St. Mark 6:45-56
Divine Service
Pentecost 8 (Proper 12) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Southeast Wyoming is a fair distance from any significant size body of water.  The largest that I have seen were the two reservoirs that we passed as we traveled up to Powell last September to attend a conference.  These two reservoirs were significantly smaller than Lake St. Clair, the lake that my mother and stepfather practically lived on during the summers of my youth.  We rarely missed a weekend on the lake – the weather had to be pretty bad for us to not go out.

And with Lake St. Clair to the east of the state of Michigan, and weather typically moving from west-to-east, we would occasionally get caught in a summer afternoon thunderstorm, with the wind blowing in the wrong direction for us to get to shore easily.  We had an advantage over the disciples in our Gospel lesson – we had an outboard motor that could power us against the wind; we didn’t have to row the boat.  We normally could make reasonable headway, even into a wind.

What adventures these disciples of Jesus have had in a fairly short period of time.  We have been going sequentially through Mark as he recounts this period of time in the life of Jesus in chapters 4 to 6.  Jesus constant companions, the disciples, have been caught in a storm while Jesus slept in the back of the boat; they have been to Nazareth where Jesus was rejected by his own hometown; they have been sent out as missionaries.  They returned from their missionary travels just yesterday (or was it this morning?) and this morning they had set out for a “quiet place, ” then this past afternoon they wound up passing out bread and fish out to over 5,000 people!  And now they have been sent to “Bethsaida, while [Jesus] dismissed the crowd.”  Certainly an eventful life!!

And what happens as they try to cross the lake to get to Bethsaida?  They get caught up in another windstorm!  This time the boat is not being swamped by the waves, but they cannot make headway toward their destination – they are stuck in the middle of the lake!  Why not just turn around and go back?  The shore of the Sea of Galilee has some pretty rocky areas which could sink the ship – and they have been ordered to go to Bethsaida.  “Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida.”  This wasn’t “pretty please!”  This was a direct order from the boss, and they were doing their best to obey.  “[Jesus] went up on a mountainside to pray.”  He has sent his disciples into the teeth of a storm, and He has gone somewhere else. 

How often do we get that feeling in our lives?  God has gone off somewhere else, and we have to deal with – whatever – the current problem is.  How often do we fell as if God has left us to fend for ourselves?  We feel like we are left alone to deal with our medical woes.  We are left alone to deal with an unfaithful spouse.  We are left alone to deal with erring children.  We are left alone to face our impending death.  We are left alone to …

But are we truly left alone?  What was Jesus doing when He left those disciples alone?  He was praying.  This Gospel, nor the parallel accounts in Matthew and John, tell us what Jesus was praying for, they only tell us that He went up on a mountainside to pray…by Himself.  Was He praying for the crowd that He had just fed – the crowd that John tells us wanted to make Him king?  Was He praying for Himself – for help in His upcoming time of teaching, followed by His death?  Was He praying for these twelve special men that He had just sent to Bethsaida?  We will never know in this life – scripture does not tell us.

We, too, become exhausted with our earthly tasks – our earthly troubles, just like these disciples did.  They had been rowing against the wind for many hours.  Our text tells us that it was “About the fourth watch of the night” – somewhere between 3 AM and 6AM.  Even if we assume they left just at sundown, they have already been struggling against this windstorm for 8 hours or more!  But they were simply persevering – they were only doing what they had been told to do.  They struggled in their tasks, but they continued to do as the Lord had told them.

Jesus prayed.  And when He was finished praying, “he went out to them, walking on the lake.”  He had not abandoned them.  He chose HIS time.  “He was about to pass by them.”  Here is another test of the disciples.  Did they think they could do it without Him?  Would they be so absorbed in their troubles that they would not see their rescue when it came to them?  How often are we guilty of this very thing?  We ignore that which will rescue us! 

Jesus didn’t set out on the lake to scare the disciples.  It wasn’t as if He was laughing to Himself as they were screaming in fear. We can see that from Jesus’ response. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage!  It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”  Since they didn’t recognize Him, Jesus used His well known voice and simply said to them, “ego eimi.”  The “ego” means “I” – it isn’t usually used in the Greek unless there is an emphasis being made.  You might compare it to when you get home from work and just say to your wife or kids, “it’s me.”  They know who “me” is.  Way back in Exodus chapter 3, Moses asked the LORD, “who should I say sent me to set you free?”  The LORD said, “tell them, ‘I AM has sent me to you.”  This is how Jesus was identifying Himself.

“Take courage.  I am.  Don’t be afraid.”  Isn’t that an awesome statement?  In the midst of the winds and the waves – this terrible storm – Jesus was assuring them of his everlasting presence.  If the disciples were wondering if they were sunk since Jesus wasn’t physically there, Jesus was essentially saying to them, “nothing can separate me from you.”  That’s what Jesus was assuring the disciples and us of. “I am.” Jesus put us in the middle of this sea. No matter where you are – you may not have planned on being here – you may have been spinning your wheels for hours and days – frustrated as all get out.  In the midst of this, Jesus comes to you and says, “I am.”  Jesus is the LORD – the same one that rescued the Israelites out of slavery. Since He can walk on water, that tells me that HE is still in charge – even in charge of nature.  He has not abandoned me – and shoved me out to sea just to drown!

We often end up sinking in doubt and despair - losing sight of our Lord - because we just can’t keep God’s commands the way we should.  With bankruptcy or divorce on the horizon, we finally realize that we aren’t so great.  We’re nothing but rotten sinners.  We were never in control.  All we can say is, “Lord, save me.”  That’s when it hits us.  The strength of our faith is not in whether we can walk on water or not - whether we have “successful” marriages or businesses.  The strength of our faith is in the object of our faith - and that’s Jesus.  And when Jesus climbed into the boat, the wind died down.  When we look to Jesus - he won’t let us flounder in our sins.  He has already put us in the spiritual boat of baptism. He will keep us in it.  The main point is that you’re listening to the Word of Jesus and finding comfort in His words - “I am.” There is no safer place we can be than in the loving care of our Lord.

Jesus crossed the Lake with His disciples.  The disciples benefited in their trust in Jesus.  The people of Gennesaret benefited from His presence, as He healed many from that region.  And we have benefited – we know Jesus as the true “I AM” that saves: saves the ancient Israelites from their captivity, saves the disciples from the storm at sea, saves the people of Gennesaret from the earthly illnesses and saves all men from the eternal death that is what we have earned because of sin.  Not just our own sin, but the sin that we inherited from the first sinners, Adam and Eve.

When all was said and done, the disciples and Jesus ended up at their destination.  The point is simply “how do I get across the lake?”  What’s the answer?  Jesus brought them across the lake.  When you find yourself scared to death at nature’s roar, sinking in front of the waves, look to Christ.  If He could get all the disciples across the sea safely, He can take care of you as well.  Remember the object of your faith is Christ, not you.  Remember also that the strongest faith is not found in only looking at the glorious miracles of Christ - but the dirtiest ones.  Our faith is strongest when we can see Jesus feet nailed to a cross rather than walking on water.  Our faith is strongest when we see Jesus sinking under the sea of God’s wrath, instead of walking on the Sea of Galilee.  For it is only in the theology of the cross that we find a salvation completed.  It is only at the cross that we are saved from drowning in a lake of fire and not just a lake of water.  The strongest faith is found when we believe that even though we sink under the sea of this life, one day we like Christ will walk out of the grave, since Jesus conquered death.  Only by calling to Christ as our Savior will we be able to make it through the winds and waves of life, death, Satan, and hell itself.  That’s how we get across the lake of life - and that’s what’s most important.

We still have to deal with the storms of this life.  The devil will still try to blow us off course – to blow us to him rather than to God.  He constantly seems to blow us in the opposite direction from where we want to go.  But, using my story from the opening – with Christ as our outboard motor, we will prevail against these winds.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

+ SDG +

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