revelation

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. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night 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." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he 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. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." --Matthew 14: 22-33


I think it's kind of funny that we carry around so many misunderstandings about the nature of Jesus and God. Especially in the case of the bible, reading is such a cross-cultural experience, things just don't make sense that much. Last night I was struck with the incident of Jesus walking on water for the first time this actually makes sense to me. I must admit I owe a lot of this to listening to Rob Bell. I have heard countless sermons on the subject. In fact one week at grinnell, I remember having to study the passage about 5 times in one week in different situations (bible study, church, worship, etc). There is of course the first question of why did Jesus decide to walk out to the boat in the middle of a storm anyways. The second question, which is more interesting to me at this point, is what would make Peter even think about going out on to the water. I think most of the traditional answers I've heard to these are kind of lacking. And the idea that Peter's doubt makes him sink. I mean, as it says, he was actually walking out on the water before he started sinking. He freaking got out of the boat in the first place, so maybe Jesus isn't rebuking him for doubt so much as expressing his ability to do so.

So it seems the main deficiency in my understanding is the nature of discipleship in Jewish culture. Of course, becoming a disciple of a rabbi was no small task. Only the best of the best ended up being accepted by a rabbi after following them around for a significant time. And they indeed did follow as closely as possible to try and do and be the same as their rabbi. If not accepted because the rabbi doesn't think that they can be like him, they of course would just go back to learning the family trade. The people who flunked out of the religious training were the ones that Jesus called to follow him. The calling of the disciples is very strange but not for the reason that seems apparent at first glance (the disciples leaving everything) but because Jesus is actually telling these fishermen, tax collectors that they can indeed be like him. You see later on the disciples being described as "unschooled" but others were amazed by that. The crazy thing that Jesus uses these "failures" to build up his church, he seems to believe that they can do it, and they do.

I guess if the disciples are disciples, they will try to stick as closely to Jesus as possible and try to do the things he does. I thinkhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=998199667039975621# this could be part of Peter's motivation for even thinking of getting out of a boat in the middle of the storm. And Jesus' seeming rebuke of Peter may be less of "why are you such a screw up, doubter?" and more of "why don't you believe that you can do this? You can." That is a little more difficult for me to swallow, but it seems to me closer to the heart of what was going on there than what I have heard in the past.



Oh yeah, and of course the necessary Mutemath video: