Jesus, walking over the center of the waters, is his promise to come to us at the hour of our death.

Saturday, 4/29/17

In the Gospel, Jesus came walking to the disciples over the water. Most New Testament stories like this one are echoes of Old Testament happenings.

As an example of that kind of thing take another famous New Testament story echoing the Old Testament , that is The Sermon on the Mount. In it, Jesus, leaving the people below, brought the disciples up the mountain with him, before delivering the Beatitudes, which were the key one-liners off the New Testament. The importance of that happening becomes clear when you see how it echoes Chapter Twenty-four of Exodus, where Moses, leaving the Israelites on the flat area below, brought the leaders of the tribes up the mountain with hm, going on to deliver the Ten Commandments, which were the key one-liners in the Old Testament.

The story of Jesus walking on the water has a meaning for us when we see that he came walking over a wide passage of the Jordan River. In the Old Testament, passing over the Jordan stood for passing safely into the Promised Land. We see that story beautifully told in Chapter Three of the Book of Joshua.

There, when the Jordan was in flood, God told the four men carrying the Arc of the Covenant to lead the people into the flood.  When the people bravely followed the Ark, the waters opened for them. Then, after the men carrying the Ark, took a stand at the bottom of the riverbed, the people passed by it into the Promised Land. They saw their selves passing through death to life. In an old Spiritual the Darkies , with only death as their possible deliverance, sang, “Show me that stream called the River Jordan. That’s the old stream what I longs to cross.”

Jesus, coming to us, walking on the water, is his promise that he will meet us in the midst of death, bringing us through  to the Promised Land.