“Take Courage! Don’t Be Afraid!”
Matthew 14:22-33

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost—August 9, 2020

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

During college I was blessed to visit the Holy Land for the first time, and stayed for a few days at a resort on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  There are still commercial fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.  They follow the age-old custom of going out in their fishing boats at night.  Another pre-seminary student I was traveling with thought a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee would be an interesting experience, so he asked our tour guide to see if it would be possible for us to go out with a fishing boat one night.  But, the fishermen said no, BECAUSE, they told the tour guide, they did not want Gentiles with them on their boat.  They feared it might bring them bad luck, or, especially, bad WEATHER.

Normally, the Sea of Galilee is a peaceful, placid lake, about eight miles wide and twelve miles long.  But, occasionally, extremely violent storms do erupt on this lake, suddenly and without warning.  Modern meteorologists explain it’s because the Sea of Galilee itself is below sea level, but down in a bowl-shaped valley, surrounded by very high, steep hills.  This causes abrupt shifts in temperature which produce sudden, unusually violent storms. 

In ancient times fish from the Sea of Galilee were considered a rare delicacy.  They were salted and transported to Rome itself, where they were in great demand, the caviar of the Roman world.  The fishermen back then who trolled the Sea of Galilee for these very valuable fish did not understand the scientific reasons why on this lake unusual, violent storms would mysteriously arise.  So, these strange storms were often interpreted as a sign that God must be angry with the fishermen.

It’s often the same scenario in our lives.  We’re sailing smoothly along on the calm sea of life, and suddenly, out of nowhere, there comes into our life a terrible storm:  injury, sickness, death; financial problems, trouble with work or business, job loss; struggles within our marriage or family; accidents and devastating disasters.  And of course right now, many are experiencing all that and more, hitting us all at once, because of the coronavirus.  When such troubles strike we wonder if maybe God is angry with us.

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.”  After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sends the disciples on ahead of him to the other side of the lake.  Most of the disciples had previously been fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, so being out on the lake at night was very familiar to them.  John says, “When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum.” 

The trip across the lake should normally take about two hours.   But suddenly, a violent storm erupts.  John says, “A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.”  The storm is so severe that the disciples can’t make headway.  Mark says they were “straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.”  The disciples fight against the wind all night, but by the fourth watch of the night, between 3:00am and 6:00am, John tells us they have only gone about 3 1/2 miles.  That puts them in the most dangerous spot possible, right in the middle of the lake, in the midst of a terrible storm.  Matthew says that “the boat was a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves.”  The word for “buffeted” means literally “to put to the test by torture.”  So the disciples are “a considerable distance from land,” “in the middle of the lake,” “straining at the oars,” and their boat is being “tortured” by the waves, ready at any moment to blow apart and sink.  It seems a hopeless situation.

“During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.  When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.”  It was a Jewish superstition that at the time of death a spirit would come to take you.  That’s what the disciples thought they were seeing.  They were so close to drowning that they superstitiously thought Jesus was the grim reaper, a sign that they were about to die. 

Just as the disciples were at first afraid of Jesus, in times of trouble we may be frightened of God, because we may fear that God is angry with us and punishing us.

“But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’”  Paul says in Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  “Don’t be afraid.”  God is for you, not against you.  “Don’t be afraid.”  God is not angry with you.  “Don’t be afraid.”  The storms in your life are not a punishment.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s sins against them.”  Through Christ, you are reconciled to God.  Because of Christ, your sins are not counted against you.  Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.”  Paul says in Ephesians, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”  And Revelation says, “He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.”

“Take courage! . . .  Don’t be afraid.”  The storms of life are not a punishment for your sins, because your sins are all forgiven and forgotten.  As Psalm 103 says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. . .  as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”  Paul says in 1st Corinthians 13, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.”  That is the love God has for you, a forgiving love that keeps no record of wrongs.  “Take courage! . . .  Don’t be afraid.”

“The wind died down.  Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”  John adds, “And immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.”  In the same way, Jesus is with you, to bring you safely through the storms of life to the shores of heaven.  As Paul says in 2nd Timothy, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

When you are hit with a sudden storm in your life, do not think that it is a punishment from God, do not think that God is angry with you.  “Take courage! . .  Don’t be afraid.”  Jesus is with you, Jesus will rescue you, Jesus will help you through the storms of this life, and Jesus bring you safely to the shores of eternal life.