And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled.
Christ walking on the sea
Here are presented two points.
I. Human need.
II. Divine help. These two facts are involved in the two aspects of humanity.
I. I ask you to consider the attitude of man towards the supernatural and the unknown. “They cried out for fear.” This was the cry of men tossed and toiling on the wild deep, in the gloom of night. Very startling must have been to them the appearance of that form, advancing through the shadow and over the sea. But that was a cry of our common nature; it was a spontaneous human utterance from a mysterious depth, which under all forms of civilization, and all kinds of religion, abides in the soul of man. Every man awakens to the conviction that there is something beyond this world. It may not be a very practical conviction; thousands may live without any steady appreciation of that to which such a conviction points. But there are occasions when it is suddenly realized. There are three conditions of nature which are especially adapted to stir these feelings of mystery and awe, and all three are involved in the circumstances of the text. These are night, the night sky, and the sea.
1. Witness the common terror of the dead night-time and the dark, not a mere childish superstition, but a solemn awe creeping over the innermost fibres of the heart, “In thought from the visions of the night,” said Eliphaz, “when deep sleep falleth on men,” etc. Even the sceptical mind has acted upon the conviction that something must people that undefined space into which the visible world melts away.
2. Or, again, who has ever looked up through the darkness and gazed upon those orbs of light and glory that shame all splendours of the earth, without the spontaneous conviction of powers and intelligences dwelling outside these beaten ways of our traffic and our thought? What influences rain upon us from those starry depths? What unseen messengers glide down these awful solitudes?
3. Or, once more, consider that element in which the greatness and the mystery of nature and of life are represented. What suggestions of the supernatural and the unknown rise upon us from the bosom of the sea. What intimations beyond our sight; what a conviction of our impotence. Regarding thus this attitude of human need, what help has been found for it?
Two answers have come-one from the side of human sentiment, the other from human reason.
1. One answer elicited in this attitude of human need appears in various forms of superstition. Rock-temples and bloody altars, and human sacrifices proclaim the fact that human nature does not all gravitate to sense and the darkness of annihilation. The superstitious sentiments need some explanation.
2. The answer that comes from the side of reason. Law, force, order, are sublime facts, but not enough for human nature. You cannot by scientific explanation of the seen repress man’s earnest inquiry about the unseen. To our human need, and our attitude towards the supernatural, Christ has come. There is only one voice that can say, “Be of good cheer, be not afraid.”
II. Consider the attitude of man respecting the natural and the known, and here you will observe the conditions of human need and divine help. These men who “cried out for fear” had been “toiling in rowing.” We are troubled here amidst the perplexities and trials of daily life. In one way or another many of us are “toiling in rowing”-the toil of pleasure-or we are rowing through heavy waves of care. Our need calls for Divine help. In seasons of gloom, looking out upon the world around us through shadows, we discern objects at which we shudder. That which excites our fears may be a blessing; but we know it not, and need the assurance that can bid us be of good cheer. (E. H. Chapin)
Jesus no phantom
I. It is too common an error to make a phantom of Christ.
1. How often is this done in the matter of sin and the cleansing of it. Our sin is real to us; but is Christ as real to us?
2. In the matter of our acceptance with God after pardon. Our shortcomings real; equally real the righteousness of Christ.
3. In the matter of sanctification.
4. In times of trial.
5. In time of death.
6. In Christian work.
II. We make Christ a phantom most when he is most really Christ. When He walked on the waves there was more of Christ visible than on land; His Godhead visible. In the pardon of great sin you see most of Christ; so in great distress and danger.
III. Our greatest sorrows arise from our treating our Lord as unreal. TO some Christ is an indifferent spirit. Many a poor sinner imagines Him to be an angry spirit and cries out for fear.
IV. If we could but be cured of this desperate mischief, our Lord Jesus Christ would have a higher place in our esteem, and many other beneficial results would follow:
1. Knowledge.
2. Worship.
3. Service. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Eastern belief in Spirits
The belief is quite general in the East that there exists a class of beings whom they call “Jins,” both male and female, good and bad, which hold an intermediate position between angels and men, were created before the latter, are made of fire, or perhaps of gas, and are capable of assuming a variety of forms, or of becoming invisible at pleasure. They eat, drink, and marry-sometimes human beings-as well as die, though they live several centuries. Many events are accounted for in the East by the agency of the Jins; so that they do not exist in stories alone, but are recognized as active agents in human affairs, (Van Lennep.)
The magic of the Saviour’s voice
It is a wonderful organ, this human voice-wonderful in itself, and no less so in its effects. It is wonderful as an exponent of individual mind and character, being somehow very closely connected with a man, and contributing largely to constitute that aggregate of special qualities we call individuality. So much so, that one is known, is revealed and recognized, by his voice almost as much as by anything outward.. And it is wonderful as an instrument for affecting others. The Saviour’s voice on this occasion operated like a charm; it wrought like magic upon them. It is amazing what power the living voice, especially a long-known and much-loved voice, has to touch the heart, and to awaken confidence and peace, and emotions of all kinds, that may have been long dormant in the soul. (A. L. R. Foote.)