Okay, good, we're done here. Fantastic.
Maybe you want me to say just a little bit more? Okay, fine, but only just a little tiny bit more. What is worth talking about is that the nature of water, and the nature of humans, is that we're just a titchy tiny bit too heavy for surface tension to keep us afloat on the surface of the water. There are places like the dead sea, like lake Manitou, that have such a high solids count that you will float with little effort, but you certainly don't walk on the surface. When you go to the dead sea, you float with very little effort, but you certainly don't walk on the surface of the water.
Now if you know that, think about how much more the disciples who are fishermen would know about this. Being in a boat, they'd know all about floating, and about how humans don't do it. We don't sink like stones, necessarily, but we sure don't walk on the surface either. For we humans aren't water animals, and so therefore we will always be out of place in the water, at least somewhat. Our boats that we have are floating islands, because if we want to be out on the water for a long time, we would have to bring our land with us. We do this because man does not adapt to his environment, he adapts his environment to him. He has dominion over the earth and subdues it. That means that if you're in an environment that is very cold, you don't grow more hair or more fat layers, you build a bubble of a house, and heat it all day and all night. If you are in a very hot environment, you don't develop Dimetrodon sails, but you make a bubble for yourself, and cool it. If you want to cross mountains, you don't grow wings, you dynamite through the mountains to make a tunnel. If you want to cross an ocean, you don't develop gills and fins, you build a floating island, and you take it with you.
Knowing this is vital to figuring everything else in this passage out. You can understand and appreciate why the vision of Christ walking on the surface of the water was so offputting, and why people assumed that he was a ghost. They assumed this because people don't walk on water. That's not what happens, and that's not how we operate. We like to think that we're pretty much in charge of everything, mainly because the weather affects us very little on a daily basis. Oh sure a rainstorm can sort of put a staple in your meatloaf, but it doesn't tend to wash you away. You sort of go about your day as normal, and don't worry too much about it necessarily. You carry on, and keep going, you just run your windshield wipers a bit, that's all. But every once in a while, you realize how little dominion humans truly have over the natural world. You realize in a moment, when your car won't start, or when the wind and waves are against you, that you actually aren't in charge of the natural world. You can't direct the weather to do what you want it to do. The natural world will do what it wants to do, it'll take care of what it wants to take care of, it will make all the decisions that it wants to, and you're along for the ride. You can react to what is done, but you can't act. You can't be active, all you can be is to be reactive. That's it. That sounds bad on the surface, and I understand that, but that's why this image of Christ on the surface of the water is so shocking.
We're used to the idea of Jesus on the surface of the water, we're really really used to it by now, but that's not the end of it all. Rather, we have much more to talk about. When Jesus is seen on the surface of the water, walking along, and the disciples are working hard against the wind, you see something incredible happen. You see the interaction between the disciples who are subject to the natural world, and Jesus who is above it, who is not affected by it. You see Jesus and the disciples not being affected by the same things. The disciples are working hard against the wind because they have to, they have no choice, they have no options but to work hard against the wind and the waves. But Jesus of Nazareth has the option of whether to be affected or not. He can walk on the surface of the water, or he can go down into the water to be baptized. He has that option, you don't. He has the option to be hungry in the wilderness, or to make more food out of essentially nothing. If you run out of food, you starve. He has the choice to pass through crowds who want to arrest him, or he can voluntarily choose to be taken away. He can choose to stay on the cross, or choose to get down. This is a matter that has to be understood very carefully. We react. He gets to act.
Now when we talk about the story of salvation, we are talking about a God who steps into nature, into history, and chooses to take part in it. He leaves the space where he belongs, leaves the place that he is naturally a part of , and decides to come to us here on earth. And when the scriptures talk about him walking on the surface of the water, or working for the healing of the people, multiplying loaves and fish or anything like that, it shows Jesus having mastery over nature, mastery over the things of this earth, and not being subject to its rules. He can choose to suffer, or choose not to. And it's that volition that is so terribly important.
If you have someone who can walk on the surface of the water, sinking is a choice, a choice only to his detriment. If you have someone who can multiply loaves, a choice to go hungry and be tempted is a choice he can make. It's not necessity, it's a choice. If you have someone who could walk through a crowd and escape, being arrested, flogged and crucified isn't a necessity, it's a choice. Jesus is showing himself, as he does, as being external to nature, and therefore in control over it. He acts, and only chooses to react, not when it benefits him, but when it benefits us.
The story of salvation is the story of a man who can walk on the water but who chooses to sink into the water at his baptism to take our sins on him. It's the story of a man who can multiply loaves into infinity, but who chooses to go without food in order to defeat the devil in a position of real temptation. It's the story of a man who can pass through crowds who come to arrest him, but who chooses to be arrested in the fullness of time, in order that the son of man may be lifted up, so that whoever looks on him shall have eternal life. This is hot, hot news, news that can't be overstated, news that is wonderfully good news. The best news. And this is how it works.
Think of it like saving someone who is drownding. If you run across someone who is drowning, if they're flailing, and thrashing, you're not supposed to swim out to them, because they'll drag you down. They'll pull you under, even if they don't want to. They'll do it not because they want to, but because they can't help themselves. If you're going to rescue someone, you have to reach out to them from the shore, to toss them a rope or a pole, that kind of thing. You have to reach out to them from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness. And this is where the choices of Jesus come into things. We are drowning in our sins, thrashing and sinking in a situation that we have gotten ourselves into. We have tossed ourselves into a disaster from which we cannot extract ourselves. If Christ is going to rescue us, he is going to have to do two things at the same time
1 - go to where we are, and
2 - not be as vulnerable as we are.
The only way you can do this is to row out to a drowning man, use a helicopter, or, in the case of Jesus walk out to them. Only he can do this because he is not subject to sinking in sin, nor in water, not subject to death or calamity, but someone who stands over and above all of it. This is his work, his joy, and his delight. And this is the work that he voluntarily does for us. He didn't have to, he chose to.
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