Water and Mountains (Part 2)
symbolism in Matthew 14-20
Introduction
If you were to chart out Jesus’ path of travel throughout the book of Matthew, it doesn’t make much sense. It zigzags back and forth in a most impractical way. Did Jesus visit these places in this order? Is Matthew recording Jesus’ travels chronologically?
Matthew seems to be laying out a path of travel involving water encounters, mountaintop experiences, healings, feedings, and times of testing. The feedings and healings seem to be grouped with the mountaintop experiences while the water encounters seem to be lumped together with the times of testing. I wonder if Matthew is using physical locations to communicate how Jesus’ disciples are to follow him in becoming fishers of men.
This is my first attempt to decipher this message in Jesus’ travels. I will be doing this through Chapters 14-20, although I believe it starts back in chapter 4. Let’s get started. By the way, if you didn’t read the post before this one, here’s a link to my introduction.
A Pattern of Ups and Downs
Matthew 14 continues a patterns of ups and downs started in Matthew 4. The ups are times of strengthening, healing, clarity and revelation, while the downs are times of testing people’s faith. Another way to say this is that the mountain times were times God gave nourishment, and the watery times tested to see if the disciples really ate the nourishment given on the mountain. The mountain experiences provided the message; the watery experiences asked the question, “Did you get the message? Let’s see if you did.”
I’m finding this highly applicable since over the last year the Lord has been teaching me all sorts of new things. Each new thing has been followed by a time of testing. I was prompted to answer the question: Abby, this is all interesting, but does this help you love God and love others? How does this help you die to yourself and live to Christ? What is this revealing in your heart? Are you willing to sacrifice more of your earthly riches for the sake of others?
Matthew Ch 14-17 Summaries
Here’s how the pattern of mountain and watery experiences shows up in Matthew. Below you will find section summaries as well as some Abby guesses at the meaning.
Ch 14:1-12 Suffering: John the Baptist is beheaded. Jesus knows the time is approaching when he will suffer and die too.
Possible Meaning: this is the ultimate mountain-top way to follow Christ: in dying to self.
Side note: Jesus’ teaching ministry begins in Matthew chapter 4 with John the Baptist being imprisoned, Jesus withdrawing, and Jesus telling his disciples he will show them how to be fishers of men. It seems like everything afterward demonstrates how to be fishers of men. The way we bring others into the kingdom of heaven is through this pathway that Jesus is outlining.
Ch 14:13 Boat: Jesus takes a boat to a solitary place without a name. Note: Matthew mentions many locations throughout these passages, but he doesn’t mention this one.
Possible meaning: Jesus will pass through the watery depths on his own to go to an unknown place on our behalf. He alone will experience Hell for us.
Ch 14:14 Healings: Jesus heals people.
Possible message: Jesus will heal many through suffering like John did and passing through a watery death like the aforementioned boat trip.
Ch 14:15-21 Bread and Fish Feeding: Jesus feeds the multitudes again.
Possible meaning: by suffering and dying Jesus will heal many and feed many himself, the bread of Heaven. It will be enough for all with plenty left over.
Side note: this is God’s way of feeding people the Bread of Heaven. It is in direct contrast to the way Satan tempted Jesus to produce bread in Matthew 4.
Ch 14:22-34 Watery Crossing & Peter Sinks: Jesus tells the disciples to cross the water now. But the storm on the sea terrifies them. They see Jesus and believe he is a ghost. Peter sinks in the waves.
Possible Message: Jesus is telling his disciples to follow him in crossing the watery trials, suffering and dying, and allowing their sacrifice to pass on Jesus to others.
Maybe believing Jesus is a ghost is the foreshadowing of the Holy Spirit. This also parallels Jesus‘s baptism where the Holy Spirit descends on him as a dove.
Peter’s failure to water walk maybe means the disciples don’t have faith in the message Jesus is preaching yet. They don’t understand the process of suffering for others. They still just want revenge on their enemies and to be the top dogs on earth.
Ch 14:35-36 More Healings: In Genneseret, which is northeast of the sea (see map below), anyone who touched Jesus was healed.
Possible Meaning: Jesus’ touch saved Peter from sinking during the watery trials, and now touching Jesus heals people. A touch of Jesus, I.e., just a little bit of faith, will heal us through the watery trials.
Ch 15:1-20 Water & Feeding Combo: Pharisees and Teachers of the Law test Jesus about washing hands before eating, and Jesus teaches a lesson about what really makes people clean. Jesus clearly says he’s not talking about literal food and washing.
Possible Message: Food and water in these passages symbolize how we become clean and who we should eat. Jesus makes us clean through passing through these watery trials. And he provides real nourishment and the power for healing.
Ch 15:20-28 Healing: Jesus withdraws to Tyre and Sidon (see map below) where he heals the Canaanite Gentile woman. Jesus challenges the disciples’ ideas of who is included in God’s Kingdom by speaking aloud the disciples’ prejudices. “I came only for the lost sheep of Israel.”
Possible meanings: following Jesus means to give the bread of Jesus to all people: men, women, Jews, and Gentiles.
Ch 15:29-31 Sea, Mountain, Healing Combo: Back along the Sea of Galilee, Jesus goes up on a mountain and heals people. He makes the mute speak, the blind see, the lame walk.
Possible Meaning: watery trials, being close to God, and healing all go together in succession.
Ch 15:32-38 Bread & Feeding: Again on a mountain, Jesus feeds many. Jesus provides more than enough with some leftover.
Possible Meaning: Jesus is the source of food for our souls. It’s through following him through this cycle of eating him and then being tested that we experience God’s mountaintop glory in us. We cannot feed the hungry without being willing to endure watery trials. It is what Christ calls us to do with him.
Ch 15:39-16:1-4 Boat and Water Crossing: Jesus goes in a boat to Magadan (see map below) where the Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus for a sign. Another testing time. Jesus tells them they’re blind and unable to decipher the signs right before them.
Possible Meaning: Matthew uses this cycle of water and mountain feedings to explain how we can stop being spiritually blind. The Pharisees and Teachers of the law have been spiritually blind throughout Matthew’s book because they do not follow Christ. It’s through entering this cycle of watery testing and mountain feedings/healings that we receive sight. FYI: Matthew 20 ends with blind men receiving their sight.
Ch 16:5-12 Lake Crossing & Food Combo: They cross the lake again to go to who-knows-where and while they’re crossing, Jesus warns his disciples about the Pharisees and Sadducee’s yeast. Again, he’s not talking about actual yeast, but their teachings.
Possible Meaning: the Pharisees and Sadducees’ understanding of religion isn’t right. In fact, it’s harmful. They are part of what is causing the times of testing for Jesus and his disciples. Jesus says something similar in Matthew 18:7 when he pronounces a woe on the world for its temptations. He also pronounces a woe on those through whom the temptations come. This is the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ yeast.
Ch 16:13-28 Mountain: Jesus next goes to Caesarea Philippi, which is way north (See map below.) This location was at the base of Mount Hermon and may be likened to a mountain-top experience. Jesus questions his disciples about who people say he is. Peter gives his confession. Jesus says this was revealed not by flesh and blood but by his Heavenly Father. Jesus likens Peter’s confession to a rock. Then Peter suggests that Jesus not suffer, and Jesus says get behind me Satan. Those who wish to save their life must lose it.
Possible Meanings: I wonder if these chapters were plotted on a chiasm (which I haven’t tried), if this declaration would be in the center. Following Christ means declaring he is our savior and then following him in his suffering. This is the calling for all who profess to follow Jesus.
Ch 17:1-13 Mountain: After 6 days, so on the 7th, Jesus goes up to a mountain (traditionally believed to be Mount Tabor: see little x on the map below) and is transfigured. God says he’s pleased with Jesus. Jesus likens himself to John and says he will suffer and die like John.
Possible Meaning: Jesus’s glorification comes through his suffering and dying. This is the mountain-top experience. This is what we are to follow. It is through giving our whole selves away to others that we pass on the bread of heaven.
Ch 17:14-21 Healing: The disciples can’t heal someone because of their little faith.
Possible Meaning: The disciples still don’t get it yet. Healing and glory come through following Christ in these mountain and watery cycles as we suffer in and through the world and eventually die.
Ch 17:22-23 Suffering & Sea: They return to Galilee and Jesus predicts his death and the disciples are disturbed about it.
Ch 17:24-27 Water/Fishing: They go to Capernaum (see map above) where Peter is questioned about paying the temple tax. In order to meet the requirements of men, Jesus sends Peter to catch a fish for his temple tax money.
Possible Meaning: From the watery trials, God provides that which is required of us to fulfill all human standards.
Summary
Interesting isn’t it? It appears that Matthew is using mountains, towns, and water references like directions on how to follow Christ. We eat Christ; we are tested to see if we really ate Christ. We are healed by Christ; we are tested to see if that healing was through faith. We experience God’s glory on a mountain; we are tested to see if that glory is the same kind as Christ’s. He is the Way, the truth and the light.
This speaks volumes to me right now. Since COVID, the Lord has been leading me through a series of deaths and rebirths. They have happened successively. Each time I die to myself, I find something new waiting for me on the other side: a revelation I didn’t know, an option I didn’t think of, an open door I needed, someone there to help. But the new only comes after some sort of death.
A Cycle Depicted in Women
Doesn’t this repeating dying to self remind you of a woman’s monthly cycle? Doesn’t it seem like God programmed into the body of a woman these cycles of death and rebirth every month? Isaiah 30:21-22 in the NIV even refers to menstrual clothes as a casting away of our idols. Each woman’s cycle ends with the shedding of blood, a reminder of the death that forgave our sins. A woman’s period is followed by a burst of creative energy. There’s the new birth. Our monthly cycle is a preparation for creating the new life of a baby within us. The Christian cycle of dying to self and living to Christ is a practice for when we’ll be born again into Christ’s kingdom in a new body. Pretty fascinating, isn’t it?
Next post, let’s look at the symbolism in Matthew chapters 18-20. It continues this theme of death and rebirth by using children and family terms.
To read the next post on this topic, click the link below after next Tuesday.