interesting ways Jesus told people he was God). But as I have told you, you have seen me (many of the people Jesus was saying this to, had very recently - perhaps, just the day before- witnessed his miracle of feeding about 10,000 men, women and children with the miraculous multiplication of five loaves and two little fishes (all four gospels record this e.g. see John 6:1-15) and still you do not believe....all that the Father GIVES me (belief or faith are a gift from God and not a simple matter of what we can do for ourselves) will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away....stop grumbling among yourselves,...No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him... (John 6:35-37,43,44).”
So while certain skeptics (who actually are naive about spiritual matters) smugly reject Christ, Christianity and the Bible because they allegedly have seen no convincing “proof,” others are experiencing their own miracles form-fitted to meet their personal yearning for meaningfulness and healing. David L. McKenna says it best when he says, “In response to desperate people who put their total trust in Him, He customizes and personalizes the supernatural to show that the will of God (on these matters) is good (Communicator’s Commentary, Word, Mark, 1982). Just how desperate are you?
No comments:
Post a Comment