“WHAT MANNER OF MAN IS THIS? THE GOD/MAN!”
Saint Matthew 8: 23-27
The 4th Sunday after The Epiphany: 30 January Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Although Adam, your father, knew not ships, boats, and sailing vessels—his grandson 8 generations down the line, certainly did! Noah and his immediate family, 8 souls in all, were saved by God with the Ark. The wood of God with the word attached to it saved them. Or as Saint Peter writes: “God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us” [1 Pe. 3. 20-21]. And though the Israelites were not a great sea-faring nation like the Phoenicians, Philistines, or Sidonians—they were to be sure a desert dwelling people—even when they were finally carried into Canaan, the land of “milk and honey,” they knew of great ships. Both David in preparation, and Solomon in deliverance, had great trees/logs of cedar lumber sailed south down the Mediterranean coast to be used in the Temple construction.
No, the Jews were not mariners like Captain St. Noah. They were fisherman—especially, if not exclusively, the Galileans!
The Sea of Galilee, Lake Gennesaret, or even called the Sea of Tiberius (the then current Roman Caesar), though not the Red Sea, or the Agean, or the Med, itself, still could be dangerous and deadly in violent, quick-forming thunderstorms and powerful wind-shears. The best swimmer, the most competent fisherman can quickly be lost if his boat capsizes, sinks, and he’s thrown into white-cap breaking swells and pounding waves.
Since you are neither Galileans or present-day fisherman on large bodies of water the physical parallels end there. But to be sure, people do still perish in storms upon the waters—whether the Edmund Fitzgerald seasoned crew of 29 on the monstrous Lake Superior or 17 holiday vacationers on Table Rock Lake, Missoura.
And then there’s all of you sailing the tempestuous sea of life with all its storms, hidden shoals, marauding spiritual pirates, and hardships.
Jesus. Jesus was with the “12” on that fishing boat. Judas was there. Ponder that. The traitorous “son of perdition” witnessed the miracle…and still…
But it’s always easier to believe in a Creator and Sustainer God when things are going well; when it’s blue skies and sun; when it’s the right temperature; when the family and friends are all healthy and happy; when you are, well, doing what you want and are enjoying it. It’s hard to be a trusting disciple in Christ when you’ve lost your job, your spouse, your reputation, your mental faculties, and your health.
Judas notwithstanding, why did Peter, James, and John panic. Why the “little faith?”
Why did they run away on the night of God’s arrest in Gethsemane?
Why did the “prince of the Apostles; The Rock” deny knowing his dear Lord three times? Why did Elias whine in despair that he was the only one left?
Placed in a well-lit and comfortable church nave, you can always affirm, confirm, and confess your belief in The Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and God. Placed in the oncologist’s office, the morgue—staring at your child, the fox-hole, or the ship being swamped, your own “old Adam”—doubting—thinking God is holding out on His mercies and love—joins with the “12” in sinful doubt and weak faith.
“The ship was covered with the waves; but [Jesus you’re] asleep!”
You disciples of Christ, you apostles to all those who come into your life, you blood-bought Saints—so precious to God that you are engraved in the very palms of The God/Man Christ Jesus—
“Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?”
Yes, we are fearful. Lord have mercy. He does. He is fearless—The Paschal Lamb is also the Lion of Judah. The counterfeit “lion” the one prowling about seeking whom he may devour is crushed by the regal/royal Lion Christ Jesus. You have no fear—in Jesus—since He took fear and all other sins to the cross. He is love, and perfect love casts out all fear. His angels then, and now, tell you: “fear not!” The terrors of shipwreck and drowning; of cancer and ALS; of loosing “goods, fame, child, and wife,” let these all be gone—the storms and tempests and seas have nothing won. The kingdom ours remaineth.
You are + Baptized. That’s the only drowning that matters. You, at the Holy + Font were lifted from the watery grave of the deep with Saint Jonah and placed on the dry land of Mother Church, and into the Ark of Mother Church. In your washings the wind and the sea were rebuked by your Prince of Peace. Live + wet in the Word of God. Live wet and drink deep of the Water and Blood that pours from your Savior’s side.
In Christ, though all the world rages against you, though all the fiery darts of the demons fly at you, you in Jesus, have a “great calm:” a Peace that passeth understanding.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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