Lord Save Me!!!
9th Sun. after Pent. Aug.14, 2022; Matthew 14:22-34;
Today we pick up immediately where we left off last week. The 5000 have been fed, and had their physical hunger satisfied by Christ. But though the hungry crowd of 5000 men plus women and children correctly determined that Jesus was the Messiah, how did they understand the Messiah? In John’s gospel describing this event we hear (John 6:14, 15) “Then those men when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said ‘This is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by himself alone.” Their understanding of why He is coming and what the coming Messiah will do when He comes is that He was here to kick out the Romans. It is limited to having the Messiah improve their personal present earthly situation. How many times is this also our focus as we turn to God in prayer? They didn’t know that they were witnessing the redemption of the human race and were living at the center point of all of human history. We however, living on this side of the resurrection should know the incredible scope of our destiny as children of God!
Thinking we understand, when we really don’t have a clue is a common human failing. We too often run everything through our own very limited personal perspective, but really have no idea what God is doing with us, or at best we may get a small glimpse. How can we know fully? (Isiah 55:8) “My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways says the Lord.” Yet, we look for opportunities to tell anyone who will listen what God is doing, in our pride believing we have figured it all out. When we really think we understand all that God is doing in our lives, or even worse in the lives of others, we will often encounter a blessed setback. In the rubble pile we then find Him waiting to gather us up into His ever-loving arms, to simply rest in His love. Everything starts with humility and grateful acceptance for whatever it is that God has allowed into our lives. Being thankful for our cross and taking it up daily. We don’t have to figure it all out, but rather just accept in faith that He loves us, is always with us, and is providing all that is needed for our salvation! St. Paul tells us, (Rom. 8:28) “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God…” Our faith grows as we learn to trust in the loving benevolence of God.
In today’s gospel Christ comes walking across the water to His apostles and stills the storm. We hear David prophesying, (Ps. 89:9), “You rule the raging of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them.” Having fed the 5000, Jesus sends His disciples away by themselves in the boat, while He retreats from the crowd and goes up the mountain alone to pray. He knows of course that He is sending them into a great storm. Our life is lived in a great storm. The essential lesson of today’s gospel is that the only way to survive the great storms of life is to keep our focus upon Jesus Christ, and to know that He is always with us in the middle of the most troubling and destructive storms. Christ tells His disciples (John 16:33) “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Jesus waits long enough to see that His disciples are in distress, demonstrating that He sees all and is ever present with us, even when we are blinded with terrible visibility and have a hard time seeing Him. Jesus has sent His disciples into the storm without Him being present with them. He wishes to deepen their understanding that even when He is not physically present, He will in fact (Matt.28:20) “be with them (and us) always and unto the end of the age.” In the last storm Jesus was sleeping in the boat with His disciples, demonstrating by His physical presence that He would be with them and protect them from all storms. When the storm threatened to capsize the boat, the disciples woke Him saying (Matt.8:25) “Lord save us, we are perishing!” A most effective prayer. Jesus said then the same thing which He says in today’s gospel, “Why are you fearful O you of little faith.” He then rebukes the winds and the sea and there was a great calm and they marvelled greatly “Who can this be?” This is the most important question we can ask, and our life depends on our answer.
In Mark’s gospel we hear, (Mark 6:51, 52) “Then He went up into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure and marvelled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.” Familiarity can make us miss the miraculous and fail to see the presence of God – which is always all around us in all of life. This walking on the water is an “in your face” demonstration of Christ’s divinity which can’t be missed. That great question “Who can this be?” is clearly answered. It sometimes takes this type of eye -opening experience to penetrate through our hard and crusty hearts. When we awaken to God’s reality, which is ever present and filling all of creation and only hidden by our great blindness, our reaction is the same as the apostle’s and we are “amazed beyond measure and marvel greatly.”
All of creation is held together with the energy of God. Occasionally we get a glimpse of this as God’s presence in His creation breaks through and makes an electric impression on us. But everything is sacred, all of creation is infused with God. As we grow up, we lose our sense of awe that we had as children, seeing God’s creation in every new discovery. Christ tells us we must regain this and (Matt. 18.3) “…become as little children to enter the kingdom of heaven,” for unless we do we will not see that the kingdom of heaven is everywhere present “On earth as it is in heaven.” The pulsating presence of God that fills all things is dimmed by everyday familiarity and begins to elude our conscious awareness. We become blinded to the sacredness of the ordinary, and perceive only the material “stuff” of creation, missing the Creator who gives life, form and wonder to all creation.
Seeing Jesus, Peter is inspired crying out (Matt.14:28) “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Peter is filled with the certainty that anything is possible, an entirely different view of reality fills his heart, and with this new faith he steps out and begins walking upon the water towards Jesus, keeping his gaze riveted upon Him. His present danger and circumstances are irrelevant, Jesus is with him in the middle of them and that is all that matters. But then Peter loses his focus, and the obvious reality of the danger he is in intrudes upon his focus on Christ. Fear strikes his heart and he sinks, crying out in desperation “Lord save me.” Once again, this is essential prayer. Distilled down to its core this is the Jesus prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me,” but one heartfelt desperate “Lord save me” can be of more value than a year’s worth of placid “Jesus Prayers.”Christ responds immediately, catching Peter and admonishing him “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” They get into the boat, the wind stops, and in the gospel of John (John 6:21) we are told that the boat was immediately transported to the shore. They still had work to do. When we are with Christ, we are always at our proper God-ordained destination..
When we hear this gospel, something in our hearts stirs. Our common-sense view of how reality works is challenged. The spark of divinity, laying largely undeveloped within us leaps to our consciousness awareness. We identify with the impulsive apostle Peter who reaches out in faith to trust Christ, and yet is clobbered by doubt and fear. This is our story as children of God. Slowly testing our fledgling muscles of faith, we progress into becoming more and more aware of the reality of the kingdom of God. A completely different understanding of reality begins to take hold of us. The rules are very different, often the opposite of the culture around us for Orthodoxy is Paradoxy.
We stumble and fall and cry out, Abba Father, Daddy save me! And through it all, He is always with us, we are never alone, unto the end of the ages! Glory to Jesus Christ!