For 2 weeks now I have been interacting with a narrative whose presence in the Gospels leaves me feeling slightly off balance. It is becoming like a splinter in my imagination.
6 times the story of Jesus and his followers out in a boat on wind blown waters at night appears in the gospels. In each telling some elements of the story remain the same – the disciples, a boat, the wind, unbridled fear - yet the identity of Jesus is elastic and ambiguous ! In some instances Jesus is in the boat and in other instances he is out of the boat walking on the water. The disturbing thing is that when Jesus is in the boat up close and personal, those who know him best are left asking the question, “What sort of man is this ?” Out of the boat he appears at distance like some kind of ghost or phantasm and the disciples cry out in fear and terror. Neither option brings relief.
As the boat moves out onto the water, away from the crowd and the safety of the known, it is as though it slipped through a crack between the worlds. The disciples took Jesus out in the boat ‘as he was’ yet out on this margin Jesus expands and intensifies. In sleep his dreams evoke the restless, primordial, creative possibilities of Genesis – the storm like ‘a wind from God over the face of the waters’ - pregnant with change & newness. Likewise his prayer alone on the mountain evokes Moses and encounter with holy Otherness - the storm moving before him like ‘the voice of the Lord… over the waters… the God of Glory… thundering’ - powerfully declaring the One who walks on water.
John captures this ‘holy Otherness’ when he tells the story. In his telling, Jesus doesn’t calm the storm. He instead reveals himself to them as ‘I am – do be afraid’ & when the disciples try to take him into the boat, they instantly arrive at the their destination. What happens in-between happens on Jesus’ terms. And Jesus will not be contained or domesticated. Outwards & Downwards !
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