Trinity United Church of
Christ
W4888 Harvest Lane
La Crosse, WI 54601
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Trinity United Church of
Christ
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© Rev. Diane Kay Martin Keep Your Eyes on Jesus Would you open your pew Bibles[1] for a moment, please? Turn to page 21 in the New Testament section, in the back of your Bibles. It’s Matthew, the 14th chapter. Okay. Now look at the heading above verse 22. What does it say? <<Congregation responds: “Jesus Walks on the Water”>> Jesus walks on the water. That bugs me. Of course Jesus walks on the water. We already know that Jesus defies the laws of nature! It’s Jesus’ nature to defy the laws of nature. Think about it. By the 14th chapter of Matthew, Jesus has survived 40 days without food and water; he has beaten the devil at his own game—refusing to give in to temptation; he has healed multitudes of people—some by touch, some by speech, and some from miles away!—people who had leprosy, who couldn’t speak, were paralyzed, deaf, blind, every ailment under the sun. By the 14th chapter of Matthew, Jesus has preached amazing sermons that mesmerized his audience for hours; he has raised a little girl from the dead; he has cast out violent demons that then sent a herd of pigs into a lake to drown. He has already calmed a storm on the lake by just telling the wind and the waves to stop; he has fed a crowd of probably tens of thousands people with just five loaves and three fishes… And now, we’re surprised that he can walk on water? Excuse me? No, what’s remarkable about this passage is that Peter walked on the water. I checked every Bible on my shelf—some nine or ten versions—and in none of them does the heading mention Peter walking on the water. That surprises me. Peter walked on the water. The Bible says, “Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water to Jesus.” Peter walked on the water. He took a few steps, walking toward Jesus, keeping his eyes on Jesus, defying the laws of nature as he had seen his Lord and Teacher do so many times. Do you know what makes this all the more amazing? Remember who Peter was! He was a fisherman—pretty low on the food chain. When Jesus chose him to be one of his disciples, Peter said, “No, Lord, you don’t want me. I’m a sinful man.” [2] And that was a pretty accurate self-assessment, because Peter so frustrated Jesus one time that Jesus called Peter “Satan”![3] He did! (We’ll hear about that in three weeks, when Peter shows up again in the Gospel text. We’ll find out just how human this Peter was.) But Peter walked on the water! He tried it—who knows why—maybe he was showing off. Maybe it was in zeal for his Lord. But he did it! For a few miraculous seconds, Peter kept his eyes fixed on the one person whose energy can defy the laws of physics and common sense, and he walked on water! But then Peter made a mistake. He listened to the wind raging around him; he looked at the waves churning up around him, and he got scared. Peter took his eyes off Jesus, and he began to sink. So Jesus came to him, pulled him out of the water, and they walked on the water, together, back to the boat. The medication I’ve been on since my surgery does interesting things to my nervous system. First, it relaxes my nerves so the ones in my upper back that were severed have a chance to heal without going into spasms. But it also gives me a wonderful, peaceful sense of well-being. It almost makes me feel as if I could walk on water. I haven’t been worried about a thing this week. I knew it would get done, it would turn out all right. “It’s all good,” you know? I was telling Sue Strehl about this, and she reminded me, “Remember that feeling, because, you know, it turns out all right anyway, whether we worry about it or not.” I said, “You know, you’re right. My worrying doesn’t add a thing to the way things turn out, because I’m not in control. God is in control.” So … keeping our eyes on Jesus is a lot like being on this medication I’ve been taking. To not look at the crashing waves, to not pay attention to the roaring wind is the same as my not worrying about the mountain of things on my To-Do List. The waves still crash around us; the wind still tries to knock us down; the To-Do List grows; there’s never enough time; the medical condition persists; the financial shortfall continues; the addiction keeps robbing our loved ones of their lives; the effects of aging still slow us down; the loneliness still gnaws at our souls. But when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we get through it! He takes us by the hand, and we walk together—on the water—to a safety and security only God can give. Maybe you’re thinking, “But who am I? I’m not a person of strong faith. I’m not Peter. I’m just me. I’ve done a lot of things wrong. I couldn’t even look Jesus in the eyes if he came to pull me out of this mess I’ve made of my life.” Remember, Peter was no angel. But Jesus came to him, redeemed him, lifted him out of the tumult, and walked with him back to the boat. If you can learn to keep your eyes on Jesus; if you can try to look beyond the complexities of life; if you can manage even a simple, bumbling faith like Peter’s; if you can say, as we sang a few minutes ago, Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way.
Thou art the potter; I am the clay. if you can say, as we will sing in a few minutes during Communion, simply,
Into my heart, into my heart, then, you, too, will walk on water. You’ll do things you never thought you were capable of doing. You’ll get through things you never thought you could endure (like listening to my singing just now!). And when you need help, Jesus will come to you and take you by the hand and walk with you through the storm. Sometimes, when Jesus meets you, the storm will cease; but sometimes—it won’t. It didn’t stop for Jesus. It drove him all the way to the cross. But that’s where he did his best work, isn’t it? That’s where he really defied the laws of nature and physics and common sense. … That’s where he saved us. In the storm of rejection, humiliation, anguish, sorrow and grief, Jesus kept his eyes on his beloved heavenly Father—just as he longs for us to keep our eyes on him—and he redeemed the whole human race. Jesus already won our ultimate redemption from every storm this life can bring. Those waves can’t touch us, so come on! Let’s walk on the water! Peter did it; we can, too! Amen. |
Copyright © 2005
Trinity United Church of Christ
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