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Sunday July 13, 2008 "Figured It Out Yet?" Matthew 8:23-27 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 8/7/2008 1:51 PM | This seems to be as straightforward a passage as we are going to find. It is a passage that is meant to invoke a feeling of awe. It is a passage that gives us insight into the fears that rightly gripped the disciples, and maybe us, too. It is a passage that gives us insight into just who Jesus is.
But I’m not sure it succeeds on all those points. Now, don’t get me wrong – if I really get into this story, I am in awe of the power of Jesus. If I really put myself in the boat with Jesus and the disciples, I can admit that my fear level would be just as high as the disciples. If the spray on my face and the rolling waves suddenly stopped leaving us safe and calm, I might also ask myself, “Just who is this man I am following?”
But how often do we really get in the boat? Not often enough, I think. We come to worship, we read our Bible, we say our prayers. But how often do we really spend our time sorting out just exactly who Jesus is? We are Christians, of course, but who is this Christ that we honor, we praise, we worship?
The disciples get a bad rap because of this episode. When the seas started tossing and turning and they were in danger of going under, they cred out for help, panic stricken. Jesus was awakened and seemed a little peeved, “Why are you of such little faith?” he shouted as the boat comes closer and closer to capsizing.
If I was in the boat with Jesus on that stormy day, I might have been just a tad bit incredulous at his question. “ Why? Why am I scared? Because I could drown at any minute and I don’t want to! And what’s this little faith jab? I called on you to save us because I know that you can! How’s that for faith?”
But as the seas calmed, and the sun brightened, and land could be seen across the way, the disciples did something that I wish I did more often; they turned their attention to what they had just witnessed and asked a terribly difficult question, “Who is this man who even the winds and rain obey?”
The disciples are sometimes ridiculed for such a question. “Whattaya mean, who is this man? Haven’t you figured it out yet?”
Personally, I think it is the kind of question that we need to ask ourselves over and over, because if we are honest with ourselves, there are times when we wonder exactly the same thing: just who is this man Jesus?
Oh, I can recite chapter and verse who this man is: Jesus, of Nazareth. Born in a stable to his mother Mary and his father Joseph. Born in Bethlehem because of a Roman decree for a homeland census to be taken. Spent his earliest life in Egypt to escape the tyranny of Roman paranoia. Raised in Nazareth as the son of carpenter. Took carpentry as his trade. Began a three year ministry in Galilee and environs after being baptized by John the Baptist, his cousin.
Those are the facts as we know them. But at this point in the account of Jesus’ life, things get a little trickier.
Jesus’ baptism sends a signal that something is different. John is convinced that he is the messiah. A dove descends from the sky, and a booming voice is heard to declare, “This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.”
From there Jesus goes off for his seminary training – 40 days in the wilderness. 40 days to pray, to contemplate, to meditate, to prepare for an itinerant ministry. 40 days to be tempted. Think about it: the devil is persistent with the temptations because the devil believes that Jesus is special. That’s why the temptations offer political power, and protection: because the devil knows that if Jesus keeps his course, the world will change in a big way.
So far we have a couple of different ways to view Jesus. First, as a carpenter, a devout Jewish man who knew his scriptures and tried to honor them. Second, as some sort of special man, blessed by God and feared by the devil.
Then his ministry began and we add even more roles.
He is a teacher of the highest order. His use of parables to illustrate so many different topics shows his grasp of how to reach people.
He is a charismatic leader. Everywhere he goes people follow him. A band of disciples grows up, many joining up when Jesus simply said, “Follow me.”
He is a friend. Martha and Mary, and their brother Lazarus can attest to that. And in their own way, so can those who travel with him along the way: Peter, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Matthew, Judas and so many others.
He is a healer. He visits with the sick and lame and they grow stronger. He is present when miraculous recoveries have taken place. People’s lifelong ailments disappear when he is near. The dead rise up and breathe again.
This is a pretty impressive list. And we haven’t even gotten to the one role that no one seems to fully understand: the role of Messiah, savior of God’s people.
Put yourself among those who traveled with Jesus on a daily basis. You have traveled around the region of Galilee helping to control the crowds, helping to feed those who gather, helping buffer Jesus from the crowds that would push in on him. But you have been more than just a roadie for this traveling circus. You have gotten to spend time with Jesus. You have heard him preach to thousands and you have seen him play with a single child. You have witnessed the miraculous and spent hours in the most mundane activities imaginable. You have shared private moments. You have heard his prayers. You have seen him at this best. You have seen him tired and hungry. You have learned from him. You have shaken your head at some of what he says and cried tears of joy at other revelations. You have made a decision every day to stay with him on his journey.
In the midst of the everyday life of this itinerant ministry, you would not necessarily have occasion to dwell on who this man Jesus was. You would be intrigued for sure. But would you dare go so far as to suggest that maybe, just maybe, this was the messiah?
Hebrew scripture doesn’t point to that. He’s not a powerful presence, although his charisma is undeniable. He is not a political leader with stem-winding oratory of bombast and volume. Yet, you can’t help but remember what he said in that soft spoken voice. He has said nothing about overrunning the Roman dominators, but he has said plenty about freeing the captives and building a new kingdom: God’s kingdom.
He couldn’t be the messiah, could he?
If the thought ever crossed your mind, it probably went back out just as quickly. Why, because you had other things to deal with, other things more pressing. So you continue on, doing your best to help this man Jesus on his way to wherever it is he is going. You will follow. You will try to learn the lessons well. You will celebrate the miraculous and savor the ordinary. You will keep on moving.
Is our life today so much different from that of the disciples that traveled with Jesus for those three years of his ministry? We know who he is, don’t we? We may not have come by our information in the same way, but when we read our Holy Bible, when we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus life, we are witness to many of the same things that his closest disciples experienced.
We have learned wonderful lessons at the feet of Jesus, even if we must read them rather than listen to him speak. We have felt his presence. We have been moved to tears by the examples of Jesus’ love for all. We have felt fear and cried out for him to save us. We have wondered where he is in dark hours. But when we are living our daily lives, when our fear has subsided and the darkness has lifted, when other things take up our time, when other pressing matters intrude, we put the hard questions about Jesus aside.
But you see, one of the things that makes this episode so remarkable is that when the storms had passed, when the water was calm, the disciples asked the question that had been on so many peoples minds: “Just who is this man?”
Like the disciples in that boat, we need to take the time to ask that question. We should not read this story and say, “Yep, that’s a great story.” We are meant to be in awe of this event. We should not simply rush past it, nor should we try and explain it away as coincidence. We should read this story with wide-eyed amazement.
We should ask ourselves when it was that we cried out for Jesus. We should take the time to remember those times when Jesus has calmed our storms, held our hands, soothed our aching souls and given us peace. Most importantly, we should ask ourselves just who this Jesus is to us and why it is we follow him.
I once had a colleague tell me that this kind of question would get me into trouble. “We should preach that Jesus is the messiah, savior, Lord….that’s it. We shouldn’t cloud the issue with lots of questions. Unnecessary questions will just confuse people.”
I couldn’t disagree more.
The disciples should not be ridiculed for asking such a question, and neither should we. The fact is that for thousands of years, believers and non-believers alike have struggled with this issue of the divinity of Jesus. We can assess all his other roles well enough. But this question of Jesus truly being Emmanuel, God-with-us, is too important NOT to ask.
It is not an easy question to ask, and the answer may not come easily, either. I can’t answer it for you, and you can’t answer it for me. But embedded in this passage is something that the original disciples and all of us must come to grips with to begin to come closer to answering the question, even if we can never put the answer into words.
The first line of this passage goes like this: “And when Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him.”
There it is, the question I alluded to earlier: why were his disciples following Jesus? Why do we follow Jesus? It is not an easy path. It is fraught with temptation, and hardship, and failure and fear. The disciples may have felt that even more keenly than we do, but there is no doubt that we feel it at times, too.
The disciples followed Jesus into that boat. They really didn’t know where their journey would end, nor could they be sure that they might not end up in an unfamiliar territory on a unfamiliar shore. But even with incomplete answers to their questions, they followed Jesus.
We have made a decision to follow Jesus, too. We may ask ourselves why, but we need to realize that our questions are not always answered with words, on a printed page, logically or neatly. Sometimes the answers come as a presence we cannot explain. Sometimes the answers come with a warmth in our heart. Sometimes the answers are simply fleeting moments of clarity. Sometimes we recognize the answers only after we have already taken action.
Actions like getting into the boat. We do it for a reason, even if we aren’t always sure what that reason is. Actions that may enable us to endure a stormy passage. Actions that may lead to us finding ourselves on a distant, unfamiliar shore.
I have asked myself 100’s – maybe thousands – of times. The answer I have come to might not be precisely the same answer that you have come to. The answer that I had 20 years ago is not the same answer that I have today. But I have to ask the question, there is no way around it.
For me, the first conception I have of who Jesus is came from my earliest Sunday School lessons. Miss Olive Beck, my first grade Sunday school teacher guided us all to an understanding of Jesus as God’s son. What I learned from her was that Jesus was pure, undefiled, unequivocal love. She was a magnificent teacher who cared more about the children under her tutelage than anything else in her life. She was devoted to helping us understand whatever we could, and her loving presence still buoys me when I think of her.
When I was in high school and asked who Jesus was, I got a different response from the minister at our church, Dr. Tim Hickey. I used to cut the grass at the church and he would come out with cold drinks and give me a break. We would sit on the steps of the church and talk about all kinds of things. Dr. Hickey was a charismatic leader, a preacher of great skill. He built a small church into one of the biggest Methodist churches in Michigan through his preaching and counseling. In talking with him, the ministry of Jesus took on an added dimension, and I began to see how important it was that Jesus be able to captivate his audiences so that they might come back again and again to hear more.
In the early 1980’s, I lost my best friend to a drunk driver. Her death shook me badly and for an extended period of time I didn’t attend church. I didn’t read the Bible. I didn’t pray. My anger at God, my questioning of how Jesus could allow such a thing to happen was almost overwhelming. Almost overwhelming. Friends did their best to just be there for me. No demands. No admonitions to snap out of it. One day, after several months, a friend asked me if she could pick me up on the way to church. And I was surprised to hear myself answer, “Yes.” I sat in that sanctuary that Sunday and sobbed, humbled that a friend would stick with me through all of my anger. I cried because I knew then that Jesus had also stuck with me through it all, whether I wanted to acknowledge his presence or not.
Years later, dealing with students who seemed lost, afraid and unsure of how to move into a seemingly harsh, uncaring world, I realized that they needed to know the Jesus that I knew: Jesus the teacher; Jesus the charismatic leader; Jesus the friend. But this was not my job. I was a professor, not a counselor, not a minister, not someone to help them deal with their faith journey. And so, the thought came into my head that I should go to seminary, so that those things would be my job.
I was scared. I was giving up the most secure position anyone could ever want to change direction. At times the journey was rough. At times I felt overwhelmed. At times I thought I had made a terrible mistake. But every time I questioned myself for following Jesus, the storms subsided, and the calm returned. When I look back from where I had come, I realized that at every crossroads, at the time of every decision, if I called on Jesus to help, every decision I made, every road I followed, led me in Jesus’ path.
But without continually asking the questions, I wonder if that would have been true?
I have been accused of being a little slow on the uptake, but at the age of 52, I think I have sorted some of this out. Who is this man Jesus and why do I follow him? He is the one who made it possible for me to have a relationship with God. Who is Jesus? He is the teacher that exuded love out of every pore. Who is Jesus? He is the preacher who helped me understand what it means to minister to people. Who is Jesus? He is the friend who never ever left my side, not even for a moment, not even when I wanted nothing to do with him. Who is Jesus? He is the messiah. He is my savior.
Why do I follow Jesus? Because he asked me to. And I cannot wait to see where he will lead me next.
Just who is this man Jesus and why do we follow Jesus?
These are questions that we should ask ourselves every day. We need to ask these questions every day because we must make a decision about following Jesus every day
Figured it out yet? Well, don’t be afraid to ask.
Let us pray: Lord, save us. We who have started our faith journey by daring to follow you wonder exactly who you are. And even though the sometimes answer confounds us, we thank you for all you are, for the grace you have shown us, for all you give us, for all you teach us, for calming our storms and giving us peace. For being who you are, so that we may be better at who we are. It is in your holy name that we pray. Amen.
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