Can't Catch a Break? Neither Could Jesus.

Some of the Gospel readings  from Matthew over the last week or so have shown Jesus in a series of interesting situations.

First, he hears about the execution of his cousin, John the Baptist.  He needs to get away,  to process this tragedy quietly in communion with his Father.  Undoubtedly he sees some frightening implications for his own future.   So he invites the apostles to "come away"  for a while,  to get away from the daily press of the crowds that are hungry for his words, his healing, his presence.  Yes, Jesus was fully the Son of God...but he was also fully human,  "like us in all things but sin",  as the Letter to the Hebrews says.  And so, like us, he needed some down time.  

So off he goes with his close friends,  and when they arrive,  there are the crowds!   The people found another way to get to the same destination,  and he feels such compassion for them that he scraps his own plans.   He sees them as "sheep without a shepherd",  hapless,  desperate,   lacking purpose and direction,  and so he goes to work, healing, teaching, preaching,  and ultimately feeding them with that miraculous mountain of bread and fish.

Next?  Jesus dismisses the crowds to their homes,  and sends  his friends off in a boat,  and finally gets some quiet time with God on a mountain,  in the calm of night.

But pretty soon, he's needed again.  As he walks on the water toward the boat,  he sees the disciples frightened by turbulence (not to mention the sight of a possible ghost walking on the water!)    and he assures them that there's no need to fear,  because he's there with them.  Peter,  always the impetuous one,  tells Jesus to let him too walk on the water, to prove it's really Himself.  "Come!" says Jesus,  and off Peter goes on the water...until he realizes how strong the wind is,  and here he is, walking on water!  And then he sinks.  We all know the ending:  Jesus catches him, they both get into the boat, and the wind dies down.

What's to learn from this?

1.    That Jesus,  the Son of God,  but also our very human brother,  got tired and discouraged and sometimes needed a break from his ministry of teaching, healing, preaching.  We're in Divine company when we feel that way,  and taking time to be refreshed by some silence, solitude, leisure, or simply the good company of those we love,   is not selfish.

2.    At the same time, Jesus recognized when the needs of others really did outweigh his own,  and so he temporarily shelved his leisure to take care of those God had sent his way.   Later on,  in the dark mystery of nightfall on a mountain,   he found time for that sacred solitude that he so needed.  We can trust that God knows best when we will most need to be rejuvenated by quiet,  by solitude,  by the intimate companionship of our loved ones --spouses,  family, friends -- and he'll see that we receive those gifts of refreshment even as he calls us to take care of one more person, one more phone call, one more responsibility.  We just have to trust his timing.

3.    And then there's Peter.   For those of us who are or who have been  elementary school teachers,  Peter's the kid who perpetually shoots up his hand with the answer that he hasn't yet figured out.  He's lovably impetuous, because of his childlike enthusiasm for Jesus.  That enthusiasm will mature into deep commitment only after  he's later denied that he even knows Jesus, but in the end,  it's Peter who is chosen as the leader of the early Christians.  He's an encouragement to us all both in our fear and in our enthusiasm, in our failings and in our deeply-held commitments, 

4.     Notice that the wind dies down when Peter,  and the other apostles, and Jesus,  are all in the boat together.  We can wonder:   did the wind really die down, or did the communion of friendship and commitment in that boat,  the reassuring sense of holy presence in Jesus,   suddenly ease the fear of wind and waves?    "Together,   with Jesus,  we can handle this!"   might be what the soggy and bedraggled apostles suddenly realized.   True for us, too!  The reality of the Divine has a great way of puotting things into perspective!

So on those days that make us soggy and bedraggled, those days when we feel as if we can't catch a break of any kind,  and especially those days when the pandemic's demands have worn us down to our last nerve, we can at least recall that there's a bigger Reality,  to Whom we all belong.  As a faith-filled friend once said to me,  "Listen, the only thing God can't do is fail."

Believe it.  Don't expect an immediate response.  But believe it.