“Holy places are dark places. It is life and strength, not knowledge and words, that we get in them. Holy wisdom is not clear and thin like water, but thick and dark like blood.”
C.S. Lewis
In Mt 14:13-21 we see that the disciples had a very tiring, difficult day as they have served with Jesus the multitudes. They worked hard, served hard and obeyed well. They saw miracles upon miracles: healing of the sick and feeding of the multitude.
They had a day that couldn’t be more successful. They proved their obedience and were ready for a well-deserved restful night.
At this moment, when they are most tired, Jesus ‘immediately made them to get into a boat’. (Read Mt 14:22-33). The disciples obeyed to Jesus’ command. They had no reason to doubt their Master’s words. Their tiredness was not a reason for disobedience.
Little did they know the dark places their obedience will lead them to.
But their obedience:
- led them to danger,
- led them to darkness,
- led them to striving without any progress and any hopeful prospect.
Obedience can be dangerous.
Obedience led them to the middle of a dark, dangerous, hopeless place where they were beaten by every circumstances around them.
Sometimes following Jesus, working in his mission, obeying to him takes you to dark, dangerous, fearful, difficult, exhausting, hopeless places where the endless waves of the dangerous waters never cease beating you.
And you wonder how you wound up there. You just obeyed and followed him. You trusted Him and now everything is out of control around you. Suddenly you can only focus on how to survive the uncontrollable circumstances. Today’s miracles are distanced memories. You long forgot the glorious day you had with Jesus. You forgot the miracles you saw. You forgot how he fed the five thousand. You only can focus on one thing: survive this raging storm around you.
You keep striving and you keep fighting, but without any progress.
You scream and cry, but Jesus is far away.
You are scared and nobody cares. Those you served all-day-long, went home and sleep peacefully.
It’s just so not fair!
But while you are there striving for your life:
- Jesus is praying for you (v.23),
- Jesus is coming to you (v.25) – although you don’t recognize him yet,
- Jesus invites you to conquer your raging circumstances by lifting up your eyes from your circumstances to Him (v.29),
- Jesus saves you when you are sinking (v.30), AND
- Jesus gets into your boat and calms down the raging circumstances (v.32).
The pinnacle of the story is not Peter walking on the water. The pinnacle of your story is not how you conquered your circumstances by faith.
The pinnacle of the story is that Jesus is recognized and worshiped for who He really is!
And that’s the purpose of all our stories.
Dark places can become holy places, they can become places of worship.
Dark places make us see that He controls the seemingly uncontrollable.
Jesus leads us into dark places, not to torture us or to destroy us, but to show us who He really is.