Jesus on the sea

OK, let me try this again. Land is Israel, sea is Gentiles. A boat is a bit of land floating on the sea, and a boat with Jesus in it is a perfect picture of the little flock of disciples that constitutes Jesus’ first church. It’s a bit of Israel floating unsteadily in the sea of nations.

From the boat, Jesus tells parables that reveal the mystery of the kingdom. But His place and posture also reveal mysteries. The boat is the mustard seed and the leaven, too tiny to be noticed but eventually transforming the sea into dry land by the wind of the Spirit (another Exodus). At first, it’s just Jesus in the boat; He doesn’t even have any fishers of men with him. Someday, there will be a boat as big as the sea, so there will be no more sea, and we can all walk across the sea without sinking.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Church in the Age of Therapy

Matthew Loftus

In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…

Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot

Anna Farrow

On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…

The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen

Mike Aquilina

Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…