When someone we love dearly leaves this earth, we grieve deeply. When Jesus received the news that John the Baptist had been killed by Herod, “he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” Matthew 14:13 But the only ‘private’ and ‘solitary’ he got was while he was in the boat because, “When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” Matthew 14:14
After feeding the 5,000 men plus women and children with only five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus sent his disciples ahead of him in the boat, dismissed the crowds, and then “he went up on the mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23 Not only was his time for grieving taken from him, but he put in a long, hard day before he was able to finally get by himself and deal with his grief through prayer – alone time with just Jesus and his Father.
It was after this ‘alone time’ that Jesus, in the early hours of the morning, walked out to his disciples on the water which would have been anything but calm. Matthew tells us that the boat was “buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.” Matthew 14:24 And it was at this time that Peter, wild with the possibilities of what Jesus could do, climbed out of the boat and began his walk toward Jesus – on the water! We give Peter a hard time about his lack of faith when he took in his circumstances (wind and waves) and began to sink. But I wonder if I would have had the courage and the faith to climb out of the boat!
When they got to the other side, people spotted him and once again Jesus was surrounded with people who wanted to be healed from their sickness. Couldn’t he have a break? After all, now that we know more about grieving, we understand that it takes several years and many cycles of anger and acceptance. Wouldn’t a loving Father protect him and give him a year or two to heal before returning to his ministry?
And I wonder how Jesus must have felt – giving and giving. People came after physical healing and he had so much more to give them. He obviously was drawing on a power and strength from his heavenly Father. That is why he had to spend a good portion of the night in prayer. He had to keep his focus on the things of God – not the things of man. A heavenly perspective on things could keep him from going into a great depression. A heavenly perspective on things gave him the compassion to continue healing the sick even as he was dealing with his own loss.
I wonder how many of those who where healed stuck around for the ‘more’ that Jesus had to give them? We focus so much on our physical world – understandingly so – it is the world we live in. But Jesus has so much more to offer us if we will just open our eyes to the possibilities and get out of the boat!
Seven weeks after our son has left this world, we are still being asked, “Have you gone back to work yet?” The answer is yes, we went back to work as soon as we returned from dealing with his earthly belongings (closing out his apartment, canceling utilities, etc.) and dealing with the legal issues that come with leaving this world. God, in his compassion, gave us several days to deal with the initial shock and grief. But then we could soon see that there was work to be done. There were many hurting people around us who needed assurances. Some needed to find their salvation in Christ. Some needed to return to Christ after wondering away. Some needed to hear Christ’s call to ‘step out of the boat.’
And we needed to find our ‘solitary places’, get recharged, and keep going. Jesus showed us how to do that and being his disciples, we choose to learn from him. There are a lot of good books out there about grieving. Many of them hold some good wisdom. But the book I have the most confidence in is the Word of God. That is where I find the healing and the strength I need to go on. Every day that God gives me is another day to ‘bear fruit’ for him. It is another day to walk in his strength and share his love and goodness with those I come in contact with.
And who knows… If I climb out of the boat and keep my eyes on Jesus, well, maybe I’ll have enough faith to walk on water too.
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