35-NatureAlmighty-A

And We Thought We Knew You:
Soul Journey With the Real Jesus

Brother Nature
CATCH THE WIND AND WATER

Winter AD 28
Capernaum, Galilee

�� Jesus has talked all day, trying to explain what the new kingdom of God is going to be like.� It's not what they expect.� He must treat them like children and tell them stories.� Maybe then they'll understand.� But they still don't get it.� He's tired.� He's frustrated. [1]

�� All afternoon by the lake side.� Hundreds on shore.� In a boat� to give himself a little room.� Besides, the water helps carry his voice.� Tonight this same water will carry something else.� A lesson.� A dynamic lesson that will charge through the universe and bow them over. [2]��

�� But first, Jesus and his twelve aides return to their house awhile.� They eat dinner.� They're going to need their nourishment for tonight.� What a night this is going to be.

�� Still, as they eat, they ask him for further explanations of the new kingdom of God.� They're not catching on.� Spiritual and physical both?� He walks back out to the lake.� It's dark.� But people now follow him everywhere.� Sometimes they camp out on his lawn.� Sometimes down by the lake, his favorite spot.�

�� It's time.� Time to get into your boat, fellas.� Time for the lesson.

�� "Let's cross to the other side," Jesus suggests. [3]

�� "But, it's mid-morning.� We don't have enough food for tomorrow."

�� Jesus insists.� They decide to trust him.� He'll figure something out.

�� As soon as the twelve push out, others in the crowd who have them jump in their own boats to follow.� Believers.� Faithful followers. [4]

�� Do they really want to follow Jesus?� Can they handle it?� Following Jesus isn't easy.� Do they realize what they're in for?� He leads a rather stormy life, you know.

�� The water is peaceful.� So far so good.� Jesus smiles and says he thinks he'll take a nap now.

�� "That's great, Jesus," replies Thomas.� "You've been talking all day.� You need a rest."

�� That's not why Jesus is going to sleep though.� He's got something up his sleeve.

�� He goes to the stern and finds a covering.� He folds it up and uses it for a pillow. [5]

11:00 PM

�� Jesus falls asleep.� He dreams.� Wonderful dreams.� Peaceful dreams.� Serene and tranquil.� What are you dreaming of Jesus?� Those flowers on the meadow you created so long ago? [6]� Jochebed rocking her baby Moses to sleep? [7]� David singing a song of love for his creator? [8]� The star radiating warmly and peacefully on the little town where you were born? [9]

12:00 Midnight

�� Sleep on, Jesus.� Dream on, Jesus.� Show them what real peace is.� They don't understand.� Show them what the new kingdom of God is really going to be like.� They don't understand.� Hold on to your seats everyone.�

1:00 AM�

�� Suddenly a squall appears over head and begins to churn the deep waters below the boaters.� Churning, beating, whisking.� Like whipping cream in a bowl.� The cream of the crop's in that boat.� Beating, beating, beating.�

�� Relentlessly.� Brutally.� Unswervingly.� Not letting up.� Not stopping for anything.� Gotta do it.� This is the only way the cream can form into mounds and mountain peaks.� Beating, beating, beating.� Isn't there some other way?

�� Now the waves.� Rising.� Lapping.� Biting like wolves.� Attacking.� Moving in for the kill.� Lunging.� Teasing in a monstrous sort of way.� Will you die, or won't you die?� Panic.� Torturous panic. [10]

2:00 AM�

�� No escaping.� Impossible to get out of the storm.� Gotta ride it out.� Climb on the back of the gargantuan deep and ride it like a wild stallion.�

�� It's not enough.� Anger.� Fight back.� Throw the water out.� Counterattack.� Don't give in.� Show your grit.� Do battle.�

�� Buckets of water.� Throw it out.� And another.� And another.� Keep throwing it.� Don't give up.� Faster!� Faster!� Faster!� Don't stop.� Keep going.� More!� More!� More!

�� Sweat.� Drenching sweat.� Muscles tightening.� Head throbbing.��

�� Keep going!� Keep trying!� Win the battle!� Win the battle! [11]

3:00 AM�

�� Still the enemy water advances.� No holding it back.� No hiding from it.� Closer.� Breaking down the will.� Breaking down the power.��

�� Over their boat.� Over their heads.� Over their lives. [12]

�� Hysteria.

�� "The boat's swamping!"�

�� "We're sinking!"

�� "Grab some oars to float with!"

�� "They're not here!"�

�� "The wind got 'em!"

�� "We're done for!"

�� "The boat's going down!"

�� "We're dead men!"

�� "Oh God!� Don't let us die!"

�� "Jesus!� Where's Jesus?"

�� "A wave must have got him!"

�� "He's already drown!"��

�� "We're next!"

�� "Hang on!"

�� "I can't!"

�� "Oh God!� Save us!� Please save us, God!"

�� "He's here!� Jesus is here!"

�� Some make their way to the stern.��

�� "He's dead!"

�� "Jesus!" they shout in desperation.

�� "Jesus!� Save us!"

�� "Jesus!� We're lost!� We're going down!"

�� "Please!"

�� Suddenly they see their teacher sit up.�

�� "He's not dead!"

�� "Jesus!� Save us!"

�� "Don't you even care?� Do you want to drown too?"

�� "How can you sleep at a time like this?� We've got minutes left to live?" [13]

4:00 AM�

�� Ah!� Now Jesus has them where he wants them.�

�� Ah, yes!� It's taken a storm.� Now you're ready.� You want to know what the new kingdom of God is like?� Well, you're about to see it.� Get a grip on yourself, followers of Jesus.�

�� You've no more power of your own left?� You're desperate?� Then you're ready.� Brace yourself and see the power of Jesus.�

�� "Weak believers!" Jesus shouts at them over the wind.� "Why are you afraid?" [14]

�� They're not believing his response.� They're about to die and Jesus is asking them why they're afraid.�

�� But don't they recall what he came for?� Don't they recall he's here to set up the new kingdom?� Don't they recall he promised he'd do it?� It isn't here yet, is it?� He's going to live to get it done.� And didn't he say they're going to help him get it started?� They're going to live too.�

� �� Yes, indeed.� Why so afraid?� Have you so soon forgotten?� You have a mission to accomplish.� Your future is not here yet.

�� Jesus stands and braces himself.� The winds swirl around his head in final desperation.� They know.� The waves rush to his feet in final surrender.� They know. [15]

�� He's ready to muzzle them.� He knows how.� It's not so hard.� Not for him.

�� "Calm down, now," he says to the winds like a parent, irritated at a temper tantrum.�

�� "Stop this right now," he says to the waves like a father catching a child testing a household rule. [16]

�� Suddenly....suddenly....� Gone....� All gone.� Quiet.� Stillness.� Calm.�

�� No more threats.� No more death cries.� Nothing.� Retreat.� Complete withdrawal.� Gone.� The enemy is gone. [17]

�� Now they see stars overhead.� And a gentle moon smiling down on them, bathing their world in subtle light.

�� The twelve stand up now in their crippled boat.� They look out over the stilled waters.� So calm.� So innocently calm.

�� Jesus waits.�

�� They wade through the remaining water to see who's left alive.� Everyone's still there.� All thirteen.� No one lost.

�� Jesus waits.

�� They look at him.� He's smiling at them sympathetically.� It took this to get the point across.� They're dumbfounded.

�� "Why were you so afraid?" he repeats at last.� "You don't have any faith." [18]

�� Faith?� Faith in God?� Faith is Jesus?� Who are you, Jesus?� Who are you, anyway?� You can talk to the wind and waters?� You can command them?� They actually hear you?

�� Jesus, who are you? [19]

5:00 AM

�� No longer lost in the waters, the twelve sit down.� They become lost in thought.� They become lost in wonder.

�� The kingdom of God.� Will it be a peaceful boat in the storms of life?� A life boat?� A floating isle of safety?� How can a kingdom do so much?� The kingdom they have now is full of turmoil.� The kingdom they have now IS the storm.� How can they have a kingdom within a kingdom?

6:00 AM

�� The sun comes over the horizon just as they arrive on the opposite shore of the Sea of Galilee.� They take care of some business in a cemetery, then sail back across the lake to home. [20]

�� A new day of teaching and healing and comprehending.� So exhausted.� But they're young and strong.� Jesus keeps pushing them.� They can take it.

Winter AD 27

�� Another campaign tour.� Jesus sends them out to try their wings alone.� So much to tell.� This man, Jesus, has powers you wouldn't believe!� He's going to make a great high priest-king!� You don't want to be his enemy.� No, sir.� Get ready.� He's going to start the new kingdom of God.� And it's going to last forever! [21]

�� They are received well.� Hundreds of new backers.� Pulling for Jesus.� Things going great.� What a kingdom this is going to be with Jesus at the helm.� The most powerful kingdom in the world!

Spring AD 27

�� They return.� Excited.� Stories to tell.� News to share.�

�� But their excitement is dampened.� Word arrives that sends them from the highest mountain back down into the depths.� It can't be.� Oh, God, why?� John the Baptist, a friend to many of them, a cousin to Jesus, has been executed by the government. [22]

�� Why John?� He never hurt anyone.� Is it going to crimp everything?� What to do?� They grow quiet.� They begin to grieve.� Vainly they try to blink away the tears.� Vainly they take a punch at a brick wall, angry at Death.�

�� "Come," Jesus tells them, "let's go somewhere private where we can be alone." [23]

�� Back across the lake.� But the people follow them.� Thousands of them.� Matthew calculates probably 25,000 people.� It's phenomenal.� How can Jesus turn them away?� He talks to them all day.� He explains things all day.� The people hungrily feed on his words.�

�� The sun half way down the sky reminds them they are hungry.� Jesus solves their problem.� He feeds them.� Miraculously, he feeds them!� With five measly rolls!� Two dried out sardines!� How does he do that?

�� Faith mounts and thrives!� Oh, yes, we want Jesus to be our new king.� We won't even have to have a welfare system.� He'll just perform miracles.� Maybe turn farms into subdivisions.� He's great, this Jesus!� Let's make him king right now! [24]

�� But it's not time yet.� He must keep training his future cabinet members to handle things.� He's not ready yet.� He tells them to get in their boats and go on back home.� They don't want to go with out him.� He insists.� He'll be along later. �Somehow. [25]

�� The crowd sees he's sent his aides home.� Firmly Jesus tells them to go home.� Then he disappears into a mountain.� He has some unfinished business.� His tears are returning.� Oh how he misses John.� They killed him.� Just like they'll some day kill Jesus. [26]

�� Up in the mountain alone he weeps for one of the best friends he ever had.� Although they lived at opposite ends of the country, they were closer to each other than Jesus was to his own brothers.� How he aches for him.

�� Jesus thinks ahead to his own death.� He doesn't want to go through it.� At least not the torture part.� He continues to pray.� Pray for the storms in John's life that are now over.� As he does, the winds stir up and whip around him.� Pray for the storms in his own life yet to be faced.� Harder they blow.� Pray for the storms in the lives of his twelve cabinet members.� Will they know he'll always be near?

�� Remembering his friends in the boat, Jesus looks out over the lake.� With divine eyes, he sees them.� They're over three miles out into the lake. [27]� Their engine has gone out, and they've been rowing, trying to get home.� The winds are against them.� It's the middle of the night. [28]

�� "Keep rowing!� He told us to meet him on the other side." Their arms are aching.�

�� "Keep rowing!� Get away from the desert."� Their hands are blistered and cut.

�� "Keep rowing!� We've got to get home and get ready for another campaign tour."� Their wills are straining.

�� "Jesus, where are you?"

�� "Come calm our storm, Jesus!"

�� Jesus has had a difficult night.� He needs a diversion.� He decides to take a walk.� Maybe he can teach a lesson on the way.� Wonder if they'll catch on.� Wonder if they'll see his point.� Wonder if they'll even see him at all.

�� He takes a leap and he's out on the water.� The waves are rising and falling.� Jesus does not wade through them.� He does not float over them.� He rides the waves.

�� Hey, this is fun!� This isn't a storm.� This is a challenge.� Yippee!� Ride 'em!� The waves clap in delight.� Go for the gusto!� Exhilaration!� Still in some ways a child at heart.�

�� Jesus is not frightened, though below him are untold gallons of water.� And below that are underwater hills and caverns.� And below that is a dare-devil death.

�� He is not afraid, though the winds are swirling around him treacherously challenging.� Refusing to let go.� Pushing, jostling, thrusting.� Daring to be the taskmaster of its own creator.

�� There they are!� He sees them ahead.� Lesson time again, guys.� Ready for this one?

�� They need to light up a little.� Taking things too seriously again.� Jesus teases them a little.� Pretends to walk on past them.� Besides, it could scare the daylight out of them if he heads straight at them. [29]

�� "Look!" Nathaniel calls out.�

�� They all stop rowing, stop fighting the storm.

�� "What is it?"

�� "It's a light."

�� "No.� It's a reflection."

�� "No.� It's....� It's...."

�� "It's a ghost!"

�� "Ghosts don't exist!"

�� "It's a ghost, I tell you!"

�� The thing on the water turns.

�� "It's coming our way!"

�� "What is it?"

�� "A ghost, I tell you!� A ghost!"

�� "But...."

�� Still closer.

�� "No!� It's coming for us!"

�� "We're dead men!"

�� "Jesus!� Help!"

�� They want to back up with their boat, but the wind is too fierce.� They want to back up in their boat, but there's no where to go.

�� "No!� Stay away!"

�� "Get away from us!"

�� "Stop!� Don't come any closer!"

�� "Ahhhh!"

�� "Hey!� Cheer up!� It's just me," Jesus calls out to them.� "Don't be such cowards." [30]

�� What?� It's Jesus?� It can't be.� It's a ghost.� He's not a ghost.� Or is he?� Did the people kill him instead?

�� But his voice.� It sounds like his voice, even over the winds.� Who could mistake his voice?

�� Test it.� Find out what it is.� Can it hear?

�� "Is it really you, Jesus?" Peter calls out.� Peter, also a child at heart sometimes wants to go outside the boat and play too.� "Jesus, tell me to come to you on the water." [31]

�� "Then come."

�� "Peter, don't do it," Andrew warns.

�� "Maybe we're closer to shore than we thought," John says.

�� "Peter, you're crazy."

�� "Well, I won't be in any more danger than you guys.� The boat is half full of water."

�� Peter puts a leg over the edge of the boat and his toes seem to find a rock to stand on.�

�� He's grinning.� He puts the other leg over.

�� Peter, what do you think you're doing?

�� Silence.� Is he headed for his death?�

�� Now Peter is letting go of the side of the boat.� You're crazy, Peter.

�� They go from begging to praying.� Can he do it?� Really do it?� Is this really Jesus?

�� Peter is delighted!� It's fun.� Fun like diving off a cliff.� Fun like a bucking bronco.� Fun like spelunking.� Sort of.� But more so. [32]

�� "Don't go so far out, Peter.� Come back!"

�� Then Peter remembers where he is.� Maybe he should have looked before he leaped.� Maybe he shouldn't have been so rash.� Maybe, maybe he'll drown.

�� He looks around him.� He looks back at the boat and sees it so far away.� He didn't mean to go out so far.�

�� Peter suddenly wonders, "What am I doing out here?".� He looks at the churning clouds overhead.� The death clouds.� It's not so fun now.�

�� The waters!� They're lapping over his feet.� His knees.� His waist.� He chest.

�� Oh, God.� What is happening?

�� "Help!� Jesus, help me!� I'm drowning!"

�� "Someone, throw a line out to him!" shouts Judas.�

�� The waves are hitting him in the face.� Challenging him to a duel he cannot possibly win.

�� On the boat, someone scrambles for the rope.

�� "Save me!� Please, Jesus, save me!" Peter keeps shouting.

�� "The rope's not long enough!" [33]

�� But Jesus is stepping over to his friend and putting out his hand.� Peter is taking firm hold of it.� Effortlessly Jesus is lifting Peter back up out of the water.�

�� They're eye to eye now.� Jesus is smiling sympathetically.�

�� Peter tried.� At least he tried.� The others didn't try.� But Peter needs just a little more of a nudge.� He's almost got it down, but not quite.� And Peter needs just a little more courage.� Perhaps he has more to face in his future than the others.

�� "Your faith is still faint.� Why did you doubt me?"

�� It was just a little doubt, Jesus.� Not as much as the others.�

�� But not enough to get you over the wall, Peter.� Almost is not enough.� Don't be so proud, Peter.� You would have been just as drowned as the others, had the boat sunk. [34]

�� Peter steps around beside Jesus.� They face the others together.� Together they provide the example.� Together, now, they walk over to the boat.

�� "Peter, you're okay!" his brother calls out.

�� "Jesus, it's really you?"

�� "You bet it's him," Tom responds, helping Jesus climb over the side.

�� Jesus is now through with it.� He doesn't need the wind any more.� Peter doesn't need the wind to challenge his faith.� The others don't need the wind to build their faith.� He doesn't need the wind to prove his power through the storms of life.

�� The instant both feet touch the bottom of the boat, a great silence shatters the moment. [35]

�� "What?" someone whispers.

�� "What was that?"

�� Silence.� They look around.� Peter is not talking any more.� They are not talking any more.� The winds are not.� The winds are gone.� The waves are gone.� Everything gone but serenity.� A glassy calm lake and divine tranquility.� How can this be?

�� They're looking at Jesus.� They're backing away from him.� Speechless.� Dumb-struck.� Trembling.� Staring.� At this young man wearing a dirty tunic.� His hair down in his eyes.� But eyes that pierce their hearts, their souls, the very universe.� The eyes that saw them just a few moments ago from miles away back on shore.� Divine eyes.� Divine Being in dirty sandals.

�� Noticeably shaking, they are slowly falling.� Falling to their knees.� Tears of fearful astonishment in their eyes.� Awe stricken.� They're pulling trembling hands to their chest.� They're looking up at him in wonder.

�� "Jesus," they're whispering, each in his own way.

�� "Jesus...."� Can they say it?

�� "You are unquestionably...."

�� Yes?

�� "You have to be...."

�� Go ahead.� Say it.

�� "....the son of God!" [36]

�� The silence is surrounding them with divinity.� They are being riveted with the impossible.� Absorbing God through Jesus.� He waits for them.� Silently.

�� It's time to go now, men.� It's dawn.� The shore is near.� You're almost home.� Jesus has met you half way.� In the middle of nowhere.� And escorted you home. [37]

�� The following day, the people from the other side of the lake catch up with him.�

�� "When did you get here?" they ask him. [38]

�� Jesus looks around into excited faces.� What are their motives?� They seem so holy.� So dedicated to you, Jesus.�

�� It's the Sabbath.� He heads for the synagogue.� The people follow him, file in, and fill the building.� He takes the speaker?s seat up front. [39]

�� "Come on now, people.� You are not looking for me because you saw signs proving I'm from God.� You just got a kick out of the miracle of food." [40]

�� So, what's wrong with that?

�� "Don't spend so much effort for food that decomposes.� Go after the food that lasts through life here and eternally." [41]

�� Okay, we can go for that.� Give us that food and we'll eat it too. [42]

�� "The one God has sent will provide it for you." [43]

�� Great!� Just show us a sign so we can believe you. [44]

�� Another sign?� You just saw a sign, witnessed a sign, lived a sign.� Remember all the food you ate?� Thousands of you?� From a couple loaves and dried fish?� What more do you want?� That WAS the sign.

�� Well, give us that bread you're talking about so we'll never be hungry again. [45]

�� The twelve know.� He may as well blurt it out for everyone to know.

�� "I am that bread.� If you follow me, you'll never hunger or thirst ever again." [46]

�� But that's not what we had in mind.� We want something like the manna Moses gave our ancestors. [47]

�� "You have seen me in person, watched me in person, and you don't believe me." [48]

�� But....

�� "If you believe in me, I will raise you up on the last day of the world." [49]

�� But you're just Jesus.� We know your father and mother.� How can you say you've come down from heaven? [50]

�� Jesus is growing frustrated.� He must repeat himself once more.� This time, more specifically.� More pointedly.� Don't leave any doubt in their minds what you mean.

�� "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have eternal life.� If you do, I'll will raise you up on the last day of the world." [51]

�� People muttering in the audience.� Getting angry.� He's playing them for fools.� Someone gets up and leaves.� The sermon's not over.� He leaves anyway.� Another leaves.� And another.� The congregation becomes sparse.� People walking out on him.� They don't want to hear this. [52]

�� There isn't much use going on.� Jesus responds, "This aggravates you?" says a few more words, then steps down. [53]

�� The song leader gets up and tries to take up the unused sermon time with a few rousing hymns.� But Jesus sits on the front pew anxious to leave.

�� As soon as the last amen is heard, he slips out the back door.� His twelve aides are close by.�

�� But what to say?� What do they say to their leader when he's the one who's discouraged?� He's the one who's down?� They don't see him discouraged much.� But it's happening now.� Just hours after he was commanding the every wind.� Just hours after the winds obeyed.� Just hours after they knew he had to be the son of God.

�� They're quiet.� They're embarrassed for Jesus.� They don't know what to say.� Their hearts hurt for him.� He seems so small right now.

�� He walks to their house and goes through the door.� No crowds fighting to get to him.� No one shouting to him to be their king.� No anyone.� Just his twelve closest friends in all the world.

�� They close the door on the world.� They sit down in the courtyard, still wishing they could think of the right words to lift his spirits.� He sits alone.� He puts his hands in his face.� So down.� They know he's praying to his father.� They are praying too.� Please, God, lift him back up.

�� Finally, Jesus breaks the silence.� But it's not what they expect to hear.� He doesn't seem to have his courage back.� He doesn't have his usual determination left.� What's wrong, friend?

�� He looks around the room at each of them.� Their hearts reach out to him in silence.� He looks so beaten.

�� "You don't want to leave me too?" [54]

�� Oh, Jesus.� Blessed Jesus.�

�� Peter walks over to him and kneels so he is on eye level with his deliverer.

�� "You are our Lord.� To whom shall we go?" [55]

�� Jesus looks back at him as though to say, "Thank you."

�� Peter feels the approval of the others, so goes on.� "You have the bread of life, the words of life.� We believed you a long time ago.� But now we are more certain than ever that you are holy.� You are from God." [56]

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

1. Think about a time you fretted and worried about a disaster that you made worse by dreading it.� Next time, how will you hand the problem over to God and let go of the burden?

2. We tend to make fun of people who are failures ~ losers.� Think of someone you made fun of because they failed at something, but that you were afraid to even try.� Relate that to people who go to church and at least try, even though they fail at being perfect.� How will you now treat these "hypocrites" with this perspective in mind?

3. We were made in the image of God.� We get discouraged, so God does too.� He became discouraged with the Israelites soon after he freed them from Egyptian slavery because they kept worshipping false (made-up, imagined) gods.� Moses encouraged God.� Remember, God made humans with free will.� God will not force any of us to do anything.� That sets him up for discouragement and sadness when we reject him.� Pray to God and explain to him that you are honestly trying to understand him so you can follow him.

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