Sermon for Pentecost 11, August 4, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Mark 6:45-56 45Immediately Jesus made his
disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while
he himself dismissed the crowd. 46After
he had sent them off, he went up the mountain to pray. 47When it was evening, the boat
was in the middle of the sea, and Jesus was alone on the land. 48He saw them straining at the
oars, because the wind was against them.
About the fourth watch of the night, he went to them, walking on the
sea. He was ready to pass by them. 49When they saw him walking on the
sea, they thought he was a ghost, and they cried out. 50They all saw him and were
terrified. Immediately he spoke with
them and said, “Take courage! It is
I. Do not be afraid.” 51Then he climbed up into the boat
with them, and the wind stopped. They
were completely amazed, 52because they had not understood about the
loaves. Instead, their hearts were
hardened. 53When they had
crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54As soon as they stepped out of
the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55They
ran around that whole region and began to bring sick people on their stretchers
to where they heard he was. 56Wherever
he entered villages, cities, or the countryside, they were laying sick people
in the marketplaces and pleading with him that they might just touch the edge
of his garment. And all who touched it
were made well. (EHV)
Do
not be afraid; Jesus is I AM.
Dear fellow redeemed,
The events
of our sermon text take place immediately after Jesus fed five thousand men and
uncounted women and children with just a young boy’s lunch. As soon as His disciples had gathered up the
twelve basketfuls of leftovers, Jesus sent them away to cross the Sea of
Galilee. To me, it seems like a rather
odd series of happenings to close out the day.
Yet, Jesus was certainly intentional in everything He did that evening,
and it was all to teach us, Do not be afraid; Jesus
is I AM.
Now, I understand if you think that theme is a
bit strange. Yet, the series of events
shows us that Jesus knew the hearts and minds of all those people—actually,
knew their intentions long before they themselves understood what they had
seen. St. John tells us that in their
appreciation for the miracles Jesus performed that day, the people in the crowd
intended to take Jesus by force and make Him their king. (John 6:15). They wanted a Savior who took care of earthly
needs instead of a Messiah who would reconcile them with God.
Mark tells us that the disciples were also
likewise confused about Jesus. They saw
the miracle worker. They recognized that
Jesus came from God, but they didn’t yet see Jesus as who He really, truly is,
the very Son of God in human flesh.
Those twelve men had already observed countless miracles. They had received hour upon hour of personal
instruction from our Lord, and still, like us sometimes, their minds remained a
bit dull to the reality of who Jesus is.
The sad truth of our day is that many, many
people, and church bodies as well, view Jesus as something of an influential
Teacher, or perhaps, as a vending machine of miracles, and sometimes we can
fall into the same trap. We might say
our prayers with the attitude, Jesus give me what I want, not what You want for
me. Too many people of our times even
question the sanity of those who believe Jesus ever lived or did any of the things
the Bible says He did. Thus, we should
ask, how many doubts and fears enter our minds, especially when the winds of
the world turn hard against us?
St. Mark reported, “Immediately Jesus made
his disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida,
while he himself dismissed the crowd.
After he had sent them off, he went up the mountain to pray.” Immediately after the miracle was complete
and the disciples had picked up the surplus, Jesus sent His disciples away to
keep them out of the traps the crowd intended.
More importantly, Jesus then sent the crowds away and took Himself into
solitude to pray to His Father, as was Jesus’ custom on a daily basis. Surely, Jesus was praying for guidance from
His Father, for the strength to do His Father’s will, and likewise, just as He
continues to do today, Jesus interceded for those people who wanted to misuse
God’s mercy and grace. Therefore, we can
be assured that Jesus was also praying for you and me and for everyone who
would ever believe in Him and for many others to turn from their wickedness and
join us in the Christian faith.
If you ever promised to pray for someone, did
you sometimes forget to keep that promise?
Did you always pray with fervent confidence that God would do exactly
what was best for the person you prayed for?
Or, have you ever questioned why God didn’t give you exactly what you
desired? My friends, I can assure you
that Jesus’ prayers were perfect and His perfection in prayers is now credited
to you by faith. Therefore, as in all
sins and weakness, Jesus lived for your righteousness.
More Good News can be found in this text. In the middle of that night, sometime after
3:00 in the morning, the disciples were still struggling to cross that open
water. What normally would have taken
them a few short hours at most, had become a struggle to survive. Mark reports that the winds were battling
against them, tossing them about on the sea.
Then, as if that wasn’t scary enough, suddenly the disciples—all of them
together—observed Jesus walking upon the water.
I can hardly imagine how that looked to see Jesus calmly striding along
as though to pass them by while they fought for their lives in the midst of the
raging storm. Did they recognize
Jesus? Not hardly!
No, those disciples, who one would assume knew
Jesus so well, thought it might be a ghost, or some other fantasy of the
mind. It made them even more
terrified. Mark tells us the disciples
didn’t understand Jesus from the great miracle they had seen and participated
in just the afternoon before. They took
those five loaves and two small fish from Jesus’ hands and passed the pieces
out among thousands of people and somehow didn’t recognize this could only be
the God who provided manna in the wilderness for their ancient
forefathers.
Jesus’ disciples still didn’t see Jesus as He truly
is. In this, we get our answer as to why
the Lord conducted such a strange series of events that night. Even if the whole world doesn’t recognize
Jesus as the Son of God and Redeemer of all, He wants His disciples to know the
truth. It took another miracle to open
the eyes of those men, just like it took another miracle to open our eyes to
see Jesus. I suppose you could almost
liken that night to the disciples’ baptisms.
If not theirs, surely ours. In
the pouring on of the water and Word at our Baptisms, Jesus is opening our eyes
and minds to know Him as our Lord and Savior and God.
Now, of course, just like those twelve, we need
to be kept in that faith for it to benefit us.
Later on, Judas abandoned that truth, and it cost him his eternal
life. Yet, God kept the eleven believing
in Jesus even when their faith was tested by the rejection of the world and
even when seeing their Lord die on a cross for them and for us. They still needed to hear Jesus say again and
again, Do not be afraid; I AM.
Yet, from that point on that self-description that the Jews hated to
hear Jesus use, and they used it to falsely condemn Him for claiming to be God,
became for His disciples full assurance of the truth.
Dear friends, when we read this text, we may
marvel at how Jesus performed so many miracles, so many, many healings in those
days when He walked this earth. We might
even feel a twinge of jealousy, especially, when it seems like maybe He isn’t
hearing our cries for mercy and help.
Whenever we may begin to doubt Jesus’ love, we must recognize that our
doubts come in when we stop looking at Jesus as He truly is, the Son of God who
knows everything, sees everything, and works all things “together for the
good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28)
That night, the disciples didn’t yet comprehend
Jesus as He truly is. It is possible
that they may have even questioned His judgment for sending them out into that
lake right before the storm. I don’t
know whether they questioned that, but I am sure they wondered why they were
out in that raging wind. Jesus knew what
He was doing. He wanted them to see Him
as the true Son of God, controller of wind and wave, the Giver of food and
life, the Healer and Physician of both body and soul. Just as importantly, Jesus wants us to see
that while there will be many troubles in our lives, and often many dangers and
hardships that seek our harm and destruction, Jesus knows it all, well in
advance, and He will be there to help us through the storm.
In our reading from 1 Kings, we saw how the
Lord was protecting His people in Elisha’s time. You and I can be just as confident as Elisha
that if the Lord would open our eyes to the see behind the curtain of this world’s
conditions, we too would see His angels guarding and protecting us from the
enemies who seek our destruction. In
fact, that protection is found for our souls in His holy Gospel. The Good News of all our Savior has done for
us, and all He continues to do to ensure that we make it safely home to heaven
with Him, is what gives us faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our Rescuer
in times of trouble, and indeed, the Giver of life everlasting through faith in
His sacrifice on the cross.
Whenever Jesus referred to Himself as the I AM,
the Jews took great offense and tried to kill Him. They knew Jesus was claiming to be God. Unlike the disciples, however, the Jews
rejected that truth and it led to their destruction. For you and me, the great I AM, the Son of
the Living God, came down to earth, took on human flesh, and lived, suffered,
died, and rose again, so that through faith in Him, you and I have forgiveness
and life everlasting. With His sacrifice
on the cross, Jesus took away every sin of doubt, weakness, worry, or fear that
may have ever troubled you. God bless
you in that faith. He has made you His
own dear child by the blood of His Son. Do
not be afraid; Jesus is I AM. Amen.
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