Friday, 20 March Responding to the Messiah. Matthew 14:1–36
Matthew understood irony. Just when he has shown us the wisdom of responding to Jesus as Messiah, he shows us King Herod who responds as all tyrants and bullies do. Not all bullies are secular; some wear ecclesiastical robes. Their methods are similar.
Herod the power-hungry tyrant had had John the Baptist killed in a mad moment of sexual lust after watching his stepdaughter perform an erotic dance. Now, with guilt clouding his judgement, and night-terrors filling his mind, he imagines that John has returned to haunt him in the person of Jesus. Herod was a fool, biblically-speaking. A fool denies that the path to wisdom begins with the awe and reverence of God (Ps. 14:1).
There have always been plenty of powerful fools. Today, we may have more than ever before: clever fools who inhabit universities, schools, parliament, and media organisations.
Over against such follies of power, Matthew shows us Jesus the King, who is coming into his own. He is not yet taking authority over the really serious foes – that will come later. In today’s reading, he ‘merely’ demonstrates his complete control of the physical and natural world. He feeds 5000 from a few loaves of bread subverting the law of conservation of matter; he enables Peter to walk, as he himself is doing, on the surface of the water overturning the physical properties of water, and he calms the weather. All in a day’s work for the rightful King who is coming into his True Inheritance.
If you are a keen reader of J. R. R. Tolkien’sThe Lord of the Rings you may by now be thinking (because you just can't help yourself) of the moment when the mysterious, secretive figure, Strider, is revealed as the noble King Aragorn, finally inheriting the kingdom for which he was born:
When Aragorn arose, all that beheld him gazed in silence, for it seemed to them that he was revealed to them now for the first time. Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him.
Honestly, if you cannot see in Tolkien’s description, the clearly intended similarities with Jesus the Messiah, you really aren’t trying! Tolkien knew exactly what he was doing, in showing us what true Kingship is, linking our minds and memories with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as he describes the True King finally coming to rescue and serve his own people.
But perhaps we are getting a little ahead of ourselves, as the King is not yet fully revealed. But we do see, nevertheless, the beginning of the process here. We are being invited to respond to the Messiah, and to help us do that, Matthew shows Jesus as the King in the Making. Today he ‘merely’ overcomes the natural order of things. Satan and his demon hordes tremble in very fear of what must be to come.
Let’s remind ourselves briefly of what Jesus does in today's reading.
Firstly, let’s note the not-so-obvious. There are just a few lines – almost throwaway lines – where Jesus heals many hundreds of sick people. Read those verses again:
v14: When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
v35–6: After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
These miraculous events would have been enough for a chapter of their own. Matthew tucks them in as bookends, afterthoughts.
But note carefully, the introduction to the last verse: After the people of that place recognized him…There’s the key! That’s precisely what Herod did not do. He failed to recognise Jesus as the one who could work miracles. There are plenty of Herods today – some of them even in the church and holding permanent jobs in seminaries!
In these miracles, Jesus repairs DNA, restores decayed body parts, overrides immune systems, destroys bacteria… In short, he demonstrates his control over the human body.
In the feeding of the 5000, Jesus demonstrates his control over the normal physical laws governing living things. Both wheat and fish are ordinarily capable of multiplying themselves many times over. That is part of the natural process of the life cycle of each. But they can only do it when there is life in the wheat seed and the healthy fish. Jesus took the dead versions of each and multiplied them anyway.
Cemeteries the world over will be upturned one day with the evidence of his doing that again, but this time with human beings. John the Baptist’s followers knew well what they were doing. Herod might have chopped off John’s head, but his followers buried his body. Wise gardeners, they were planting a seed that would one day sprout with new life, new head, new being.
In the walking on water and calming the wind, Jesus demonstrates his control over the non-living physical world. Human beings quail before the awesome power of the natural world. Storms, volcanoes, earthquakes, droughts, floods, tsunamis – we know that we are no match for any of these. They can destroy us in an instant.
It is not surprising that Peter’s courage failed at a critical moment. Whose wouldn't? But Jesus’ words bear hearing again: You of little faith, why did you doubt? Why indeed? Why do I doubt so often? There is no good reason, just excuses.
Matthew wants us to think about how we are Responding to the Messiah. He gives an update on how things are going on the ground for Jesus’ ministry in v33: And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’.
Matthew leaves us with the simple question: Are you in the boat with Jesus?
Prayer - three for today: Ahoy there, Jesus! I want to declare that I am in the boat with you. And that is where I intend to stay. I can't help but recite that loveliest prayer of the Hebridean Islands, for the launching of a new boat, one of their little rounded coracles (I'm quoting from memory – I hope it’s accurate):
Round our skiff be God’s aboutness
Ere she try the deeps of sea.
Sea-shell frail for all her stoutness,
Unless Thou her Helmsman be!
And, for yet an extra prayer, as we get to the end of a very grim week of COVID19 news, which no doubt has made us all a little anxious, as we practise social distancing, avoiding other people’s breath and touching. If you are leading any groups or even just saying grace at home, you might like to use this benediction which came to me this week as I was praying and thinking:
May God the Father breathe on us
So that we are set at ease, not dis-eased.
May the Son, Jesus, hold our hand as we walk on the way,
So that we are comforted, not threatened.
May the Spirit nestle deep inside us
So that our hearts are strangely warmed, our fears stilled.
