"Does your Jesus walk on water?"
Pastor David Hansen
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 30, 2006
I wonder sometimes.
I wonder if, for all of our talk about Jesus in our churches, if we really have a clear idea of who Jesus is and what that fact means for our lives.
How often have we heard what a “great moral” teacher Jesus was? How often have we heard Jesus equated with Gandhi, the Buddha, Confucius, or any other number of moral teachers?
Or, other people talk about Jesus as an interesting historical figure, like say George Washington, or Julius Caesar, or Plato. And other people are just not sure what to make of Jesus.
Of course, many us don’t really think about Jesus at all. We mouth the words on Sunday morning, but then don’t think about Jesus until Sunday rolls around again.
It’s a nice, tame image of Jesus that we often paint for ourselves. This Jesus doesn’t ask much of us, doesn’t really make any claims on our lives.
John, the author of today’s Gospel, on the other hand, had no confusion about who Jesus was and is. John’s gospel begins with the proclamation that Jesus is the Word incarnate, one with God the Father from the beginning of time. And throughout John’s Gospel, he illustrates this point again and again.
Look at this morning’s Gospel.
Near the time of Passover, Jesus and his disciples went up a mountain in the Galilee region, and sat down to talk among themselves. Shortly after settling in on this quiet mountaintop, Jesus saw the very crowds that they were trying to avoid following them up the mountain.
Jesus, testing Philip, asked him, “How are we going to feed all these people.”
To which Philip replied, “We can’t afford to buy enough food for all of these people!”
Andrew pointed out that a little boy had brought some bread and fish, but nowhere near enough for the crowd that had gathered. Then Jesus had everyone sit down, there on the mountaintop with his disciples. He prayed over the bread and fish, then had them passed around for everyone to share – all five thousand of them! Not only was there enough for everyone to have all that they needed, there was enough for everyone to have all that they wanted!
After everyone had eaten their fill, the disciples gathered up the crumbs. To the disciples amazement, as they gathered the crumbs they picked up much more than the young boy had brought to the mountain.
And the crowd was quite impressed with Jesus.
Shortly thereafter, the disciples were out on the lake, when a storm arose. Then, out of the darkness, they saw Jesus walking toward them. He was walking on the water, across the lake, to join them at their boat.
It is a simple story, really. We’ve all heard sermons or read devotionals about this Gospel lesson. Perhaps they talked about the generosity of the boy who shared his food. Or maybe it was about the doubt of the disciples who didn’t think there was enough food and were scared during the storm. Maybe you’ve even heard a sermon about how Jesus doesn’t want anyone to go hungry.
As nice as the sentiment in some of those thoughts is, that was not John’s point. Like the rest of John’s Gospel, this morning’s lesson was written to show who Jesus was, and the claim the Jesus has on our lives.
Think about the feeding of the five thousand:
Jesus is compassion – ensuring that no one goes hungry. Jesus is the source of all nourishment – feeding everyone on the mountain both physically and spiritual.
But John does not stop with the miraculous feeding. He goes on to tell of Jesus walking across the water to meet the disciples.
Now, to a first century Jewish person, only One has the authority to walk over water. The deep water represented everything chaotic and dangerous, and the only one with the power to walk over it without fear is the One who brought order to chaos and created the water itself: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Yes, John is very clear about who Jesus is – and he is not the tamed-down Jesus we are used to encountering in our modern world. For John there is no doubt – Jesus is the God who created the universe, Jesus is Compassion and love, Jesus is the source of all nourishment.
So friends, tell me, does your Jesus still walk on water?
Here’s why it matters. CS Lewis once put the issue this way:
Either this man Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or God himself. If he was a liar or a lunatic, we best ignore everything he did or said. If he was God, then his life, death, and resurrection change everything.
We either have the tame Jesus – Jesus the moral teacher, Jesus the philosopher, Jesus restricted to Sunday morning – or we have Jesus who is God – Jesus who walks on water.
If it is the tame Jesus, then no big deal. We can go on with our lives as if nothing has changed. If it is the tame Jesus, our belonging to the church is no different than belonging to the rotary club or 4-h or any other social organization.
But if it is the wild, untamable Jesus, if it is God himself who walks on the water and nourishes us all, then that changes everything.
Think about it this way:
A man was out hiking through the woods, when he slipped off the edge of a cliff. While falling down into the chasm, he was able to grab a tree limb. Getting desperate, the man called out above him: “Is anyone up there?”To his great surprise, the man heard a voice from above him answer back: “I am here. It is me, Jesus. Do you believe me?”“Of course Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer.”“That's all right, you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch.” There was a pause as the man considered this. He then called back, “Is anyone else up there, maybe someone with a rope?”Saying Jesus is God is easy. Living like Jesus is God, living like we trust Jesus more than the rope, is hard. Because if Jesus is who John says he is – who the church has said for two thousand years that he is – then is has to change our lives. If our Jesus walks on water, we cannot help answer his call and have our whole lives changed.Listening to the world, it is easy to get confused about who Jesus is. It is easier – if we are listening to the world – to accept the Jesus who doesn’t ask anything of our lives.But if we listen to the Gospel, it is impossible to accept this understanding of Jesus. If we listen to the Gospel, we will encounter the Jesus who walks on water, the Jesus who was there for the creation of the world, the Jesus who asks for our whole lives.It will not always be easy. It may mean changing how we treat those people we can’t stand. It may mean changing how we run our businesses. It may mean looking more closely how we spend our money and who we are giving it too. But more than anything, it will mean giving our whole lives to Jesus.So the question is still before us.
Friends, does your Jesus still walk on water?
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