Walk on Water (Matthew 14.22-36)

Image from Freepik www.freepik.com

Introduction

Here’s a question for you. See if you think you know the answer. What do the following species all have in common: the Brazilian pygmy gecko, the fishing spider, the western grebe, the basilisk lizard and the water skipper?

The answer is that all these creatures can walk on water. My favourite of all is the basilisk lizard and if you have never met this little fella, here’s a short video narrated by David Attenborough… 

Isn’t he great?

Only two human beings have ever walked on water though - and neither was travelling at 65 mph. Jesus, of course, is famously one of them but, technically, Peter also walked on water, albeit very briefly. But he was hardly a master of the art and would certainly have sunk and drowned had Jesus not reached out and saved him. 

This is what our passage today is all about, so let’s read it together…

Immediately after this, [“this” incidentally being the small matter of feeding a crowd of at least 5,000 people with the contents of a child’s lunchbox] Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”

But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed. After they had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret. When the people recognized Jesus, the news of his arrival spread quickly throughout the whole area, and soon people were bringing all their sick to be healed. They begged him to let the sick touch at least the fringe of his robe, and all who touched him were healed.

Prayer…

Our passage today opens with Jesus sending the disciples on and sending the crowds away - so he can be alone to pray. It’s so impressive, isn’t it, how Jesus always finds time to be alone with his Father, to pray in the Spirit? This is the beating heart of the Trinity. 

Even with the pressing needs of so many people, and with time so scarce a commodity, the Lord makes quality solitary time with the Father absolutely non-negotiable. 

This is the springboard of his authority and effectiveness in ministry. Jesus himself explains the mechanics of this in John’s Gospel; “I tell you the truth” he says, “the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing.” 

This is what’s happening up on that hillside at night while everyone else is asleep. Soaking in the presence of God is the key to power and anointing in our ministries too. When you work, you work. But when you pray, God works. Jesus knows that and the early church did too.

Anyway, unlike for the basilisk lizard, Jesus walking on water is actually an amazing miracle. And it is extremely significant, because this is the first time the twelve disciples call Jesus the Son of God. It’s the first time they worship him as the Lord.

In chapter 2, you’ll remember, the wise men from the east bow down and worship Jesus. In chapter 8, a leper falls and kneels before him. In chapter 9, Jairus the synagogue leader also bows the knee to acknowledge Jesus’ supreme authority. 

But here, despite all they have witnessed to this point, this is the first time the twelve are collectively awed to the point of worship. “You really are the Son of God,” they say in v33. You’re not just an unusually good rabbi who tells good stories. You’ve come down from heaven. You’re God, the Son. And this is what worship is; acknowledging who Christ is and being awed by his greatness. 

There’s a scene in Prince Caspian, in the Chronicles of Narnia, where Aslan [the great lion who represents Jesus] Aslan turns and stands, regally, facing the children, looking, it says, “so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad.”

I love that blend of unspeakable joy at tasting the goodness of the Lord and yet awe and trembling at his fearsome strength.

I hope you are in awe of Christ! I hope, in your mind, is he utterly worthy of praise. I hope you are moved to extol him, to magnify his fame, to exalt his majesty, to worship him with delight and yet fear him with bowed reverence. Oh, what a thing to worship the Lord, in his exquisite holiness!

 

The Background

 

Anyway, this drama unfolds on the Sea of Galilee, a heart-shaped body of water into which, and out from which, flows the River Jordan. It sits at the foot of a mountainous area that rises to 1,300 metres above sea level, high enough to be snow-capped all year round. The lake itself is 220 metres below the Mediterranean Sea. 

And when a front of cool air descending from the hills collides with moist, warm air rising from the lake itself, it stirs up abrupt, and ferocious thunderstorms. 

That’s what it seems we have here and this is not, you may remember, the first time we have encountered bad weather on this lake. Matthew mentions another fierce storm in chapter 8 in which the disciples are convinced they are about to go under.

 

Facing Our Fears

 

This gale does not seem to be quite as extreme as the last one; the wind and waves make rowing difficult, but this time the disciples’ fear is not so much about a sinking boat as a haunted lake.

Matthew tells us in v24 that “the disciples were in trouble, far away from land, for a strong wind had arisen, and they were fighting heavy waves.” 

They only need to travel a relatively short distance, but the weather conditions are such that, despite their best efforts, they have been driven several miles into the middle of the lake and can barely make progress. 

Some Bible versions translate v25 as the fourth watch of the night. That's how they talked about time before clocks. It equates to 3:00am to 6:00am which means that the disciples will have been rowing non-stop for approaching nine hours at precisely the time when they could have done with some sleep! 
If you’ve ever rowed a boat before, even for an hour, you know it’s hard work. 
These guys will have been exhausted.

As they pull wearily on the oars, deflated from the reality that they are not getting anywhere, Jesus comes up alongside them (v25). 

 

It seems he just wants them to know he is there. He wants to reassure them of his presence. But not only are they not assured by his presence, they don’t even recognise it! The point Matthew is making is this: when we are preoccupied by worry, we become blind to the presence of the Lord. 

In v26 they think they’ve seen a ghost and like any group of fearless males in their prime, they scream. And here’s why; there was a superstition in the Jewish, Greek, and Roman worlds at the time of Christ that to see a ghost means you are about to die. That’s why they’re all scared witless – they think they see a ghost and they all assume it’s the grim reaper.

Fear of imminent death is understandable. When you’re under stress your nervous system activates a surge of adrenaline. You can’t control it. 

Actually, some fear is good; the fear of getting run over has trained you to look left and right before crossing a busy road. The right kind of fear keeps you alive. But other fears can be bad; they can make life a misery and feel like they’re strangling you. That kind of fear and faith cannot coexist in the same heart.

“In their fear” says Matthew in v26, they cried out… The word translated “fear” in the original Greek is phobos from which of course we get the word phobia. There are hundreds of phobias which people live with. Many of them are totally irrational. These are bad fears.

Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, is the most common phobia in the UK today. In our country, there are no venomous species of spider; it’s a completely harmless creature, so small and soft you can pulverise it into oblivion with no effort whatsoever. 

You can unleash Armageddon on any number of UK arachnids, and yet bizarrely these creatures send panic and terror in the hearts of millions. 

Pogonophobia is… anyone know? It’s the fear of beards.

Nomophobia is a relatively new one, so new my spellcheck flagged it as an unknown word; “do you mean homophobia?” No, I do not! I mean nomophobia, which is the fear of being without your mobile phone.

Here’s what I discovered online about this fear; “People with nomophobia experience excessive anxiety about not having their phone with them, their phone being out of service, or their battery running low. Regardless of the circumstances, not being able to use their phone causes people with nomophobia to become panicked and experience extreme symptoms of anxiety.” 

Phobophobia is the fear of… phobias. And, my favourite, Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is… (can you guess?)… I’m not joking, you can look this up, it’s actually the fear of long words! 

Have you ever felt in imminent danger of death? 

When I was about four, on holiday in Italy, my mum and dad warned my little brother and me that the sand at the water’s edge had a gentle slope, which was quite safe, and then a sudden dip – which was not. So we were told to not venture far from the shore. 

Of course we took little notice, and we were paddling around and splashing in the surf when suddenly we both lost our footing, fell down the steep slope, and found ourselves under the water, out of our depth, and both unable to swim. 

I looked up and saw the sun shining above the surface and then two arms plunge into the water to… grab my toddler brother and leave me to drown. I was just coming to terms with this crushing rejection of being left to die, when suddenly two hands grabbed me as well and pulled me up to safety. It must have all happened in a few seconds, but it felt like ages. The feeling that you’re going to die can be terrifying.

Jesus sees that his guys are really scared, and so he says in v27, “Don’t be afraid. Take courage! I am here.” Jesus approaches these men in the boat specifically to bring them some encouragement. Here’s the truth: in the midst of your worst fears, rational or irrational, Jesus wants to draw near. 

With Jesus close by, you can look at the world around you and, whatever is happening, you can take courage, and need not be consumed by worries. Jesus is not far away in life’s troubles. 

Isaiah 43.2 says, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you are walking through the fire of oppression, the flames will not consume you.” 

The Lord may not always seem to come to us at the exact time we think he should, but in his wisdom he does know when we need him the most. If you are in a painful season right now and are still waiting for the Lord’s deliverance, notice this; Jesus waits until the boat is as far from land as it possibly can be, right in the middle of the lake, the furthest away from any hope. And then he shows up.

The evangelist Simon Guillebaud, when living in Burundi at the time when it was the most volatile warzone on earth, when he was daily in peril of kidnapping or death, said at that time, “I only really knew that Jesus was all I needed when he was all I had left.”

Now, these guys have just witnessed the feeding of the 5,000. The previous day. But how different it all feels in the middle of the night, when the wind is howling, when you’re rowing hard, when your life is under threat… when events disappoint you, when your monthly income doesn’t look like it’s going to cover all your costs, when illness or loneliness feel crushing, when trusted friends let you down, or when months of spiritual dryness take their toll. Is that where you are today? 

There may have been a time when you could say quite confidently, “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” But that ground under your feet doesn’t quite seem to be as firm as it once was. 

Don’t be afraid, the Lord is near, it is really him. It’s in the valley of the shadow of death that we can say, “I will fear no evil for you are with me.”

 

Stepping Out in Faith

 

A pastor friend of mine from France put this picture on Facebook a when there was flooding in the Rhone valley. He said it’s the first time he’d seen walking on water forbidden in the highway code! 

I bet Peter would have been relieved to see it when Jesus said, “Come, Peter!” He could have replied, “Well, I would do Lord, obviously, but look; it’s against the local bylaws, so I really ought to stay in the boat.”

You’ll have times, won’t you, when, like Peter who leaves his comfort zone and takes a step of faith, you know you’ve just got to for it. As John Ortberg says, if you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat.

When I was about 11, I went with my little brother to Southend swimming pool and I told him on the bus that I could dive off the top diving board. In fact, I lied through my teeth, and boasted that I’d done it many times before and it was easy. He thought I was an absolute superhero. But when we got to the pool, he still remembered. “Show me how you dive off the top board!” he said. I tried to look cool, but I was dying inside. When I got to the top of the stairs, at the highest diving platform, the pool below looked about the size of a postage stamp. It felt like I was looking over the edge for about half an hour, holding on to the rail, before I summoned up the courage to dive in. 

Think about the hardest thing you face in your life this morning... With Christ, you can do it. Nothing is impossible with God. 

Peter says in v28, “If this is really you, Jesus, then tell me to come to you.” Tell me to do something that is totally impossible for me to do by myself, unless you do a miracle. Jesus says, “Come on…”

Some of you are parents. Bringing up a child is not actually impossible – but it is hard. Having four children myself I’ll tell you what I’ve found; up to the age of about 7, your kids think you know everything. But before long they will be 16. Then they’ll think they know everything and you know nothing. 

How are you going to shape Christian values in their lives in the meantime? How are you going to keep on walking and not sinking when they think you’re an idiot?

Peter’s baby steps of faith are all too few. When he begins to sink, what is the problem? Does he start to doubt that Jesus is really standing on the water? No. There is Jesus, right there, standing and waiting for him. Peter’s problem is looking at the wrong thing. The moment he takes his eyes off Jesus, he doubts he can keep going. We’ve got to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus too. We all have. 

As soon as we take our eyes off Jesus and become consumed by our circumstances, we sink. And when we do start to go under, as we inevitably will from time to time, if we call out to Jesus in faith, he is there to catch us and lift us up. 

Like Peter, there will be days when you and I have that sinking feeling, when we can’t go on. But when you call out to him, Jesus loves to grab you by the hand and pull you through. That's why we call him Saviour.

Peter momentarily lets his fears eat his faith alive. In all the time Peter has been with Jesus, after all he’s seen, he is still learning to trust the Lord completely. When we tell this story, we sometimes think about Peter’s failure – he starts to sink and drown and he suffers the indignity of having to be bailed out. 

But don’t forget that Peter is the only one with the guts to get out of the boat in the first place while the others just sit around like lemons. At least he has a go. And he actually starts to walk on water. How many steps did he take? Two or three? Nine or ten?

However many it is, it’s better than having stayed in the boat and always wishing you’d had a go. I don’t want to get to my deathbed having played safe and missed out on the adventure. I’d much rather be scared than bored. Wouldn’t you?

Where is God asking you to take a step of faith today? A career move? A relocation? Witnessing to a colleague at work? A new sphere of ministry or service? Giving, in faith, a little bit more than you think you can afford? Never mind what other people say, never mind how scary it seems. If you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat.

Ending

 

Let me just end by saying a few words to anyone here today who has not yet made a firm decision to become a follower of Jesus. Is that you today?

Peter is sinking, so in v30 he calls out to the Lord, “Save me!” God loves to hear those words. It means we know we can’t save ourselves. 

In the 1990s there was a TV commercial in the USA for a medical alarm lanyard called LifeCall. It was designed to appeal particularly to seniors who lived alone and who might fall, leaving them unable to reach the phone. The advert contained a scene where an elderly woman presses her medical alert button after having fallen in the bathroom. What she says is, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

Spiritually, we’ve all fallen. And we can’t pull ourselves up again by our good works by turning over a new leaf – it’s not enough.

Like Peter, who cries out to the only one who can help him, we need a Saviour.

We all face an eternity without God, and without hope, until we reach out to Christ and say, “save me, Lord!”

As for Peter, as for you; the Lord is so near today, to lift you back to eternal safety – if only you will call out to him to save you.

Finally, I was reading Kenneth E. Bailey’s book, The Good Shepherd just this morning and I came across a testimony that I felt I should shoehorn into this morning’s talk. I hope you will be encouraged by it. 

 

Bailey says, For more than two decades, I have been privileged to have a Middle-Eastern friend who is a leading pastor in his country. I will call him Pastor Farid. His own spiritual journey let him from a non-Christian background to faith in Jesus the Messiah.

 

In 2005 Pastor Farid described to me an event that had recently taken place in his district. An illiterate fisherman in Pastor Farid’sarea grew up with no contact with Christians or knowledge of the stories of Jesus. One night while fishing on the large river that runs by his village, the fisherman saw a man clothed in shining white robes approaching him, walking on the water. In great fear lest the approaching figure be an evil spirit, the fisherman asked him who he was, and the man in white robes answered, Ana ‘Isa al-Masih (I am Jesus the Messiah). 

 

After a life-changing conversation, the man standing on the water told the fisherman, ‘you must follow me!’ and then faded from sight. In the morning, the fisherman, with no idea what to do next, rowed back to the shore, beached his boat, rolled his prayer rug on the shore and placed an earthenware pitcher of water beside it. The fisherman then knelt down on the prayer rug and bowed his head to the ground. While in that position, he reached over and poured water from the jug over the back of his head. 

 

In time, the fisherman managed to find local Christians, who took him to talk to Pastor Farid. The good pastor listened to his story with its unique ending and told the fisherman, ‘I believe you and I’m thrilled at your story, may the Lord bless you, but we do not baptise ourselves. Come, let us talk.’ In time, the fisherman became an informed and committed follower of ‘Isa al-Masih. He was delighted to find that the original disciples had talked in the night to Jesus the Messiah in an encounter similar to his own. 

 

Over the last generation unknown thousands of people in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East have had epiphanies of Jesus. Only we in the rationalistic west are surprised by such events.

Let's pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 30 June 2024.

When It All Goes Wrong (Matthew 13.53 -14.12)

 

Introduction

 

The October 2018 edition of Premier Christianity magazine carried an interview with a remarkable man called Benjamin Kwashi. Some of you will know who he is. For those of you who don’t, he is the Archbishop of Jos, in northern central Nigeria, one of the most dangerous areas in the world to be a Christian. 

 

And, in the interview, he talked about a traumatic day, several years earlier, when 30 armed men raided his home and sexually assaulted his wife, breaking both her legs and leaving her blind. Archbishop Benjamin’s eldest son was knocked out cold in the attack and his youngest son, just six years old, suffered a broken jaw. 

 

They came back the following year - big guys with sledgehammers. With the aid of a ladder, they got over the back wall and into the compound. While they were breaking down doors, trying to force their way in, Archbishop Benjamin was making what he thought were his last phone calls to friends before his death. 

 

“I was afraid” he says, “but after I made all the phone calls, I heard the last bang, then silence, and I knew they were inside and coming for me. I was no longer afraid; I was ready to die.” 

 

They found him and led him outside, where a man was standing holding a gun and a long knife. The man demanded 3 million naira (about £2,000) and when Benjamin said he needed time to get the money together, they didn’t believe him, saying he was delaying so someone could alert the police. 

 

Then the leader of the gang ordered some of his men to take Archbishop Benjamin to his bedroom, for his immediate execution. 

 

“They brought me back to my room” he said, “and I asked their permission to pray.” They agreed, so he knelt down, asking God to spare the others in his household and take only his life. His wife Gloria was with him and she held his hand, encouraging him to be strong in the Lord and persist in prayer. 

 

Then they closed their eyes and waited for the end. The next thing they knew, their son was in the room explaining that the men had all suddenly left. “We still don’t know to this day why they went,” he says.

 

It’s an amazing story of deliverance in the face of mortal danger and we may never know why the attackers suddenly fled. Perhaps there were angels. Maybe the Holy Spirit brought a sudden conviction of sin and judgement on them. We may never know. All we do know is that Benjamin Kwashi and his family now have a powerful testimony of God’s power to deliver and to save. 

 

But here’s the thing; everyone I know who has a story of miraculous signs and wonders, probably has at least one other of heartbreak and bewilderment when God says no. 

 

John Wimber used to say, “The good news is that Jesus is praying for us. The bad news is that we are going to need it!”

 

If we go after the things of the Spirit, were going to have days of incredible breakthrough and days of perplexing, crushing disappointments. 

 

There is an Arabic proverb which Christians in Iraq often quote. It reads: yom asal, yom basal. It means “one day honey, one day onions.” They know from experience that the realities of spiritual warfare mean we are going to have some days as sweet as honey and others as bitter as peeling onions.

 

Why do I start with this thought? Because, Matthew, up to now has been describing the world-changing ministry of Jesus and the powerful advance of the kingdom of God. We’ve enjoyed his stories about the miraculous multiplication of food for the hungry, healings, exceptional catches of fish, deliverance from demonic oppression, calming storms and resurrections from the dead. 

 

But the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of chapter 14 seem to mark a turning point. Jesus starts to be rejected, not just by the Pharisees and teachers of the law, but by ordinary people from his own home town. 

 

Matthew ends chapter 13 and opens chapter 14 with two real downers. Yom asal, yom basal. We’ve had 13 chapters of honey. Now it’s time for the onions.

 

So let’s get right into it, we’re in Matthew 13.53 - 14.12.

 

When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country. He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” [Now get ready for the abrupt change of mood]… Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief. 

 

When Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, heard about Jesus, he said to his advisers, “This must be John the Baptist raised from the dead! That is why he can do such miracles.” For Herod had arrested and imprisoned John as a favour to his wife Herodias (the former wife of Herod’s brother Philip). John had been telling Herod, “It is against God’s law for you to marry her.” Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of a riot, because all the people believed John was a prophet.

 

But at a birthday party for Herod, Herodias’s daughter performed a dance that greatly pleased him, so he promised with a vow to give her anything she wanted. At her mother’s urging, the girl said, “I want the head of John the Baptist on a tray!” Then the king regretted what he had said; but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. So John was beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. Later, John’s disciples came for his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened.

 

Prayer…

 

We began this series in Matthew’s Gospel almost a year ago, last July in chapter 3, with the ministry of John the Baptist.

 

When Everything Goes Wrong

 

As a young man, he should have had a long and successful life before him. I mean, even before he was born, his father was told, “he is going to be a great speaker and will lead many people back to the Lord.” Because of his miraculous birth, his mother being well past childbearing age, he was tipped to be a star. People would look at him and say, “that boy is going to be special.”

 

In Matthew 11.11, Jesus called him the greatest person who ever lived. That’s quite a commendation. And yet… it just didn’t seem to go according to the script. From his promising beginnings, John ended up living on his own in a solitary place. He dressed unfashionably. He ate locusts for lunch (probably baked but possibly raw). When people saw him, they would whisper, “There’s that strange man. Whatever happened to him?” 

 

But one day, in about the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, the Bible tells us that the word of God came to him in the desert. 

 

It’s worth remembering that when God gives you a promise, it may take years before you see it fulfilled. Someone once had a startlingly accurate prophetic word for me, most of which was for then - but one particular detail only began to be fulfilled seven years later. When God gives us a promise or a prophetic word, the time between its being spoken over us and its fulfilment is to stretch and exercise our faith. 

 

Maybe some of us today are still waiting for a prophetic word or a promise from God to come to fruition. This is a season where God is increasing your authority in faith. 

 

John bursts onto the scene as a controversial, provocative figure. His message is confrontational and direct.

 

People come from everywhere to see him because God’s anointing is on him. The crowds keep getting bigger and bigger. Hundreds fall on their knees in repentance before God. It’s a revival. He baptizes so many people they start calling him John the Baptiser. Nothing like this has happened for centuries. Some are thinking he might be the Messiah. 

 

But he says, “No, someone else is coming, greater than me. He will baptize you not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and fire.” 

 

The day John sees Jesus, he says, “That’s him! This is the one.” And from that day a steady trickle of John’s disciples begin to follow Jesus instead. 

 

With Jesus’ fame taking off, John’s audience starts to decline. And John says, “He must become more prominent, and I must fade out.” 

 

Some of us here today are dealing with personal disappointment. A feeling that the future is probably not going to be as bright as the past. A sense of personal loss through life-changing illness or the death of a loved one. Fading health and strength and energy. Everything going wrong at work. 

 

It’s not because you’ve got it all together, or have wonderfully behaved children, or enjoy perfect health, or live a carefree and prosperous life that people will see Christ clearly in your life. God’s grace shines brightest in and through life’s unexpected twists and turns, and all our bad surprises.

 

And look, the glory that awaits us far, far outweighs any current suffering or sighing or pain. 

 

Not long after this pivotal moment in John the Baptist’s life, and this is what today’s passage refers to, John preaches a sermon about marriage, and he uses the domestic arrangements of King Herod Antipas as an illustration for one of his points. 

 

Herod is a puppet king, a client king, who answers to the Romans and he governs the Jordan valley and Galilee. He’s a regional ruler who reports to the Roman emperor. This is not the Herod of chapter 2 who ordered the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem; this is his son.

 

Herod’s castle, called Machaerus, is in modern day Jordan; it's just ruins now, but it’s a hilltop fortress built on a rock on the eastern bank of the Dead Sea. At the base of the mound there is a network of caves which are the perfect setting for a dark dungeon and you can still see them in the ruins to this day. This is where John will have been imprisoned.

 

Herod has incest and murder all over his family tree. He is married, as it happens, but there is a lot of gossip leaking from the palace to the marketplaces. There’s plenty of people who love a juicy bit of scandal about the royal family? At this time, Herod is having an affair with his niece, who is also brother’s wife – it’s all very incestuous - her name is Herodias, and everyone is whispering about it. 

 

Herod forces his own wife out of the palace, so he can get into bed with the niece and sister-in-law he has seduced. Quite apart from ditching his first wife and breaking up his little brother's marriage, sleeping with your brother’s wife is forbidden under their law and classified as incest. 

 

All the chief priests are keeping their heads down, staying off anything controversial, avoiding hot potatoes… They hate what Herod is doing but they say nothing. They’ve got good stipends, nice houses and cushy jobs. Like in Russia and Iran today, if you publicly slate the supreme leader you’re going to end up in the bottom of a well with a knife in your back, so they stick to platitudes and generalities whenever they get in the pulpit. 

 

But John? He isn’t interested in opinion polls and popularity. He is a man of God who fears nobody. He knows the risks, but he openly calls sin “sin.” Herod cannot tolerate any kind of public criticism, so he has John arrested and put behind bars. 

 

How does John feel now? He was obedient to God. He preached the truth. He feared God, not man. He didn’t compromise an inch. And now he’s in jail, while the corrupt priests are living in comfort.

 

John starts to doubt. In fact, in chapter 11, from prison, he sends some of his followers to ask Jesus, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” That’s a long way down from “This is God’s Chosen One, he must become greater and I must become less.”

 

Everybody here has times when faith wobbles. Everyone says to themselves from time to time, “Well, how can that be right, Lord?” 

 

It comes at moments of illness or tragedy when God does not seem to care. It comes at moments of trial or temptation when God does not seem real. It comes at times of failure or unfulfilled dreams when God does not seem to be in control. It comes at times of waiting when God seems silent or absent altogether. 

 

Isaiah 45.15 says, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, God of Israel, the Saviour.” And there are seasons in our lives when God seems to withdraw and go quiet.

 

These are the low ebbs of following Jesus and we all have them. 

 

Psalm 56.3 says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Notice: it doesn’t say, “I never fear anything.” “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” The Bible never says that true believers will have no fears. Instead, it tells us how to fight when anxiety rises up in us. I put my trust in you.

 

There is a place for questioning in the Christian life. You’re not a failure if you’re perplexed and your faith wobbles after a hard hit. 

 

If that’s where you are today, you’re not alone. But this season you’re in is designed to lead you towards greater faith and not towards displaying unbelief as if it were some sort of Christian virtue. 

 

Meanwhile, upstairs in the castle, Herod is worried because he is a superstitious man. We know that because in v2 he thinks Jesus must be a reincarnation of John the Baptist. And he has a guilty conscience as well; we know that because this verse shows he can’t get it off his mind that he ordered the execution of an innocent man. 

 

And then v3 is a kind of flashback to what happened. Herod has a very unhappy new woman in his life. She has been slighted in public. John the Baptist has denounced Herod’s quicky divorce and remarriage. And the new bride is holding a grudge. “Who is this zealot, this evangelical extremist with his moralising sermons? How dare he criticise the queen! Who the hell does he think he is?”

 

Soon afterwards, it’s Herod’s birthday so he has a party in his castle. No expense is spared. The food is plentiful, the wine is flowing, all the top bras is there, there’s the sound of laughter and the entertainment is top rate.

 

In particular, Herodias’ daughter - Herod’s step-daughter - who historians outside the Bible name as Salome, turns out to be a beguiling dancer. As the music plays and the drums beat in time, she moves around suggestively, provocatively. All eyes are on her. Her long hair is down. The curves of her young body moving to the music leave all the men spellbound. Matthew says she “greatly pleased Herod.” I bet she did.

 

Herod is probably drunk. If ever you need a reminder about how an hour of alcohol-fuelled lust can give birth to a monster, remember this story. 

 

In v7-9, he foolishly promises with a solemn oath in front of his guests to give the girl anything she wants. Mark, in his Gospel, adds another detail. It says there that he offers her up to half his kingdom. That is another way of saying, “I will even make you my new queen to reign alongside me if that’s what you ask for.” 

 

And he says this with Herodias, his new trophy wife, and the girl’s mother sitting right there next to him. He is basically saying, “I will replace her with you as my queen.” Can anything be more crass than that?

 

Yes, it can. In v8, Salome’s mother Herodias sees her chance to visit her fury on the man who has humiliated her. 

 

If ever you need a reminder about how just nursing a bit of a grudge can give birth to a monster, remember this story. 

 

She demands John the Baptist’s severed head on a tray. Imagine how that went down at the party... Stunned silence and awkward shuffling amongst the guests. Herod cannot lose face in front of them, (did you notice in v5 it says, “he feared the people”). 

 

If ever you need a reminder about how the fear of man can give birth to a monster, remember this story. 

 

Herod has no moral fibre, no principles. All he cares about is “What will people think of me?” He doesn’t want to look weak in front of his guests. So he gives the order. And the gruesome deed is done.

 

It feels like the wrong ending. How could this have happened? Why wasn’t there a great and mighty deliverance, like for Benjamin Kwasi? Jesus could have done a great miracle to get John out of prison, but he didn’t. Why not? 

 

John is a man who speaks for God, he has the anointing of the Spirit, and he’s arrested for telling the truth, and ends up losing his life because some teenager does a sexy dance before her inebriated and creepy old stepfather. 

 

Who would expect that for a man or woman devoted to God? Where was God when this happened? 

 

If you have made a serious commitment to follow Christ, the likelihood is that you will experience times (if you haven’t already) when you will say, “Lord, this has not turned out like I thought it would. When I first came to faith, you opened my eyes and answered my prayers so amazingly and everything fell into place. But now, nothing seems to be like it was. I’m not so sure anymore.”

 

You might be saying that to yourself today. “Where did it all go wrong?”

 

Somebody once asked Billy Graham, “If Christianity is true, why is there so much evil in the world?” To which he replied, “With so much soap, why are there so many dirty people in the world?”

 

We don’t yet live on a new earth with new heavens where there is no more crying and no more death.

 

John’s mission was to blaze a trail for Jesus Christ. He did his job, and he did it well. He couldn’t have guessed that his reward would be not living to see his 35th birthday. By the time John was executed, Jesus’ ministry had taken off and John was on the way to being a forgotten man. 

But I believe, if you could meet John now and ask him if it was worth it, he would say, “Worth it? To be his cousin? To know him? To point others to him? To blaze his trail? To watch his fame increase? I would not trade that for all the riches in the world.” 

Ending

 

As I end, I want to ask God for grace if you are struggling at the moment with a sense of “how did that happen?” or “where did it all go wrong?” or “when will this all end?”

 

Savour times in your life when God has done great things; Psalm 77 says, Will [God] never show his favour again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? … Then I thought, “To this I will appeal… I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

 

Remember, one of the reasons God has designed the Church is so we can encourage each other, pray for one another, bear one another’s burdens and spur one another on. If you’re low today, or in a season of discouragement, ask someone to pray for you today, that the Lord will lift your head, renew your hope and restore your fortunes.

 

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 16 June 2024

Sign of Jonah (Matthew 12.38-50)

 

Introduction

 

As some of you know, I spent most of the weekends in my childhood between March and October every year crewing on my dad’s sailboat on the cold, grey and not particularly sweet-smelling waters of the Thames estuary, downriver from London. 

 

I can’t say I really enjoyed it, but to be fair there were rare days when the sun was out, shimmering on the surface of the water, the air was warm, the sea was calm and the Cornish pasties were for once not soggy with seawater... and a breeze would catch the sails propelling us forward as seagulls flew by overhead. Those days were not so bad really. 

 

For those of you who have never sailed before, there’s no time to sunbathe on deck. There’s always work to do. You have to lean over the side to keep the vessel upright, you have to constantly monitor the flag on top of the mast to check the wind direction, you have to pull in or loosen the ropes that hold the sails accordingly… but in truth the wind does most of the work for you.

 

By contrast, when there is no wind, and the sail hangs limp, if you have no outboard motor, you have no option but to row. Rowingis hard work. You have to strain every arm and abdominal muscle and pull as hard as you can to get the boat to move at all. You can be miles from shore. It’s backbreaking. And you can’t even see where you’re going, because you’re facing backwards. 

 

I say this to introduce our Bible passage this morning, because the contrast between rowing and sailing highlights the difference in approach between the Pharisees, who are the religious authorities of Jesus’ day, and Jesus who doesn’t see eye to eye with them at all. The Pharisees (and their associates called teachers of the Law) are a rowing boat religion and not a sailboat religion. 

 

Instead of simply trusting God, as Jesus teaches his followers to do, letting the wind of the Spirit fill the sails of their faith, the Pharisees spend all their lives trusting in their own moral strictness, and living by works, and ceremonial rules, and drearily observing every jot and tittle of the religious code, plus a long list of meticulous, man-made rules on top, thinking it will make God love them. 

 

Like rowing a boat, it is all about their effort, their earning, their works, their striving to please God and, because they are so obsessed with being holier than the common person, it makes them very full of themselves. 

 

But, as John Mark Comer says, “The only thing that can effectively keep you from God’s mercy is thinking you deserve it. This is one of the many reasons that religious people are often the farthest from God.” 

 

That’s the Pharisees. They think they are so deserving, so much better than the riff raff, and they look down judgementally on everyone else who doesn’t measure up to their standard. 

 

Four times in our passage, and I’ll highlight this on the screen for you to see, Jesus is going to refer to these rowing boat Pharisees as “this generation” or “this evil generation” twice adding the word “adulterous” to describe them. This is how serious a matter it is for Jesus when people live for religion to try and make God love them instead of living by faith, where God’s love is a free gift of grace.  

 

So with all that in mind, let’s read what it says in Matthew 12.38-50.

 

One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, [and just note the arrogance and entitlement here] “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”

 

But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

 

“The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.

"When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.” 

 

As Jesus was speaking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, and they want to speak to you.”

 

Jesus asked, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”

 

Prayer…

 

1) What’s all this about Jonah?

 

So here we have two awkward scenes of tension and confrontation: one between Jesus and his own family, but firstly, yet another clash between Jesus and these self-righteous, rowing boat, religious experts. This is becoming a running theme in Mathew’s Gospel.

 

Today, they come to him with their demands. “Give us a sign to prove to us you are the Son of God.” 

 

Let’s put this into context. So far in Matthew’s Gospel, it is recorded that Jesus has healed crowds of sick people curing conditions such as epilepsy, high fever, paralysis, leprosy, blindness and haemophilia. He has driven out demons from the shadows of tormented souls. He has calmed a furious storm at sea with a word of command. He has raised a twelve-year-old dead girl to life. And these people say, “Yeah fine, but do a miracle so we can see if you’re legit or not.”  

 

These people are infuriating. They are never satisfied. Always sceptical. No wonder Jesus is exasperated with them. 

 

“Only an evil and adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign!” he says (v39). “But the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

 

Now then, Jonah; a fishy story beloved by children about a xenophobic prophet who runs away from God. He boards a ship, the ship hits a storm, he gets thrown overboard and is swallowed by a fish that later vomits him up on a beach. That little vacation is not getting a 5-star review on Trip Advisor…

 

What possible link could there be between that story and Jesus’ legitimacy as a man of God? Jesus himself makes the connection.

 

“For as Jonah (v40) was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”

 

The miracle of Jonah, I want to suggest, is not that he survives for three days inside a fish – which is what I was always told. 

 

Rather, when you read the Bible carefully, what I think you find is that Jonah is swallowed up when he is already dead. So the fish is not so much a lifeboat as it is a tomb.

 

After Jonah is thrown off the ship, the Bible says that the “water overwhelmed him” and “seaweed wrapped itself around his head.” It says that he “sank down to the very roots of the mountains.” In other words, Jonah sinks all the way down to the seabed. 

 

But it is impossible to descend to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea holding your breath all the way. Try it. Or preferably don’t! 

 

The only way Jonah’s misadventure makes any sense, as it is written down in Scripture, is if he drowns before his body sinks to the bottom of the sea. 

 

Even if by some superhuman feat he were still alive on the seabed, there isn’t enough oxygen in the stomach of even a blue whale for a human to breathe and remain alive for 36 hours.

 

Incidentally, there’s a lovely little story about a schoolteacher who told her class that it is physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because its throat is too small. A little girl disagreed, saying that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The teacher told her she was wrong. So the little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.” The teacher smiled and said, “Ah, but what if Jonah went to hell?” The little girl replied, “Then you can ask him.” 

 

In fact, the prayer Jonah prays which was written down after he was vomited onto dry land, says, “As my life was ebbing away I remembered the Lord...” Jonah remembers what was going through his mind the air in his lungs ran out and he was about to die.

 

Jonah drowned, which is why he says that he was in the depths of Sheol. That’s the place of the dead, and it’s where Jesus was between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

And he was raised to life inside the fish, from where he prayed his famous prayer, shortly before being ejected onto the seashore.

 

Now can you see why Jesus points to Jonah to explain what will also happen to him; he will be rejected as Jonah was, he will suffer and die as Jonah did, he will be buried over a three-day period as Jonah was, and he will emerge alive again, though scarred by the marks of death, as Jonah did. 

 

People, of course, like that fictitious teacher, often dismiss Jonah as a fairy tale. And over the years people have tried to rubbish the resurrection of Jesus as well saying it was faked. 

 

The poet Gilbert West did in 1747. Lawyer Frank Morison did in 1930. Investigative journalist Lee Strobel did it in 1998. 

 

All three began their projects as atheists. All three meticulously studied the evidence from every source available. All three slowly changed their minds during the course of their research. All three became Christians. And all three wrote a different book than the one they had planned, in the end defending and affirming the Bible’s assertion that Jesus rose from the dead, just like he said he would.

 

But unlike West, Morison, and Strobel, and unlike the citizens of Nineveh who Jonah preached to, the Pharisees refuse to repent (v41) because they refuse to listen (v42).

 

Do you ever find yourself telling God to prove himself to you? Do me a miracle! Show me a sign! As if he has to prove himself to me while I sit back with my hand on the buzzer like a judge in Britain’s Got Talent!

 

Would Jesus ever say of you, you’re part of a generation that refuses to listen, and that refuses to repent?

 

2) What’s all this about Evil Spirits?

 

And now for something completely different. Evil spirits roaming in the desert looking for rest. Bible scholar William Barclay calls it “a compact and eerie little parable about a haunted house.” 

 

Or is it different? What Jesus says in v43-45 certainly feels like a strange and abrupt gear change from what comes before. 

 

What Jesus says here seems at first sight to have been quite randomly crowbarred into this chapter but, as I said earlier, Jesus’ repeated use of the phrase “this evil generation” throughout our passage (including here) shows that it belongs with what comes before and afterwards.

 

When I was a Church of England vicar, I was once asked to go someone’s house to ‘exorcise’ it because they were experiencing poltergeist activity. Stuff moving overnight. The children complaining about seeing strange shapes at night. The TV turning itself on. The sound of footsteps in the loft… 

 

I went with two colleagues, and we found that the house had been used by mediums for seances and other occult practices. 

 

Without going into detail about that visit, the father of the family had a weird change of voice and he tried to tear some pages out of my Bible, but when he was delivered of two or three evil spirits – and we heard them go - his hostility towards God’s word stopped and the strange phenomena in the house ceased from that day. 

 

But I remember reading this passage to the couple and we invited them to give their hearts to Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit or run the risk coming under greater spiritual attack than before.

 

When people are delivered from demonic oppression, it is vital that the dark, spiritual vacuum that creates is refilled by light and life from God. Otherwise, says Jesus, they can end up worse off than they were. 

 

The Pharisees, at the beginning of this chapter 12, have a complaining attitude. But they never let Jesus bring grace and forgiveness and light to their empty hearts. And by the time we get to v14 they are actually plotting to kill him. 

 

For all of us actually, the general principle is the same; it is not enough to be rid of wrong thoughts and attitudes, to tidy up our lives and reform our moral standards, emptying ourselves of lust, and lies and criticism and jealousy; we also need to let the Lord fill us daily with the Holy Spirit. 

 

3) What’s all this about Family?

 

Well, it’s one thing for the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law to oppose Jesus, but one of the most painful things in Jesus’ life was that members of his own family misunderstood him and even opposed him too. 

 

Mark’s Gospel says that his brothers and sisters confront him and try to take him back home because they think he has gone mad. He’s ill, they think, and needs to come home. John’s Gospel says plainly that his brothers did not believe in him. 

 

This incident at the end of Matthew 12 twice mentions, tellingly, that Jesus’ family are standing outside while Jesus is inside. They aren’t interested in his teaching. They haven’t got time for his ministry. They are unwilling to go into the house. They are literally outsiders. 

 

They have tracked him down to have words with him because he is a family embarrassment. In their honour and shame culture he has disgraced the family name. They want him to follow them – and if you’ve got family who aren’t believers and who are hostile to your faith, you probably know how this feels.  

 

Jesus uses this awkward situation to talk about who he thinks his real family is. 

 

Pointing to his disciples, [we know that he had women followers who supported his ministry; Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna, and his twelve men; the likes of Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew…] he says, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” 

 

Imagine how hurt and insulted and perhaps worried Jesus’ family must feel here. Jesus is all but disowning them and saying that these strangers listening to him are his real family. So his blood relatives leave disappointed and offended.

 

They say that blood is thicker than water. And charity begins at home. Family first… 

 

But Jesus doesn’t agree. When the family you are born into insists on coming between you and the will God, as it did for Jesus, our nearest and dearest should brace themselves for disappointment. 

 

All through Jesus’ life his family opposed him. Scripture shows that Jesus’ half-brother James didn’t come to faith in Christ until after the resurrection. But some years down the line, James became the spokesman and the leading elder in the Jerusalem church. And it’s this James who writes the letter of James in the New Testament.

 

And what do you know, by the time he pens that letter, James has totally embraced the very thing he found so offensive a few years earlier. 

 

In the five brief chapters of his letter, James addresses the believers he writes to as his “dear brothers and sisters” no less than 15 times. “Those who do the will of God are my brothers and sisters…”

 

In all the New Testament letters, not just James, believers are addressed as “brothers and sisters.”

 

Have you acknowledged who Jesus is and made a settled decision to follow him as Lord and Saviour? Have you done that? That is what makes you a member of the biggest and best family on earth - God’s family.

 

The Bible often uses family language to describe what happens to us when we come into a relationship with God through Jesus. 

 

Galatians 6.10 says, “Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone - especially to those in the family of faith.”

 

God is no longer a remote and unfriendly figure. No, we experience him as our loving, heavenly Father. We are children of God. 

 

Relationships between Christians are given family-like words too. Paul calls Timothy his true son in the faith. In Romans 16, Paul says, “Greet Rufus… and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.”

 

Take a look around you this morning. These are your brothers and your sisters!  If you’re not a Christian yet, these are your potential brothers and sisters! I don’t know if that makes you want to be a Christian more or less! I hope it’s more… 

 

In our society, there are large families, small families, dysfunctional families, happy families, single-parent families, extended families, weird families, broken families, famous families, tragic families and so on. What sort of family is the family of God? 

 

About ten years ago, the Alpha Leadership Conference took place in the Royal Albert Hall. Over 4,000 people, representing over 900 churches, from over 50 countries gathered for it and the place was packed. 

 

Such was the high demand and limited space, the organisers asked the Queen if she would graciously give permission for the Royal Box to be used to squeeze 20 more delegates in. And Her Majesty granted the request. But here’s the thing; who do you think the organisers arranged to be seated in the Royal Box? 

 

Just to give you a bit of context, former Prime Minister Tony Blair was a speaker at the conference but it wasn’t him or any of his entourage. Rick Warren was there too (his book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold 50 million copies he led prayers at Barak Obama’s swearing in as US President) but it wasn’t him either. Several prominent bishops and politicians and ambassadors were there but none of them was seated in the Royal Box. 

 

Who then? The organisers reserved the 20 best seats in the house for homeless people in temporary hostel accommodation and ex-offenders. Isn’t that just genius? No other organisation on earth would even think of doing that. But, you see, everyone is a VIP in the family of God - including you.

 

Ending

 

So, to close, what is God saying to you this morning?

 

Maybe you’ve been trying to run away and hide from God, a bit like Jonah. Is today the day to come back to him. 

Is today the day for you to put your hope once again in the God who raises the dead from the grave? Is today the day to shut the door in the enemy’s face and be filled again with the Holy Spirit? Is today the day to honour and love and value those seated around you here as your real brothers and sisters? 

 

Do you feel the pain of your blood relatives thinking you’re a bit mad for following Jesus? Is today the day when you bring them before God in prayer and remember that Jesus’ brothers came round in the end to seeing who he really is. Is today the day to stand apart from this evil generation, our generation, and follow Jesus wherever he leads?

 

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 12 May 2024