Walking on Water

Florida State University oceanography professor Doron Nof recently announced that he believes the New Testament story of Jesus walking on the water—sort of. Nof said on Tuesday that his research found an unusual combination of water and atmospheric conditions in what is now northern Israel could have led to ice formation on the Sea of Galilee. So Jesus didn’t walk on water—he walked on ice! I resist the temptation to suggest that perhaps it is Professor Nof who is skating on thin ice. (OK, so I didn’t completely resist the temptation).

Nof used records of the Mediterranean Sea's surface temperatures and statistical models to examine the dynamics of the Sea of Galilee. He found that a period of cooler temperatures between 1,500 and 2,600 years ago could have included the decades in which Jesus lived. He suggests that it was possible for ice thick enough to support a man to form on the surface of the freshwater lake while being impossible for distant observers see. Nof said, “If you ask me if I believe someone walked on water, no, I don't. Maybe somebody walked on the ice, I don't know. I believe that something natural was there that explains it."

“I might not be a smart man,” to quote Forrest Gump; I am certainly no Ph.D. in oceanography. But this doesn’t take a rocket scientist. If the intelligence behind the Bible is truly God, then it is a simple matter for Jesus to walk on the water or Moses to part the Red Sea (and Nof has a theory on that one too, but then I digress). If the God who spoke the universe into existence inspired the Bible, then miracles are quite simply God suspending the natural order that He Himself created. But if there has to be some natural explanation behind every Biblical miracle, then what does that have to say about the power of the God behind the book? If God is God, then walking on water really doesn’t present much of a challenge!

I am reminded of that old song by a folk group ironically named Ocean. It reminds us that the basis of being transformed by the word of Christ is in fact the person of Christ. because He is the man who stilled the water, He is also the God who stills the soul--

Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and you can look at others differently
So put your hand in the hand of the man from Gallilee.