Sink or Swim

The disciples are stuck. In a boat. In the middle of the Sea of Galilee. In the middle of the night. It had been a long day. Jesus had healed the crowd and then taken a few loaves and fish and fed a gazillion people. Everyone was worn out but Jesus told the disciples to get in the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side. They didn’t want to, but they did. Jesus then went off by himself to pray again.

The disciples head out and a storm comes up. They are soaked to the bone and trying to paddle forward with the wind and waves against them. Blinking water out back from their eyes they notice something moving across the surface of the water. It sorta has a glow to it kinda like a..... ghost? As if the storm wasn’t enough, now they are terrified! And Jesus is nowhere to be found.

I admit I already spook easily, but if I was stuck in a storm in the middle of a sea in early morning and saw something lurking across the water, I’d be scared to death too. While we know water as life-giving and refreshing, we also know how dangerous it can be. Jewish culture wasn’t isolated from Greek mythology and influence. The sea was viewed as a space of chaos and confusion, of danger, evil, and wild sea creatures. During this time it was believed that humanity was suspended between two sets of waters, the waters above and the waters below. It is important to understand the background of the disciples’ fears.

They see this figure moving toward them and are scared. They don’t even consider that it might be Jesus but then the figure speaks saying “Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid. Sound familiar?

This is the language God used with Moses at the burning bush. When God gave God’s name to Moses, it was I Am. Jesus is saying “Take heart. Do not fear, because I am.”

But then there is Peter. Peter wasn’t sure if it was really Jesus or not. Maybe it was too far off to tell. Maybe he just wanted to be sure. And so he cries out and says “Lord, if it is you, command me to you on the water.” I love Peter’s boldness and how he can never keep from saying what he is thinking. This moment kind of reminds me of Thomas after Jesus’ resurrection who refuses to believe until he sees and touches the wounds. If it is you, help me to see. Help me to have faith. Help me to be able to do what you do. And Jesus responds and says “Come.”

Imagine this with me. The water is still churning. The wind and rain are still howling. These are the conditions that Peter steps into towards Jesus. Peter steps out, feeling water beneath his feet, something that should give way but yet holds. Because we all want a safety net.

When we go skydiving, we have a parachute. When we rock climb, we have a harness. We want to know that something will break our fall and prevent us from slipping below the surface.

Peter is amazed and takes a few steps, but then he remembers his surroundings. He feels the wind blow him fiercely and fear takes over. His faith and his feet are slipping and he begins to sink beneath the surface.

We all know what the wind and water feel like in life. You are fixed on Jesus and then you lose your job. You have steady footing and then you get an unexpected diagnosis. You are walking towards Jesus and then a relationship you once knew has ended. You thought things were settled only to feel startled and uprooted again. The next thing you know, you are underneath the surface.

And underneath the surface is where the pressure begins to build. In Disney’s movie Encanto, the character Luisa sings a song called “Surface Pressure” in which she sings “Pressure like a grip, grip, grip, and it won't let go, whoa Pressure like a tick, tick, tick 'til it's ready to blow, whoa, oh, oh Give it to your sister, your sister's stronger See if she can hang on a little longer Who am I if I can't carry it all? If I falter”

Underneath the surface, Peter is sinking and cries out “Lord, save me.” It says Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches him saying “you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And he takes Peter to the boat and gets in with him, and the wind instantly stops.

But what would have happened if Peter hadn’t wavered, had never sunk below the surface? What would happen if Peter had passed the sink or swim test of faith and just walked excitedly over to Jesus, encouraging all of the other disciples to do the same.

Barbara Brown Taylor wonders this in her sermon “Saved by Doubt.” She says while it would have been an amazing story to find Peter walking to Jesus without fail, “it wouldn’t have been a story about us. The truth about us is much more complicated. The truth about is that we obey and fear, we walk and sink, we believe and doubt. But it is not like we do only one or the other. We do both....they both exist in us at the same time, buoying us up and bearing us down, giving us courage and feeding our fears, supporting our weight on the wild seas of our lives and sinking us like stones… This is why we need Jesus....if we could walk on the water just fine all by ourselves- we would not need a savior.”

I wonder what it must have looked like from underneath the surface. Seeing the blur of Jesus’ feet above you and then his hand piercing through and grabbing your own. Artist Yongsung Kim wondered the same thing as he painted the portrait you see on the front of your bulletin. He wanted to depict Jesus rescuing Peter from Peter’s perspective. He titled it The Hand of God.

An appropriate title, and perhaps one of the most important realizations in this passage. This passage doesn’t end with Peter drowning. It ends with the disciples worshiping Jesus saying “Truly you are the Son of God.”

See when Jesus walked on water, it wasn’t just a casual stroll. It was the Word of God that hovered over the waters at creation. It was the Great I Am who once parted the seas. It was the God of Isaiah who said when you pass through the waters I will be with you and the waves they shall not overcome you. Do not fear. This is the One who knows the depths of the sea and from whence they come. By walking on the sea, on that which represent chaos and danger, Jesus is expressing divine authority over all authority and that which seeks to harm us. And when the hand of God reaches through the surface to grab Peter, we remember that there is no surface that the love of God cannot reach through. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even death. Not life. Nor angels or rulers or hardship or persecution nor height nor depth nor creation. Nothing.

Sure, we all want to learn how to swim spiritually, to make it through all life throws at us without ever faltering. But then where would we exercise faith. We sink and swim in life because we were created to need a Savior, to need a lord of sea and sky. We were created to know the Creator who in the middle of our storm, walks to us and gets in the boat, calming the wind without so much as a word.