February 13, 2005

Walking on Water / Crystal



The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid."

Job 9:8: God "treads upon the crests of the sea." :-)

To me, this miracle has a few aspects to be considered. It shows Jesus as having command over natural phenomena, like God. It shows the terror we can feel when confronted by the all-bets-are-off nature of suspended "reality". And finally, Jesus says to not be afraid - he's compassionate, and apparently, will intervene for our benefit.

5 comments:

Meredith said...

Crystal,
As you noted,this story of Jesus walking on water and calming the waves suggests that Jesus participates in the power and authority of GOd - what the Hebrew Bible said about God is now said about Jesus.
Meredith

Larry Clayton said...

Crystal, the Job ref is lovely (and I will put that in my commentary).

I haven't the slightest doubt that any of us might walk on the water if the occasion arose.

I heard a beautiful story about some missionaries who had gone somewhere (to the heathen) and tried (unsuccessfully, they thought) to impart the gospel, but as they were leving the island, they noticed people coming toward them walking on the water.

Marjorie said...

I love this picture, can you tell me more about it?

crystal said...

Hi Marjorie. Sometimes I go to a website, Art Index by Scripture ... it has a listing of art that corresponds to different scriptural passages ... to look for pics for my blog. That picture that I posted here is found at that page. The artist is James B. Janknegt and a page of his artwork is here. :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks crystal -- I've bookmarked that link.