Hit for the Wall

Putting our confidence in Christ as Creator

06/30/2020

Matthew 8:23-27 As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”

When it comes to studying Scripture, I prefer the big picture approach. As they say in baseball, he’d rather hit for the wall than play small ball. Put differently, I like to fly high at one thousand feet and enjoy the bird’s eye view of the whole landscape than swoop down and inch along with the worm’s eye view. Of course both approaches are insightful and instructional and really indispensable for a clear and complete view of the Bible. That’s what I’d like to do briefly this morning with the gospel of Matthew today: first hit for the wall and soar over the stadium of Scripture like a homerun ball, and then skip along the ground like a bunt to third base. Can you tell I miss baseball?

If you want the bird’s eye view of the whole gospel of Matthew, I highly recommend you read the book “Five Speeches that Changed the World” by Ben F. Meyer. He wrote: “There is a sense in which the heart of [Matthew’s] catechesis was the five great speeches that strategically mark off his whole great Gospel like a series of surveyor’s pickets.” What are these five surveyor’s pickets, these five great speeches? They are (1) the Sermon on the Mount in Mt. 5-7, (2) the Missionary Discourse in Mt. 10, (3) the Parable Discourse in Mt. 13, (4) the Ecclesial or Church Discourse in Mt. 18, and (5) the Eschatological or End Times Discourse in Mt. 24-25.

In a sense these five great speeches are equivalent to the first five books of the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – all traditionally attributed to Moses. What is Matthew implying with his literary structure of the five speeches? Just as Moses gave five great speeches (give great books) to begin the Old Testament, so now Jesus delivers five great speeches to begin the New Testament. So, Jesus is the New Moses. Making connections like that is why I love to see the big picture in Scripture.

Now let’s bunt to third base and get a closer look at Matthew 8, today’s gospel. Knowing the big picture, you can easily situate the story of the calming of the Sea of Galilee between the first two surveyor’s pickets, the Sermon on the Mount (cc. 5-7), and the Missionary Discourse (ch. 10). Notice two things about Jesus during this storm. First, our Lord is asleep, he’s not bothered one bit by the chaos of creation. Second, at his word of command the chaotic creation (the sea) turns calm and peaceful.

Matthew depicts this miraculous scene in a way that should evoke for the careful reader how God created the cosmos in Genesis. How so? We read in Genesis 1:2, “the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters.” Can’t you almost see the chaotic Sea of Galilee in that description? What happens next? God gives a simple command – “Let there be light, and there was light (Gn. 1:3) – and he shatters the darkness. In the same way Jesus, the Son of God, possesses absolute and unimpeded command and control over creation. In other words, Genesis and Matthew both describe how the Creator speaks and his creation obeys.

Now that you know how to hit for the wall as well as play small ball with the Bible, let’s try to hit a homerun in our spiritual life with the help of the Scripture. Seeing that creation today seems to be experiencing chaos, a friend sent me this text: “Fires, earthquakes, pandemics and now locusts!” Like many people, she wondering: “Is this the end of the world?” That is, just like the waters of the abyss in Gen. 1 and the Sea of Galilee in Mt. 8, so the natural world today seems to be in tumult and topsy-turvy. We cry out like the frightened apostles, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

But instead of looking at ourselves or even at the world, we should look at the Lord. We should observe carefully and imitate exactly his attitude and actions. He is unperturbed, indeed, he is asleep. Why? He is the Creator who has complete command over his creation. And that awareness that he can calm the troubled waters of the world should also calm our troubled hearts. That should make us feel far more calm and confident than when might Casey came up to bat, because now, it’s Christ at bat.

Praised be Jesus Christ!