This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In biblical thought, only God walks on the sea (Job 9:8 – “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads upon the back of the sea”; Ps 77:20 – “Through the sea was your way; your path, through the mighty waters, though your footsteps were unseen.”). But by treading on the sea, Jesus now takes a role that the Hebrew Bible had reserved for God alone.

25 During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. 

(An unnecessary note: many translations offer “early in the morning” vs. “fourth watch of the night” an ancient nautical term and still used in navies even today. Go Navy!)

Remember that the Apostles had left Jesus on shore. Apparently, it had not occurred to them that Jesus could know their plight, walk on water to come to them, or catch up with them in a storm! To their credit, however, the fear issue seems to be solved once they recognize that their teacher is with them. They knew him enough to know that if he was there, he would bring them through their storm.

Jesus responds: “At once (Jesus) spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Precisely in the midst of this story, Jesus is already doing what only God can do, and now speaks with the voice of God, saying ego eimi, literally “I am.” The formula is first one of simple identification, “It is I” – not a ghost as you fear. But the phrase also evokes the self-identification of God, Yahweh (YHWH) the one who says absolutely “I am” (see Exod 3:13-15). Scholars argue whether this means that Matthew here claims that Jesus is Yahweh  given that he had just pictured Jesus as praying to God.  Some argue “either or” and hold that Matthew only intends that the divine presence and assurance is mediated by Jesus, as promised in 1:23. Others adhere to a “both-and” view and hold that Matthew intends both.

Image credit: Jesus and Peter on the water – Gustave Brion, oil, 1880 | Public Domain

This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In this post we catch up with the disciples who have shoved off into the Sea of Galilee at Jesus’ command. With apologies to the writer Daniel James Brown, I have borrowed the title to his 2013 book on the nine young men from the University of Washington and their epic journey through the Great Depression seeking a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. If you have not read it, put it on your “must read” list.

22 Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. 

This is the only place after the initial period in the wilderness (4:1–11) where Matthew specifically mentions that Jesus chose to be truly alone, sending his disciples away. This pericope (scholar language for “story”) is the first time in the Gospel according to Matthew that Jesus is pictured as praying. Even in Gethsemane he will keep three of the disciples with him (26:37). Matthew does not elsewhere mention Jesus’ habit of praying alone, as in Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, though he has of course recorded his instruction to his disciples to pray in this way, 6:5–6.

It would be possible therefore to read this unusual note as indicating a particular crisis at this point in Jesus’ ministry. But that would be an argument from silence, and Matthew gives us no indication of the subject of Jesus’ prayer. In the narrative context the solitary prayer in the hills serves rather to explain how Jesus comes to be so far away from his disciples on this occasion when they find themselves in difficulties. (France, 569)

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.  From Jesus praying alone in the hills the spotlight shifts to the disciples in trouble (again) on the lake—and this time without Jesus in the boat to rescue them. This account is not the first time that the disciples have been in a storm-tossed boat with Jesus (see 8:23-27) – even then he asked why they had such little faith.  But this account is the first time the apostles have been without Jesus – and this is a foreshadowing of the mission after the Resurrection.

If the disciples are rowing from somewhere in the region of Bethsaida (suggested by 14:13–21) to Gennesaret (v. 34) it is surprising to find them so far from the shore, but presumably they have been driven off course by the contrary wind. The situation seems to be similar to the storm in 8:24, though the focus in this narrative is on the wind (vv. 24, 30, 32) rather than the waves. The disciples’ predicament this time is the inability to make headway rather than an imminent danger of sinking.

Possible symbols in Matthew’s narrative. Many scholars have noted that Matthew reworks the parallel account in Mark 4:35-41. Matthew’s rewriting of Mark emphasizes the separation between Jesus and the disciples; Jesus was “by himself…alone ” and the disciples are “a few miles offshore.”  Is it perhaps this idea of being sent forth alone that should receive the narrative focus? The disciples are in the storm-tossed boat, symbolic of the church’s stormy missionary journey through history, sent forth alone, and Jesus, who represents the presence of God, is not with them. At the level of Matthean understanding, this may be the meaning of Jesus’ “made” them (v.22) to depart (anankazō – to compel [EDNT 1:77]).

We should be mindful that each Sunday we sit in the “nave” of the church, a word whose origins come from the Latin navis which means “boat” or “ship”. The “ship” we are in was not intended to stay tied up to the dock. The boat/church symbolism of 8:23-27 (calming of the storm at sea) is strengthened by representing the boat as “being tortured” (basanizō) by the waves (not the disciples laboring at rowing, as in Mark). This verb is normally used for people (Mt 8:6, 29) rather than a boat. In both cases, Matthew allows his symbolism to shape his description, for in both cases he is thinking of the suffering the church will experience during its mission on which it is sent forth “alone” (i.e., without the Jesus who promised to always be with them, 28:20).

The picture is not limited to its ecclesial and missionary symbolism, however. The sea itself in biblical thought connotes the forces of chaos, held at bay in the creative act of God, but always threatening (Gen 1 : 1-10; 7:1 I ; Pss 1 8:1 5-1 6; 69:1-3; 107:23-32; 144:5-8). To the biblical mind, being on the sea is itself a threat, representing all the anxieties and dark powers that threaten the goodness of the created order. To be at sea evokes images of death, the active power that threatens the goodness of life. The sea is here a barrier that separates the disciples from Jesus, who represents the presence of God. In the midst of the chaos of the world, they are left alone in the boat/church, with only their fragile craft preserving them from its threat, buffeted by the stormy winds of conflict and persecution, mentioned three times (vv. 24, 30, 32).

Image credit: Jesus and Peter on the water – Gustave Brion, oil, 1880 | Public Domain

This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Matthew is known for his use of “fulfillment” in his gospel. Notable is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the “great prophet like Moses” who was to come as Messiah. There is also another theme that arises in this content. Matthew is the one gospel writer who uses the term ekklesia, the word which means “church.”

There is much about Matthew’s gospel and these chapters that is well suited for the use of church leaders – in instructing their members in the faith and in determining their own pastoral role. It deals with such practical issues as the sabbath (12:1–14) and divorce (5:31–32; 19:3–9). More generally it includes extended discussion of the right ethical use of the Old Testament law (5:17–48) and the misuse of scribal tradition (15:1–20).  Chapter 23 is a fairly stringent condemnation of religious leadership (the scribes and Pharisees) – and so by way of contrast indicating what true religious leadership involves. Chapter 10 deals with the church’s response to persecution, and chapter 18 concentrates almost entirely on relationships within the Christian community, with special attention given to the proper procedure for dealing with an offender (18:15–20).  It evens provides warnings of threats from outside the community – false prophets and pseudo-Messiahs (7:15–20 and 24:4–5, 11, 23–26); while reminding the community of its own internal problems (7:6, 13–27; 13:24–30, 36–43, 47–50; 22:10–14). It is the church that will be sent on mission in Matthew 26.

All true, but why mention it here? Matthew has already used the boat as a symbol for the church in Chapter 8 (the calming of the storm at sea) in which the Apostles are in the boat with Jesus. In this section of Matthew’s gospel, the symbol of “boat as church” is repeated – but this time only the Apostles are in the boat. It is a pre-echo of the time, post-Resurrection, when the Apostles will be without the physical presence of Jesus as their immediate mentor.

Image credit: Jesus and Peter on the water – Gustave Brion, oil, 1880 | Public Domain

This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle A.  Most often the first post in the series is “Context,” but given the nautical setting of the story, “getting our bearings” seemed more appropriate. After the collection of parables in Mt 13, the following chapter takes up what might well be a natural fall out of his teachings that are increasingly vague even as they point to coming judgment – weeds that will be burned and fish that will be discarded. People begin to wonder if Jesus is pronouncing judgment upon them or their “group.”

The inevitable push-back or rejection will become more and more present in the narrative or at least in its subtext.  Despite the push-back, Jesus must prepare the disciples. And so after teaching the disciples about the nature of the kingdom and why people do not necessarily believe (Mt 13), the Gospel reaches a pivot point in the telling of Jesus’ rejection at Nazareth, his native place (v.54).  As usual the people are astonished, but in the end they took offense at him (v.57).  Nonetheless Jesus continues to prepare disciples.

Where in Mt 13 he taught them via parables, in 14:12-21 he has a “hands on” lesson as he tells the disciples to give them some food yourselves as a prelude to feeding the people – and then shows them what they can accomplish through trust in the One whom God sent.  On the heels of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, that brings us to this gospel passage where we encounter the narrative of the calming the seas, Peter’s walking upon the waters, and Jesus’ action to save him.

In the preceding chapters, Matthew draws heavily upon the biblical imagery of the prophets like Elisha and especially upon the role of Moses. This is part of Matthew’s fulfillment motifs: the promise of the great-prophet-like-Moses is coming to pass in the person of Jesus – yet there is something more. God presented the miracles to Moses as mediator to the people. Jesus presents the miracles directly to the people. What are they to make of these revelations? But in the even deeper miracle of walking upon the water, what are the Apostles to make to that revelation? This is one way the key Matthean themes of “who am I,” the making of disciples, and choosing/ conflict that continues in Matthew 14.

Image credit: Jesus and Peter on the water – Gustave Brion, oil, 1880 | Public Domain