Readings were Matthew 14:22-33 and Psalm 85:8-13

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This Gospel reading is a familiar story. It’s very dramatic, and it’s unusual. The Gospels tell many very moving stories in which Jesus heals physical and mental illness: here he is shown controlling the forces of nature, which can also be a threat to human life. The setting is a lake which is so big that it’s always called the Sea of Galilee. The disciples know it well. They are fishermen, so its waters give them food and a living. The winds which blow over it help them to travel.

This isn’t the first time we find them taking Jesus across the lake when the crowds are too big for peace or for safety. But on the Sea of Galilee there are sudden and unpredictable storms, when water and wind cause great danger. In this year’s cycle of readings we are following Matthew, and a little earlier in Matthew’s gospel (8: 23-27) we find a storm which feels like an earthquake.

The disciples are taking Jesus across the lake, away from the crowds, when the storm blows up and the waves break right over the boat. Jesus sleeps through it all until they wake him, crying

Save us, Lord, we are sinking!

He asks them why they are cowards, why they have little faith. (That’s one Greek word, oligopistoi; in older translations it’s ‘O ye of little faith’.) Then he rebukes the wind and the sea, and there is a dead calm.

In Mark’s gospel (4: 35-41) Jesus says ‘Quiet!’ as you might to a barking dog. We like to translate it ‘Peace, be still’. The story of that storm ends with the disciples asking:

‘Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Today’s reading is also a story of fear on the lake, and a cry of ‘help, I’m sinking!’, and a question about faith. This time, Jesus has crossed the lake to a remote place, after he gets the news that John the Baptist has been executed.

But crowds follow him on foot round the shore, and he heals the sick and feeds the 5,000. He overcomes another great threat to life: no food. Then he sends the disciples off to cross to the other side, sends the crowds away, and goes into the hills to pray. But by now it is night, and the wind is against the disciples, making the sea rough. In the early hours they are still out there struggling, and then they think they are seeing an apparition.

They don’t know what they’re seeing: everything is uncertain, the boat on the rough sea, the howling wind, the darkness, the figure moving across the water towards them. We still say ‘you look as if you’d seen a ghost’. But Jesus calls out:

It is I: do not be afraid.

Up to this point Mark (6:45-52) tells the story in almost the same words, and John (6: 14-21) is also close.  Luke doesn’t tell this story, so it’s only Matthew who tells us about Peter walking to Jesus across the water, being afraid because the wind is so strong, and crying out ‘help, I’m sinking’. Jesus takes hold of him, and says, as he did to the disciples in the first story,

‘O ye of little faith, oligopiste, why did you doubt?’

Matthew also ends the story differently from Mark and John. Peter and Jesus return to the boat, the wind drops, and the disciples fall at the feet of Jesus, crying:

You must be the son of God.

So now they have an answer to the question they asked before, ‘who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

But Mark ends with ‘they were amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves: their minds were closed’. John doesn’t comment: he has the disciples take Jesus into the boat, and immediately they reach land, but the crowds on the other shore are puzzled, because they know there was only one boat, so Jesus should still be there. As often happens, the Gospel writers have different ways of telling a story to show us who Jesus was.

So what shall we take from Matthew’s story? Some people focus on the character of Peter. He is willing to make the commitment, but he’s over-confident. Peter knew he would never betray Jesus, then he found he had done so, and he wept bitterly. Yet Jesus called Peter the rock on which the church is built, perhaps because he knew about failure and endurance.

Some commentators are inclined to cast blame: ‘o ye of little faith’, Peter shouldn’t have lost his nerve, the disciples should have known that Jesus would rescue them. I don’t feel in a position to criticise. Look at the third time in Matthew’s gospel when Jesus tells his disciples they have little faith (17: 14-20).

A distraught father brings Jesus his son, who has (in our terms) epileptic seizures which endanger his life. I asked your disciples, he says, but they couldn’t do anything. Jesus heals the boy, and later, in private, the disciples ask ‘why could we not do it?’ He replies:

Because of your little faith, your oligopistia. Truly I tell you, if you have faith like a mustard-seed, you will tell this mountain to move from here to there, and it will, and nothing will be impossible for you.

But so often it seems that we haven’t that tiny amount of faith, and the mountain is still blocking the way, and the beloved child is not healed. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s our fault for having too little faith.

That sounds like ‘must try harder’, but what is it to have faith? Is it a matter of making an effort, of saying more fervently ‘I know it will happen’? The philosopher Simone Weil observed that when you tell a class to concentrate, what they actually do is tense their muscles.

I’ve been emphasising that Greek word oligopistos, ‘of little faith’. It occurs only in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and it is only addressed to the disciples. They have faith, obviously, or they wouldn’t have left home and family and work and put themselves in danger. They do this before they come to understand who Jesus is.

Is faith what you believe, that Jesus is the son of God, or is it faith by which you believe, that is, trust? Throughout the Bible we find affirmations of trust in God who is trustworthy, steadfast in love. Psalm 85 is one of the greatest affirmations: steadfast love and faithfulness have come together.

Perhaps the anguished plea ‘heal this child’ should become ‘be with us’. Then perhaps the mountain won’t be a barrier, and whatever we face won’t be impossible. The Gospel and the Psalm tell us what we can do, when it’s dark and we’re exhausted and don’t know what we’re seeing or what we should try to do. Don’t tense your muscles, don’t beat yourself up because you’re afraid and sinking, but remember the steadfast love of the Lord.

Readings were Romans 14:1-12 and Mark 8:27-38

Professor David Gushee is our Visiting Scholar for 2015 and is giving a series of lectures in Wellington and Auckland (he’s already spoken in Dunedin and Christchurch).

Listen to his sermon on ‘Navigating disputable matters under Christ’s Lordship. Please note this is a large MP3 audio file (18 MB), but well worth listening to!

Find out more about the Visiting Scholar programme.

What did Jesus mean by the Kingdom of God?

Listen to the sermon (mp3)

Professor Bauckham has been delivering the Otago University Burns Lectures while in New Zealand. You can listen to these here.