The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on June 9, 2024. The Bible verses used are Matthew 14:22-36.
Most of
you know what a sports fan I am. One of the things that’s amazing about
watching sports is how great athletes make what they do look so easy. You
see a baseball player make a great catch, or a football player make incredible
moves, or a basketball player make a seemingly impossible shot, and yet they
seem to do it so effortlessly. They make these incredible plays, and they
make it look like it’s the easiest thing in the world. They make it look
like anybody could do it.
That is, they make it look that way unless you’ve actually
tried to do it yourself. And then, you know that very few people could do
it, because it’s not easy at all. It’s incredibly hard. It took
years and years of practice, hour after hour, day after day, week after week.
It took a lifetime of effort, really, to be able to do the things top
athletes do. It’s only because they’ve put in all that effort that they
can make it easy.
I bring this up because I think, sometimes, we don’t really
have enough appreciation for the miracles of Jesus. I don’t think people
did at the time, either. We’re always told that people were amazed when
Jesus did a miracle, but then a little while later, often in the next
paragraph, people are back to treating Jesus like he’s no big deal, making
demands, telling him what to do, complaining about what he has done. It’s
like whatever miracle Jesus did, it made no impact at all. Jesus just seemed
to make doing miracles look so easy.
That’s not to say that it was easy for Jesus. That’s
one of the many things we don’t know: just how hard doing miracles was on
Jesus while he was on earth. We have one instance in the eighth chapter
of Luke, where a woman touches Jesus’ clothes and is healed, and Jesus says “I
know that power has gone out from me.” So clearly it was not nothing for
Jesus when he did a miracle. It took something out of him. There
are other times, too, where after healing people for a while, Jesus needed to
go off by himself and rest and sort of recharge. So working miracles was
clearly not as easy for Jesus as it might have sometimes looked like.
In fact, our Bible reading for today takes place right
after Jesus had worked a miracle. He had just fed over five thousand
people with five loaves of bread and two fish. And you know, this is
often referred to as “Jesus feeding the five thousand”, but what the Bible
actually says is that he fed five thousand men, plus women and children.
So it really could’ve been ten thousand people or even more that Jesus
fed that day. With five loaves of bread and two fish.
After
that, Jesus sends the disciples on ahead of him in a boat, headed for the other
side of a lake, while he stayed behind to pray. Again, that sounds like
Jesus needed to have kind of a restoration time after working a miracle.
But then, after he’s done, Jesus goes out to where the disciples were,
walking on the water to get to them.
Again, Jesus makes it look so easy. Was it easy?
I don’t know. But Jesus made it look that way. In fact, Jesus
made it look so easy that Peter says to him, hey, let me try that, too.
And Jesus says, sure, go ahead.
And Peter does it. And he can do it. And Peter
is making it look easy, too. But then, he looks around and sees the
waves, and feels the wind. Peter starts to think about what he’s actually
doing. And he starts to sink. And, of course, Jesus reaches out and
pulls Peter back up again and they get into the boat.
So what’s the point? Well, there are a couple of
them. One is, quite simply, that we should not take the miracles of Jesus
for granted. We’ve read and heard some of these Bible stories so often
that we sometimes lose the impact of them.
But really think about some of the things Jesus did.
There are people here who are dealing with chronic health issues.
Others of us have loved ones who are. Think of what it would be
like to have Jesus suddenly touch you and heal you. Think of what a
miracle that would actually be.
Think about being in that crowd of five thousand men, plus
women and children. Think about being hungry and being a long way from
anywhere that you could get food. Think about what it would be like to
see Jesus standing there with five loaves of bread and two fish and acting like
he can feed that whole crowd with that little bit of food. And then think
about seeing the disciples start handing out food, and finding out that Jesus
actually is going to do it! He actually is going to feed that whole crowd
with that little bit of food. It’d be incredible. It’d be a
miracle.
And think about being in the boat in our Bible reading for
today. Think about being in the boat with disciples. You’re rowing
against the wind. It’s night time. You’re trying to make it to
shore. And all of a sudden, you look up, and there’s what looks like a
human being walking on top of the water coming toward you. And then you
see Peter get out of the boat, and for a little while he’s walking on top of
the water, too! What an incredible thing to see!
But here’s the other point. When Jesus worked
miracles, he did not always work them by himself. There were times when he
let other people share in the miraculous power he had. There were times
when Jesus worked through other people.
When Jesus fed the five thousand-plus people, what did he
do? Did he make the five loaves turn into five thousand loaves in front
of everybody’s eyes and start handing them out to people? No. He
took the five loaves and the two fish, he gave thanks to God, he gave the
loaves and fish to the disciples, and he told them to get busy feeding the
people. In other words, Jesus worked his miracle through them.
Jesus allowed the disciples to use his power to do something no one
would’ve thought they could do.
And in our story for today, when Peter asked Jesus to walk
on water, did Jesus say no? Did Jesus say, “No way, only the son of God
can do that?” No. Jesus said, sure, come on out. The water’s
fine. Jesus allowed Peter to use his power to do something no one
would’ve thought he could do.
So that’s the other point. While Jesus was on earth,
he allowed his disciples to use Jesus’ power to do things no one would’ve
thought they could do. And now, Jesus still allows his disciples--you and
me--to use Jesus’ power to do things no one would’ve thought they could do.
But there’s one condition. We have to trust in Jesus’ power.
We need to have faith. We need to believe.
When Peter trusted Jesus, he was able to walk on water.
But what happened? Peter started looking around. He started
thinking, what in the world am I doing? I cannot be doing this.
This is impossible! This cannot be happening! He stopped
trusting Jesus. He started thinking of all the reasons he could not do
this, rather than trusting in Jesus and believing that he could.
The Lord can still work miracles. The Lord does still
work miracles. Sometimes, the Lord works miracles without human help,
simply through the use of divine power. But a lot of times, the Lord
allows his disciples--you and me--to use that divine power to do miraculous
things.
But just like Peter, we need to trust in Jesus’ power.
Because, by definition, a miraculous thing is something that most people
don’t think is possible. And so, when we think of miraculous things,
there will always be people who can come up with at least twenty-five reasons
why what we’ve thought of won’t work. In fact, those people will say that
what we’ve thought of is not possible. It simply cannot be done.
And if we believe that, then it becomes true. If we
believe that something cannot be done, then it cannot be done, at least not by
us. But if we believe, as Jesus said, that all things are possible with
God, then maybe it can be done. If we open our hearts to God’s Holy
Spirit, and if we trust in Jesus’ divine power, and if we ask the Lord to allow
us to use that divine power, then who knows? Maybe it can be done.
After all, everyone knows you cannot feed thousands of
people with five loaves of bread and two fish. But the disciples used
Jesus’ power and did it. In fact, they made it look easy. Everyone
knows you cannot walk on water. But Peter used Jesus’ power and did it.
In fact, he made it look easy. What other things that everyone
knows you cannot do might be done, if we use Jesus’ power?
That’s our challenge. What’s your dream for this church?
What could this church do, if we trusted in Jesus’ power? Yes, I
know this is a small church. Yes, I know it does not have a lot of money.
But that’s the point. We’re not talking about something we can do
through our power. The disciples could not feed thousands of people with
their own power. Peter could not walk on water through his own power.
He could only do it with God’s power.
Think about this. Pray about this. Open your
heart to God’s Holy Spirit. Pray for God to show you God’s will for this
church. Pray for God to show you God’s will for your own life, too.
If we do God’s will, the Lord will allows us to use God’s divine power.
And then, just like Peter, this church will be able to do the impossible.
In fact, it may even make it look easy.
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