Walking on water

God, Christ, & The Holy Spirit
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dwight92070
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Walking on water

Post by dwight92070 » Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:05 am

If, by walking on water, Jesus was showing His disciples that He was God, then how did Peter walk on water? Of course Peter couldn't have done that if Jesus had not commanded him to do it, so is Jesus' command proof of His divinity? I'm just thinking out loud here. Peter did walk on water, not because he was God, but because he was exercising faith in what Jesus told him to do. In fact, Jesus gently rebuked him when he became fearful and started to sink - "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

We know that God does not have faith, i.e. He doesn't need it. Who is God going to put His faith in? Only men can have and need faith, IN HIM. However, Jesus was fully God and fully man, so didn't His fully man side have faith in God? In fact, didn't He do everything BY FAITH IN HIS FATHER? Aside from receiving worship and forgiving sins, didn't He do everything else by faith, as a man, showing us that we can do the same? When He fed the multitude, didn't He tell His disciples, "You give them something to eat?"

If Jesus is our example, isn't it true that He could not "cheat" and exercise divine perogatives to live His life? Otherwise, how could we be expected to follow Him, since we are not God?

dizerner

Re: Walking on water

Post by dizerner » Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:37 am

If Jesus is our example, isn't it true that He could not "cheat" and exercise divine prerogatives to live His life? Otherwise, how could we be expected to follow Him, since we are not God?
Yea, I think so. It seems pretty Biblical that Jesus didn't, as you say, "cheat" and dip in to his divinity at any point. Seems to be a major point of Satan's temptations in fact—to provoke Jesus to "cheat" somehow instead of being dependent. We do get a verse like Job:

Who alone stretches out the heavens And treads on the waves of the sea...

And it seems to be a bit more than a coincidence that his disciples just happened to bump into him out there, as if God allowed them to perceive something about Christ—right before Jesus' strictest call to discipleship, the eating and drinking of his flesh and blood.

So although in truth it was just a man walking out there, and perhaps not even the first man to walk on water (who knows, maybe Enoch did it), I'd say the symbolism and timing of this particular miracle was indeed meant to point us towards Christ's divinity.

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morbo3000
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Re: Walking on water

Post by morbo3000 » Fri Feb 26, 2016 10:50 pm

Interesting text, and interesting questions.
dwight92070 wrote:If, by walking on water, Jesus was showing His disciples that He was God,
Actually, none of that is in the text. We don't really know what Jesus' motives were for walking on the water. At the end of the story, the disciples say "truly you are the son of god," a phrase that can't be firmly nailed down to calling him divine. And the verb "worship," does not necessarily mean homage to a deity. It can be applied to kings as well. Nonetheless, their declaration is prompted by their wonder at what happened. But that doesn't tell us why he did it. Only their reaction.

The way Matthew tells the story it sounds like it was simply expedient. He went up to pray. Came down. They were out in the boat. Rather than wait, he decided to walk there. And then they went nuts, as you and I would if we saw someone walk on water.
If Jesus is our example, isn't it true that He could not "cheat" and exercise divine perogatives to live His life? Otherwise, how could we be expected to follow Him, since we are not God?
I don't think the point of the story is the *how* of Jesus and Peter walking on water. Nor whether Jesus was flexing a human or divine muscle. Nor how Peter did it.

The point is the importance of trusting Jesus. Much beyond that is reading theology back into the text that isn't there on its own.
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