Reading: Matthew 14:22-33
14:22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.
14:23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
14:24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.
14:25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.
Around the year of 1005 CE, five Vikings were sitting around a camp fire, when a meteorite hit the starry sky, coming from the direction of the East. This was not an ordinary falling star phenomenon, it was nothing they had seen ever before. It was big like an elongated torch, moving fast and quite low, hovering for a while over the cold ocean, then in a huge blast it went out.
“What was that”, asked a broad shouldered bearded warrior, from his boss, Thorfinn Karlsefni. They all hailed from Iceland, and they planned that their stay in Greenland, will be a short one.
“It was a falling star” said Thorfinn, “but it came close. I heard it from the elders, that they had heard about it from their elders that around the time immemorial it happens occasionally that sometimes the falling star even hits the surface of the Earth or the sea, and that is a huge one. When we are lucky, it blows up in the air.”
“Eventually it must be a good omen” thought Thorfinn. It indeed showed the way in the dark to Wineland, which is today called Newfoundland, in Canada. The Vikings called it Wineland, because they found and enormous amount of wild grape there.
“We need two other boats and three times more men at least, if you want even just to try to succeed” an older Viking said to Thorfinn. “You are completely right” agreed Thorfinn. “We need more men and more boats, that is why I am marrying the widow.”
And he was right too. Marrying Gudridur, the rich widow, from the settlement of Brattahlid, at the Southern tip of Greenland, was the right three-fold solution at the time being, of getting a capable and skillful wife, getting boats and men with the joint new household.
There was also an extra bonus in this marriage plan. Gudridur brother-in-law was exactly that very Leif Ericson, not only the warlord of the settlement, but also the man who had led a campaign half a decade ago to Wineland, and had established a settlement there.
Unlike the other vikings, they were both Christians. As Leif Ericson, himself, commented on this saying that it is easier to walk on the water than for a Viking warrior to become Christian. If that is possible, then everything is possible.
Thorfinn knew that he and his 140 people will not be able to walk on the water that far as Wineland was from Greenkand, they would need boats. And the boats came with the very support of Leif Ericsson. And it was a life support, we know that since the Great Deluge. Whosoever invented sea-ships and sailing through the oceans, it was as profound as the invention of the usage of the fire, the wheel, the metallurgy, the salt, the reflex bow, farming with irrigation or the very building of the pyramids.
The first real seafaring people were the Greeks, especially Corinth where the famous galleys were built and later Athene with the first modern style of naval architecture. The famous saying also belong to the Greek that “plein anankè” or in Latin as “navigare necesse est”. It means “to sail is necessary”. The Romans understood well from the Phoenicians and the Greek that having a Navy and a merchant fleet is absolutely unavoidable in their way of becoming, growing and staying as an empire.
The Greek maxim, as an expression about the necessity of navigation was extended by the Roman general Pompey. He was one of the First Triumvirate of Rome, responsible for the grain transports from Egypt to the city of Rome, when starvation was high.
In Egypt, before departure, when the ship captains protested against sailing into the face of a bad seastorm, Pompey ordered all the ships to weigh anchor, crying with a loud voice: “Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse”, which means in English that to sail is necessary, to live is not.
In the Bible story when Jesus walked on the water, the event did not repeat frequently.
It is written in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 14 that “Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ”
It was possibly a one time event, a prophetical or maybe even a metaphorical demonstration. Jesus himself and the disciples used to travel on foot, on donkey back or in boats, especially crossing the lake or the river. Walking on the water was not their regular habit.
Nonetheless some disciples thought that although Jesus made them fisherman of men, but it is almost as impossible to make people follow the Gospel of Jesus as walking on the water.
Thus Jesus showed them that everything is possible to those who believe. Sometimes we put too much emphasis on the walking on the water event because of its miraculous nature. If the walking on the water would have been such an important skill of becoming a Christian, Jesus would have held classes to teach it as a faith skill, and he would have trained his disciples in order that they would have been enabled to teach others.
It is true that he made also Peter walk on the Sea of Galilee, as it is written in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 14:
“Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ”
It looks like that it was also a one time event. It is not heard that Peter had an other walking chance on the water, or he has ever attempted to do it alone, without help.
The miracle had the purpose as the usual prophetic metaphor as well. Like healing the blind is not only a biological or medical issue, but it is the case of the spiritual enlightenment too. Exactly as it was prophesied by Isaiah, chapter 9: “ The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.”
Same with the cleansing of the lepers. It is not only a medical miracle of the that time incurable disease, but a prophetical metaphor of cleansing people from their sins. Same with the opening of the ears of the deaf, as Jesus told the audience of the Gospel that “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” The context is always more than healing just the body. Same with the healing of the paralyzed man.
It is written in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 2 that “Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Having witnessed all the miracles in Jesus’ lifetime, as the Gospels present them, and being amazed, also we have to be aware what Jesus said to the Apostle Thomas in the Gospel of John chapter 20 that “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”
If we pay too much attention on the miracles itself, we may lose the meaning of the prophetical actions, where the miracle itself serves as a pointing vector, finger pointing to the necessity of the returning to God with whole heart, the amendment of one’s life, and the turning away from sins by charity and good deeds. Nonetheless the Gospel starts with the statement, after feeding of the five thousand in the desert, that “immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.”
This image has also a great metaphorical and spiritual meaning. There was a need for Jesus to pray alone, but after that the general situation also needed a correction. The Shepherd without the flock, and the flock without the Shepherd in the boat. The environmental conditions were extreme, it was nighttime and stormy weather whipped the sea, still Jesus decided to go to the disciples. It did not matter that through fire or water, he did it.
Although it is wonderful to experience an unexpected miracle like observing that Jesus was coming to us over the Sea of Galilee, it is also as wonderful to experience that Jesus is in the same boat with us.
On the metaphorical and spiritual and theological level the boat represents the church. With the community of faith we are all in the same boat. The storming sea represents the external world.
Without the Shepherd the boat is fatally besieged by the external waves, and it is filled with fear. For the last two millennia Jesus has been praying for the church, for the faith of the people in the boat, who struggle with the stormy sea of the ages, until Jesus returns, as it is written that “when Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat, the wind died down.”
The boat, as the carrier of the community of believers, has an ultimate and unavoidable role to carry and save the lives of the travelers on the troubled sea of the life journey of generations after generations, That we need a boat, it was a profound knowledge for Noah.
In the upcoming time of the tribulations we definitely need a boat, which is the new ark, ordered by God, sending the Good Shepherd to be with us in the same boat, which is the church. When the Shepherd King visibly returns into the Boat, it is promised that the storms will stop, the kingdom will descend from Heaven to Earth, peace will prevail on all continents, even in the animal world, as it is written in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 9:
“They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
May His Kingdom come soon. Let us pray that the carrying boat stay strong among the stormy waves, always praising the name of the Lord. AMEN
