Unlike Costa Rica’s famous “Jesus Christ lizard,” the Basilisk, or our own beloved Water Striders, human beings have buoyancy issues.  We are not floaters.   Sure, if we lie still in the water and hold our breath just right and make no sudden movements, we may do something akin to ‘floating.’  But a ripple quickly sinks us with sputtering and gasping.

Humans are just too dense.  Though composed mostly of water, we are sinkers.  Even with its remarkable ‘sticky’ polarity and surface tension, water, in its liquid form just cannot sustain the dense mass of a living human body.   Yet we love the water and have devised all kinds of means to be on it and in it.  But alas, all these are ultimately vulnerable.  Boats may break.  Floaties inevitably develop undiscoverable leaks.  And despite their boasting, every generation of ship builders have learned that there are no “unsinkable ships.”

We struggle to stay afloat. Our inventions offer no assurance that we won’t sink into the depths.  Our own works are never enough.  They cannot reliably hold us up.  Perhaps this is why Scripture often compares sinking in the depths to our need for a faith rooted in God’s grace not our own works, observations, or reasoning.

When the “Old Salts” throw Jonah into the raging sea and is rescued by the “ordained great fish,” he prays.

The waters closed in over me to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
    at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
    whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
    O Lord my God.
When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple. Jonah 2:4-7

And in Mark some of the greatest challenges to the faith of the Twelve come in three ‘boat episodes.’  These men who lived with Jesus, day in and day out, for three years and saw “many other things that Jesus did.”  And as John notes, “were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”  If any men could have had faith simply from observing the signs, hearing the words and putting it all together, it would have been the Twelve. 

Yet the further we travel in the gospel of Mark, the duller they seem to become.  Indeed, in Luke 17:20, Jesus declares. “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

The feeding of the five thousand had a tremendous impact.  John writes “when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.’”   The next day Jesus would confront the crowds and many of his disciples with their false expectations and their true need. Sadly, we read “many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

To shield the Twelve from the crowd’s messianic fervor, Jesus hurries them into the boat and sends them away.  While Jesus prays on the mountainside, the disciples struggle against a storm on the lake.  Around 3:00 am, Jesus sees them struggling and comes to them, walking on the water.  In a story that shows clearly the human and divine natures of Jesus, united in one person, the disciples are terrified, not comforted by his coming.  And Mark comments that their fear is because they had not understood about the loaves.

Faith is reasonable, but it is not reasoned.  It does not grow merely out of our observations, our actions, or our reflections.  The scripture teaches that “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works.”  Faith is a gift.  If anyone should have had a growing faith, it would have been the Twelve.  Yet faith does not grow by assessing our experience or weighing the evidence, but as Jesus reveals himself to us as our savior, redeemer, mediator, shepherd, sovereign Lord.  Only the faith that Jesus gives can keep us afloat in a sea of doubt and fear and sin. 

Join us as we examine Mark 6:45-52 and consider how Jesus guards and grows the faith of his struggling disciples as he comes to them by walking on the water. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.