The God in the Boat

I won’t follow a religious system or a religious leader, but I will lay my life down for a god like this.

It’s happened to me a time or two. Running nets or trotlines in one of the big lakes in North Louisiana or East Texas, when, without warning, I found myself in the middle of a raging rain and windstorm. I’m fairly handy with an outboard and a jon boat, but if I’m being honest here, I’ve had a few encounters with summer thunder cells that made my heart beat a little faster. Add lightning to the mix, and I can get downright concerned. 

Matthew recorded a similar encounter that Jesus and his disciples had when they took the boat across the lake. Same thing! A boat full of men, a storm blows up, and his disciples begin to fear that their little boat is going to be swamped and they’re all going to drown. You can find the story in Matthew chapter eight. 

The only difference between Jesus’ response to the threatening storm and what mine is that he slept through the entire ordeal. That’s right. Not a care in the world. When his disciples woke him, he simply chastised them for their lack of faith and commanded the storm to stop. And it did. Just like that. Matthew doesn’t tell us if Jesus went back to his nap.

It’s what his followers said in response that I want to concentrate on today. Once they realized that their teacher had commanded the wind and waves to chill out, they turned to one another and said, “What kind of man is this? Even the waves and the wind obey him!”

I would suggest that this is a good question. What kind of man is Jesus? I can’t think of a question with more serious implications than that one.

For one thing, if Jesus isn’t who he claimed to be, it’s really no big deal. In that case, those of us who follow him are nothing more than fools. Deluded! But I want to pose a second question to you: What if he is who he claimed to be? That is the most important question anyone could ever ask because he claimed to be the bread of life. He said about himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Yep, that’s as important as it gets for anyone who wants to have a plan to get his body out of the grave and be in the Father’s presence.

So, let’s examine him, why don’t we? Why don’t we check him out — you know, just to see if he’s legitimate or not.

The first thing John said about him in John 1:1-2 is that he is God, the second member of the godhead. And as God, John also says that he is the creator of all things — “without him nothing was made that has been made.”

I’ve been thinking on this thought for almost 50 years. I’m not the smartest man in the world, but I’m not a fool either. I look around at creation and it marvels me. Everywhere I look, I see design and purpose. Beavers, who never enrolled in engineering school, constructing intricate dams. Birds, without any training at all, building their nests. Trees pushing out new foliage in the spring without anyone telling them that it’s time to do so. 

And this has continued to occur, year after year, for thousands of years. 

Then I look to the sky and wonder to myself: How vast is the universe? Thankfully, I have people around me who know how to check out these things on Google. And here’s what I found. Traveling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second, 671 million miles per hour), how far away are things in the cosmos?

• The end of our solar system is 1.87 light years away. 

• The nearest star is 4.245 light years away.

• The next closest galaxy is 25,000 light years away

• The “known” universe is 93 billion light years across. But that’s just the known universe. We haven’t discovered the end of it yet. Besides, even if you could travel at the speed of light (which is physically impossible), you could never reach the borders of the universe because it is expanding faster than that.

I can’t fathom distances that great. If this doesn’t blow you away, you aren’t thinking very hard about reality. It’s too vast — too enormous. It’s unfathomable for anyone. But the Bible says that Jesus created it all. Just spoke it into existence. And as its creator, he is aware of every celestial body, every atom, every molecule, every hair on your head, and every event that happens in your life. Even your thoughts — he knows them too. 

I can’t comprehend a being like that. He would be too awesome, too majestic for me to approach. How could I keep from suffering his wrath? Why would he even care about me in the first place? I’m less than an ant in the cosmic scheme of things. 

But here’s where it gets good. He does know you, and he does care about you. Check this out:

…have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

(Philippians 2:5-8)

Don’t let this slide by you. The same Jesus who was in the boat with the disciples is the same Jesus who created this very complex universe. But he’s also the one whose love for you was so intense that he gave up his place in heaven and became a human being. And the same Jesus who hung on the cross is the same Jesus who breathed the breath of life into your lungs. 

Paul said he became a servant of mankind — to do for us the very thing that we couldn’t do for ourselves — to correct the breach in our relationship with God. To undo what our sin had done to separate us from him. He humbled himself on our behalf — the Creator of the universe humbled himself. Think about that for a moment. It’s certainly not what you would expect a god that powerful to do.

You may think that being a follower of Jesus is too hard, that his commands are a burden to you. If so, the only reason you feel that way is because you have no clue who he is. Once you make the connection between his glory and what he did for you, you won’t be able to do anything but fall on your face and joyfully proclaim, Jesus is Lord! Glory to God in the highest.

I won’t follow a religious system or a religious leader, but I will lay my life down for a god like this. Nope, it isn’t something I have to think about twice. 

I suggest you check him out! He’s worth everything I’ve given up in order to walk with him.