Walk on Water-Matthew 14
From Jesus’ parables or Kingdom Stories (Mt 13), I learn how money and wealth can easily choke us/me. In Mt 14:27-30, we learn from Peter that faith obeys without fear: when Peter heard Jesus’ words (Mt 14:27), he overcame his fear and had faith [and courage] to obey (Mt 14:28-29). But when he gave in to fear, he began to sink (Mt 14:30). This may well describe our Christian lives. From Jesus feeding the 5,000 (14:10-21) [in contrast to Herod feeding his birthday guests (14:1-12)] we learn the Christian way of feeding others: It’s never a power play, where the one who feeds assumes a position of power over those they feed.
The death of John the Baptist is the only story in the gospel where Jesus doesn’t appear. It’s a story about our world of power, sex, and intrigue. It’s a mininovel that helps us understand the world into which Jesus has come—the one Jesus challenges, and to which he is an alternative.
The politics of death. “At that time” Herod, the ruler, began hearing reports about Jesus (Mt 14:1). This Herod is not the Herod who killed the children around Bethlehem, for that Herod died, making possible Joseph’s return with the family from Egypt (Mt 2:19-21). This Herod is the son of the Herod who ruled at the time of Jesus’s birth. LIke his father, this Herod used his power for his own ends; he arrested John the Baptist and eventually had him killed. Like his father he is well schooled in the politics of death.
Herod arrested John because John condemned Herod’s plan to marry Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip (Mt 14:3-4). In Lev 18:6; 20:21 a brother is forbidden to marry his brother’s wife for it’s considered incestuous. John came to call Israel to repentance, to obey the law, to keep the demands of the kingdom that has come near (Mt 3:2)–not excluding those in power. Herod wasn’t amused and arrested John. Herod wanted to kill John, but he feared the crowd because they regarded John as a prophet (Mt 14:5). Later Herod, on hearing news about Jesus, feared that Jesus might be John who has risen from the dead (Mt 14:2).
Fear of the crowd indicates the character of Herod‘s rule. This is so for many who claim to rule on our behalf. Many in positions of power fear losing the illusion of their power, and act as if their power is absolute As exemplified by Herod’s birthday party in which the dance by Herodias’ daughter so pleases Herod that he promises by an oath to give her whatever she asks (Mt 14:6-7). Prompted by her mom, she asks for John the Baptist’s head (Mt 14:8). Herod feared killing John, but Herodias wanted him dead.
Insecurity of those in power. Herod wasn’t happy with Herodias’s daughter’s request. Yet having given his oath he’s afraid that if he doesn’t do what he promised he’ll lose the regard of his birthday guests (Mt 14:9). So he commands that John’s head be brought on a platter and given to the girl (Mt 14:10-11. In a few powerful sentences the insecurity of those in power is exposed, for they depend on the presumption of those around them, that they must act in a manner that assures themselves and those they rule that they possess the power they pretend to possess. The powerful lack the power to be powerful. Thus, they live lives of destructive desperation, which results in others paying the price for their insecurity.
Jesus, a ruler too, is not insecure like Herod. He too is surrounded by those attracted to his power. But his rule is one where he’s given authority by the Father to ask those who follow him to sacrifice all, just as he sacrifices himself. His exercise of power has no insecurity. Rather he rules as one sure of what he‘s been sent to do. He’s a king who doesn’t kill. He makes us alive by inviting us to join him in his kingdom of peace. By ruling without “using” his power, Jesus is a threat to the pretensions of power of those who rule like Herod. John’s disciples didn’t abandon John, but come to bury him and then tell Jesus (Mt 14:12).
Jesus withdraws by boat to a deserted place to be by himself on hearing of John’s death (Mt 14:13a), just as he did after hearing of John’s arrest (Mt 4:12). Yet he can’t escape the crowds who follow him from the surrounding towns (Mt 14:13b). After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus also seeks to be alone to pray (Mt 14:23). Why? John’s death might indicate his struggle. In Gethsemane Jesus prays that the cup might pass from him (Mt 26:39). It’s not unreasonable that the agony of Gethsemane is present in Jesus’ attempt to be alone in prayer.
Jesus vs. Herod. Jesus sees the crowd who follows him as he returns to shore, has compassion on them and cures those who are sick (Mt 14:14). Jesus’ compassion for the crowd is often unjustifiably taught as generalized accounts of compassion. Jesus’ compassion on the crowd is best understood in contrast to Herod’s banquet. Jesus provides food for those without food because they are hungry. Herod provides food for those who are not without food as a demonstration of his power. Jesus feeds the 5,000 because he has compassion for them–not as a power play. His feeding is an alternative politics to the politics of envy, greed and power that Herods of the world can’t avoid.
A Christian way to feed the hungry should be distinguished from those who feed the hungry for purposes beyond the feeding itself. Jesus’ desire to feed them comes solely from his compassion and love of them. So those who’d be his disciples need to learn how to feed the hungry in a manner that charity does not become a way to gain power over those who are fed. There is a violent and nonviolent way to feed the hungry.
Jesus, the Son of God, is like Moses, who fed his complaining people in the wilderness (Exo 16). Like Moses, Jesus feeds the crowd who followed him to this deserted place. The disciples ask him to send the crowd away because they are far away from the towns and villages (Mt 14:15). But Jesus says that they don’t have to go away and charges the disciples to feed them (Mt 14:16). The disciples protest that they don’t have sufficient food to feed the multitude, for they have only 5 loaves and 2 fish (Mt 14:17). Jesus orders that the fish and loaves be brought to him (Mt 14:18), blesses them, breaks the loaves, and gives them to the disciples to distribute to the crowd (Mt 14:19). All eat and are filled, with 12 baskets of food left over (Mt 14:20).
God’s care of Israel in the wilderness is recapitulated in the feeding of the 5,000–higher if women and children are included (Mt 14:21).That they’re not counted may indicate they had less status than men, but not so in the new Israel constituted by Jesus’ body and blood. Jesus doesn’t count those he feeds—he does something far more important: he feeds them. The details of the feeding suggest that food and scripture are inseparable. The 5 loaves of bread correspond to the 5 books of Moses, and the 2 fish represent the law and the prophets. Food and scripture are rightly tied together, because there can be no strict separation between body and soul. The words of scripture are the words of life (Jn 6:63), every bit as essential for our ability to live as bread and fish.
Jesus’ feeding his disciples with his body and blood will never be exhausted (Mt 26:26–29) is also alluded to from feeding the 5,000. Jesus breaks the bread, anticipating his broken body, for he’ll become for us the bread itself. Just as the bread that fed the 5,000 is more than needed, requiring the remainder to be gathered into 12 baskets for the renewal of Israel, so Jesus’ body will never be exhausted for those called to be his new Israel.
Jesus continues to miraculously feed his church with his body and blood, giving us life, just as he miraculously fed > 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. His miracles challenge the way we see the world, but it isn’t just his miracles that’s a challenge. His life itself is the challenge. His miracles cannot be separated from the work he’s been sent to do. It’s not his miracles that make it hard to believe in him, but our unwillingness to give up our prideful presumption that we‘re our own creators.
Our lives as machine, not creature. Because we‘ve lost any sense of the miracle of life, those who dwell in the time called modernity don’t easily recognize miracles. Wendell Berry suggests that we can’t recognize the miracle of life because we use the wrong language to speak of the world and its creatures. We use analytic language that gives power to experts and fails to designate what is described. As a result, the world has been reclassified from creature to machine, making us strangers to our own lives. Berry concludes that “humans cannot significantly reduce or mitigate the dangers inherent in…life by accumulating more information or…by achieving greater predictability or more caution in their scientific and industrial work. To treat life as less than a miracle is to give up on it” (2000, 10).
Pray alone. Immediately after Jesus has fed the crowd “he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead [of him] to the other side” (Mt 14:22). He dismisses the crowds and goes up the mountain to pray (Mt 14:23), like Moses went up the mountain to ask the Lord to forgive the people for their idolatry (Exo 32:30–34). He was alone most of the night, and toward morning he comes to the disciples (Mt 14:25), whose boat is far from land and being battered by the waves (Mt 14:24). When the disciples see him walking on water they’re terrified. People don’t walk on water. So they grasp for any explanation that’d return their world to “normal”—he must be a ghost (Mt 14:26).
Peter becomes frightened and begins to sink, not the other way around. Jesus responds to their cry of fear and after identifying himself tells them not to be afraid (Mt 14:27). Just as God names himself to Moses in the burning bush, Jesus identifies himself as “I am” (Ps 77:19), who provides a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, leaving footprints unseen. Peter asks Jesus to command him to come on the water (Mt 14:28). Jesus does so with a single word, “Come” (Mt 14:29a). Peter walks toward Jesus (Mt 14:29b), but notices the strong wind and begins to sink (Mt 14:30a). He begs Jesus to save him (Mt 14:30b). Losing sight of Jesus means that Peter, like all of us, cannot help but become frightened, which means we can’t survive. Jesus, as he has so often done, stretches out his hand and saves him (Mt 14:31).
Peter is often criticized for having “little faith,” for being impulsive, for doubting, but such criticism shouldn’t overlook that he asks Jesus to command him to come to him (Mt 14:28). Peter walks on water toward Jesus knowing that he can’t do on his own, that he has no ability to come to Jesus unless his ability to come to Jesus comes from Jesus. Peter’s faith is little, but he is beginning to recognize that faith is obedience.
We sympathize with Peter because we too doubt, for like Peter, we fear. Our fears are not the fear of God (Pr 1:7; 9:10), because we fear, like Herod, the opinions of others more than we fear God. So we sink under the weight of our desires/fears, hoping others will think us normal. But followers of Jesus refuse to live in a world devoid of miracle, and can’t be normal. We worship, as the disciples did Jesus whom they now recognize to be the Son of God (Mt 14:33).
A faithful church is always far from shore and threatened by a storm. Jesus will rename Simon as Peter, declaring that “on this rock” Jesus’ church will be built (Mt 16:18). This has ripe ecclesiological implications. The church is the ark of the kingdom, but often the church finds herself far from shore and threatened by strong winds and waves. Those in the boat often fail to understand that they are meant to be far from shore and that to be threatened by a storm is not unusual. If the church is faithful she’ll always be far from the shore. Some will even be commanded to leave even the safety of the boat to walk on water.
Witness to the one who commands them to leave the boat is the task–not to call attention to themselves. They’re to call attention to Jesus. Too often the contemporary church has offered the world explanations of “it’s a ghost,” rather than witness to the one who must reshape any explanation we might give.
No need to explain Jesus if the church challenges the powers of this world. Such a church needs only to worship Jesus (Mt 14:33). To worship Jesus means that the fear we experience from being so far from land in a trackless sea, buffeted by winds and waves, won‘t dominate our lives. Fear dominates our lives when we assume that our task is to survive death or to save the church. Our task is not to survive, but to be faithful witnesses. Fear cannot dominate our lives if we have good work to do. “Good work to do” is but another name for worship.
Making progress from amazement to worship. We’ve known since his baptism that Jesus is God’s beloved Son (Mt 3:17). The devil taunted Jesus to prove he’s the Son of God (Mt 4:3, 6), the Gadarene demoniacs identified Jesus as the Son of God (Mt 8:29), and Jesus said he is the Son (Mt 11:27). Now the disciples confess that he is the Son of God, but even more significant, they worship him (Mt 14:33). Earlier, when Jesus stilled the storm that threatened to swamp their boat, the disciples wondered what sort of man could command the sea and winds to obey him (Mt 8:27). Now they’ve come to recognize that this Jesus is who he has says he is, and “they worshiped him.” The disciples are learning, but what they confess with their lips will take time to reside in their hearts.
Reference:
- Hauerwas, Stanley. Matthew. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, MI, 2006. Matthew 14–15: John’s Death, Jesus’s Miracles, and Controversies.
