Sun Kwak, “Closed Clauses in Punctuated Promises”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFHLkjzAQ1I

TEXT: Mark 6:45-56

[45] Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. [46] And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. [47] And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. [48] And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, [49] but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, [50] for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” [51] And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, [52] for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

[53] When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. [54] And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him [55] and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. [56] And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

SERMON: “Closed Clauses in Punctuated Promises”

When our son Rowe was younger, he was pretty attached to dad. I guess he still kind of is. But when he would wake up from his sleep in the middle of the night, he would frantically look for me in the dark. Before bedtime, we would do our nighttime routines, and he would fall asleep with me next to him. But when he would wake up and find himself alone in the bed, he would wake up terrified. And I’d be alerted to this terror, with this panicked — Daddy! And so, I would rush into the dark room and lie next to him. And when he would ask — Where are you? I would respond — I’m right here. And he would ask — But I can’t see you. Of course, because it was dark. And so, I’d proceed to tell him — You can’t see me, but you can hear me. I’m right here. And not to trivialize our passage or our current experiences to toddlers who wake up in the middle of the night. But you and I live in a dark world with atrocities that are far and near. And when we blink our eyes in the horrors of these dark moments, we’re looking for our Father, for our God. And of course, when we can’t see him, our minds go to these panicked places of no resolve.

And in our passage today, the disciples are in the dark looking for Jesus. And a lot of things happen. Remember, many of these are fishermen, and the Sea of Galilee was home field or home court for them. But here, their fears had so overwhelmed them that they thought that their eyes were playing tricks on them. That when they would see their Lordand Savior walking toward them in consummate control over and above the waters and the storm, they presumed him to be a ghost. They couldn’t even recognize him, because their hearts were so overwhelmed by what was circumstantially overpowering their eyes, their minds, and their hearts. And I think that’s a lot of us this morning. We’re in storms — whether it’s with your marriage, with your family, with your kids’ futures, your kids’ present circumstances, with your jobs, with your finances, with your concerns for tomorrow’s supplies and a shrinking reservoir, with your uncertainties of faith, with church. Your concerns might be big, they might be small. Your circumstances might be objectively serious, they might be made bigger in your anxiety. Whatever the case, when the light dissipates, dreams can quickly turn to nightmares in this fallen world. What do you do when that panic surfaces? When that feeling of unrest rises? What do you do when the path seems unlit and the boat shakes, figuratively speaking? Where you’re looking for God, but you can’t seem to see him or evidences of his care anywhere around?

Charles Spurgeon offers these words for those meandering in dark places, as one who often did the same — God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. And when we cannot trace His hand, we must trust His heart. Because what we find in our passage today — the disciples are on a boat ride, and it’s shaky, and it’s dark, and there are all these feelings that are arising. But what calms them? What calms us in these seasons where it seems that the hand of God, the evident presence of God is unseen in our lives? In seasons of death, of financial difficulty, of family strains, of distrust of friends, of church conflicts, of emotional instability? In these times where we can’t seemingly see God’s kindness, we must trust in his goodness. And above the waves and the chaotic rumblings, we must hear his voice, and specifically his Word. His Word that remains the same in every season, with the presence of the protagonist who, according to Hebrews 13:14 is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. He who told Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3:14 — I AM who I AM. That he’s self-defined but also never changing. And in all circumstances and seasons, we can trust that he’ll always be the same.

At the end of our passage today, we get a bit of a transition. And we’re going to get into that a little more when we look into chapter 7. But in verse 53, we read that Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And I was unsure of what this mooring was in the English, so I had to look at it in the Greek. Because that’s, of course, what you do when you don’t know something in your native language — you turn to a foreign language to help you understand it. But this mooring is a stationing. Because here, Jesus has been back and forth across this sea. But he’s now stationing himself for his end game, so to speak. But it’s as he’s transitioning to this final phase, while he and his disciples are in the sea, that he provides one final moment, one more lesson to teach them. One more lesson in the dark and amidst their uncertainties — something for them to remember when the road got dark.

And there’s a lot that’s happening in this moment for Jesus and the disciples. We’ve been looking at these past couple weeks that Jesus has just fed five thousand men, which most scholars say could have been around 20,000 total people. And this feeding was one of the very few events in the Gospels that’s recorded in all four Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And it’s in this place where Jesus’ fame is growing, and he’s feeling the crowds pressure him into being this political king — the one that they’d waited for to overthrow Rome. And it’s in this pressure cooker, where Jesus takes a retreat. And something that I think that gets overlooked is what kinds of conversations might have been happening on this boat ride. Jesus is presumably away for some time, and the disciples are there in the boat together. And remember, amongst the twelve, you have Simon the zealot, which means he’s a Jewish nationalist. And maybe the things that he’s been hearing from the crowds have made him super excited, perhaps, making him develop thoughts of his own about Jesus. Then, you have Matthew or Levi, who’s a tax collector — on the other side of the political spectrum when it came to Jews. And so, he probably has thoughts that are very different. In the middle of this pressure cooker, Jesus leaves and retreats to go pray to his Father.

And it’s in this moment where these disciples are in this already turbulent situation where a storm arises on the sea. And it’s not something that these disciples would have been unfamiliar with — these were fishermen, many of them. And so, they’ve navigated this sea before. And it’s actually deja vu — well, I guess it was different. Before Jesus was on the boatbut just sleeping last time around. But we’ve seen these disciples panic when the storm arises on the boat. And all it took from Jesus was a simple shush back in the end of chapter 4. And yet, here we have them, once again, panicking. But this time, there’s no sleeping Jesus. He’s out on the sea, he’s been with his Father, and he’s said to be passing by.

And what we get is something that just sounds really weird from a modern perspective. These disciples see him walking on the water, and they presume him to be a ghost. And the seas are storming, they’re panicked for their lives, and here Jesus just steps him — It is I. I mean, just imagine saying that today. It just sounds really weird. Fear not; it is I. This sounds like Yoda talk. Scared are you? Present is your master. But while this construction of words might seem weird to us, it wasn’t foreign to those listening to these words. And you might do word association with certain people. I have a dream. You have Martin Luther King. To be or not to be. That’s Hamlet. One small step for man, one giant step for mankind. That’s Neil Armstrong. Let it go. That’s Elsa. Well, these two sayings — Fear not and It is I. These were two sayings that were unmistakably God speaking to his people. And we’ll take the first of these first. Because Fear notis the single most frequently used command in the entire Bible. This is God speaking to his people.

And it actually says something about the world we live in. It’s scary to live in our world, and it’s scary to be where we are. Things are stormy, the waves crash, and the circumstances can seem overwhelming. But God has always spoken into these moments. And it kind of ties and weaves our stories and our fears with the countless multitude who had also heard these words throughout history. And back in the Old Testament, with Joshua, who was tasked to lead the people of God without Moses, the Lord had spoken to him — Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. And to Joshua, Moses was bigger than life. Here was one who was so close to God that God spoke to him not in riddles but mouth to mouth — that’s Numbers 11. And one of those mouth to mouth moments was in Exodus 33, after the people of Israel had erected the golden calf, and Moses is seeking to intercede for them. Where he would retreat from the people to be with the Lord for some time. And in the LXX, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, when we read in Exodus 33 that the Lord was to pass by Moses and to show him his back side after Moses had asked the Lord to show him his glory. That word used for passing by is the same word we see here in our passage in verse 48. The same God who told Joshua to fear not, the same God who passed by Moses. The same God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush — I AM who I AM. This same God is speaking to these bewildered disciples and to us this morning.

And we alluded to it just now, but the second part of that Yoda talk — It is I. In the Greek, it’s εγω ειμι. And the importance of this is that just as the LXX had the passing by in verse 48 connect us to Exodus 33, this εγω ειμιconnects us to an even more seminal moment in Israel’s history. Because εγω ειμι is translated I AM. And it’s back in Exodus 3:14, where God would speak to Moses and tell him — I AM who I AM. In the midst of this storm and all the confusion and happenings around them, Jesus brings these disciples back to the bigger story of God with his people. Tim Keller, who suffered through cancer twice — his second one which would eventually kill him. He said of Jesus who endured the greatest darkness — that if he didn’t leave us in his greatest darkness, would he really leave us in our lesser darkness? And I guess we can ask the same question. If God has shown him to be faithful in his bigger story that spanned generations and cultures. If God showed himself to be faithful to Moses, to Joshua, and to countless other patriarchs before these disciples, wouldn’t he be faithful to them? And wouldn’t he be faithful to us? Do we really think that he’s going to drop the ball on our smaller details when he’s written out, entered in, and accomplished far more than our minute problems today? Because if you’re like me, you might be prone to putting the magnifying glass and inspecting the problems in our lives. But if we were to take a step back, we’d see that God has always been faithful. And so, with each other, with our friends here in Holy Scripture, we take our problems to the one who knows every little detail. And he joins us together with the multitude of people he has calmed — Fear not; It is I. I AM who I AM.

Because before we get into this last detail, I think that’s something we need to sit on for a bit. That when circumstances get hard, when it seems like God isn’t present in kindness, we need to remember the bigger story, the greater context. That the Author of Life has not left his scripted pages, but he’s committed to punctuating every sentence. There are no open clauses in the gospel story — all are punctuated with the seal of God’s grace. In the gospel story, God has said, and he has done. There’s no if ands or buts. If it’s printed in Scripture, it’s as good as done, and we take it to the bank. No matter what our circumstances or trials or questions or uncertainties or skepticism or difficulties. God’s Word is his word, and his Word is his bond. We trust in that in every season of our sojourn in this windy and stormy and tumultuous world.

So, one final detail, and we’re done here. We read here in verse 48 that this was the fourth watch of the night. And what this means is that it’s the fourth of four parts in the night. That the nights were divided up into three hour segments more or less. And from roughly 3AM to 6AM was the fourth watch of the night. And so, it’s dark, which we’ve noted. And these disciples might be tired, even delirious and half awake. But it’s a detail that shouldn’t be overlooked, because it teaches us about God’s bigger picture in mind here. This is the fourth quarter. Back in the early 2000’s, there was this unstoppable duo in the NBA — Shaq and Kobe. The only greater duo may have been Jordan and Pippen, but I digress. Well, Phil Jackson coached both of these legendary teams and duos. And something that he told Kobe was that Shaq would carry the load for the first three quarters. But when it came to the fourth quarter, it was Kobe time, because he had that clutch gene. And he would have a fuller tank to empty out with the game on the line. And Kobe had some unforgettable moments late in the game. Because more often than not, he would show up. Because the fourth quarter was Kobe time.

And so, in this fourth watch, this fourth of four quarters, we’re told through commentators that 3AM is a particular time in the night. Because this when the rooster would crow. And what was it that would happen on the night of Maundy Thursday and into the morning of Good Friday? Jesus would feed his disciples the Last Supper, just as he had the 20,000 the passage before. Then, he would retreat to go pray in Gethsemane, as he had in our passage. But then, 3AMwould hit. And what had Jesus predicted? That when the rooster crowed, Peter would have denied him three times. And what did Peter initially say? Even if they leave you, I will never leave you. But when the game was on the line, what did Peter do? I never knew him. He let down his God, his Lord, his Savior. Because he would have to always remember — the fourth quarter is not his time, it’s God’s Time. It’s never we but God who comes through when it matters and in the clutch. And it’s God who would rewrite the narrative of the fourth watch of the night.

Because here’s the thing. When Jesus comes here and pronounces to these disciples I AM who I AM, that statement, when first uttered in Exodus 3:14, was intended to say nine things at the same time, with the way Hebrew imperfect tenses were used. It was simultaneously — (1) I was who I was, (2) I was who I am, (3) I was who I will be, (4) I am who I was, (5) I am who I am, (6) I am who I will be, (7) I will be who I was, (8) I will be who I am, and (9) I will be who I will be. Meaning — past, present, future, no matter what, God is the exact same. And that’s the same for Peter, and that’s the same for us. Peter dropped the ball, and he didn’t pull through in his story. Because he saw the storms, he heard the accusations, and felt the winds. And the circumstances made him waver. And what did he do? He left his God. But you know who never left him? He who would stay faithful to the script and march up the cross, die for our sins, and pronounce our forgiveness. That he would have the nails sunk into his hands and feet so that we can read with certainty the words of Colossians 2:13-14: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” So that we look not to our circumstances, not to our failed reactions, not to our failed records, not to our stains, our imperfections, our offenses, our dwindling faith, our doubts and anxieties. We look to God’s unchanging word. And if he says he’s forgiven sinners, then that’s that. His Word is his word. And his Word is his bond. We look to the bigger Story of God to tell us who we are and to which story we belong. That no storm can overcome our hearts when our eyes are fixed upon the one who took the greatest storm upon himself when hanging on the cross for our sins. And I believe this story can anchor our church in all seasons and circumstances. We look to a God who leaves no open clauses but punctuates every statement. And when things seem scary from our vantage point, we look to our God who will tell us yet again — Fear not; It is I. I AM who I AM.