Fr Oliver Treanor looks at the miracle of Jesus calming the waters of the storm and draws out the fuller significance of it for us Christians.
Jesus performed his most dramatic miracle one dark night when he braved a wild and wind-swept sea to walk across its waters. The story appears again and again in the New Testament (Mt 14; Mk 6; Jn 6), so it meant a lot to the early Christian Churches. It still has a lot to say to us who live in troubled times today.
Vicious, squally storms are common enough on the Sea of Galilee. The wind from the surrounding hills gets trapped in the saucer of the lake below and it takes a while to blow itself out again. Any hapless little craft out on such a night will find itself in serious difficulty without warning. Even experienced boatmen can find themselves caught in the terror of these sudden tempests.
Away from Jesus
This is what happened to the disciples. They were rowing across to Bethsaida when, three or four miles out from land, the wind descended on them like a hawk and savaged the waves around them. They had left Jesus behind on the oth,er shore. He had wanted to go to the hills by himself to pray and so they were alone. They started to panic.
They must have struggled all night with the storm because Mark tells us they set out before evening and were still in trouble by ‘the fourth watch of the night’ – that is by four or five in the morning. To understand what they went through, ask any.fisherman from the West of Ireland about the sea at night. He will tell you better than I of the despair that swamps even the stoutest hearts.
‘Do not be afraid’
When the gale was at its worst, when the boat was ready to go under, when the men were about to give up, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. They saw him and were petrified. ‘Do not be afraid!’ he called to them in a calm voice; ‘It.is I’ (Jn 6). ‘Take heart, it is I; have no fear’ (Mk 6; Mt 14). Then he climbed into the boat beside them and that was it. The wind dropped, the waves died down, the storm ceased. Before they knew it they were over at the other side, the crisis had passed.
What makes this such a fascinating story is that it is not just about a storm at sea. It is about Jesus’ power to tread underfoot every trauma that threatens to destroy people. When he rose from the tomb on Easter morning, he put his foot on everything that makes us despair, and defeated it.
Indeed some scripture scholars insist that the walking on the waters was one of the resurrection appearances, that happened after Easter, that the gospel writers inserted it into their text early in the narrative to alert their readers to who Jesus really was and what he had power to do.
Enormous problems
Why might they.have done this? To reassure the struggling Christian communities of the first century AD who were facing enormous problems as they tried to live the gospel and share it with others: opposition from the Jewish authorities, persecution from the Romans, power struggles in their own ranks, personal sinfulness – wave upon wave of challenge and trial, year in year out!
Yet the Church’s strength, the evangelists reminded them, is the living Christ in their midst. Even though he has ascended to the Father, he was still with them. Having risen above these things himself, he was showing them how to rise above them too so that they should not be overwhelmed and go under, no matter how dark the night or turbulent the gale.
Did this mean Jesus wished to protect his disciples from reality? Was the gospel suggesting the Church should anaesthetize itself against crises and difficulties until they simply went away? Hardly. Jesus did not anaesthetize himself against reality on the cross at Calvary. He even refused the painkiller of wine and myrrh offered to deaden the pain of his dying.
Facing the cross
Nor does the gospel propose running away from the cross of daily living. Quite the opposite. Unless the cross is taken up and shouldered every morning, no person can be a follower of Christ.
What the walking on the waters does teach us is that when people do their best to contend with the storm, the Easter Jesus will not abandon them. As Lord of the resurrection he will come.to them in person and bring their efforts to completion. He will get into the boat with them and bless their journey with his peace.
Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of failure; there is never any justification for despair. Hopelessness is out of harmony with faith. .It would be an inappropriate response to the situation. Even when the storm lasts all night, even when Jesus is on a different shore, disciples do not give up. Christ is in the hills praying for his Church. He has the boat constantly in view. He is himself Master of the wind and sea. He will make his appearance in his own good time.
Sacrament of peace
It is interesting that Matthew, Mark and John preface the calming of the storm with the feeding of the five thousand, when Jesus provided the multitudes of his followers with bread in abundance.
It was a sign of the Eucharist which was to come later. The evangelists unanimously link the two incidents. First the provision of bread, then the walking through the storm. First the Eucharist, then the victory over the hurricane. First the Bread of Life, then the encounter with the risen Lord.
In Mark’s account the evangelist even underlines the connection: ‘After Jesus got into the boat and the wind dropped they were utterly and completely dumbfounded, because they had not seen what the miracles of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.
What was it their minds were closed to? The Eucharist as Sacrament of Peace. The Lord who has the power to change bread into his risen body is a Lord who is worthy of trust.
Transforming all things in himself, he not only turns darkness into light, turbulence into calm, but also insecurity into confidence, agitation into serenity. And this is why he gently upbraided them for their lack of faith. And why the early Churches cherished this story.
So long as they celebrated the Eucharist they had all that was required to tackle trouble without anxiety. For through this sacrament Jesus would always be with them, unleashing the full force of his death and resurrection. Even in troubled times they knew there was no force in the universe greater than this.
Victory over the world
Two thousand years later, history has proved them right. Christ is still nourising the faith that proclaims him as Lord and acknowledges his victory over the world. Jesus loves to walk on troubled waters, and wishes not to walk alone!
This article first appeared in The Messenger (October 1998), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
