Rapid Transit & Potential ... (witness number elevent)

Rapid, unexplainable travel, was to the disciple John, yet another witness to the divinity of Christ.  In our last section, John discusses how Christ “removed” Himself from a crowd of 5000 men (plus women and children) who were intent on forcing Him to become their king after the feeding of this crowd.  Christ simply became unavailable to their intentions.  But how does one simply disappear in a crowd of that many witnesses united in a singular purpose (well meaning, but not in line with God’s will)?  To John this ability was a hallmark of the divinity of Christ.  But chapter six, does not end with this singular incident, it continues almost immediately with 2 more. 

Verse 16 picks up with a passage of time, presumably from lunchtime to evening perhaps dinner time when the disciples decide to go down to the Sea of Galilee and take a boat over to the city of Capernaum.  Perhaps after not knowing where Christ was for a period of time, they thought He might have gone ahead of them there based on prior discussions with Him.  Perhaps it was just their best idea of where they might find Him.  Whatever their thinking, they entered the boat, and made for the other shoreline.  Verse 17 makes it clear, that it was now dark, and Jesus was not already with them in the boat.  This distinction was important to John to specify for this part of the story.  And as their luck would have it, or perhaps as Satan often does with us when we find ourselves outside of the immediate presence of Christ; verse 18 continues … “And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.”  Enter the storms of life.

We do not exist in a neutral world.  The life that surrounds us is not passive to our decisions and actions.  Battle lines are drawn in every aspect of life we find ourselves within.  The forces of evil are not simply dormant or uninterested in our fate.  They have but one recourse left to them.  They are doomed, with a certainty they cannot escape.  They have no illusions about winning the final war with God.  They lost the first one in heaven and were cast out.  They lost the second one at the resurrection of Christ when not even death could hold back the love of God.  And they will lose the third one when fire will rain down and consume the remnants of their now tortured existence ending their lives forever.  This fate is inescapable.  Given that, the only meaning they have left, in a doomed existence, is to spread the pain of loss to God, by dragging as many of us with them into the abyss as is possible.  This is their entire purpose now, as after their failure at the resurrection of Christ, no hope is left to them for conquering God.  So to cause us pain, is to cause God pain.  To see us fail, is to “win” against God, to deprive God of the only treasure He is invested in, our freedom from pain.  It is against this battle, that seas will arise with a great wind.  It is against this battle, that your life will not be free from the pain this world can bring.  Evil forces are not sleeping where your life is concerned, they are actively attempting to bring you pain, and thereby cause pain to God.

But as Satan and his forces are not dormant in the battle, neither are the forces of the Lord.  In verse 19, John begins as if to offer a prelude to coming events, by stating how far they managed to move the boat by rowing it (around 25 to 30 furlongs).  How poignant that our best efforts against the storms of Satan show such meager results.  But verse 19 continues … “they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.”  Here in the middle of a storm no less, is Jesus walking on the sea heading right towards them.  And their first response was fear.  In the middle of a battle against the storms of life, we see approaching us, the miraculous presence of Christ, we see our hope on the horizon, and our first response is … fear.  How could a miracle really happen to us?  How could something we “know” to be impossible, be happening in spite of our “knowledge”.  How could the impossible become possible?  Enter Christ.  Experienced fishermen knew how to handle a boat.  They knew the effects of gravity on water.  They knew that walking on water was simply and clearly impossible, particularly during a storm.  These are all facts upon which science would side with the knowledge of the fishermen disciples; undisputed facts.  Yet that is exactly what their bewildered eyes are giving witness to.  Christ is doing what they simply “knew” He could not do.  In the human vernacular, we call this a miracle.

And what is the response of our loving God to our irrational fears?  I use the word ‘irrational’ because our God has done nothing to ever make us question His motives, or His love.  Every act of God in our lives whether miraculous or mundane has demonstrated it is always in our best interest.  But despite our history with Him, we still react in fear to what we do not know, or rather, when our “knowledge” is undone by what He does.  Verse 20 says … “But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.”  Christ begins by identifying Himself to his disciples.  This is not some dark apparition, or evil spirit, it is Christ, in the flesh, God in man.  And as such, you have no reason to fear.  When the storms of Satan surround us, the sea is high with waves and winds that threaten to tear apart our lives, and we see the miraculous presence of Christ, we have no need to fear.  We can relax.  We can set aside the facts we “know” to be true, and begin to experience the miracles Christ is doing in front of our eyes, and despite our knowledge.  Facts, and accumulated scientific knowledge, are often set aside in the face of love.

Verse 21, brings a third miraculous demonstration to John and his contemporaries.  But it does more than that.  It once again outlines the entirety of the gospel in a single verse.  It states … “Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.”  They by choice, “willingly” received him into the ship.  They took Christ in.  They accepted Him into their company, into their lives.  This is our part in the act of salvation.  We must choose to accept what Christ is offering, namely His transformative presence in our lives.  When Satan rages against us, our defense is not to keep on rowing.  Our defense is not to wage war on Satan, for Satan is the master of war and will swallow us up in a second.  Our defense is not to look to the strength of our boat, or our oars, or our will power, or our determination.  Our defense is to take Christ into our boat.  Our defense is to accept that what we cannot do, Christ can do.  Our defense is to recognize our defeat, unless we are to be given a victory from outside of ourselves.  This victory can only come when we “willingly” accept it from the only God who offers it.  When we accept Christ into our lives, when let go of the oars, and take the hand of God, there are results.  Immediate results emerge.  The disciples found themselves IMMEDIATELY transported to the shore they were aiming for. 

Zero delays in the gifts of God.  Zero further rowing on the part of the disciples, they took no further action to arrive at their destination, they simply found themselves there, by a miracle they could not explain.  This is how salvation works.  We do not cure ourselves from evil, we are cured by Christ, in a method we will never be able to explain, as it is NOT OUR WORK.  It is the work of Christ that saves us.  The rowing stopped, but the destination was reached anyway, and at a rate the disciples thought to be impossible.  Again, our accumulated scientific knowledge of facts, is set aside in the face and presence of Christ.  Again, what is impossible to us, is accomplished by Christ.  We are NOT able to save ourselves from the bondage of self-service.  But Christ is.  Christ does what we cannot.  Christ alters the rules, we have been bound by.  He transcends our knowledge and facts, and does what we cannot do.  This was no act of partnership on the part of the disciples; they did not accept Christ into the boat, and then keep right on rowing it themselves.  They took Him in, the storm became irrelevant, and they reached the destination in an instant.  Christ did the “work”, they only took Him in.

The words of John echo through the ages.  They outline in physical form, the same process we must engage in from a spiritual perspective if we are ever to see ourselves freed from the bondage of evil.  The point of this witness of John was not merely that Christ could bend the laws of physics, or redefine them at will.  The point of this witness of John was not that they could defeat the storms of life through the actions they took.  The point was only to take Christ into the boat.  The point was to set aside what we know to be true, and accept what Christ offers in spite of what we know.  It is not our definition of the rules of physics that we must allow Christ to remake; it is our definition of truth.  Truth will not be found within us, it will be found only in Christ.  Facts are only relevant in Christ.  Salvation is only possible through the outside gift of Christ to us as we allow it.  Rapid transit is not our goal.  Rapid reformation of who we are is.  If we are to be remade in the image of Christ, we must learn to let go the entirety of who we are today, and be willing to be remade completely.  There is no shred of us, worth holding on to in this process.  The new creature He wishes to make of us needs no stain of our past to ruin the new model He will create.  And His results are guaranteed.  His work beyond our understanding, but effective, and complete none the less.

The potential of who we are to become, can only be found when we let go of our ideas of control, and allow Christ to recreate us, and show us what we are yet to be.  It is not our job, or our focus, to figure out “how” Christ does what He does, but simply to accept it.  We gain the benefit of the work of Christ, without knowing exactly how He does it.  The storms that today are so ever-present, become so completely irrelevant when Christ enters our presence.  Whether it is our health that threatens us, financial ruin, relationships in total decay, even imprisonment for the crimes we have committed; a life made free by Christ can make all these storms of no concern.  For it is a greater freedom He offers.  It is a greater purpose He offers.  It is a greater love He offers.  It makes every second of the life we have one that is worth living.  It makes every opportunity we have to share love even more precious.  It makes every soul around us, of infinite value, a prize to be shared through the eons of time in a place where pain will exist no more.  People we once thought to be our ‘enemies’ can through the love of Christ reflected through us, become our closest friends.  When we see life, through the lens of an infinite God, who plans for us to share a life of complete freedom on a timeline without end, what is important to us here changes.  It is not that storms cease to exist, but that they cease to be relevant.  Transformation is potential that Christ alone can bring, to offer us a vision of life and truth, beyond what we know.  This is His gift.  This is what He offers.