When Jesus preforms miracles involving water in the New Testament, today's audiences are likely to miss the true import of his acts. We need the context of the Old Testament to get a more complete picture. As God revealed himself more and more throughout Old Testament history, the Israelites came to a deeper and deeper understanding of who God is and how he interacts with his creation.
One such development was the question of how God created the world. Early on, the Israelites conceptualized the creation of the world as God subduing the forces of chaos, which were represented by water. In this understanding, God defeated chaos and pushed back the waters to make room for the dry land. Only much later, toward the end of the Old Testament period, did the Israelites come to the full understanding that God created the world out of nothing.
Throughout the Old Testament, we see a number of instances of God showing his power by subduing water. As an instrument of God's power, Moses turns the waters of the Nile River into blood. As the Israelites are fleeing from Egypt, Moses separates the Red Sea, enabling the Israelites to cross dry-shod, then he closes the sea back over the pursuing Egyptian army. Later, Moses draws water from a rock by striking it. After the Israelites are settled in the Promised Land, they often disobey God, who sometimes responds by withholding the rains from the sky. We also see that the prophet Elisha stops the flow of the Jordan River in order to cross dry-shod after he receives a special anointing of God's grace.
In the ancient Israelite perspective, all of these instances of God's power over water would have been manifestations of God's power over the waters of chaos, thereby showing his absolute power as Creator and Ruler of the world. When we look at the Gospels from with the ancient Israelite perspective in mind, the miracles involving water take on new meaning.
Jesus turns water into wine at his first public miracle, as he starts his public ministry. Jesus walks on water and enables Peter to do so as well in that moment, as long as he has faith. In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, Jesus calms the storm, causing the winds to recede and the waters to be calm. For his Jewish contemporaries, all of these acts would have been direct signs of his divinity, showing that he has the same power as the power God showed in the Old Testament.
But before the disciples come to realize the extent of Christ's power, they are terrified, fearing that they will drown in the storm. As we apply the message of this passage to our own lives, we should think about when we too act like the disciples in this scene. As we are buffeted by the storms of life, how often do we think that God is asleep, not caring about us, not using his power to save us?
We must remember that just as Christ was in charge of the boat, he is also in charge of our lives. As long as we stay united with him through the spiritual life of the Church, we can depend on Christ to lead us through the storm to safe harbor. At the same time, relying on God does not mean that we do nothing in our predicament. God has empowered each of us with skills and resources, which we are to use to the best of our ability, while always relying on the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us in our labors.
||
The readings for Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Jb 38:1, 8-11
Ps 107:23-24, 25-26, 28-29, 30-31
2 Cor 5:14-17
Mk 4:35-41
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The Sea of Galilee by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.