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Matthew 14:22-15:9
00:30:14
This week Dr. Tim Gray and Dr. Michael Barber continue their study of the Gospel of Matthew by diving into 14:22-15:9.
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- [00:00]
A
Welcome to form. Now, I'm Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, and Joining me is Dr. Michael Barber, who is a professor of scripture here at the August Institute. And we're going to continue our Bible study into the Gospel of Matthew. So whether you've been with us the whole time or you want to just jump in, you're welcome. Grab your Bible. We are going to pick up in Matthew chapter 14. And we've covered Jesus feeding a multitude. And now we're going to look at what happens afterwards. And so we're in Matthew 14:22. And just to give you the setting immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. Now, that's rather awkward, though. You think about it. Jesus tells Peter and the disciples, all right, get in the boat. Go to the other side. I'll catch up. And they're like, wait a minute, we only have one boat. How are you going to catch up? And Jesus is thinking, I've got a shortcut, don't worry. And so, you know, they head out. And I love. And then after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountains by himself. To pray. Now, two things happen here. One is this is just an enormous success. As we talked about last time, Jesus did this miracle at the hands of the apostles. So they're thinking, that's a pretty exciting moment, right? Feeding this incredible multitude of 5,000 men plus, not counting women and children and the loaves and the fish. This miracle happens, in a sense, at their hands. And, you know, John comes back, he's like, do you see how many people I fed? And Peter's like, no, I fed a lot more. There must have been a thousand on my hilt slope, right? And so they're all enthusiastic and the people are loving them, right? Because they just fed them. And so the disciples right now couldn't be. Couldn't have a higher popularity with the crowd, right? Their Facebook likes are going way up. So what does Jesus do? He gets rid of the disciples before he dismisses the crowds. Why does he do that? Now, my own read on that is big headitis. It's a virus that he's worried about the disciples getting. Getting big headitis, their pride of being part of the success. And so Jesus sends them out, out in that boat ahead, and he's going to give them a little lesson in humility with some things out there in the boat. But then he goes up and he gives thanks in prayer to the Father. He goes up by himself. And this is One of the things I want to ask when you experience success and blessing, is your first response to go in solitude and go to the Father, your Father, and pray to him in thanksgiving. If we do not pray to the Father with deep gratitude immediately, then what happens is we take the success as our own, and that builds our pride. And so Jesus models for us, I think, Michael, how to deal with success.
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B
No question about it. He's already told us in the Sermon on the Mount, how to pray. Go off by yourself, go in your room and shut the door. And so here there are no rooms for him to enter. But he does the equivalent of that. He models for us his own teaching in going off by himself to pray. And just to drill down a little bit more into the point that you're making here when you are trying to bring about the conversion of the masses, when you're trying to convince people, all right, the Messiah is here. We've got the message, we've got the Gospel. It would seem like foolishness to disengage at this very point. I mean, can you imagine a politician, you know, being swarmed after performing a amazing feat and then saying, all right, I'm out of here. You'd want to really soak it up, right? Don't you really want to establish your reputation and establish the reputation? No. Jesus doesn't do that because he doesn't trust in himself. And he's trying to teach the disciples, I think, as well, not to trust in those kinds of earthly ways of manipulating people. Just trust in the Lord.
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And I love how Jesus models this. All good gifts come from God the Father.
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B
That's right.
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A
And he brings everything back to his source, the ultimate Source. And that is our Father in Heaven. And it's a really beautiful thing. Now, as he's praying by himself, evening comes and, you know, he's there alone in the evening. But the boat by this time in verse 24, was a long way from the land beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. So one of the things about the Sea of Galilee is that it's almost like a giant fishbowl in terms of it's surrounded by mountains. And when the wind. And I've been on the sea numerous times, but I remember one particular time the wind kept shifting when we were in a boat out in the sea. And the waves are getting bigger and bigger. And it's very hard to maneuver, especially if you're dealing with a sailboat, not with a powered engine, right? And the wind keeps shifting. So you're thinking, well, how can you know, how could they be so far from land? How could Peter lose control of the boat? Well, these winds can come out of the blue, push you in a direction. You change the mast, you work on that, and then you start working on it, and then the wind shifts again on you, and it can be very frustrating. But you can see how that can happen on the Sea of Galilee. And Peter's having a rough time of it.
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B
And can we talk a little bit about the boat here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a couple of years ago, we were out in Israel together and I got to see in person something that I had read about and seen in books, and that is they've actually discovered an ancient fisherman's boat. Right. And we've got an image we can share with the people. But can you say a few things about it? I know you've. Yeah, it spent a lot of time there.
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A
It's an extraordinary thing. In the 1980s, there was a year of great drought for Israel and the Sea of Galilee. And the water level dropped to a level it hadn't dropped in recent memory. Right. And two of the fishermen and Jewish kibbutz, these two Jewish fishermen who lived right on the Sea of Galilee, and they were part of this kibbutz that's in Nap Gennesor and right on the kind of northwestern corner of the Sea of Galilee, they're walking along one of them, and I think his name is Simon, and he found a piece of wood sticking out and a nail. And so then he saw that and he went down and said, oh, this piece of wood kept going and. And it kept going and he realized it was something. He starts digging and sure enough, it's a large piece of wood that's connected and it keeps going further into the mud. So he got all excited, showed his brother, and then they went to the kibbutzim that they belonged to and they started to excavate. And they then figured that they had some ancient relics they called the archaeologists. And so the archaeologists came out and they carbon dated the wood and it came out to the first century. And. And what's really. There's so many amazing things about this, but one of the things I love is that after they dug it out and then the water started coming back, so the water was rising, so they had to put sandbags up around this thing and then they had to move it, but it was waterlogged and moving it would make it fall apart. So how are they going to do this? And so it was an engineering challenge and they ended up Surrounded it by foam all around. They dug out channels underneath and around it, and they got this foam. And so it was all encased in foam. And then they floated it out on the sea for the first time in 2,000 years. And then they were able to bring it into a place where they could treat it and protect the wood. And it's really quite amazing. But one of the things, Michael, that's really fascinating is that they found 12 different kinds of wood, tree wood that was used for this boat, which I just thought was great for the 12 apostles. I mean, it's just, you know, it's what a great symbolism, but the engineering, because different wood has different characteristics and hardness and subtle softness. And they had a different one for the keel. Very hard, long wood for the keel, but a different kind of tree that they used for the rudder and a different kind of wood for different parts of the tree. So it was really an engineering feat of practical carpentry, which is really amazing. So, yeah, when you go to Israel, and right now we can't go, unfortunately, but we look forward to leading pilgrimages there again, One of the things we love to do at the August, since all of our faculty, Michael's been with me, we've done pilgrimages together. Dr. Mark Gieshak, Dr. Ben Akers, Dr. John Seehorn. We love to lead pilgrimages, and we're looking forward to doing that again once we're past Covid.
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B
But so would you say that this boat gives us a sense of what's going on in the story in a certain sense? Right? Yeah.
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Well, we're going to see in this boat, Peter is going to be petrified of what's going to happen next.
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B
That's very good. All right, so. So they're in the boat, and there these wind and the waves against them. And we read and in the fourth watch of the night, he, Jesus, came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, take heart, it is I do not be afraid. Now, push pause there, because there are a few things I want to highlight. First off, that it is the fourth watch of the night seems significant. Jesus comes on the sea in the fourth part of the night. Well, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has been identified as the Son of Man. And as you know, in the book of Daniel, the Son of man makes his appearance after the fourth beast has come in this vision that involves the sea. And so it's may very well be that there is a subtle allusion here to Jesus as the Son of Man. Of course, the disciples calling out it is a ghost shows us a bit about them. They don't recognize Jesus, for one thing. Of course, that's understandable. You don't expect to find your rabbi walking out on the water in the middle of the night. But what's remarkable is what I'd like to highlight is then Jesus says, it is I. And that is a fascinating line, because in the Greek of that, it's literally ego eimi. And what's fascinating about that is if you go back to the book of Exodus, you have the wonderful story of the burning bush where the Lord appears to Moses. It's found in Exodus, chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? Moses asks the Lord. And God says to Moses, I am Ego ami, who I am. And so there we have the divine name translated into Greek into the very same words Jesus uses here. Now, of course, you could just say ego ami. That just means it's me. It could just mean that. But the fact that he's walking on the water might be a clue.
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That might be a clue that there's.
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B
More going on here than that. And of course, when Jesus says, do not be afraid, then, well, that is such a comforting scene. Don't worry. Jesus is saying, on the one hand, it's me, I'm not a ghost, but at the same time, I am the Lord and I can take control of this situation.
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You know, I just want to read a passage from Psalm 107, Michael, because it just.
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Psalm 107. Yeah, that's a good one.
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Verse 23. It just. It just seems so fitting for what's going on. And this is a psalm about thanksgiving and deliverance and the Lord delivering his people. And in verse, some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. And they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to the heaven, they went down to the depths. I love that imagery of rocking with the waves. And they. And their courage melted away in their evil plight, which is exactly what happens to the disciples. And they indeed staggered like drunken men, and they were at their wit's end. It's a pretty good Description of them when they are panicking and they see Jesus as a ghost. No kidding. As a ghost. And they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. And he made the storm to be still. Beautiful.
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B
Very powerful, Very powerful. And so, of course, in the story, he doesn't call. He doesn't calm the storm immediately because we read next, Peter answered him, lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. So ask me to do something that is humanly impossible. Now, I got to just tell you, I once saw a news story a few years ago. They discovered ice out on the Sea of Galilee. And some rationalist, somebody who doesn't believe in miracles, said, well, this explains the story of Peter walking on the sea. See, what happened is Jesus walking on the water. And Peter. What happened was Jesus was standing on a floating piece of ice. And then that floating piece of ice just, you know, happened to drift over to where the disciples were on a boat. And then Peter asked jesus, let me come out to you. And then right at that moment, another floating piece of ice just happened to right under Peter's feet, you know. And then after that, Peter's piece of ice moved. So he said, come. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Now, this is really hard to explain if you're a rationalist, right? But I think they have more faith in science than many people I know have faith in God.
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Peter said, I used to know you.
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And when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out, lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, o you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased something and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. Now, you mentioned Psalm 107. I've got to mention here Psalm 69. In Psalm 69, we read, Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters and the floods sweep over me. That seems to fit the context here. And in fact, there are many passages where the person who is in distress calls out to God and speaks of how they're being overwhelmed by waters. Of course, why Peter sinks is he doesn't have faith in the sense that he doesn't trust in the Lord. And there's a really interesting dichotomy set up here between fear on the one hand and Faith on the other. We did an entire forum episode on that.
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No, that's a great point. And, you know, it's in Job where Job says that the Lord identifies himself as he who walks upon the waves of the sea. And so again, that's another clue that. That Jesus is Lord. And the fact that Job has that confession that, you know, who is like God, who can walk upon the waves of the sea, and Jesus is doing that, and then they end here with a confession that truly you are the Son of God. That's another.
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B
And they worship him.
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Yeah.
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Now, the word that's used there in the Greek, proskineo can be used for kings. It can be used for homage. But in Matthew's Gospel, we already have the story of where Satan, Satan asks jesus, worship me. And Jesus doesn't do that. That is reserved for God alone. So although broadly speaking, prosecanic can have different connotations within the Gospel of Matthew, it is extremely significant that the one who's identified as Emmanuel God with us, is the recipient of worship.
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I just want to highlight that phrase where Jesus says, o you of little faith. I like to always translate that, O man of dinky faith. But, you know, four times in the Gospel of Matthew, we get that phrase. And the first time is in Matthew, chapter six, during the Sermon on the Mount, and he says not to be worried about what you're going to eat and drink. The second time is in Matthew 8, and it's a storm at sea. This is the third time, and again we're at the sea and we get a man of little faith. In chapter eight, it was O men of little faith with a storm at sea. And so the middle two relate to each other. They parallel. And the first one, which is not being worried about they're going to eat or drink. We'll see that paralleled here in a little bit. The fourth time that we get that phrase, O men of little faith. So it's just a. You want to follow as you're reading the Word of God. It doesn't matter what book of the Bible. Look and be attentive to repetition. And that's why it takes reading and rereading. You're like, oh, but I can't read the Bible like Dr. Barber. I'm not as smart or as, you know, the scholarship look, it's not about smarts. It's really about how often you read the Word of God. Read the Gospel of Matthew over and over and over again, and it'll be like your favorite hiking trail or your favorite walk. You Know, maybe you get to see the same things over and over again and they become familiar, and then all of a sudden you start noticing more and more detail. And that's really what it takes to read the Word of God. Well, is repetition, an eye for detail, and then just reading and re reading carefully. Let's go to the next. Are you ready to go to the next story, Michael?
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Absolutely, yeah.
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Well, you know, they cross to the other side. And, you know, when you're crossing the Sea of Galilee, this crossing back and forth, a lot of people, I always used to think, well, they cross the other side, so if they're on the north side, they must be on the south side, and if they're on the east side, they must be now on the west side. And that's what I took as a naive and simple reader of the text. But when I went and spent time, and I spent a summer in Israel studying Hebrew, and I spent some time up in the Sea of Galilee, I was one time walking along the Jordan river where it goes into the Sea of Galilee at Bethsaida, and it struck me that of course, that Jordan river in Bethsaida was the boundary marker. And they had signs up for that were, you know, that used to be a minefield there. In 1967, it was the land of Syria. And then Israel took it in the Six Day War. But then I was reminded, oh, well, this used to be a boundary marker, not just in 1967 between Syria and Israel, but it used to be a boundary marker between Herod Jr. Herod Antipater and Philip, his brother, their two territories. And then I realized that going to the other side meant going to the other side of jurisdiction. So it could be just a mile or two miles. You know, if you went from Capharnaum to Bethsaida, you were going to the other side as they talked about it. Because for them, everybody in the first century, the other side was the jurisdiction of Philip, or if you're in Philip's jurisdiction, the other side was Herod's jurisdiction. It wasn't about going from the top north of the sea all the way to the bottom south of the sea. And that makes much more sense once you understand that, right?
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B
Because Jesus is performing these miracles and people are making it seems a fuss over him. You can imagine this creating a little bit of a stir, right? I'm being. I'm downplaying this, right. We're not talking about cities with hundreds of thousands of people in them. We're talking about cities that maybe had 10,000 people maybe in them. Right. So when we read a story about Jesus feeding 5,000 people, not counting women and children, Jesus is just lighting this place on fire. And so you can. You can pick this up in other places, especially in Luke, where it seems that Herod is playing like a little bit of game of cat and mouse with Jesus. Whenever Jesus comes out, does some great work, then he slips away over to the other side where Philip's territory is. And now he's worked a miracle on one side, he goes back to the other side. It's really convenient that Peter's a fisherman.
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It is. And it's perfect for Jesus because he can go back and forth between these two territories. Whenever Herod's getting close to capturing him, he can slip into Philip's territory and vice versa. And so it really is providential how that works out.
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He didn't have cell phones back then. He couldn't call each other. Right. Keep track. Yeah.
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A
So the last line here is that wherever he goes in that region, they brought to him all who were sick, and they implored that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made. Well, that image reminds us of the healing of the hemorrhaging woman. Right. And again, it's. Why do you think the fringe of his garment.
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Yeah, that is such an important phrase there. Because the Greek word is craspidon. It's a reference to these fringes that Jews would wear on their garments. And the fact that Jesus has them shows us that he's a faithful Jew. And this is going to be really important going into chapter 15. Matthew wants to note, before we read about what's going to happen in the next chapter, that Jesus faithfully follows the directions of the Torah. So in numbers, chapter 15.
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Yeah, those little tassels that they were little tassels was a reminder of the Torah.
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Right. So Numbers 15. There's a great passage in Numbers 15 where the Lord says to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. Blue is especially associated with the priests and the priests garments. Of course, Israel is called to be a kingdom of priests. So many commentators on Numbers think that there is some reference here that Israel is to remember what they're called, to be holy and a kingdom of priests. And it shall be on the tassel for you to look at and to remember all the commandments of the Lord. So when you look at the tassels, you remember the commandments of the Lord. So Jesus is a faithful Jew in the first century. That's really important to establish going into the next story, by the way, we have a picture up of a woman touching Jesus garment. And that's actually from the Holy Land.
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Yeah, it's an original piece of art that's done in the Mary Magdalene center up on the Sea of Galilee. And it's actually done with the stones that were part of the fishing dock at Magdala. And it's now made into a synagogue and a chapel. So it's ecumenical chapel. And you have that beautiful image of the hemorrhaging woman reaching down to touch the hem of Jesus garment. And you see a little bit of light, the power going out. Because just as I perceive that power came forth from me. And what a beautiful image it is for us to reflect on. And that's what we want to do. We get it. Just think about all these people worked hard like that woman just to touch the hem of Jesus garment. But you and I are so blessed as Catholics that we get to do more than touch the hem of his garment. We get to touch Jesus body, blood, soul and divinity when we receive him in the Eucharist and in the sacraments. What a great gift we have in our family.
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And of course in the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it talks about the sacraments, it in particular highlights the story and explains, quoting Leo the Great, Pope Saint Leo the Great, that sacraments are powers that come forth from the body of Christ. Of course, the body of Christ, not just a personal body, but the church.
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It was Joseph Ransker who wanted to take that image of the hemorrhaging woman from the catacombs and put it as the introduction to the sacraments and liturgy. Which is just really exquisite.
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It is.
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A
Well, let's look at the traditions and the commandments. Excellent in chapter 15. So why don't you cue us up with this context?
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B
Alright, so we read in chapter 15 then the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat. Here we see just how aware and how knowledgeable Matthew is of the first century Jewish context. There's a distinction or there's a difference here between the Markan narrative and the Matthian narrative. In Mark it simply says. It says, we read this line and then Mark explains, for all the Jews washed their hands, but we actually know not all the Jews actually washed Their hands. It doesn't seem like the Sadducees did that. The Pharisees did. And so Matthew's very precise in the way he's relating the story. And he answered, Jesus answered, why do you break the commandment of God? For the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and mother. And whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But if anyone tells his father or mother or what you would have gained from me is to God is given to God. He need not honor his father. For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. Now, this is a powerful statement, because what Jesus is doing is turning the tables. They're saying he doesn't keep the commandments, but apparently there was a tradition. We're not really sure about all the details, but it looks like there was a tradition where people could dedicate their wealth. And so it's a beautiful practice. Right?
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Because in the ancient world, there wasn't retirement funds and Social Security. So it was the job of children to support their parents in their old age and retirement.
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Right. So what some people would do is there was a practice where you could dedicate your estate to God. When I die, my estate is going to God. But apparently some people were using this as a way to not support their parents and not support those who were in need and say, oh, I've already dedicated my estate to God. I'm sorry, I can't use it to help my parents. Okay? And this is what Jesus is going to condemn. Notice he doesn't break any law in the Torah. It's not like he's going against what the law says. What he doesn't like is the way the Pharisees have used traditions to violate the word of God. Now, some people like to use this passage against Catholic tradition and say, oh, Catholics are terrible for having traditions. Because Jesus condemns traditions. He doesn't actually condemn tradition per se. In fact, St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 commends the Corinthians for holding fast to tradition. It's the use of traditions in a way that abuses the word of God.
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A
I think that's an important distinction. And I think, just to add to that, I think that it's the tradition of those elders. Whereas when we talk about tradition as Catholics, it's a tradition that goes back to Jesus, that was handed on by Jesus. And out of reverence for Christ, we hold to what Jesus taught in word or deed.
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B
That's right.
- [27:34]
A
And so there's a reverence that our traditions have Christ as the ultimate source of authority versus a particular rabbinic school of thought. And so we would call that a small tea tradition for the Pharisees, a large tea tradition.
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B
And we have some tea.
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And I was just going to say this is a good example. We do have plenty of small tea traditions. So for example, we would have a thing where it used to only be boys as altar boys. Now we have altar girls. So that wasn't a big tea tradition. Jesus didn't hand down the teaching. You have altar boys. That was a later development to have altar boys. And so that was a small T tradition versus if it had come from Jesus himself and had been part of the 2000 year tradition, then it would be a big T tradition. And then John Paul couldn't have changed and allowed altar girls. And so that's, you know, that's a prudential decision. You could say that was a good decision or bad decision, but it's a prudential small T tradition. So important to make that distinction for people to understand the difference between a small T tradition and a big T tradition.
- [28:37]
B
And so Jesus then relates a quotation from Isaiah. The people honors me with their lips, but their heart is from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching his doctrines the commandments of men. And this is a major problem even for us today, right, that we can outwardly do things that are expressive of our faith while inwardly not doing what the Lord really asks us to do in a pinch, right? And really doing what is right and actually sort of going through the rites or the actions as Catholics that we have in a kind of ritualistic way that's.
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A
I think sometimes we can absolutize the relative, right? Oh, there's many relatives goods, but sometimes we absolutize them, right? And I'll give you an example. I love Latin. I can say some prayers in Latin, which from time to time I like to do. And I really enjoy at times going to a Latin mass. But there's some people I know who say, well, if you pray in Latin, it's more effective. And that's absolutizing the relative. It really doesn't matter what language you pray to God. What matters is exactly the point of this story. It's your heart. It's about your heart and the disposition of your heart, not the vocabulary and the language that you're using. Well, you know, it's been amazing that our time has gone by so fast. We're going to pick up this story next time. And I just want to thank everybody who is a supporter of our mission circle. We're so grateful for your support. It allows us to have this ministry. May the Lord bless and keep you.