Walking on Water
We have in the New Testament three accounts (Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52 and John 6:16-21) of Jesus of Nazareth walking on water.
After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Several hours later in the night, the disciples encounter a storm. Jesus comes to them, walking on the water. This terrifies the disciples and they think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus tells them, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
Now, in the Matthew account, Peter replies, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." So Jesus invites Peter to come. Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and sees the wind and waves, he begins to sink. Peter cries out to the Lord and Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches Peter. As they climb into the boat together, the storm ceases. Then the disciples worship Jesus, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God.
I first heard this accounts at the Elm Grove United Methodist Church which I attended with my parents on every Sunday morning except the last Sunday of the month when we attended the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church which my Mother had attended in her youth. I was, naturally, filled with wonderment and awe upon learning of this most remarkable feat.
Alas, at 18 years of age I was sent off to North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh for purposes of receiving an education higher than that offered by the secondary schools in Forsyth County. This was a new experience for me because no one had ever encouraged me to NOT believe anything and everything I learned heretofore and hereafter until I had questioned it and convinced MYSELF of its truth.
And, of course, on my first Sunday back home from college I found myself in Mrs. Virginia Hartgrove's Sunday School class talking about Jesus and Peter walking on water. This I shall never forget for, in a flash, I was asking questions as to the truth of someone actually walking on the surface of water as opposed to walking on land covered by a shallow flood of water and Mrs. Hartgrove was informing me that if this was the kind of thing they were teaching me in college that I should not return to her Sunday School class. That Sunday School class, held in the fall of 1964, was the last I ever attended.
The death of a question, it seems, begins with a belief held to be a truth.
After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. Several hours later in the night, the disciples encounter a storm. Jesus comes to them, walking on the water. This terrifies the disciples and they think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus tells them, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
Now, in the Matthew account, Peter replies, "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water." So Jesus invites Peter to come. Peter gets out of the boat and begins walking on the water toward Jesus. But when Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and sees the wind and waves, he begins to sink. Peter cries out to the Lord and Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches Peter. As they climb into the boat together, the storm ceases. Then the disciples worship Jesus, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God.
I first heard this accounts at the Elm Grove United Methodist Church which I attended with my parents on every Sunday morning except the last Sunday of the month when we attended the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church which my Mother had attended in her youth. I was, naturally, filled with wonderment and awe upon learning of this most remarkable feat.
Alas, at 18 years of age I was sent off to North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh for purposes of receiving an education higher than that offered by the secondary schools in Forsyth County. This was a new experience for me because no one had ever encouraged me to NOT believe anything and everything I learned heretofore and hereafter until I had questioned it and convinced MYSELF of its truth.
And, of course, on my first Sunday back home from college I found myself in Mrs. Virginia Hartgrove's Sunday School class talking about Jesus and Peter walking on water. This I shall never forget for, in a flash, I was asking questions as to the truth of someone actually walking on the surface of water as opposed to walking on land covered by a shallow flood of water and Mrs. Hartgrove was informing me that if this was the kind of thing they were teaching me in college that I should not return to her Sunday School class. That Sunday School class, held in the fall of 1964, was the last I ever attended.
The death of a question, it seems, begins with a belief held to be a truth.
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