The story is told about a guy named, Bob, who had heard a rumor that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all walked on water on their 21stbirthdays. So, on his 21stbirthday, Bob and his good friend, Brian, headed out to the lake. “If they did it, I can too!” Bob insisted. When Bob and Brian arrived at the lake, they rented a boat and began rowing. When they got to the middle of the lake, Bob stood up in the boat, balanced himself, then stepped over the side of the boat...and nearly drowned. Furious and embarrassed, Bob told Brian to stop laughing, and they headed for home. When Bob got back to the family farm, he asked his grandmother for an explanation. “Grandma, why can’t walk on water like my father, and his father, and his father before him?” The feeble, old grandmother took Bob by the hands, looked into his eyes, and explained, “That’s because you were born in Florida in July, dear. Your father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all born in Minnesota…in January.”[1]All this Lent, we have spent time with Adam Hamilton’s, The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus, and I confess that I really like the image of walking where Jesus walked…most of the time. But I get to this story, and I’m suddenly not so sure. As I think about Jesus walking on water, I am a little worried that maybe there was a trick to it happening in the Bible, and I wouldn’t want to end up like Bob, sinking in the water and looking like a bigger idiot than I already am. So I am comforted, when in our passage for today, Jesus speaks three times, and each time offering us lessons in walking on water.
First, Jesus says, “Have courage/Take heart. I AM. Do not be afraid.” Of course, if Jesus said that on a sunny day in spring, we would be like, “Oh yeah! I get it.” But that’s not when Jesus says these words. When our best friend is in the hospital, and our boss says they need more hours, and our family needs our loving attention, and then our car breaks down, that’s when Jesus speaks these words to us. Like the disciples, we find the fierce crosswinds of life whip up the waves, and we may even feel the boat of our life starting to creak with the strain. Jesus says, “Stay bold.” Why bold? Because Jesus says, “I AM.” Now that could mean something as simple as, “It’s me!”, but it could also be God’s Name. Images come to mind of Moses, standing without sandals before the burning bush, and God speaking out of the bush, “I AM Who I AM. Tell my people, ‘I AM’ has sent you to them.”[2]Or imagine Jesus kneeling with his good friend, Mary, crying with her as they grieve together the death of her brother, Lazarus, and Jesus looking her in the eye as He says, “I AM the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”[3]For whatever reason, Jesus speaks these words we long to hear in the middle of our storms, with the wind and waves crashing in, and we don’t know how we are going to go on. “Take heart. I AM. Do not be afraid.”
Second, Jesus says, “Come ahead.” Have you ever been with someone who is expecting their first child? Maybe you were the one expecting? When Cynthia was pregnant with Morgan, she was working as a grad student at Johns Hopkins—alternately doing her research, taking care of her lab, and getting ready for baby. I was Youth Ministries Director with two large youth groups plus other responsibilities, and trying to take care of Cynthia, and getting into the nesting projects. Oh my gosh, it was crazy! And when Morgan came, I had some time off, but pretty soon Cynthia and I were both trying to get back to our busy schedules and take care of Morgan, and figure out this whole parenting thing. I just remember how tired we both were. I’m sure Cynthia was more tired than me if I’m honest. But I loved being Dad. In the middle of the wind and the waves of that experience, in the middle of me trying to go to the next level in my life, Jesus came to me. Over the course of a few weeks, I remember looking the storm of my life and thinking, “Is that you out there, Jesus? I don’t know how long I can keep this up. Do You know what it will be like for me to be different?” So I prayed something like Peter did, “If you are, tell me to come to you.” And Jesus said, “Come ahead.” When the storms of life are beating up on us, and we aren’t sure how we are going to make it through, we can look out to where Jesus is standing, quite at peace in the middle of the storm. We could be there, too, at peace on the next level, beyond the roar of the wind and the splash of the wave. Peter poses it as a question, “If you are…” and that can be the way our next level begins: “Jesus, if you are, then tell me to come to you.” Jesus says, “Come ahead.”
Finally, Jesus says, “You have so little faith! Why did you doubt?” To leave our comfort zone, to climb out of the boat we’re in, seems so crazy. But often, we can’t stay where we are any longer—we must cast ourselves into a future that we struggle to imagine, onto the chaos of wind and wave. The problem I often have—maybe you do too—is not whether or not I’m willing to trust Jesus, or that I’m standing in the middle of a storm doing something I never thought I would do. No, the problem I have is that sometimes I focus on what’s beating me. I read this story the other day. The author writes, “As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to watch a local, Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was. ‘We're behind 14 to nothing,’ he answered with a smile. ‘Really,’ I said. ‘I have to say you don't look very discouraged.’ ‘Discouraged?’ the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. ‘Why should we be discouraged? We haven't even been up to bat yet.’” What I love about this kid, is that he’s looking forward, not thinking about how bad they are losing, but how much of the game lies ahead. Why does Peter—why do I—sink in the waves? So often because I start to focus on the storm of my life and the way everything is swirling around me. I take my eyes off Jesus, the one who called me and empowers me to walk through all the craziness to get to the next level where there is peace and new life. I try to walk in the storm my way, instead of Jesus’ way, so I sink. “Lord, save me!” I cry, like Peter. Scared and ashamed I am, but Jesus reaches out a hand and I’m on solid footing again. Jesus says, “You have so little faith! Why did you doubt?” And I know, I just have to look to Jesus next time.
I say, “Walking in Jesus’ footsteps”…and maybe we think of sand on the seashore, or hiking up a mountain path, perhaps walking through a bustling marketplace or climbing across desert dunes. If we imagine the idea of walking in Jesus’ footsteps when he walked on water, we might think, “That’s impossible! There must be a trick to it”—like Bob forgetting that his ancestors all tried walking on water in the winter in Minnesota. But really, this walking on water thing—it’s how Jesus helps us grow and become what we can’t imagine. When the fierce crosswinds and treacherous currents are stressing everyone around us, Jesus says, “Stay bold! I AM. Don’t be afraid!” When work and family and our insides are swamping us with stress, and we look at Jesus out there ahead of us, at peace in the storm, and in our fear and anxiety, we aren’t sure if we can leave what’s not working to find the peace Jesus offers, Jesus says, “Come ahead.” And so we step out of our comfort zones, perhaps imperfectly, perhaps forgetting to keep our eyes on the grace and peace of Jesus, perhaps needing a reminder that the way of sacrifice is the way to the next level, and as we begin to sink, Jesus catches us, restores our footing, and asks, “Why did you doubt?” When we get to that place where we have peace out in the bashing waves and buffeting winds of life, people are floored. They know—as Jesus’ disciples in the boat did—that only God can still the waves and calm the storm. Only God can bring us a peace beyond the storm. Our world needs to get to the next level—where we have a more just and equitable society, a more humble and grace-fillled community. We are in the storm of the century—battered by waves of divisiveness, whipped up by injustice, and weighed down by self-centeredness—and we can see Jesus standing out in that storm, waiting with the peace we and our world need so much. But we will not find peace in the boat. We will not find the next level of grace no matter how hard we row or take care of the seasick. Our world needs people who are willing to say, “Lord, if you are, tell me to come,” willing to hear Jesus call out above the storm, “Come ahead!” and step out of the way things have always been. Sure, the storm is there, but it has no lasting power over us. We just need to keep our eyes on Jesus…and walk in His footsteps.
[1]Adapted from illustration on www.sermoncentral.com.
[2]Exodus 3:14.
[3]John 11:25.