Jesus walked on the
water to prove to His disciples that He was the Son
of God. What is left as an open question is how
He preformed this spectacular feat. Some
skeptics contend that Jesus used a natural means of
support, such as a sand bar or reef. Someone else
suggested that Jesus performed the act by walking on
surface ice that may have been formed by a freak
cold spell. Peter's involvement in the situation
offers little room for a natural explanation.
I've had many
discussions with Christian friends about the above
passage, and I constantly run into a problem with
how believers view biblical miracles. When I ask how
Jesus was able to walk on the water, I'm often given
the answer, "Jesus did it because He is God."
Another variant is, "Jesus did it because nothing is
impossible with God."
I strongly dislike
this type of answer because it is not an answer at
all. It's an intellectually lazy way of dealing with
a complex quandary. I've read dozens of articles on
the subject of miracles, and in most cases, I'm
frustrated by the authors' lack of clarity. They
speak of miracles in mythological terms, putting God
on par with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the
Tooth Fairy. They could be more concise by just
saying, "I don't know how Jesus walked on water, but
somehow He did it."
Something obviously
transpired to allow Jesus to walk on the surface of
Lake Galilee. He could have changed the properties
of water molecules so that they locked together with
a bond that was strong enough to support Him. Or
Jesus could have altered the gravitational weight of
His physical body, allowing Him to walk with just
the water's surface tension as support. Who knows?
The actual explanation may be so complex that it
would give the mind of someone like Albert Einstein
a headache.
God does not have a
magic genie who grants His every wish. Every act of
God is performed by God Himself. We humans like to
use our imagination to abbreviate the laws of
physics, but in the end, scientists have to fill in
the details for us. We dreamed of powered flight for
centuries, and it wasn't until the Wright brothers
came along that we were able to realize this dream.
Any person of
average intelligence who goes to see a magical act
knows that the magician does not use supernatural
powers to saw a woman in half or pull a rabbit out
of hat. A more appropriate term for "magician" would
be "illusionist"--someone who has mastered the art
of entertaining audiences by staging tricks or
creating illusions of seemingly impossible exploits
using natural means. God doesn't need smoke and
mirrors to accomplish His amazing feats.
His type of magic is the result of pure skill.
Christians like to
break the world down into the supernatural and the
natural realm. The world of angels, demons, and the
heavenly host is separate from the physical world
that we see around us. I think it is erroneous
thinking to separate the two worlds.
There is really only
one physical world. When I go to church, there may
be angels dancing around the room. Just because I
can't see them with my eyes doesn't mean they are
immaterial. You can't see infrared light being
emitted by objects around us. We know infrared
energy is real because we can sense it by other
means.
The only thing that
separates us from spiritual objects and entities is
that they exist on a higher dimension. If we could
cross over to the spiritual dimension, we might
easily understand how Jesus could walk on water and
pass through solid walls.
We lose sight of the
importance of the heavenly realm by casting it as a
place of enchantment. Our general view of Heaven is
as a place where we sit on clouds and strum harps
all day. The Bible says that Heaven is a city of
incredible activity. Its splendor surpasses the
glitter of Las Vegas, the hustle and bustle of New
York City, and the political authority of Washington
DC.
"But as it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians
2:9).
We rob God of His full
glory when we imply that He uses magic to accomplish
spectacular feats. When God spoke the universe into
existence, there was a vast amount of complexity
behind His command. We may never see the inner
workings of His star-creation process, but for
eternity, we can marvel at the end result.
