Trampling Chaos: Declaring Divine Glory

Speaker A: 00:00:06

He meant to pass by them. That phrase has always troubled me.

It sounds like Jesus deliberately walks toward the boat with the intent of ignoring the disciples and their struggle. This is not who God is and how God acts. So let me give you another way of thinking.

The Deep Waters Way, Where Scripture, theology, and transformation meet.

Welcome once again to the Deep Waters Way. I'm Ray Cooper, and I'm glad you've joined me for today's journey.

And as we begin today, I want to take a moment to give special recognition and thanks to those who have joined us from Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong and Japan. Thank you so much for joining us. If you like what you're hearing, please, please share it with someone else. Thank you.

Have you ever been in a situation that left you with a sense of deja vu?

You know, that eerie feeling you get sometimes where it feels like you've already done what you're currently doing, or like you've had a particular conversation before?

Or on a different note, have you ever felt like you had done all you could do and it's still not enough? You're still stuck fighting the same fight, toiling at the same torment?

ppening as we look at Matthew: 14:22

For the disciples, it's a combination of deja vu, toiling torment, recognition, and obedience. And it all adds up to presence and revelation. So grab a cup of coffee or hot tea and settle in.

It's time to slip the moorings and head for the deep waters.

Before we look directly at our passage, let me set the stage for you.

Matthew 14 opens with Herod the Tetrarch, the ruler of Galilee and one of the sons of Herod the Great, hearing about Jesus and then saying that it was John the Baptist raised from the dead. Matthew then tells us about Herod having had John the Baptist imprisoned and later killed.

Upon hearing Herod's thoughts about him, Jesus then withdraws from the area by boat to a secluded place near Bethsaida on the northeast coast of the Sea of Galilee. When the people hear this, they follow, and Jesus begins to teach them.

And later that day, as evening approaches, the disciples urge him to send them away. And what follows then is the feeding of the 5,000. And then this is where our passage picks up once everyone was done eating and what was Left had been collected.

Matthew tells us: "immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on a mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them."

Now, that's Matthew: 14:22

That is, told by Jesus to cross the lake at night. And encountering a storm, a tempestuous wind, as Thayer renders it. John tells us that the sea became rough because of the wind. Matthew simply says the wind was against them.

But don't miss this. Something is different this time. First of all, Jesus is not with them. And second, we aren't told they're afraid.

Somewhere between that first storm and now, they've started to trust Jesus' words. They've started to understand that while following Jesus may lead to danger, his word assures success when we operate in faith and obedience. They still don't get it right every time. But they're making progress. And we need to recognize growth and progress when we see it, because growth is important. It shows that our faith isn't stagnant, that we aren't living in the shallows, that we are indeed putting out to the deep waters.

Now, from what we are told, this crossing was not quite as dangerous as the previous crossing we've looked at. We aren't told that waves were filling the boat. However, it was still difficult, and the boat could easily have been capsized in the wind and the waves.

On top of that, the disciples are attempting to row against the wind, against the waves being driven by the wind. The word Matthew uses is translated here as beaten, but it's the same word translated torment, when we see demons asking what Jesus is doing.

So another way that we could easily translate Matthew's account here would be to say the wind was causing the waves to torture or torment the boat and the disciples. And regardless of how dangerous it might have been, it would have been far easier to return to shore and try again later. Yet they persevere. Why?

Because Jesus told them to go.

Now, if you were listening closely a moment ago, you might have caught something else. I said that when evening came, the disciples urged Jesus to send the crowds away. And then, after the crowds had eaten and Jesus had sent the disciples across the lake, we're told that when evening came, Jesus had gone up on a mountain by himself.

So how do we get to evenings?

Well, that's just a quirk of Roman timekeeping. Just like the hobbits in the Lord of the Rings have first breakfast and second breakfast, the Romans have first evening and second evening.

Now they didn't actually call it that specifically, but the point is they had two separate time periods that they referred to with the same Greek word. The word translated evening here can mean evening either before or after sundown.

Now, Roman timekeeping divided the day into eight three hour segments, with evening then being either of the two time periods, 3 to 6pm or 6 to 9pm. What this means is that the first occurrence here in Matthew would place the feeding of the 5,000 sometime between 3 and 6pm and then the second occurrence would have been between 6 and 9pm. So Jesus is on the mountain praying, and the disciples are fighting against the wind trying to row across the sea somewhere in the three hour span between 6 and 9pm.

So let's continue now with our passage. "And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea.

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it's a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart, it is I do not be afraid." And that's verses 25 through 27.

Notice first the time here. Remember we're told earlier that when evening came, that is the second time, Jesus told the disciples to go to the other side of the lake.

Again, that would have been between 6 and 9pm now we're told it's the fourth watch. And again, Roman timekeeping divided the day into eight three hour segments called watches.

Those watches then were divided into two day and night, and they were of four watches each. So the disciples get in the boat in what would have been the first watch of the night.

And now we're told it's the fourth watch or last watch of the night. In other words, nine hours or more have passed since they started their journey. And according to John, they were only three or four miles across the lake. Nine hours and very little progress.

But here comes Jesus walking on the water as if it's dry ground. This is a direct connection back to Job 9:8, where Job tells us that it is God who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea.

And just as Job 38 tells us it is only God who can rebuke the sea, Job 9:8 tells us that it is only God who not only can stand on the sea, but trample the chaos embodied in the sea.

In other words, Jesus is physically demonstrating who he is in a way that would have immediately brought those Old Testament references to mind and to life for his disciples.

This isn't just an echo, though, of Job's description of God's activity. It is also reminiscent of Exodus, where God used wind to part the waters to deliver his people through them on dry ground. And on top of that, these echoes and memories then come to us as and to the disciples through the filter of Isaiah 43. There God says, "when you pass through the waters, I will be with you."

So Jesus isn't just showing off here. By acting according to these Old Testament texts, he's making a statement about who he is and what he does. And that includes making a way through the sea, or in this case, on top of the sea, to bring his presence and his glory into the midst of a torturous, tormenting experience.

Now, we'll dive much deeper into parts of Isaiah 43 in the next episode, but right now, what we're seeing is Jesus fulfill that promise by making a path of deliverance in the midst of chaos and manifest his presence, that is his Shekinah glory for his disciples.

When we looked at Mark 4 and the storm there, we saw the disciples ask, what kind of man is this? In response to Jesus calming the storm. Now we see Jesus answering that question not with words, but with a demonstration of power. This is the classic storytelling device of show, don't tell.

By doing what Scripture says only God can do, Jesus is not just making a claim to be God, he's offering tangible proof, and more importantly, he's offering and giving his presence.

But in the midst of the wind and the waves, at three in the morning, after nine long hours of torment by the chaos that is the sea, the disciples don't see it.

After all, who expects someone to walk on water? Under the stress and the strain of the moment, unable to see clearly, they believe Jesus to be a ghost, a phantasm. And actually that's the Greek word that's used here: phantasma.

This verse in Matthew and Mark's parallel account are the only places in the New Testament where this particular word is used. So to to have a better understanding of what it really means, we have to look at the broader use of it in Greek outside of Scripture.

And there we see this word used to describe not what we would consider a ghost, but an illusory appearance or a spectral apparition. This is not the spirit of a deceased human being. It's the idea of something deceptive, something monstrous, something terrifying rising out of an unseen place. And in the disciples understanding this is something that does not belong to or in our world.

It is in many ways the reversal of the unclean spirits of Mark 5 casting themselves into the sea. This would have been in the disciples mind, those same unclean spirits of chaos now being manifest on the sea. And understandably, the fear that was absent before comes raging through them. Exhausted and now terrified, they cry out in fear.

And in the midst of the roaring of the great and strong wind that shatters the surface of the sea and drives waves powerful enough to torment a boat, we find Jesus speaking, reassuring, comforting in the midst of chaos. He speaks to them from the depths of the wind with that still small voice. "Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid."

The disciples are terrified by what they think is a malevolent spirit. They're exhausted and stressed. They've been at this all night. And it is into this situation that Jesus speaks. It's into this set of circumstances that he reveals who he is. A few years ago, my wife and I began using the phrase "God whispering shalom over...". Whether it was a person or a situation or a circumstance, it was that phrase.

And this is exactly what Jesus is doing here in the midst of the chaos and the confusion and the fear. He's whispering shalom over the disciples and over the sea and over the situation they're in. And really he's not just whispering it, he's embodying it. He is the peace in the midst of the storm. And his words bear this out.

He tells the disciples to take courage and to not be afraid. It's simple reassurance. By itself though, it means nothing. Those are just empty words that have no power, no authority. And oftentimes in the midst of a chaotic or torturous or toilsome situation, we hear those kinds of words. And that's exactly what it sounds like, just empty words.

But notice what else Jesus says, and this is important here. The English translation is "it is I." And that is a perfectly fine translation. It's grammatically correct in English. It perfectly captures the literal words that Jesus says. It's simple, it's expected, and it fits the situation. Jesus is identifying himself for his disciples, who in the midst of the storm can't be sure of what they're seeing.

But I think there's something else going on here as well with the language. I don't think Jesus is simply saying, "hey, it's me, guys. Jesus," because the Greek phrase Jesus uses here is ego eimi.

And that is the phrase the Greek translators of the Old Testament used when when they wanted to translate God's response to Moses' question, "who shall I say sent me?"

It's the phrase Jesus uses when he identifies himself as the good shepherd and as the light of the world.

And it's the phrase he uses in John 8 when he answers the Pharisees question of "have you seen Abraham?"

And in every one of those instances, ego eimi is translated "I Am."

Now again, "it is I" is a perfectly good and accurate translation of ego eime. But when you take into account everything else that is going on: the storm, the wind, the waves, the walking on water, the Moses, Isaiah, and Job connections that we've already seen, and Jesus' tendency to use that specific phrase as a mark of Godhood, this becomes not just a moment of identification, it becomes a moment of divine declaration and revelation. Jesus isn't just saying it's me, Jesus. He's pronouncing that Immanuel has come.

The distant God on the mountain has drawn near in the midst of the storm. And as a result there can be peace and the absence of fear. Jesus can be you, Yahweh's salvation precisely because he is God with us.

Now let me add one more piece to this divine declaration. Mark tells us in his parallel account of this event, "And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them."

He meant to pass by them. That phrase has always troubled me.

It sounds like Jesus deliberately walks toward the boat with the intent of ignoring the disciples and their struggle. And that is the way almost every commentator I have found deals with that short phrase. Either that or they say he was wanting them to think that was what he was doing, or that that was their perception and understanding of what he was doing.

Now this is a problem for me because this is not what I see in Scripture about who God is and how God acts. Ignoring the disciples or acting like he was ignoring them is not consistent with God's character.

This is not El Roi who sees Hagar alone in the desert with Ishmael.

This is not Yahweh speaking to Moses and saying the suffering of his people has come to him.

So let me give you another way of thinking of that phrase that strengthens the point I've already made about ego eimi and makes this whole event even more of a divine declaration. The specific Greek word used by Mark that we translate pass by them is not new to the New Testament.

It's the same word used in the Greek translations of the Old Testament.

We see it in events such as Moses on Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, when God tells him to stand in a cleft in the rock so that God's glory can pass by him.

It's the same word used to describe once again on Mount Horeb, God's glory passing by Elijah when God speaks to him not with wind, fire and earthquake, but a still small voice. And now Mark uses it to describe Jesus intent as he walks toward the boat doing something Job says only God can do.

Mark is telling us explicitly that Jesus intended to show his glory to his disciples.

And he does so when their strength and their sight have failed them, when they can no longer do it themselves and they can't clearly see who who is moving toward them in the storm and the chaos. In that moment, in the disciples weakness, Jesus strength is made known through his manifest presence, His Shekinah glory.

Again, the distant God of the mountain has become the Immanuel of the moment. And this doesn't just change how we view what Jesus is doing here, it means that what comes next is different as well.

Matthew continues, "And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out, lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and and took hold of him, saying, o you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

That's verses 28-31. Peter, always the impulsive one, blurts out, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water.

Now we often see this as presumption on Peter's part that in some way he's putting God to the test. But I think what's really happening here is, is Peter is asking for confirmation.

In a way, he's actually showing that he trusts Jesus. Trusts him so much that he believes Jesus can enable him to do the impossible. And so, like Gideon putting out a fleece, Peter asks for confirmation.

He's not sure that it's Jesus, but he trusts that if it truly is, and Jesus can do all the things that he's witnessed, calming a storm, casting out multiple demons from a single man, healing a woman who simply touched his garment, raising a dead child, feeding 5,000 and now walking on water, then surely he can make Peter walk on water as well.

This is Peter seeing God's glory and wanting to be next to Jesus wanting to be where the glory of God is, wanting to participate in the things God is doing. And as Spurgeon put it, we can do anything if we have divine authorization and courage enough to take the Lord at his word.

So Peter asks, and Jesus answers, come. And Peter takes a step of faith, much like the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant. When Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan, they stepped into the water only to watch it stop flowing. Peter, in obedience to Jesus commands, steps into the water and not only stands on it, but walks to Jesus. And this is a critical point for us to catch, because until you step out in obedience to Jesus call, you will never draw closer to him and his glory, no matter how much you want to.

But somewhere along the way, the sound of the wind, the feeling of it whipping his clothes around him, the spray of water hitting him in the face, all of that gets the better of him. We're told he saw the wind and immediately began to sink.

Too often we read this and skip the next statement, moving straight on to Jesus rebuke. But notice, even in his panic at the wind and starting to sink, Peter knows who has the power to save him. And he cries out to Jesus, Lord, save me.

Now, we don't know how far Jesus was from the boat, but we do know that however far it was, Peter had walked far enough to be close to Jesus. How close? Close enough for Jesus to reach out and take hold of him. And it's to Jesus he cries. He doesn't look to the boat, hoping someone will throw him a rope. He cries out to Jesus, the one who made this possible in the first place.

So when you read the next part, when you read Jesus rebuke, keep that in mind. And it's at this point, then, that Jesus does rebuke Peter for his doubt, and rightly so.

But remember, it was Peter who had enough faith in the first place to ask and to actually take that step out of the boat. Yes, he let the wind overpower his faith, but he took the step.

And that's actually why Jesus rebukes him. He had faith to ask and to make the journey, however far it was. But at the last minute, he let his surroundings, his circumstances, get the better of him. His faith was never in doubt, but he laid it aside for fear. This is why Jesus rebukes him.

Not for his lack of ability, not for fearing the wind, but for letting the wind drown out the voice of the I am.

And so often we do the exact same thing. In those final moments just before victory and in a moment of spiritual elation, we panic and fear sweeps back in, drowning our faith.

Matthew continues his narration, "And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God." And that's verses 32 and 33.

Notice, Jesus doesn't say anything to the wind or the waves this time. He simply gets into the boat and his presence is enough to bring peace into the moment. This means that first time in Mark 4 and the parallel account in Matthew 8, he didn't need to say anything then either. But by doing so, he prompted the disciples to begin asking the right question.

And now he doesn't say anything. The wind simply stops. And the disciples, having witnessed all they have over the intervening time, provide the answer to their question, "truly you are the Son of God." And then Matthew says, they worshiped Jesus. And Jesus doesn't stop or correct them. He allows it.

Understand, this all occurs prior to Peter's confession of you are the Christ.

But here, in a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, having witnessed the display of God's glory in the person of Jesus, the disciples have a new beginning moment. No matter what they've thought before this, from this moment on, everything is different. They now know Jesus is the Son of God.

And don't let that confuse you. It doesn't mean Jesus is somehow less than God or is a man elevated to God status. No, it is a divine title, declaring Jesus to be God in the flesh and defining his unique relationship to the Father.

You and I face many things in life, and sometimes the very act of following God will put us into difficult, even torturous situations. But we can take comfort in knowing that God sees us and knows what we are facing. He may not calm every storm. He may not take away that which is troubling us.

And yes, I know that raises some really hard questions and I don't have good answers for them. But I promise someday we'll come back and we'll at least talk about it, because I think it deserves to be talked about.

But here's the point I want you to take away from this today. Know that God sees you. He is indeed El Roi, the God who sees. But he is also Immanuel, God with us.

And even in the midst of the storm, his presence can bring a new beginning when we put our faith and our trust in him. When we, like the disciples, are transformed from asking who Jesus is to knowing who Jesus is.

When we come to the place where we trust him and take him at his word to the point of getting out of the place we think is safe; when we take a step into the wild unknown at his command, we begin to draw closer to Jesus and His glory becomes real in our lives. That is when we truly experience the manifest presence of God with us and it changes everything about our situations.

So are you ready to take that step? Have you heard Jesus call you into the chaos to tread on unto home the deep? Do you take him at his word?

If so, it's time to slip the moorings and head for deep waters.

Thank you for joining me today.

Be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode and know that you are in my prayers as we continue this journey of exploring the deep waters away way.

The Deep waters way. Where Scripture, theology and transformation meet.