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Walk on water - Matt 14:33
Walk on water - Matt 14:33
Read the story again about Jesus walking on water. This time imagine yourself in the boat with the apostles. Picture the storm, the boat being battered, trying to row to the distant shore but being hindered by the strong winds, getting tired as you have been at this a long time and it is now somewhere after 3 a.m. You look and see that those fishermen that made their living out here on the water are no afraid of what will happen. THEN, you see a ‘phantom’ – a ‘ghost’. Since I am convinced that they had never seen one before, this is the best guess that they could come up with upon seeing something man-like coming towards them on the water.
Speed forward in the story, Jesus identifies himself, Peter gets out of the boat and walks on water, well, for a short while. Jesus saves him and they both come to the boat and get in. The wind then just stops. You find yourself in the middle of a calm Sea of Galilee, sitting with Jesus whom you left hours ago on the far away shore.
Whatever you had thought about Jesus before has just been challenged. However great you thought He was now is shown to be too low of an estimate. What do you do?
Well, we don’t really know what WE would do, but we know what those who were there did! They acknowledge him to be the Son of God. They worshiped Him.
Such was then more than just acknowledging a person of higher rank, it was the paying of homage to Jesus as the Son of God. This would not be the last time that they did this. After the resurrection and upon seeing Him, the worshiped Him (Matt. 28:9, 17). John reveals that after He ascended to the throne, the host of heaven joined in worshiping Him (Rev. 5:14). The writer of Hebrews shows that the Father instructed the angels to worship Jesus, the Son of God (Heb. 1:6; Psa. 97:7).
Considering the Jewish background to all of this and that most of those involved in these verses were faithful Jewish adherents, to worship ‘a man’ is unthinkable! As Jesus showed in His temptation, even worshiping angels or Satan himself was unthinkable according to their Law (read again Matt. 4). Yet here they are, proclaiming Jesus as Lord, as the Son of God, and worshiping Him.
Paul writes that at some point in the future “… at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).
People today may have a difficult time acknowledging Jesus true nature and worshiping Him, but those in the boat had no such problem! When we come face to face with Him in heaven, we will have no problem acknowledging Him as Lord of lords and falling before Him giving praise and honor. The question is, since you are not in the boat nor in heaven, what will YOU do with this Jesus?
Hugh DeLong
