Storms come at us for all sorts of reasons, and seemingly no reason at all… Storms simply happen… They are a fact of life… particularly life at sea…
At least because Jesus calmed the sea none of us ended up as food for a fish the way my father's namesake, the prophet Jonah did… But if you think about it, the storm that Jonah sailed into and being swallowed by a fish helped Jonah get back on track…
“Salvation comes from the Lord!” we’re told he sang from the belly of the fish… And salvation does come from the Lord, though sometimes in strange ways…
That reminds me of another time with Jesus out on the lake… It was just after he had fed that huge crowd using a young boy’s lunch… I’ll tell you about that another time… But again we were exhausted after it all… And that evening some of us went down to the lake and got into a boat to set off for home in Capernaum. But Jesus stayed behind because he said he needed some peace and quiet to pray, as he often did. Again, given the number of people who pestered him all the time it’s hardly surprising…
None of us thought to ask how he would get back across the lake, but it was late, and we were all tired…we weren’t thinking straight…So he headed up onto the hillside and we set out across the lake. There was a strong wind blowing and the waters grew rough, though no-where near as bad as that previous storm. But we were heading into the wind, so we had to get the oars out to row rather than use the sail. Then when we’d rowed about three or four miles, suddenly we saw someone seemingly walking towards us across the water. Seriously… and no, we hadn’t been drinking… the miracle that day had been with bread and fish, not changing water into wine like the year before! Again, that’s another story worth telling… maybe later, over a cup of wine... But if the squall we had been rowing through hadn’t been enough to frighten us, seeing someone walking on the water in the middle of it certainly was. We thought it was a ghost or a devil or something.
Then we heard a familiar, calming voice saying “It’s me; don’t be afraid.”
And you’ll not be surprised to hear it was Jesus… But we were surprised. We had no idea how he had got there, but it was him… Of course, big mouth here couldn’t leave it at that… I then said “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said, just like when he first called us to follow him… And again, without thinking about it, without a moment’s hesitation, I swung my leg over the side of the boat and started to walk on the water towards Jesus. I did! I don’t know how, some say there must have been a sandbar just under the surface… I don’t know... Because, after a few steps, I felt the wind on my face and remembered where I was, and I began to sink. Suddenly I was terrified and cried out, “Lord, save me!”
“Salvation comes from the Lord!” sang Jonah…
My salvation came from my Lord... Jesus… Immediately he reached out his hand and caught hold of mine…
But once again he asked ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’
Why did I doubt? I had already seen him do amazing things… Yet more recently I have been wondering, what was he referring to? Me doubting that I could walk on the water… Or doubting it was him in the first place? I had said “Lord IF it is you, tell me to come to you on the water…”
Saying I’d only believe if he were to enable me to do the spectacular... like him. Faith is easy when you see Jesus healing the sick, feeding thousands, calming the storm… It’s more difficult when people die of sickness and starvation and the storm is raging around you. But following Jesus isn’t about walking on water… As I was later to learn, its about walking the way of the cross…
But Jonah’s right “Salvation comes from the Lord!”
Shalom
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