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The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: John 6:1-21
From Triumph to Terror to Triumph!
In the scripture for today, we see the disciples faced with a dilemma.
In this situation, the people had gone out to see Jesus, and so it was proper etiquette for Jesus to invite them to stay for a meal. This was a real stretch of the rules, for no one could prepare lunch for that many. It was only logical for them to send the people home.
They had resources, but the resources were not enough. The disciples’ first idea was to dismiss the crowds early and let them have time to go home.
Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”
It is a beautiful meal you have just prepared, a real triumph then suddenly terror strikes. Unexpected out-of-town guests drop by at your house just as you sit down to a meal? You know that terror feeling when you have cooked just enough pork chops for your family and suddenly you have not one or two, might as well be five thousand extra people, at meal time? Too many people, not enough food?
The disciples hadn’t even prepared a lunch for themselves and Jesus. Now, with only borrowed food, their resources were not sufficient. Five loaves of bread—about the size of your hand—and two fish are not enough to feed five thousand people. The tranquil, triumphant morning had suddenly turned to terror. The disciples couldn’t do it. They admitted that fact. When they admitted they were helpless, Jesus took over, telling the disciples to get the people to sit down.
Just a side note, I think it is interesting that Jesus is preaching sitting down and the people are standing up. Maybe we should try that some Sunday. The people all sat down. Jesus, careful that everything he did was linked to the hand of God, prayed, gave thanks to God, and began passing out the food.
Everyone ate, and when everyone had finished, each disciple, although unprepared for that meal, had a lunch basket filled, which would provide them with their supper. Not only could Jesus provide for that many, but his own followers were provided for as well.
It was a day of great triumph!
Jesus preached, people were healed, people were fed, and everyone was thinking that surely Jesus was sent by God, maybe even the great prophet who was to precede the Messiah, and all was right with the world.
Have you ever had one of those days when there was a big challenge and you figured out what to do, and you succeeded and you felt so triumphant?
Actually in today’s scripture, things went a little too well. The people were thinking that they should declare Jesus as their king because he could take care of about any situation. With Jesus as their king they would never be sick, and would never have to work for their food again. What had been a triumph for the Kingdom of God that day was about to turn into terror for Jesus and his followers.
Jesus and the disciples escaped on up into the hills to get away from the crowd, and the disciples allowed Jesus to go on further up into the hills alone. Later, as the day wore on into the evening, the crowd dispersed and the disciples came down from the hills and got into their boat. Jesus had not rejoined them. That was okay. They knew he needed time alone to pray and to rest.
They got into the boat and began to cross the sea. This was their area of expertise for sure. Like most little boys and young men, they loved boats and they spent much of their leisure time on the water. Several of them had been fishermen and knew the sea as professionals.
This had been a good day, a triumphant day. They had a good lunch and had enough left over for supper. People were healed, Jesus got to preach, and now they could go across the lake once again to tie up any loose ends of their day and find a place to sleep or go back to their homes for the night.
But suddenly the familiar territory of the lake turned into a pool of terror determined to end their lives.
Jesus, no doubt, could look down from his vantage point and he could see the storm coming. He knew their tranquility was soon going to turn into terror and so he began walking around the lake. He could see the storm was soon going to overtake the little boat and went to help.
That Sea of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level, between three and four miles wide and there is hill country around it. The lake itself sits in a bowl. Storms blow up quickly.
Notice that John, who was an eyewitness to this event, did not say they were afraid of the storm. It was fierce, but they were experienced in these instant storms on this lake.
John says they were terrified when they saw Jesus walking toward them. How could he have gotten there? Was Jesus a ghost, had he been killed and was appearing to them like in a dream or a vision? Was Jesus walking on the water? It appeared he was.
The lake is only four miles across. Jesus had been walking around the lake to meet them on the other side. The moment they saw Jesus, they were terrified. Their world was full of stories of evil spirits and what happened in the dark on the sea. They had gone from a triumphant day of feeding people, and seeing them healed, to this most terrible moment. What had happened to that tranquil scene before?
Then Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid.” They wanted Jesus to get into the boat, but just at that moment the boat hit the shore and they had arrived.
Jesus wanted them to know that he had been watching them. He saw the storm coming. He was aware of their circumstances.
We can only imagine the joy in their hearts when they stepped on the shore and saw that it was really Jesus himself. The terror had turned to an even better triumph.
The disciples learned that Jesus was aware of their situation. They had lost their bearings in that storm. They couldn’t tell which way they were going, and which way the wind was blowing. They didn’t know what to do with the sail. They only knew the storm was too big for them, beyond their experience.
As they battled the terror of the sea, they had no idea that they were really very close to the shore. They looked up and saw Jesus, then they were really afraid. Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid, you have almost made it, hold on, hold on… hold on…” and then suddenly they were safe on the shore once again.
Friends, most of our lives are pretty tranquil. Last Thursday evening as I sat listening to the city band on that beautiful evening, I looked around at this beautiful little town and the people listening. The beautiful American flag fluttering gently in the breeze, children playing, old people visiting, businessmen greeting one another and teasing each other about legs that were too white and hair turning grey provided a snapshot of how much God has blessed us.
It was a very tranquil scene indeed. Yet I knew that at any moment, a child could fall while playing, someone could have a heart attack, someone with a gun could appear, and our tranquil scene would soon turn into terror.
Most of the time we aren’t afraid of the challenges we face as they unfold, because we get them in little bits and often get warnings they are coming.
We don’t feel good and go to the doctor and tests are run and then we hear the results and the needed treatment.
There is a note in the mail that says your taxes are due and you have this much time to get them paid.
The brakes on the car are squeaking, so you go get them fixed.
Most of life is about managing circumstances before they get to that terror mode. But we all know that we can’t always see the storms coming. We can go from the triumphs we have experienced to terrors beyond our imagination in just mere seconds.
In the book we have been reading, The Shack by William Paul Young, we see the character Mack going from the tranquil vacation with his children to the manageable problem of an overturned boat to the unspeakable terror of learning his little girl had been stolen just a few yards away.
As that terror becomes a reality, we read that no search party, no sleepless nights, no amount of tears can cope with the terror of the loss of his youngest child.
For four years he is adrift in the wild sea of his grief, not knowing which way his life will go next. Finally, when he thinks he can try no more, he gives up and is about to go under when he gets that note that encourages him to hang on, keep paddling the boat. He got a note that invited him back to the shack where the last evidence of his little girl had been found.
There, completely exhausted, he has the opportunity to meet God and find out just how dependent we all are on strength that can only come from God’s love reaching out to us.
Most of the time, most of us live life in triumph. Most of the time we can paddle the boat and manage the sail; the waters are pretty tranquil. But we all know that this is a treacherous lake on which we sail. At any moment a storm can blow up, and what seemed like an ordinary day can turn into a terror that is unmanageable.
The big question we all have is, although we cannot prevent those terrors, how can we cope with them when they threaten to overtake us?
The only way we can turn our terrors into triumphs is to rely on our faith in Christ. From his vantage point he can see the entire lake. He can see us and our circumstances. He can even see the storms before they get to us.
When we rely on what he knows about us and about what is coming we find that Christ is always there, even in the midst of those terrors, those storms in life saying to us, “Don’t be afraid, you have almost made it, hold on, hold on… hold on…” and then suddenly we are safe on the shore once again.
We must hold on to our faith that tells us that even if the storm is too great, even if the terror we face may take our life from us, still if we hang on our boat will land safe on heaven’s shore where we will experience the ultimate triumph.
In prison the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman church these words: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35) “No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-38)
Today we sit here in triumph or terror. If you are in triumph, take time to thank God for those blessings and remember that our faith is in the Christ who can see the whole lake, all of our life, and he is the one who will be there encouraging us when the storm comes.
If you are in the midst of a terror, remember that nothing can happen to you bigger than God. God is never surprised by what happens. Even in the mist of the storm Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid, you have almost made it, hold on, hold on… hold on.” The shore is closer than we think where our terror will be turned into triumph once again.
Amen.
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John 6:1-21 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going. (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
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