Walk - Don't Walk
John 6:16-24
Are any of you avid boaters? We are right on Buckeye Lake, so I expect that some of you have pretty much grown up on the water. But let’s remember that Jesus’ disciples weren’t in powerboats like yours; they were driven by wind or by oar. And since the wind was against them, they were driven by oar. I personally did a lot of my growing up in a canoe, but there’s a reason I prefer river canoeing to lake canoeing. Even the slightest wind makes for a tough lake crossing. Matthew’s account of this event tells us that the wind was against the boat. They were struggling.
And in the midst of their struggle, they look out into the storm and they see Jesus. Now remember that Jesus wasn’t in the boat; they had left without him.
For those of you who have grown up in church and have heard this story again and again, let it sink in. Here you are, out in the middle of the lake, fighting against a terrible headwind. You’re exhausted, and you don’t really think you’re making any progress across the water, and then, there, on the lake, is Jesus. Walking. On the water.
The disciples are terrified. Wouldn’t you be? Matthew records that they think he’s a ghost. Not a bad guess; who else could possibly be walking on top of the water? This goes beyond normal human behavior, and I don’t blame them for interpreting what they see using the criteria at their disposal. In other words, they simply saw what they saw, but since they didn’t have a category for what they saw, their minds placed their observation into a category where it seemed to fit.
This is why some people sometimes fail to recognize what others see for themselves; a doctor says, “The scanner must be broken” when he can’t find the cancer. It’s why people say, “he’ll falloff the wagon soon enough” when someone is remarkably and instantaneously delivered from the bondage of addiction. It’s why people find every logical, rational explanation possible for the supernatural; as adults we don’t generally have categories for the miraculous.
And there is Jesus, walking on the water.
How would you react? Jesus recognizes their fear, and he assures them: It is I; don’t be afraid. (John 6:20). But besides a simple statement: Then they were willing to take him into the boat, we don’t get to see their reaction. John doesn’t reveal anything else that happens. When Matthew records the same event, he includes Peter’s remarkable walk on water; he asks Jesus for proof of who he is: Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water. (Matthew 14:28). Jesus then invited Peter out of the boat, and he walked on water. There are 1000 sermons about that, and if I had chosen the Matthew text to preach on this morning, we would have gone there. But we’re looking at Jesus’ miracles in John’s gospel, and John didn’t include Peter’s walk – and he excluded it on purpose. I think one of John’s reasons for excluding Peter’s walk on water was his purpose for writing. You can find his purpose if you read John’s Gospel starting in chapter 1: No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. (John 1:18).
Jesus’ miracles have dual purpose; for example, the lower purpose for turning water into wine was to provide wine for a wedding party. The lower purpose of feeding the 5000 was giving hungry people food. The lower purpose of Jesus walking on the water was to get from place to place (where there just happened to be a lake between those places). But the higher purpose of all of these miracles was to point to God. Specifically to demonstrate that Jesus is God.
This is a good time to remind you that the Gospel writers had agendas. Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience to prove that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. Luke wrote to help Theophilus know the certainty of the things he had been taught. And John wrote to convince his audience that we have seen God; that Jesus is God!
So what is John saying about Jesus (and thus about God)? Physically, Jesus walking on the water contrasts human helplessness in the face of the awesome forces of nature unleashed in a great storm.
When “nature” hits, there’s nothing we can do about it. Have you ever stacked sandbags, knowing that the water is going to come in anyway? But here we see Jesus, calmly walking, on the water, in the face of the storm. Jesus is completely calm, because he is completely in control. He is the One who is in control, even over the forces of nature.
But there’s more. It’s not just a matter of a physical control. Have you ever been in a place where things are out of control in your life? No matter what kind of situation you’re in, whether it’s with relationships, work, finances, or whatever, it is scary to be in a place where you realize how out of your control things are.
This is where Jesus’ miracle of walking on water is more than just about him walking on water. To get at that, we need to look at a couple of other passages, in the beginning and the end of the Scriptures. In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God is presented as hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2). Now flip forward to Revelation 21:1, where we see this setting: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (Rev. 21:1). The waters and the sea represent chaos – un-creation, if you will. God’s plan moves from chaos to perfection. In the meantime, we are somewhere in between. But Jesus, by walking on water, is demonstrating that he isn’t stuck in the in-between. We are in a state where we await perfection.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Romans: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:22-26.
Jesus, in one action, gives us reason to hope. He gives us a glimpse of how things should be – how things will be by showing his power over nature, over the sea, over chaos, over imperfection. Through this, we can have the hope of the things to come. Whatever you are struggling with, Jesus is the answer!
When the disciples encounter Jesus walking across the water, they’re initially terrified. The forces of nature are out of their control, and they’ve see something that can only be a ghost. Did you catch what happened then?
Jesus revealed his identity to his disciples. “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (John 6:20). And they took him into the boat. Then, this is possibly miracle number two in this passage: immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. All of that rowing… all of the pulling the oars, all of the cussing and spitting, all of the swearing and sweating… done with. Jesus proved that he really was all they needed. I know I’m supposed to say this, as a pastor, but it really is true. No matter where your struggle is, Jesus really is enough.
But to experience this truth, you have to take him into your boat. If you want to continue doing everything on your own, you won’t experience his peace. Maybe you have encountered Jesus, even miraculously, but you’ve said, “No thanks, dude; I’ve got it. Thanks anyway.” And you’ve gone your own way, trying to pull your own oars.
Do this and you won’t make it to shore on your own.
Does this mean we can just sit back and ignore the world around us? Absolutely not. Jesus calls us to obedience. There are plenty of times when he calls us to action. But he also calls us to trust in him wholeheartedly, and you will never gain what you really crave, what you really need, unless you take him into your boat and give leadership of your life to him.
Are any of you avid boaters? We are right on Buckeye Lake, so I expect that some of you have pretty much grown up on the water. But let’s remember that Jesus’ disciples weren’t in powerboats like yours; they were driven by wind or by oar. And since the wind was against them, they were driven by oar. I personally did a lot of my growing up in a canoe, but there’s a reason I prefer river canoeing to lake canoeing. Even the slightest wind makes for a tough lake crossing. Matthew’s account of this event tells us that the wind was against the boat. They were struggling.
And in the midst of their struggle, they look out into the storm and they see Jesus. Now remember that Jesus wasn’t in the boat; they had left without him.
For those of you who have grown up in church and have heard this story again and again, let it sink in. Here you are, out in the middle of the lake, fighting against a terrible headwind. You’re exhausted, and you don’t really think you’re making any progress across the water, and then, there, on the lake, is Jesus. Walking. On the water.
The disciples are terrified. Wouldn’t you be? Matthew records that they think he’s a ghost. Not a bad guess; who else could possibly be walking on top of the water? This goes beyond normal human behavior, and I don’t blame them for interpreting what they see using the criteria at their disposal. In other words, they simply saw what they saw, but since they didn’t have a category for what they saw, their minds placed their observation into a category where it seemed to fit.
This is why some people sometimes fail to recognize what others see for themselves; a doctor says, “The scanner must be broken” when he can’t find the cancer. It’s why people say, “he’ll falloff the wagon soon enough” when someone is remarkably and instantaneously delivered from the bondage of addiction. It’s why people find every logical, rational explanation possible for the supernatural; as adults we don’t generally have categories for the miraculous.
And there is Jesus, walking on the water.
How would you react? Jesus recognizes their fear, and he assures them: It is I; don’t be afraid. (John 6:20). But besides a simple statement: Then they were willing to take him into the boat, we don’t get to see their reaction. John doesn’t reveal anything else that happens. When Matthew records the same event, he includes Peter’s remarkable walk on water; he asks Jesus for proof of who he is: Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water. (Matthew 14:28). Jesus then invited Peter out of the boat, and he walked on water. There are 1000 sermons about that, and if I had chosen the Matthew text to preach on this morning, we would have gone there. But we’re looking at Jesus’ miracles in John’s gospel, and John didn’t include Peter’s walk – and he excluded it on purpose. I think one of John’s reasons for excluding Peter’s walk on water was his purpose for writing. You can find his purpose if you read John’s Gospel starting in chapter 1: No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. (John 1:18).
Jesus’ miracles have dual purpose; for example, the lower purpose for turning water into wine was to provide wine for a wedding party. The lower purpose of feeding the 5000 was giving hungry people food. The lower purpose of Jesus walking on the water was to get from place to place (where there just happened to be a lake between those places). But the higher purpose of all of these miracles was to point to God. Specifically to demonstrate that Jesus is God.
This is a good time to remind you that the Gospel writers had agendas. Matthew wrote to a Jewish audience to prove that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah. Luke wrote to help Theophilus know the certainty of the things he had been taught. And John wrote to convince his audience that we have seen God; that Jesus is God!
So what is John saying about Jesus (and thus about God)? Physically, Jesus walking on the water contrasts human helplessness in the face of the awesome forces of nature unleashed in a great storm.
As humans, we are physically helpless in the face of nature. Think about the earthquake in Haiti. Hurricane Katrina. Or a flood, a tsunami, or a mudslide. Or a tornado. I remember being out when a tornado was tearing through town, and it was terrifying.
When “nature” hits, there’s nothing we can do about it. Have you ever stacked sandbags, knowing that the water is going to come in anyway? But here we see Jesus, calmly walking, on the water, in the face of the storm. Jesus is completely calm, because he is completely in control. He is the One who is in control, even over the forces of nature.
But there’s more. It’s not just a matter of a physical control. Have you ever been in a place where things are out of control in your life? No matter what kind of situation you’re in, whether it’s with relationships, work, finances, or whatever, it is scary to be in a place where you realize how out of your control things are.
This is where Jesus’ miracle of walking on water is more than just about him walking on water. To get at that, we need to look at a couple of other passages, in the beginning and the end of the Scriptures. In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God is presented as hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2). Now flip forward to Revelation 21:1, where we see this setting: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. (Rev. 21:1). The waters and the sea represent chaos – un-creation, if you will. God’s plan moves from chaos to perfection. In the meantime, we are somewhere in between. But Jesus, by walking on water, is demonstrating that he isn’t stuck in the in-between. We are in a state where we await perfection.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Romans: We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:22-26.
Jesus, in one action, gives us reason to hope. He gives us a glimpse of how things should be – how things will be by showing his power over nature, over the sea, over chaos, over imperfection. Through this, we can have the hope of the things to come. Whatever you are struggling with, Jesus is the answer!
When the disciples encounter Jesus walking across the water, they’re initially terrified. The forces of nature are out of their control, and they’ve see something that can only be a ghost. Did you catch what happened then?
Jesus revealed his identity to his disciples. “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (John 6:20). And they took him into the boat. Then, this is possibly miracle number two in this passage: immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. All of that rowing… all of the pulling the oars, all of the cussing and spitting, all of the swearing and sweating… done with. Jesus proved that he really was all they needed. I know I’m supposed to say this, as a pastor, but it really is true. No matter where your struggle is, Jesus really is enough.
But to experience this truth, you have to take him into your boat. If you want to continue doing everything on your own, you won’t experience his peace. Maybe you have encountered Jesus, even miraculously, but you’ve said, “No thanks, dude; I’ve got it. Thanks anyway.” And you’ve gone your own way, trying to pull your own oars.
Do this and you won’t make it to shore on your own.
Does this mean we can just sit back and ignore the world around us? Absolutely not. Jesus calls us to obedience. There are plenty of times when he calls us to action. But he also calls us to trust in him wholeheartedly, and you will never gain what you really crave, what you really need, unless you take him into your boat and give leadership of your life to him.
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