"When [Peter and Jesus] got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'" [Matthew 14:32-33]
Sure, Jesus does amazing things--downright miraculous wonders that boggle our minds and transcend our understanding of the rules of the universe. And yes, it seems that at the end of this story about Jesus walking on water, his disciples conclude that this amazing feat of supernatural ability must mean Jesus is the Son of God. So, indeed, witnessing this wonder led them to conclude something about Jesus' identity; their reasoning seems to be: "Jesus has authority over the wind and waves--therefore he must be divine." But the flip-side is also true: they are learning something about what God is like.
Jesus doesn't only show power in this story--he shows love. When he stoops to rescue a doubting Peter who has begun to sink beneath the waves, he shows compassion and mercy. So this isn't just a story that "proves" Jesus is God because Jesus shows supernatural power over the sea; it's a story that reveals God's care for those who are in trouble (even if they've gotten themselves into that trouble). The "moral of the story" isn't just "Jesus is God because he can do powerful things," but "God is compassionate because Jesus does merciful things." Both can be true at the same time, of course, but we are so quick to equate God with being powerful when Jesus goes to great lengths to show us God's deep kindness. And that may be just what we need to be reminded of. For many of us, our default assumption is that God has power beyond our own; the thing we really struggle to believe sometimes is that God has compassion beyond our own as well.
When the disciples "worship" Jesus, they are certainly showing honor and ascribing divinity to Jesus (after all, the Number One Rule of first-century Judaism is "We don't worship anything or anyone other than God!" so if you worship Jesus, you are making claims about Jesus and God), but they are also making a claim about who God is: God is like Jesus. Jesus shows us God's care for little-faithed doubters like Peter, God's compassion for the harassed and helpless, and God's mercy toward the desperate. Bowing down to Jesus points in both directions--it says Jesus is worthy of the kind of adoration and homage that is reserved only for God, and it says that God is the sort of Person who won't leave Peter to fend for himself when he's gotten in deep water and deeper trouble.
Sometimes, church folk assume that faith in God is mostly about believing that God can do impossible things, when Jesus keeps revealing to us a God who is not merely powerful but merciful. It's true that the ancient creeds of the Christian faith start by professing God's infinite creative power in making the universe, but the real reason the early church spent the time hashing out those documents like the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed was to make it clear that what Jesus is like, God is like. They weren't just saying, "Jesus turns out to have all the powers of God," but also, "God has all the compassion of Jesus, all the way down to the core of God's heart."
So when it comes to a story like this one from Matthew, the takeaway for our faith isn't just "Jesus must be God because he can do things we can't," but also, "God must be like Jesus, including when he pulls little-faithed Peter out of the waves." This scene dares us to believe that God must be Someone who loves and rescues the doubter in the water, rather than Someone who condemns people for inadequate faith. It tells us as much about the heart of God as it does about the power of Jesus.
It's worth remembering that as we head out into the world today. We Christians don't simply believe that God is an all-powerful force who goes around coercing people to do the divine will and zapping people who refuse or fail. We believe that we have seen the fullness of God in Jesus, who saves Peter rather than leaving him in the water as punishment for not believing in him well enough. And believing that, we let ourselves become people who are more interested in mercy than in brute force.
In other words, if we say we believe in the God revealed in Jesus, our faith should make us more more compassionate, particularly for the people who have gotten themselves into deeper trouble by their own doing and don't "measure up," rather than more critical and callous. If our faith in God doesn't make us more loving, then our faith isn't really in Jesus, but in an idol of our own making.
What difference might it make for you in this week to let Jesus be both our best understanding of God and our template for love?
Lord Jesus, help us to see the very heart of God in you.
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