On Sunday morning we will be continuing with our studies in Matthew's Gospel when we consider Jesus healing the paralytic in Matthew 9. In the Evening we will look at Zechariah 4.
On Sunday 9 March we looked at Matthew's account of Jesus calming the storm from 4 perspectives:
The story of Jesus calming the storm must be one of the best
known of the Gospel stories, the story has an entrancing beauty and I am not
sure we know what the beauty of the story is. For me the beauty of the story
lies in unfolding of the splendour of Christ Jesus. At the beginning of the story
we see His as an ordinary man exhausted after a long hard day He sleeps peacefully.
But then this ferocious storm blows up, in fact more than a storm the Greek
suggests a storm plus earthquake there has been a tsunami as the storm has
raged the bed of the Sea of Galilee has known a fearful convulsion and these
terrifying waves threaten to sink the boat; the disciples have never
experienced anything like it. They waken Jesus He rebukes the wind and the
waves, the whole creation is under His command and all is still. And we are
left marvelling Jesus is so much more than just a man, so much more than just
another healer and preacher ‘even the wind and the waves obey Him.’ Our hearts
and minds are drawn to the mystery and wonder of who Jesus is.
One of the fascinating things about this story is that at
different times different people have read the story and seen different things
in it; and that is the journey I would like us to take today.
In Matthew’s time the people of Israel feared the sea greatly –
they were land lubbers they liked to feel the earth beneath their feet; the sea
represented their worst nightmare and for us all a tsunami represents the worst
nightmare of all. For the people of Matthew’s time the sea was a wild
unpredictable place, storms could come from nowhere, there were hidden reefs of
rocks that could scupper a boat and of course who knew what monsters lived
beneath the waves. We smile at the story of Jonah but not the people who were
there when the Bible was being written; the storm being swallowed by a
leviathan was their great nightmare. So when these folk read of Jesus calming
the wind and the waves their thought is not of Jesus as the Lord of Creation
but of Jesus the one who can control all the strange, perplexing chaotic things
that can happen to us; the one who is greater than the monsters in our
nightmares.
Two year ago when they discovered two malignant tumours growing
inside me I never had a moment’s fear or worry; I might be facing my last Christmas
but the basic reality of my life had not changed. I belonged to Jesus not to
this world, he had not changed so what was there to fear? Jesus is greater that
our worst nightmare.
One of the earliest Christian writers was a man named
Tertullian and he lived in Carthage from about 160 to 220 AD and he really laid
the foundations of how we understand the Christian faith he was the first to
use the term Trinity to try and understand how Jesus and the Father are
related. At that time the Christian church was a small persecuted minority.
Tertullian read the Bible quite differently to you and me. He saw the great stories
of the Old and New Testaments as pictures that illustrate what God is up to.
When he read the story of Jesus calming the wind and the waves he saw a series
of pictures. He saw the boat as the church and in the boat were a small
defenceless band of disciples. He saw the storm as a picture of the forces of
persecution that raged around the church at the time and he saw Jesus as the
greater defender of His people who rises up to save His people, His very
presence assuring them of safety.
We can think of Elspeth working in one of the most dangerous
places in world. Osama Bin Laden lived and was killed just sixteen miles from
her hospital in the town she goes to do her shopping. But Elspeth has no desire
to return home to the relative safety of Scotland; she knows that she is safest
in the place where God wants her to be and that He is the master of the storms
that rage around her. It is better to be at the centre of the storm with Jesus
than on the dry ground on your own.
Ten when we zoom forward some 1 300 years to the days of Luther
and Calvin we find that Tertullian’s method of understanding the Bible as a
series of pictures had become so overgrown with outrageous interpretations that
these two great Bible scholars swept away all the allegorical interpretations
and hauled the church back to thinking about the words that are actually written
down in the Gospels. When we read the story this way two great thoughts press
upon us. Firstly there is the weakness of the disciples. After hearing Jesus
turn away the very bright young man who seemed to have only and intellectual
interest in the things of God and then the chap who seemed to be formality and
keeping the rules did the disciples have big ideas of themselves as they got on
board the boat and set sail for the other side of the Sea of Galilee? They were
soon reduced to nervous wrecks as an earthquake ripped apart the sea bed
beneath them, huge waves came up from the floor of the sea and the storm howled
around them. Were they learning the great lesson that it is who our faith is in
that matters not how strong or weak we are? Then they see just how great their
Lord is the earthquakes, the waves, the winds and the rain all obey His command.
This was the understanding they needed as the storm and earthquake of Jesus’
arrest and trial broke upon them. That night too their faith was shattered,
they surrendered to their darkest fears self-preservation drove them to desert
and deny Jesus but Jesus in the majesty of His being is greater than our
failure.
But now as I read the story I begin to see another understanding
of the story begin to emerge. Jesus promises us ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ He binds Himself to us
with an unconditional promise that flows wholly out of His sovereign goodness.
It is the same relationship god had with Israel in the Old Testament. Israel
finds herself in slavery in Egypt, she cries out in prayer and God comes and
delivers her. Here the disciples are in this boat they are in the greatest
peril they pray and Jesus rises up and delivers them. He is a mighty friend who
is always, always there.
When I was studying Civil Engineering for a year I lived at
Heriot Watt University’s campus at Riccarton. During the final term there was
an outbreak of dysentery. We were all summoned to a large hall and told that we
had to nominate a friend who would look after us should we fall ill. I never
felt so low in my life; none of my friends stayed on the Campus they all stayed
in Edinburgh. Thankfully I was not ill but I have never forgotten that feeling
of abandonment and loneliness. We can face anything in life if we have a friend
who promises never to leave us or forsake us at our side.
Four different perspectives on this story, four different views
of how Jesus looks after His people; together they tells us Jesus is able.
