Sinai on the Sea

Introduction

We continue our series in the Gospel of Mark with a story that may be familiar to many of us, but I want to show that what is happening in Mark 6 is nothing short of apocalyptic. No, it’s not the end of the world and there are no zombies in this story! Though the disciples do think they’ve seen a ghost. It is apocalyptic in the original sense of that word, ἀποκάλυψις (apokalypsis), has come to refer to the end of the world, but it’s original meaning was that of revelation, or it described an uncovering or a revealing. In the Bible it’s usually a pulling back the curtain to see the world from the divine perspective. What Jesus does in this miracle of walking on water is a revealing of Himself to his followers. There is so much more going on here than Jesus flexing his powers a little bit to catch up with the disciples on the boat. Did this ever strike you as an odd miracle before? He doesn’t heal anyone, he just takes a stroll on the lake. There is an apocalypse out there on the lake, an uncovering of a deeper reality.

Here’s where we’re headed today, it’ll be a little different. The outline in your bulletin is a less an outline but more three applications to the main idea. We’ll spend time on this apocalyptic event and our main idea and then we’ll get into those implications for us today. And our main idea is this: Jesus reveals Himself as God with us.

The Apocalypse

The passage begins with Jesus withdrawing after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. We’re reminded of Jesus’ humanity, his need to get away from the crowds and the pressures of the people, his need to connect with the Father in prayer. Think about it, if you had just served dinner to 5,000 people, you’d want a rest too!

Jesus says to his disciples, go ahead on the boat and from his position on this hilltop by the lake, he can see them at sea.

From wherever he was, he could see their boat in the middle of the night, he could see that they were struggling on their own, that they were making no progress across the lake. In fact, it says that they were “making headway painfully.” The winds and waves were strong enough that even these professional fishermen could not overcome them. This would get frustrating fast!

Around the 4th watch of the night, sometime between 3-6AM, Jesus goes to them, walking on the water, straight across the lake to his friends. It says in v. 48 that he was walking on the sea and that “He meant to pass by them.” I think a really important question for us to ask is why? Why did he mean to pass them by? This is a good habit for studying scripture, when we come across something strange, ask questions about it. Why did Jesus mean to pass them by? I’ve got an answer, so just hold on to that question for a bit.

The disciples see him and they are terrified! They think he’s a ghost, a water spirit, an apparition. What are they seeing? That looks like the teacher, that looks like Jesus! But how could this be! In John’s gospel account of this story, it seems even clearer that they recognized Jesus but were still afraid! Why? Because this figure walking on water is not merely a miraculous event, this is someone who has authority over even the chaos of the sea.

In biblical thought, in the ancient Israelite’s imagination, the ocean and sea were often connected to the ideas of chaos, evil, even death. Think about God creating the world out of the chaotic waters of the deep void, that’s the language of Genesis 1. Think of God unleashing the chaos of the flood over the whole world. The sea and its water is utter chaos, that which no man can control.

But here is one who can.

Jesus, immediately it says, reassures them: “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And this is where we see the limitations of our English translations of scripture. “It is I” is certainly an acceptable way to translate the Greek here but there is something much deeper in what Jesus is saying. It’s two Greek words: ἐγώ εἰμί. Ego meaning I and eimi meaning AM. He says: take heart, I AM.

I AM? Where else have heard that in scripture? Of course, this is Moses with the burning bush—another apocalyptic moment—in which God reveals Himself on Mt. Sinai to Moses and when Moses asks for his name in Exodus 3, God responds I AM WHO I AM, revealing his divine name YHWH. I AM, this is the name of God that He has revealed to us. And why this name? Why I AM? Because there is no other way to talk about God, he is something wholly different, outside of any framework or paradigm or any understanding. “I was,” has no meaning to God because he has no beginning; “I will be” has no meaning to Him because God does not change, we can’t say God will be anything. He says I AM because he is perfect, he will not change, I am just because I am, because of no other thing. He doesn’t exist because of this or that, rather everything else exists because of Him. Do you see the enormous claim God makes about Himself?

But now Jesus takes that divine name for Himself, I AM. Jesus reveals Himself as this very same one who spoke to Moses through the burning bush at Sinai. Jesus is uncovering, revealing something about himself so extraordinary; He’s saying I am YHWH, I am that God, I am the one by whom all things were made. I was there in the beginning, I was there in creation and I am keeping everything going, I am Lord over all things including the wind and waves of the sea. Jesus says, I, fully human, am also that. I do not merely have great power, I am the source of all power, including the power that the winds and waves possess.

This is who He is. We cannot understand Jesus as merely a good moral teacher or a good example of love for us follow. The claims he makes about Himself are so much greater. He invokes the divine name, revealing Himself as God out there on the water, here is one with authority, who walks across the chaotic waters like it’s a stroll in the park. He’s fulfilling scripture like this Job 9:8 “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.”

And this is where the Bible is so great, because with those two words the rest of the passage comes into greater focus. You see, Jesus’ claim about Himself is the answer to our question earlier: why did he mean to pass them by? We’re reminded already of God revealing Himself to Moses in Exodus. There is another moment in Exodus aside from the burning bush in which God reveals an even greater measure of his glory to Moses. Exodus 33, Moses is concerned about leading God’s people; they’ve just made their golden calf, and he is looking for reassurance. “Please,” Moses says, “show me your glory.” And the Lord said: “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.”

God reassures Moses with His very presence by passing by Him on the top of Mt. Sinai. The language of Mark and the actions of Jesus connect us directly with that move of God in Exodus 33. God will do the same thing with Elijah in 1 Kings 19, on that same mountaintop; needing reassurance the LORD said to the prophet Elijah, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Jesus is no Moses or Elijah, he does not need reassurance of God’s presence. He is the presence of God, He is the one who passes by. A moment ago we saw that Job verse. 9:8--”He alone treads on the waves of the sea.” Just two verses later Job says this: “Behold, he passes by me.”

Jesus, fully God and fully man, sat on that hilltop and saw his friends struggling. He doesn’t aim to avoid them, he aims to reassure them by passing by and revealing Himself, in His glory, the full presence of YHWH in human flesh. And what does this divine one do? He comes closer to them. Though they are fearful. He gets in the boat with them! It’s not like Moses who had to hide behind the rock, it’s God in flesh getting close to humanity, face-to-face with his people, true and fully God in that boat. No wonder the disciples were astonished! YHWH himself got in their boat. Up until this point in the book of Mark no human has proclaimed Jesus as Christ or the Son of God, that won’t come until chapter 8. And Mark still remarks about the blindness of their hearts. As if to say, God Himself could walk across the sea and reveal himself to us and we could still misunderstand who he is. Let us pray for eyes to see and ears to hear who this Jesus is.

This is the event, the apocalypse, the uncovering of Jesus as fully divine out at sea. I hope you see the significance of this familiar miracle. For the rest of our time today we’re going to look at the responses to this revelation and how we’re called to respond.

To Him we can surrender our desire for control and our fears

Initially the disciples are terrified! First afraid of maybe a ghost, but even when the recognize Jesus they were still afraid. Why? Because Jesus is exhibiting a level of power and authority that is totally outside their understanding of what a human being could be or do. They are realizing that they have no control over this situation, they have no authority over this person, they have neither control of the winds and the waves nor of their savior.

I need to confess something, I recently raised my voice for the first time with our daughter, she’s two and a half. And it immediately broke my heart because you can see the look on her face when it happened, there’s some fear on her face. And it was everything I could do to reassure her. All of a sudden it was something she hadn’t encountered before, she did not have control over me. I’m an authority and she saw that. Of course, the second time I raised my voice with her she just put her hands over her ears and didn’t react at all. How quickly did she figure out that there’s nothing to be afraid of, I’m not listening to this! And it certainly does feel like she runs things in our house sometimes.

Jesus was moving beyond the box in which they had placed him, he’s expanding their understanding of who he is. And that makes them afraid, it makes them uncomfortable. It makes us uncomfortable. We like things we can understand, things we can control, manipulate to our advantage. We have a deep desire in our hearts for control over our lives and following Jesus reminds us that we do not have control.

You see, we want to be in control. The idols we serve, the false gods we worship, they are often things that give us a false sense of control over our lives. We want a savior we can contain and control, a savior that will serve us and not the other way around. The disciples were coming up against the reality of Jesus as God, beyond their understanding and control.

Israel did this when they made a golden calf, an idol they could control and manage in the face of a God who had terrified them.

Today it’s not a golden calf, but what are the idols we have that we think give us control? It might be our health, our career, our finances, our family—all of these things, if we just work hard enough then these things will come under our control. But what happens when those things are threatened and we realize we have far less control than we think? When the ground falls out before us and we realize we have no control, then what can we depend on? Then we have a storm on our hands that will sink us.

But Jesus? He is the God who treads on the waves of the sea. Let us not have a small view of Jesus. His actions and the revelation of Himself demand that we understand Him as YHWH, sovereign lord of all.

It makes me think of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Aslan, the great lion and King of Narnia. Susan is just learning about this lion and says: “I’d thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” Mr. Beaver responds: “Safe? who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” Trust in Jesus! That’s the call to action today, because though he is outside of our understanding, we know He is good and will not let us down like all those other idols will.

To Him we can surrender our struggles

You see, we can also surrender our struggles to Him. Without Jesus in the boat with them they are struggling, striving against the wind, making no progress. But as soon as Jesus is on the boat with them, their striving ceases. The wind is gone, the water is calm and they get where they’re going.

This is the image of the Christian life. First, when we have Jesus, when we put our faith in Him, our lives are immediately changed, the wind and struggle have stopped—the old is gone, the new has come. But we also recognize that we are still growing and maturing in Him, growing to be more like him and that takes time. It’s an impossible task, by the way, without his presence, but when he’s in the boat with us that striving ceases. We actually can have growth, moving away from our old selves, away from our sins, and toward Christlikeness.

Our ACC speaker this past summer gave us a similar image that I think was helpful to many of us. Without Christ we are like rowers on a boat making no progress. When we do not keep Christ and His presence at the center then the Christian life—really, all life—becomes a struggle. A striving to make progress, a never ceasing struggle to white-knuckle our way out of sin and into obedience. Rowing and rowing but making no progress. But with Christ, it’s no longer a rowboat, but a sailboat and he, the God of the wind and the waves, takes us where we need to be. It doesn’t mean the Christian life is easy, but we can stop trying to earn our way through this world.

This is a community where we do this together. Together we put Christ at the center, encouraging one another toward him. Helping one another in our struggles. But we need the humility to say: yes, I need help. I am struggling. To one another, and to the Lord. The humility to stay: yes, Lord, get in this boat with me.

The good news is this: Jesus is God and it’s that same power with which he calmed the wind that rose Him from death and that saves us now, and moves us into new life, into the abundant life to which he has called us. And ultimately, what other response is there than to surrender our whole selves to him?

To Him we can surrender our whole selves.

Look at what happens right after this amazing miracle, something we haven’t really touched on; many more in the crowds are clamoring for him, in faith, to be healed. There is wholesale giving over of oneself to this man who can heal, this man who has authority over all things, over the winds and the sea, and who reveals Himself as God. It’s not clear that the people in the towns understood this, but we see that they had some measure of faith. But it’s worth worth noting that Mark places this brief episode of the healing the sick right after the divine revelation at sea. This is the great I AM, Holy Lord of Hosts, and the people are flooding to Him.

We contrast that with the people of Israel, afraid to come near, terrified. But now God has come to make himself not only known, but also make himself available to us. That we could surrender ourselves, our whole lives to Him and trust him for our healing, our salvation. The great I AM has made Himself like us so he could be with us.

Jesus comes to make Himself accessible, accessible to those in need of healing, the crowds grasping at his robes. But he wasn’t content with just those crowds in that time and place in history. He wanted to make Himself accessible to you and to me for all time. That’s why this man who is true God, the great I am, the one who passes by and treads on the waves of the sea, that’s why he went to the cross. So we could know Him as He is, our savior and our God to whom we can surrender ourselves.