You know those times when too many big things have happened in a short space of time, you THINK it's all good, but it's all going too fast and you can see pitfalls and dangers and while you feel like you should be cheering ... there are thoughts in your mind that make you hesitate a little and make your voice quaver as you start to raise that cheer ... ?
Yeah.
THAT's where the disciples were emotionally when Jesus spoke urgently to them in Matthew 14:
"Jesus immediately said to them:
‘Take courage!
It is I.
Don’t be afraid.’"
Matthew 14:27
Of course when He said this Jesus spoke to their crisis ... a crisis which arose after an awful lot of pre-loading pressure.
Pre-loading pressure
None of it took place in a vacuum ... the crises and the big events in our lives never do.
In the disciples case in this chapter, the pressure had already been building for a while.
- John the Baptist has been beheaded
This wasn't a good sign ... these disciples found themselves following the cousin of a person who'd already been beheaded for speaking out for God, and in John's case not even doing the sort of miracles nor making the sort of claims their Jesus was.
- Five thousand men have been fed
Jesus had just stepped into the role of 'the New Moses' by miraculously feeding five thousand men (plus dependent wives and children) out in the desert where He'd had nothing to feed them with, fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah, particularly Deuteronomy 18:15, 18 & 19, that the Messiah would do things just like Moses had done.
And of course Moses famously fed the Israelites in the desert with bread and poultry ... whereas Jesus had used bread and fish.
The authorities had surely noticed everything that had happened and would certainly NOT have been happy.
- Then the storm hits
After the huge emotional excitement of the feeding of that huge crowd, and in the maelstrom of fear and anxiety that arose from it as to what the authorities would do to them for what they had been part of, Jesus sent His fairly new disciples away across the lake in a boat.
Ah! Boats they knew: boats they were comfortable with, because they were fishermen).
But then even on their own turf, crossing the lake, night fell and fears rose. They just didn't go out on the lake in the dark because it was dangerous and they couldn't navigate through the darkness on that huge lake.
Things deteriorated even from there because out there in the darkness a storm blew up leaving them unsettled and disturbed in a sphere where they should have felt secure!
And then, not long before dawn (that is, in the darkest part of the night) a 'ghost' turned up.
- A 'ghost' turned up
"Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.
‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear."
Matthew 14:25-26
The net effect then: "they were terrified ... and cried out in fear"
It's often not the immediate impact of a threatening or fearful event that takes us down, but the things that have worn us down over time in the build-up to it.
And so it was with these disciples of Jesus.
But now they'd got to that point and they folded.
Terrified.
Crying out in fear.
Them!
Peter the confident fisherman, James and John called Boanerges the sons of thunder, Simon the terrorist Zealot ... these men were not dealing with emotions that were familiar with them as they cried out terrified in the storm at night on the sea.
Then Jesus broke into their turmoil not with a promise, but with His presence:
Jesus's Presence
"‘Take courage!
It is I.
Don’t be afraid.’"
Matthew 14:27
The events of the past days and weeks that put them into a heightened emotional state have not gone away.
The night is still dark.
The wind is still blowing and the waves are still ... doing whatever waves do.
But the thing that has changed is that Jesus has turned up.
And once He is present, He calls on them not to be afraid.
There's a popular misconception that doubt is the opposite of faith. But actually, faith is only believing certain facts because they come from a trusted source ... from the God in Whom we trust and the God Who cannot lie.
So actually the opposite of faith is the fear that puts a stop to us trusting ourselves to the trustworthy person: Christ Himself.
(Have a think about it!)
The point is made by the incident that immediately follows, as Peter puts the person (Christ) to the test, but actually gets tested out for faith and trust himself.
The sequel: Peter's cautionary tale
Peter acts immediately, true to what we know about his character, and challenges Jesus as to whether Jesus's presence is enough.
"‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied,
‘tell me to come to you on the water.’
29 ‘Come,’ he said.
Matthew 14:28-29
Matthew 14:28-29
Peter jumped out of the boat and
walked on the waves,
but as soon as he took his eyes off Jesus and
looked back at the waves and water,
he immediately started to sink.
The Point
We don't often come cold to a crisis. We need to keep a watch on how pressure is building, and take steps to keep our lives on the right track.
The point is that in all the threatening situations of life, Jesus' presence is actually enough for the people who trust Him and keep looking to Him.
But take your eyes off Jesus and stop trusting and walking towards Him, and you'll end up very quickly back 'in the drink'!
The Takeaway
Following Jesus can get very ... 'exciting'. It has its thrills and its pleasures and its 'threats'.
But Jesus is the all-sufficient Saviour of those who turn from their fears and anxieties as those arise, trusting deliberately in Him and walking towards Him with their eyes set on Him in the teeth of their storms.
If we can pray with you as you look to Him to walk through the crises of your life, please feel free to reach out to us using the contact form below and we'll be delighted to do that with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment