Sermon for Pentecost 9: "Jesus Walks on Water"

 + 9^th Sunday after Pentecost – July 25^th, 2021 +

Series B: Genesis 9:8-17; Ephesians 3:14-21; Mark 6:45-56

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

A Hydrophile, or aquaphile. That’s what you call someone who loves the water. When it comes to the Scriptures, this seems to be a fitting title for our Lord as well. Scripture is saturated with stories of our Lord using ordinary water to reveal his identity, unveil his mission, and accomplish his will.

 

The Spirit hovering over the waters of primordial waters of creation. God using the waters of the flood for judgment and rescue of creation. Israel’s Red Sea crossing. Water from the rock in the wilderness. The Jordan River crossing. Jonah tossed into the drink for a three nights’ stay in the fish-belly hotel. 

 

No surprise, then, that when our Lord takes on human flesh we’re flooded with more of God’s water-working ways. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River. Changes water into wine at Cana. Commands the wind and the waves be still. Pours out living water for the woman at the well. Washes his disciples’ feet. Water even flows forth from his pierced side on the cross.

 

And, as St. Mark reminds us today, Jesus is seen walking upon the sea. It all happens immediately after Jesus feeds the 5,000. Jesus sends the 12 out to see on their own. He dismisses the crowds and heads up the mountain to pray. Meanwhile his disciples are doing anything but row row rowing their boat gently down the stream. The wind was against them. It was the 4^th watch of the night, somewhere between 3-6 am. And then to top it all off, they see a man walking on the water and they think they’ve seen a ghost. Remember, many of the 12 are seasoned fishermen; used to seeing strange things on the water. But not this. A man. Jesus, their rabbi. Walking on the sea. Treading on the water as if it was dry ground. And they were terrified. Scared out of their sandals.

 

Now, on the one hand, it’s easy to be hard on the disciples’ here. After all, this is one of those bible stories that seems really obvious . Of course it’s Jesus. And of course he can walk on water, obviously! He’s God. We’ve heard it so many times that it’s hard to imagine seeing this from the disciples’ point of view. 

 

For the disciples, the sea was not the place for picnics and holidays. The sea was symbolic of the Deep, of Death itself. In Genesis the earth was “formless and void” and covered by the Deep. Later in Genesis, God returned the earth to that condition in the Flood, causing the earth to be covered by the Deep.

 

The ancient people feared the Deep. They imagined a Deep filled with terrifying creatures that would swallow you whole and never spit you out again. Remember the prophet Jonah. That’s why Jesus compared His dying and rising to the “sign of Jonah.” The book of Job mentions Leviathan, Rahab, and Behemoth. Whatever these creatures might have been in reality, they take on a kind of “mythical” quality in the Scriptures. They are the devil incarnate, the ancient serpent, the Evil One, looking for someone to devour and drag down into the depths.

Jesus walking on water in the dark is a picture of what he came to do. To tread on Death and the grave. To walk on the back of the ancient serpent and crush His head. Put an ordinary man out into those rolling waters and he would sink. But put the Son of Man out there and He walks confidently. He doesn’t simply float or glide, He walks. He marches. He tramples the waves under His feet. He is the Lord whose has all the power of heaven and earth.

 

Now fast forward a few chapters to the cross. The same Jesus who strolled on the waters of the Deep, who stilled the winds, who cast out demons, whose clothing had the power to heal, this same Jesus hangs dead and helpless and lifeless on a cross to do what He came to do, to conquer the darkness, the demons, Death, Hell, the Deep all with His solitary death on a cross. 

This is how salvation is done, in the hidden strength of divine weakness. The Lord uses death to accomplish life. He exerts strength in weakness. He overcomes Death with death. He overcomes Sin by becoming Sin. He overcomes the curse by being cursed. His weakness your strength. His cross your life.

Now did the disciples understand all of this? Of course not. But they would. In feeding the five thousand, Jesus taught them to be His instruments, His servants, His waiters. He would feed His flock. They would distribute His food. In the boat on the sea, He taught them that without Him no amount of rowing would matter against the headwinds of culture and religion and opposition and persecution. No matter how strong they might have been, no matter how knowledgeable about the ways of the sea they were, they could do nothing without Him.

 

This is what keeps the church afloat. Not its power, its influence, its intelligence, its relevance or ability to negotiate the shifting winds of public opinion. What keeps the Church afloat is the presence of her Lord in Word and sacrament. The preaching of Jesus, the Body and the Blood, the water of Baptism. At the end of the Flood, God set a rainbow in the heavens as a sign. “Never again.” Never again would water be used as an instrument of destruction. Now it would be an instrument of life and salvation. Baptism. Water and Word. Water and Jesus. 

So it is for you. Jesus does his greatest work for you in water, where he takes ordinary water and unites you to him in his death and resurrection. Jesus dies and goes into the belly of the earth. You die with him in the waters of the font. Jesus rises again 3 days later, like Jonah bounding out of the fish’s mouth, so too, you rise with him in that lavish flood of mercy and washing away of sin.

In Baptism Jesus comes to you by way of water, bringing calm to your chaos, bringing peace. He places you in the ark of His Church. And though He may seem absent, and you may feel alone and struggling, pulling your oars against headwinds that are too strong for you, He comes to you. He comes to you in the deepest of darkness. He comes to you at the last watch of the night, just before the break of day. He comes to meet you when you are at your weakest, overwhelmed by Sin, overcome by Death. He comes to you to say, “Take heart. It is I. Do not fear.”

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.