If you want to walk on water … expect a storm

If you want to walk on water … expect a storm. If you want to walk on water is the beginning of a great John Ortberg book. His book title ended with You’ve got to get out of the boat. I borrowed the first part but switched out the ending to expect a storm.

John Ortberg’s title is definitely on target. It really is impossible to walk on water while we’re still in the boat.

However, there’s part of that “getting out of the boat” that isn’t always so obvious.  

Or maybe it is obvious. But we choose to ignore it?

I expect it’s the latter. We want to ignore it.

Because if we take the time to think about it, walking on water is downright scary! Especially for those of us that can’t even swim.

I do like to snorkel. Sort of. It takes me a good ten minutes to calm down and start to breathe normally. That’s ten minutes after I can finally stop slipping in the little waves right at the edge of the sand. Get beyond the waves that make me feel dizzy while I’m trying to get further out. Get past the part where I can’t stand anymore. At 6’4″, that’s sometimes pretty far out. And finally manage to get myself laying flat, face down, with my head in the water. Then, I can start to enjoy snorkeling. Did I mention – I can’t swim?

I don’t know why I didn’t think of that about six years ago when I first wrote this. Maybe it’s because the waves are bigger these last several years? It’s given me a new perspective on the topic. We’ll see how it turns out in a while.

If you want to walk on water …

So – why do we probably want to ignore some parts of getting out of the boat? Well, do you remember what happened to Peter when he wanted to walk out to Jesus? On the water! Here’s what Matthew recorded about that little excursion.

Jesus Walks on the Water – Matthew

14:22-33 pp — Mk 6:45-51; Jn 6:15-21
14:34-36 pp — Mk 6:53-56

Mt 14:22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

Mt 14:25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

Mt 14:27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Mt 14:28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

Mt 14:29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Mt 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Mt 14:32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Mt 14:34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Matthew wrote that the boat was “buffeted by the wind“.  OK, it was windy.  I don’t know how many of you have been out on a boat in the wind, but that’s kind of a relative term.  I was out salmon fishing in Alaska one time, 30 minutes out into the ocean on a 26-foot motorboat. It was raining and windy.  Two of us (plus the boat captain) thought it was fun.  Everyone else got sick. BTW – the salmon was delicious. It fed eight people (not 5,000 plus women and children) and our waiters.

Now, let’s look at Mark’s account of this particular trip.

Jesus Walks on the Water – Mark

^{Mk 6:45} Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶ After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

^{Mk 6:47} When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸ He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹ but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰ because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹ Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵² for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

^{Mk 6:53} When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

This one leaves out Peter’s water walking, but does include the extra detail of the men straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. These were experienced fishermen, so the additional information about them straining at the oars gives an idea that this was not their normal boat excursion.

And this is the environment when Peter steps out of the boat.

What is it with Jesus and water?

This kind of makes me wonder, what is it with Jesus and water? You may remember, there was another storm. Of course, this storm was also on the water.

Jesus Calms the Storm – Matthew

8:23-27 pp — Mk 4:36-41; Lk 8:22-25
8:23-27 Ref—Mt 14:22-33

Mt 8:23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

Mt 8:26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

Mt 8:27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

This time, we’ve got a furious storm.  And these experienced fishermen aren’t just straining – they’re scared!  They’re afraid the boat will sink and they’ll all drown.

What else is there with Jesus and water?

There is another thing with Jesus and water. One every Christian knows about. Even many non-Christians know about this.

Baptism

baptism, an initiatory rite involving water. The term is derived from a Greek word meaning “to immerse in or wash with water” (Mark 7:4). In the Bible, baptism is only mentioned as such in the NT, and so it is connected primarily with Christianity or with people like John the Baptist, who came to be regarded as practicing a baptism that, although insufficient (Acts 18:24–25), offered a proleptic (the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished) foreshadowing of the Christian rite: it provided a prophetic call to repentance and forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). Some background for baptism, however, may be found in Jewish purification rituals. In the Bible, rituals that involve washing with water characterize priestly preparation for offering sacrifice (Exod. 40:12–15) and are connected with purity concerns in general (Isa. 1:16–17; Jer. 4:14; Ezek. 36:25). The ablutions of the Qumran covenanters described in the Dead Sea Scrolls belong to this tradition of cultic and moral ablutions. Some Jews also apparently performed baptisms of proselytes as part of the purification of new covenant members (m. Pesah. 8:7; ‘Ed. 5:2).

In the NT, Christian baptism of converts retained some sense of Jewish purification rites (1 Pet. 3:21), but Paul also likens baptism to Jesus’s death and resurrection: through baptism, Christians die with Christ and are buried with him; as they rise from baptism in purity, they share the new life brought by Jesus’s resurrection (Rom. 6:1–4; cf. Col. 2:12). Those who are baptized into Christ are said to have clothed themselves with Christ (Gal. 3:27). Elsewhere, baptism is compared with Noah’s escape from God’s wrath (1 Pet. 3:20–21) and to Israel’s exodus through the sea (1 Cor. 10:1–4). Baptism in the name of Jesus became the rite of initiation through which people become identified as members of the Christian movement (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5; 22:16). Matt. 28:19 presents Jesus (who apparently did not baptize people himself; cf. John 4:2) telling his disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is also used metaphorically: individuals’ baptism can symbolize their destiny or immersion in suffering (Mark 10:38–39); elsewhere, people are said to be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) and/or with fire (Luke 3:16).  ¹Neyrey, J. H., & Powell, M. A. (2011). baptism. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition, pp. 79–80). HarperCollins.

If you’re Christian, try to keep in mind what you just read about baptism as we go through the rest of this article. And as we do, ask yourself, am I really living like this? Also, if you’re not Christian, and especially if your experience is with people who claim to be Christian but don’t live like one, please, try to focus on what we’re meant to be rather than what we sometimes (or often) really are. In other words, please don’t blame God for the failures of other people.

In that light, here’s another source that spells out, in greater detail, what Paul wrote about baptism.

Baptism. The Sacramental rite which admits a candidate to the Christian Church. That it goes back to the earliest days is clear not only from the many references in Acts but also from the allusions in St Paul’s Epistles; he sometimes finds it necessary to remind his readers of its significance, but he takes for granted its existence and regular use. In Acts faith and repentance are the prerequisites (8:13 and 2:38), and acc. to St Paul it effects and represents the believer’s union with Christ through which he participates in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4), is cleansed from his sins (1 Cor. 6:11), incorporated into the Body of Christ and ‘made to drink of the Spirit’ (1 Cor. 12:13).  ²Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A., eds. (2005). In The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev., p. 151). Oxford University Press.

Especially telling is this part: …in St Paul’s Epistles; he sometimes finds it necessary to remind his readers of its significance … I think we could all use someone like Paul to remind us of the significance of baptism – water and its effects we’re presently looking into – on a regular basis.

So what’s the real issue here?

Earlier, I wrote –

However – there’s part of that “getting out of the boat” that isn’t always so obvious.
Or maybe it is obvious – but we choose to ignore it?

Maybe there’s one more possibility to consider?

Maybe it is obvious that a storm’s coming. And we know it. At least in our head.
But – and this is the key – we can’t get the fear of that storm out of our hearts.
We know we should have faith. But our fear, conscious or not, is greater than our faith.

That is, after all, the question that Jesus asked in both instances.

^{Mt 14:31} … “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

^{Mk 6:50} … “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Not enough faith.

Too much doubt and fear.

I guess it’s also possible that we don’t take all of this very seriously. As I’m writing, I have music playing, pretty much as usual. The song right now is Brother Love. As in Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show. It’s from Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night, recorded out here in Los Angeles’ Greek Theater.

But Jesus wasn’t pushing a traveling salvation show like we see in the movies or in that song. Jesus is about life and death, not entertainment. And if we look at His rime on earth as some sort of traveling salvation show in the Brother Love sense, we’re probably not even going to get in the boat, let alone try to get out of the boat and walk on water!

Back to doubt and fear. For another look at doubt and fear, I invite you to check out The problem of FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

Jesus, on Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

No wonder Jesus addressed this issue separately.

Do Not Worry – Luke

12:22-31 pp — Mt 6:25-33

Lk 12:22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Lk 12:27 “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Lk 12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Yes – too much worry.
And look at that last sentence.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where are our hearts?

It seems like our hearts aren’t in the right place. Maybe we’re at Brother Love’s show? Are we even in the boat? And for many of us who call ourselves Christians, are we in the boat but afraid to get out and walk on the water?

When I wrote the first version of this, I had:

This seems to say a lot about my life over the last three years.

It was a few years ago – don’t remember exactly when, but somewhere around there, I really wanted to do more.  To be closer to Jesus.  To help others come to know Him.  I was writing on weekends.  Teaching a bit.  
Then I was forced to retire.  Surprisingly, I actually could afford it.
But still – it was a huge upheaval in my life and for my wife.  Too much fear.
I did take the opportunity to write more. But still, there was the continuation of things going wrong.

I even wrote a few articles on one of our dogs. Dewey, a rescued Shih-Tzu, and his experiences going through chemo.  Ultimately, his cancer got into his brain, and we had to put him to sleep. Before that, I also wrote about another of our ‘kids” – Hachiko, a Chow Chow mix who had been abused and was now with us.  He’s doing much better, but still afraid when he’s outside of his “normal world”.  All of these are in a series called “learning from dogs“.

If the title – If you want to walk on water … expect a storm – fit my life back then, it’s even more so now.

On the canine “kid” front, much has changed.

Hachiko bit my wife and wouldn’t let go of her until I yelled at him to “drop it”. He even dropped animals he caught – possums and a skunk – always on the first command. But not that night. Then he growled at me too. We know he was badly abused and from his reactions when we first got him, was hit in the head. Those hits may have caused damage that led up to that night? We just don’t know. But he was now too dangerous to have at home. And here in California, the potential liability attached to not putting him down is just too high. And so, we did what we had to do. Another sad ending. Even my wife cried, although I think that might be more because he and I were so attached.

Then there was Donnie. He was a rescued Havanese. We adopted him the week after Dewey. Donnie and Hachiko were like long-lost brothers from different mothers. Both abandoned. Instantly bonded, when Donnie got up on his back legs and hugged Hachiko with his front legs on Hachiko’s neck.

Donnie went from a dog people crossed the street to be away from (he had that small dog aggressiveness that comes with being abandoned) to one that everyone wanted to talk to. He knew every dog in the neighborhood. Well, except for the Huskies. He never did get over his fear of them. He even had two Samoyed friends that he’d get in between to greet them.

It’s been more than 8 months now since Donnie succumbed to kidney failure. We had about ten months of treatments. He loved the people in the vet hospital so much, and vice versa, that he couldn’t wait to get in. I still haven’t been able to write about his passing.

And now we have Mikey. Also a rescue. Mikey probably spent at least a year on the streets. He was so wild that he was in foster care for nine months, constantly on meds to calm him down. The agency turned down people who wanted to adopt him. With our history, they agreed to let us try Mikey out for 30 days. We’d give them frequent reports and pix. And see if we still thought we wanted this little wild thing.

That was six and a half months ago. Many bites ago. Right now, Mikey’s outside with me. Sleeping on his cot. As usual, he’s got a toy in his mouth. Kind of a safety blanket. A couple days ago, with his “forever” groomer, he got his very first bath and full trim. Before that, his old groomer always just shaved him, with Mikey on extra meds, and it took four hours with all the time-outs needed for Mikey. This time – bath and full trim – 40 minutes! Oh – and Mikey’s been completely off meds for a bit over five months!

The wild one who we were told might never be a lap dog now loves to curl up next to, or on, either me or my wife. Better yet, in between us. The wild guy who didn’t know what a leash was for loves to go for walks. He still loses it a bit when delivery trucks or white SUVs go by us. Must be something about white SUVs in his past. He’s got a few friends in the neighborhood and at church. When “we” stop to talk to people, Mikey just stays right there, calm as can be.

We think Mikey’s a Maltipoo, maybe with something else? Don’t know. Don’t care. He’s Mikey to us, whatever else he might be.

I worry about Mikey sometimes. What’s ahead? It’s part of living with depression. For more on that, check out Christian and depressed. How is that possible?

And that’s just the dog part.

For myself, I’ve had four surgeries since then. All abdominal. Two that lots of guys have. The third for a staph infection, probably from the second surgery, although there wasn’t enough evidence to say for sure. It was bad. Kidney’s failing. Liver starting to look bad. My doctor told me I escaped the reaper on that one. But here’s the thing about that. Remember, just above I wrote:

It was a few years ago – don’t remember exactly when, but somewhere around there, I really wanted to do more.  To be closer to Jesus.  To help others come to know Him.  I was writing on weekends.  Teaching a bit.

In the middle of the hospital stay, the night before they started adjusting meds because of the kidney issues, I had a “conversation with God”. I was pretty sure I was dying. You can read more in, God – is it time for me to go home?, but the bottom line is that I left it up to God whether I would live or die, although I reminded Him (ha ha, as if He’d forget) that I often wished in the past that I could just die and go home. But if He wanted me to live and do more for Him, I was OK with that too. His choice.

But even then, it wasn’t over. The last surgery was to remove a cancerous prostate. Unsuccessful, since there were cancer cells on both margins. Skipping the technical explanation, the chances f having cancer cells on both margins and none in my body were slim to none. And if you know the joke, Slim isn’t home. So now I’m on active surveillance to see if or when the cancer returns to a point where it’s measurable. More on that is available in the ongoing series, Don’t waste your cancer. For this topic especially, please check out Active surveillance for cancer again. Help me overcome my unbelief.

Baptism with water and a desire to Walk on water

So – let’s put this all together. Water. The common element in all of this.

But before we proceed, let’s look at one last passage on water. Nearly everyone who reads this will know about John 3:16. But how many know much about the verses before and after John 3:16? Here’s the entire passage. It’s all-important. For today, take special note of the part I underlined.

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

Jn 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jn 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’”

Jn 3:4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Jn 3:9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

Jn 3:10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

Let’s look at the underlined part again.

Jn 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’”

Jn 3:4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

All Christians (should) know about being born again. Of water, yes. But Jesus also says, of the spirit. Beyond this though, we must know what those words actually meant then. Not the simple version of what we read in English. But the complex and nuanced version of the words in the language of the time.

That combination of water and the spirit means we are cleansed of our since, and that we follow the urgings of the Holy Spirit. That we are transformed into an image more like Jesus than our old selves. For more on that, please check out Grown-again Christian.

Conclusion – If you want to walk on water … expect a storm

This time around, I feel like changing the title. However, the software I use tells me my thought for the new title is too long. So, I’ll put it here, in the conclusion, instead.

If we are Christian, we should want to walk on water, and we should expect a storm.

Look at it this way.

Jesus died for us.
His original disciples (minus Judas) died because they followed Jesus.

We get baptized as a public show of our desire to follow Jesus.
Our baptism was with water. And in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

So, as we try to follow Jesus, we really should expect to get wet.

As our faith grows, we should at least be in the boat!
And when our faith grows more, at some point, we should want to get out of the boat.
Finally, when we do get out of the boat, we should expect a storm!

As we’re doing all that, we should think back to Peter’s attempt to walk on water, towards Jesus.

^{Mt 14:31} Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Interesting, isn’t it?

Jesus takes Peter’s hand, and everything’s OK.
The truth is though, we might not think or believe everything’s OK. I’ve had more than my share of times when I thought, believed, things were anything but OK. And yet, I still want to get out of the boat. Maybe again? Maybe for the first time? Either way, I still want to get out of the boat. I just need to hold the right hand. Jesus’ hand.

Whose hand are you holding?

Footnotes

• 1
  Neyrey, J. H., & Powell, M. A. (2011). baptism. In M. A. Powell (Ed.), The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated) (Third Edition, pp. 79–80). HarperCollins.
• 2
  Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A., eds. (2005). In The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed. rev., p. 151). Oxford University Press.