Is Your Boat Sinking?

[HKHaugan]

Is Your Boat Sinking?

 

       Jesus’ disciples caught in a storm while Jesus is in the boat sleeping.  What’s that all about?  When you read Scripture and come upon miracles like the one that starts with this event, you have to ask what it means.  That’s why I always ask, “What does it mean spiritually?’  Here in Matthew 9:21-27, the waves frighten the disciples, and they wake Him asking, “Lord, save us.  We’re going to drown.”  When we appraise how Jesus uses a physical situation to teach a spiritual lesson, we need to be alert. 

       Storms here are spiritual storms.  They come in the moment when the waves of social and personal attitudes wash over the gunnels of our consciousness and scare us within.  All we want is to be saved from their onslaught.  It’s usually at the point of momentary choices and decisions that we feel most insecure or inadequate.  It could even be when we know we should reach out to a stranger or are confronted in a group but fear their possible response. 

       Jesus’ reply is direct.  He names them and indicts their fear, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?  Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”  The question when we read this spiritually is, “What are the winds and the waves?”  We know that winds are what stir up the water to make the waves.  So, could the winds be the social currents, economic currents, political currents, family tensions, inner compulsions that come in breezes and gusts that keep us anxious?  The waves are the specific pressures we as individuals face that occur based on their intensity.  When they appear uncontrollable, we go from either mild anxiety we think we can handle, to looking for a life preserver or even crossing the bridge into panic.

       Jesus is sleeping. What is this ‘sleeping’ event if we see it spiritually?  First, Jesus has the confidence, the assurance, the faith that allows Him to sleep regardless of what is going on around Him.  Second, He doesn’t get rattled, upset or allow weather, be it climatic or social, political, or cultural highs and lows, to disturb the spiritual rest He has within.  Thirdly, the real spiritual word for His sleeping is peace.  And that peace is the peace that passes understanding and as Paul says, “He Himself is our peace (Eph.2:14).”  That means when Jesus is in our hearts it is the Spirit that brings His peace within.  We too can ‘sleep’ in the midst of the crises we face.

       Also, we want to consider the disciples are in a boat and together.  However, regardless of their togetherness, each one has their own fear.  Isn’t it true that we can be with other people but when something threatening appears, we think of ourselves first?  After that, if the threat continues, we do think of the others around us.  But the togetherness of a group of disciples can quickly shift into having to make quick decisions as a group because they want to survive the encounter, whatever it is, as a group.  So, there is the question for groups as to whose leadership will be recognized to see the solution.  It is right there that the spiritual issue is the mind of Jesus.  Will we allow His mind to prevail in the possible conflicts that will emerge? 

       Ultimately what we need to realize is fear is not visible, so we trust the One who is master of the all things invisible.  It is belief, trust and faith, the unseen spiritual quadrant, we depend on to get us through the ‘whatever.’  Everyone believes something and that something is unseen.  For us as disciples of Jesus, we call on Him to save us.  When Scripture tells us that He calms the storm, we believe in His presence in our lives.  You can ‘sleep’ on that mat in that boat because that boat is the Body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit brings that reassurance to us.  The storms may still rage but we stay afloat if we personally vote to wear His coat and stay and pray in the ‘Christ Boat.’  With Jesus as our Lord there is always ‘a shelter in the storm’ and a ‘Light at the end of the tunnel.’ 

       Therefore, this is where the great divide takes place.  It’s the divide where we choose either spiritual reality or worldly unreality.  That divide is between things like being stoic, hoping against hope, depending on self, maybe some religious exercise or this,---finally relying on a relationship with the Lord Jesus.  That’s the valley of decision every human being has to eventually travel through (Joel 3:14-16).  Every incidence of choice in life demands crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land of a spiritual relationship with Jesus.  That Jordan is also the Cross.  The Cross is the faith in His presence that governs our lives from one choice to another.  Taking up our cross is admitting that we are ‘little faiths’ needing the ‘Big Faith,’ the gift empowered by the Holy Spirit that Jesus fulfilled on the Cross resulting in His Resurrection from the dead, and now given to us personally.

       These three encounters of Jesus give us a further look into the spiritual nature of who we are, what we are, why we are and where we are. So, in one sense, when we talk about the mat, did Jesus have a mat?  Well yes.  The mat Jesus was carrying was His virgin birth, His faith, His Baptism, His temptations in the wilderness, His obedience to the will of His Father, His reliance on the Word, His being led by the Holy Spirit and all the experiences He had that are recorded in the Scripture.  For us He is the Savior and Lord who is helping us weave our mat while we are on the way.  Another way to put it.  The Lord Jesus is giving each of us a mat, Holy Scripture as the bedrock for sharing our spiritual experience as we roam this fallen world (Deut.11:18-19), “Get up, walk and take your mat…I am with you all the way.”