“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Matthew 7:7

“‘Come’, he said”  Matthew 14:29

Jesus Christ was in His element.  He had just preached His Father’s word to a great crowd.  He had just fed them, 5000 and more with five loaves and two fish.  He sent His disciples on ahead as He blessed and dismissed the crowd.  And now it was time for Him to go back to His disciples.  So He walked to them.  You see this is the One who was there at creation.  This is the One, John tells us, Who was there at the beginning; that through Him all things were made.  So it was very natural, having made all things, that Jesus was in control of all things.  So, for Him, it was not a miracle to walk on the water that He, Himself had a part in creating.  It was His element to control.  So as Jesus approaches the boat where the disciples sat and looked upon Him with great fear; He very naturally tells them to have no fear.  It is natural for the Son of God to be doing this.  But here is one of the most important points.  Peter asks to be with Jesus, in His element.  He asks to walk on water, himself.  Now Jesus could have said: “Peter, this is not the element for you.  You are not the Son of God.  You were made for the boat so that is where you must stay. (In other words, you were made from this world so you must stay in this world) No, Jesus invites Peter to come, to come into His element.  And Peter does, Peter enters into the element of Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ and Peter also walks on water.

Alas, Peter doesn’t stay in Jesus’ element.  Why?  Jesus tells us why in the very first parable that He teaches with.  It is the parable of the Sower.  You see dear Sisters and Brothers, we have an enemy.  We have a spirit of darkness who loathes that, through Jesus Christ, we can enter in the element of God, Our Heavenly Father.  Satan will try all things to stop us from entering into that element.  Jesus Christ, the Sower, sows the Word.  Satan comes and hardens some hearts and makes them like stone.  So the Word can have not the slightest effect on them.  However, should their/our hearts be receptive, Satan doesn’t stop there.  He brings persecution and condemnation because of the Word.  The world calls the people who will listen, stupid, delusional, losers and some can not withstand the persecution and they leave the element of the Word.  Yet some, withstand the persecution and Satan does not give up (and this is what happens to Peter).  For now Satan brings all of the world that he can against them.  Satan will bring worry about life, storms, not having shelter, making a paycheck, having an illness against us.  If that doesn’t work, Satan tries the other route, he can make us worldly successful, where the cares and pride of maintaining that success, cloud our thoughts and block the Power of the Word and it is not fruitful.  Peter sees the wind and the waves of this world and they block him from Jesus and he starts to sink.

But, Praise be to God the Father Almighty, through Jesus Christ the Son and to the Holy Spirit that testifies to the Word in us, Satan does not have the last word.  For Jesus Christ is there.  He lifts Peter back up and the Word becomes mighty in Peter, who becomes the “Good Soil” and produces a crop “thirty, sixty and even a hundred times what is sown”.  Jesus Christ is never defeated.  One might look at Saul as one of the “first soil”.  For Saul had heard the Word of Jesus Christ and it had no impact on him.  He persecuted the Word and all who believed in it.  But Jesus Christ came to Saul and overpowered Satan within him.  He turned Saul into Paul, a man of “Good Soil” and Paul reaped a great harvest.

So it is dear Sisters and Brothers, that Jesus Christ calls to each of us to come into His Element, the Element of Our Heavenly Father.  He asks us to seek, He asks us to knock, He asks us to ask.  Know when we do those things that Satan will come against us.  Satan will do everything in his power to keep us from the Element of Jesus Christ.  Christ knew this; Our Heavenly Father knew this.  They both knew that, on our own, we had no power to defeat Satan and enter into the Element.  So Our Heavenly Father sent His Son to do what we could not.  Jesus Christ through His victorious death and resurrection once and for all defeats Satan and opens up the path for us to enter into the Element of our Heavenly Father.  May it be that through the Holy Spirit that is given to us, we will find the path, we will enter into the Element, that when the defeated Satan still tries to defeat and dissuade us and we indeed stumble, that through prayer and repentance, we will call upon the One, Jesus Christ who is victorious every time for all times, to bring us into that same victorious Element.

Our Most Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise Your Most Holy Name that You have seen fit to invite us to be in Your Element.  Thank You Dear Father that to make that possible, You sent Your Son Jesus Christ, first into our element.  Forgive us when we stray from you either through hardened hearts, fear of persecution or worldly concerns.  Through Your Holy Spirit, bring us back to You, through and in the power of Your Once and Forever victorious Son, Jesus Christ.  That our lives may be in Your Element and thus be lives of Praise to Your Most Holy Name.  In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray.  Amen