July 13, 2003
By Jack Price

A priest and a rabbi invited their friend, a Baptist minister, to go fishing with them one day.    While sitting out in the boat, the priest suddenly stood up, said he was thirsty, then walked across the surface of the lake and returned the same way a few minutes later with a cup of coffee.  The rabbi just smiled, but the minister's jaw dropped.  Later, claiming hunger, the rabbi also walked across the water and came back with a sandwich.  The minister was stunned.  He was duly proud of his own spiritual prowess, but this was something he had never even attempted.  Finally, without saying a word, he stood up, stepped out of the boat, and immediately sank straight down into the lake.  Whereupon, the priest turns to the rabbi and said, "What about it -- should we tell him where the rocks are?"

"Walking on water!"  It describes our attitude toward people, perhaps some of us, who do amazing things.  People who perform miracles each day at work or at home, doing things others find beyond belief, are said to "walk on water".  It is a precarious tightrope-walk of expectation and performance. 

The Walk-on-Water Syndrome is a title borrowed with appreciation from a book by Dr. Ed Bratcher.  He talks about the tendency of ministers and others to believe themselves invincible, indispensable, and otherwise divinely ordained to do the impossible and solve the world's problems!  The reality that cannot actually "walk on water" often comes as quite a shock, at least to us.  But Jesus could walk on water according to Mark's Gospel. 

The Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, Jesus has just fed 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread, with twelve baskets of food left over.  Then, beginning with verse 45:

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.  After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.  When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea.  He intended to pass them by.  But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified.  But immediately, he spoke to them and said, "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid."  Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased.  And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

Jesus needed to be alone, needed to pray, so he got rid of everybody.  Perhaps burned out, emotionally exhausted by the teaching and healing and by dealing with peoples' expectations, he needed to recharge his batteries and have quiet time alone to pray.  So he sent the disciples to the other side of the lake and then he sent the crowds of people away. 

Evening was falling.  The time of crisis and opportunity was coming.  There are a series of "crossing over the sea" stories in Mark's gospel.  They serve as a literary device connecting stories of Jesus' healing and teaching.  The "crossing over" stories all have a common destination -- "the other side."  They involve going to or from Gentile territory on the other side of the Sea of Galilee - figuratively speaking, the other side of the human race.

Some scholars think the story of Jesus walking on the water began as a resurrection appearance account, an experience by the disciples of the living Christ after his death.  Unlike the first crossing, with Jesus asleep in the boat until he was awakened to still a storm, this time, the disciples cross without Jesus.  They go on alone until, in the midst of the storm, he comes to them.  The power of such a story to the church of Mark's generation is unmistakable. 

The language of this story is striking and really points up the idea of separation.   First, Jesus makes the disciples go ahead of him and dismisses the crowd.  Then, he leaves to go off by himself and pray in the hills.   Finally, the boat is described as far out at sea while Jesus is alone on the land.

Jesus waits until the fourth watch, early morning, to come to them.  Many hours have passed since their parting and Jesus sees "his guys" floundering out on the water.  Heaving a sigh, he might have said to himself, "There they go again.  Can't those guys do anything right?  And he went to them walking on the water.   I remember hearing a sermon many years ago based on this story.  The preacher, from a little town called Mule Shoe in west Texas, said that nobody there had any trouble believing Jesus walked on the water.   That may have been in part because of their literal interpretation of the Bible, but even more because nowhere in west Texas was the water over an inch deep!  The Sea of Galilee, though, was very deep and sudden storms coming down out of the mountains caused the ruin of many boats and the death of many sailors.

The first question that occurs to me in hearing this story is "Why?"  Why did Jesus walk across the water?  Because it was shorter than walking around the lake?  If Jesus was so tired, maybe walking was easier than swimming.  Whatever his reason, the story says that Jesus came toward them walking on the water.  Then, there is a curious phrase, "He intended to pass them by."  What is that all about?  Jesus passing by seems to imply that he intended to bypass the disciples and go ahead of them to their destination.  If he was planning to pass them by, why did he come within sight in the first place?

Closer research, however, reveals a very different meaning.  The Old Testament guides us in understanding what this phrase means.  In Ex. 33: 19, 22, Moses is on the mountain with Yahweh who says, "I will make all my goodness pass before you."  Again, in 1 Kings 19: 11, the presence of God passed by Elijah, who was sheltered in the cleft of the rock.  Finally, to the prophet Amos, Yahweh speaks the ominous threat, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by."  "Pass them by" refers to an opportunity to perceive the glory of God.   No human could look on God directly.  The only way of perceiving the divine presence was from the side and back, as it passed by.  From the perspective of Mark's gospel, the living post-Easter Jesus intended to "pass by" the disciples, revealing the glory of God.

The disciples were scared at the specter of a ghost out on the surface of the water.  Their fear caused Jesus to stop and enter the boat.  Jesus responded to their fear by revealing himself.  "Take heart; it is I.  Be not afraid."  He spoke, identifying himself, and came into boat.  The wind ceased.  The disciple reacted with fear, awe, and disbelief because they did not understand about the miracle of the loaves.  Their hearts were hardened, a sign they were moving toward alienation.  What is the connection between the feeding miracle and Jesus walking on the water?  The feeding of 5,000 story places Jesus as the host of the messianic banquet at the end of time.  It identifies Jesus as the messiah and the feeding as primarily spiritual.

This is a story with powerful symbolic meaning.  The boat can represent the Mark-era church, filled with believers who are afraid.  The tossing sea represents chaos, the end of all things, the eschaton.  In the book of Revelation, in the new creation there is no sea.  Chaos is finally overcome.  It represents the conflicted world of Mark and the late first-century church.  Jesus is identified with the Spirit that in creation brooded over the surface of the water.  Jesus is identified with God in contrast to creation -- to humanity and the natural elements.

Jesus presence in the boat calms the storm, keeps the chaos at bay.  His walking across the water brings images again of the Hebrews crossing the Red Sea to freedom.  The hardening of the disciples' hearts is ominous, reminiscent of Pharaoh and all who reject God's message of freedom and justice.

Ched Myers, in Binding the Strong Man, suggests an intriguing interpretation of this story.  All of the "stormy weather while crossing over the sea" stories represent the challenge of the late first-century church to overcome institutionalized segregation between Jews and Gentiles - struggles to make pathway to integration.  In the face of cosmic forces of chaos and their counterparts in the physical world that work against social change, Jesus comes to help - first revealing God, then entering our boat to calm the terror.  The crossing over stories connect a series of episodes in Jesus in which he is breaking down social divisions:  gender, racial, economic, etc.  The crossing is moving in the direction of the Gentiles' territory.  In the context of Mark's church (70-80CE) era, there is a need for the Christian Church to embrace both Jews and Gentiles and move from being a sect of Judaism. 

Our modern world is filled with examples of segregation and estrangement between peoples and between people.  Israelis and Palestinians for example thwart all initiatives for peace.  Efforts are constantly sabotaged by terror and acts of terror.  Violence begets violence.  Commitment to a vision of peace and justice is as hard to navigate as a small boat on a storm-tossed sea.

Efforts to make peace in our own lives and relationships are also subjected to chaotic forces, constantly sabotaged by what might be called "emotional terrorism".  Internal voices sabotage our best efforts and intentions to grow, to make positive changes inside and in our relationships.  These voices tell us we are not any good, or only worthwhile if we do what others want - that we're not smart enough, not committed enough, not attractive enough to succeed.  Destructive family patterns of substance abuse, neglect, non-communication, or violence are like churning storms. 

Efforts as a congregation to make and bring peace, and build a church to navigate the seas of contemporary culture are susceptible to these same forces.  We seek to be church within a popular culture that emphasizes feelings as the supreme good.  American culture with its "can-do" philosophy - more competitive than cooperative -- is driven by a "success-image" that runs contrary to the gospel.  Modern culture, with its "me-orientation," places personal fulfillment, personal comfort, and personal security above community and corporate well being. 

The Jesus of Easter walks across the waters of the chaos of our present age, intending to "pass us by," to reveal the glory of the Holy at the center of existence - to show us all that we can take in of that Sacred and numinous reality.  What choices do we have in response?  Like the disciples, we can lose ourselves in the feelings of the experience, in the experience itself, and completely miss the truth at the core of that experience.  We often do this in our worship, both the individual and private worship of prayer and meditation, and our experience of corporate worship.  Music and worship have the power to transport us into the very presence of the Holy, to glimpse the glory of God as it passes by us.  But if we're not careful, these same elements will transport us right on past. 

When we become so focused on the experience of worship, we risk missing completely the Holy at the heart of that experience.  Like the disciples, our hearts can become hardened as we begin to alienate ourselves from the Holy.  We can feel alienated from the church and cut off from the source of our faith. 

We can lose ourselves in the feelings of our life experience and of our experience of the Holy.  On the other hand, we can learn to see what God is revealing to us, learn to hear what God is teaching us, and learn to receive what God is giving us.  Robert Frost touches this truth in the poem "Take Something Like a Star." 

It asks a little of us here.  It asks of us a certain height,

So when at times the mob is swayed to carry praise or blame too far,

We may take something like a star to stay our minds on and be staid.

The disciples did not make the connection with the story of the loaves.  Divine Mystery loves us and invites our presence at the banquet table of life, not just someday after we die, but now.  Eat well and drink deeply and give glory to the host. 

"O God, Spirit of Truth, soften our hearts to hold you and see you at the core of all our life's experience - in joy and sorrow, through pain and pleasure to perceive you and worship you.  Knowing the total commitment this takes, we pray for strength of will on our part, for availability of resources to support us, and for a sense of your presence always within and around us.  O God, pass us by and come to us, we pray.  Amen."