“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, “‘You of little faith,”’ he said, “‘why did you doubt?”
~ Matthew 14:31
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you lives filled with gnawing angst? Are you convinced that a devastating shoe is about to fall on you? Are you thinking that the ground is about to split open to swallow you alive as the skies are falling on you to crush you to death? Are your lives filled with comforting hope? Are you convinced that there is a Divine power Who is completely able to keep you from making a wrong choice? Are you thinking that a perceived misguided consensus selection yesterday probably will not lead you to fall into a tar pit or being hit by a fiery dart sent from heaven? Do you do introspective, negative processing on whatever it is that happens in your lives or do you do forward thinking, optimistic moving ahead after what it is that has happened in your lives? Your grandpaa tends to become miserable and pessimistic if whatever it is that has happened does not fit your grandpaa’s thinking of how something should have happened. When your grandpaa’s ma died over two months ago and even though your grandpaa was sad that his ma was no longer alive on planet Earth, your grandpaa knew that it was time for his ma’s life on planet Earth to come to an end – as your grandpaa’s ma could no longer live the quality kind of life where she could get around to do what she enjoyed doing. When the Cubs – which has always been your grandpaa’s favorite baseball team ever since your grandpaa first began to as a kid listen to Cubs games on a Sioux Falls, South Dakota radio station lost again in the playoffs this year to get into the World Series, your grandpaa was able to quickly shake off his feelings of disappointment. After a guy was nationally elected yesterday to be the President of the United States – a guy who has an ideology that is antithetical with the vast majority of your grandpaa’s values, your grandpaa is having a hard time reconciling why God has this perceived dark force now in place to lead a country that was founded for the express purpose of freely worshipping Him. After the United States Supreme Court concluded that an embryo was a disease and told schools to stop Bible reading and Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals have taken on being quasi enterprises and social centers, it should not be a surprise that God is quite probably sending a wakeup call.
Do you think that God may be figuratively backing up the clock nearly 2000 years? Do you know what the political climate was like in the land of Israel when Jesus traveled by land between the departments of Galilee and Judah and through Samaria? Do you know what the religiosity mood was like among the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were Jesus’ people groups guys and gals, and among the other people groups of guys and gals who were living in the land of Israel? Do you know the discipleship model that Jesus used when He picked twelve guys to disciple? Matthew 14 gives a synopsis of Rome’s influence over God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in Israel, the spiritual hunger of the guys and gals who went where Jesus went and Jesus’ discipleship model that was hands-on. Whoever divided the Matthew Book into chapters began this chapter with Matthew recounting a raucous, rowdy birthday party that resulted in the brutal killing of the first Christ-follower movement icon. The wild birthday party was for Salome. Salome was the daughter of Herodias. Herodias was the wife of Herod the Great who was also called Herod Antipas. Herodias had first married Herod Philip. Herod Philip was Herodias’ uncle and the half-bro of Herod Antipas. During a visit to Herod Philip’s palace in Rome, Herod Antipas convinced Herodias to leave her husband – who was his half-bro, and to marry him. This was something totally unacceptable to do per the Jewish Law. After John the Baptist made it an issue that Herodias had married the half-bro of her old husband while her old husband was still alive, Herodias made Herod Antipas jail John the Baptist. After Salome danced a torrid dance that really pleased Herod Antipas, Herod Antipas promised his wife that he would do whatever she asked him to do. Herodias asked for John the Baptist’s head to be given to her on a wood platter. Even though Herod Antipas really did not want to kill John the Baptist, Herod Antipas did what his wife asked him to do and . . .
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus. When Jesus got the news about John the Baptist, Jesus found a solitary place to reflect privately. Your grandpaa feels like he needs to do more often private reflection when he has to wrestle with something that makes his stomach roil. The crowds of guys, gals and kids who were following Jesus would not leave Jesus alone. When at least 5,000 guys – plus gals and kids, who were following Jesus moved into Jesus’s space after they found out where Jesus went after He found a quiet spot to decompress His feelings regarding what happened to John the Baptist – with whom He had had special relationship, Jesus’ disciples told Him that everybody was hungry. Jesus miraculous fed everyone using five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus then told His disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side of Lake Galilee. Sometime between three and six in the morning, Jesus’ disciples spotted an apparition – Who was Jesus, coming towards them. When Peter saw what seemed to be a ghost was Jesus, Peter asked if he could walk on the water with Jesus. When Peter got the go ahead from Jesus to walk with Him on the water, Peter did water walking until he suddenly realized that the waves from the bad storm that he and his buddies were in were . . . Peter began to sink. Verse 31 says that when Peter called out for help, “Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, “‘You of little faith,”’ he said, “‘why did you doubt?” There is no reason to doubt today that God is in control of how He has everything unfolding.
Matthew 14 (952)