EFFICACY OF WATER

Jesus was having a time of leisure, but the multitude would not let Him rest. So, Jesus stepped from the shore onto a boat and began to answer questions.

What would you have asked Jesus? Why me, Lord? Why you, Lord? Would the focus be on you or Him?

Jesus began the conversation according to the following: 

And the disciples came, and said unto Him, “Why speak you unto them in parables?” He answered and said unto them, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given” (Mat 13:10-11)

 Therein are two ‘them’s,’ them that went with Him and those who fell to the wayside and were not followers of Jesus. In other words, Jesus was speaking of them both in His parable. Those who heard Jesus and believed were sown on good ground, and those who were stoney places never took root.

Should as well have said, I am speaking of you all?

A parable is a short and simple way of revealing truth. Not to either offend nor congratulate His listeners, it was a polite way of revealing to them the truth in a manner that they could judge themselves.

The setting… Jesus was on a boat in the Sea of Galilee. In the top photo is the shore of the Sea with rocky terrain. Some were standing on that terrain.

In the photo at the bottom, on the same Sea, many of the multitude were standing on a somewhat smooth shore. There are indeed very rocky shores and some very smooth, usually with the smooth shoreline nearest the water. The rocky areas are often to the back of the smooth coastline. The photos below look as if they are on a different Sea, but it is the same Sea in different places.

Now consider the parable. Some were standing on stony places. At best they were ‘metastable’ — stable but endanger of falling off and being overcome by waves or even turbulence. They could be easily toppled.

Others were standing on stable ground, and as such they were stable themselves. There were no slick stones from which to slip.

The point that Jesus was making was to them, but in a very polite manner in the same way as Nathan, the prophet was able for David to identify his own moral guilt. (2 Sam 12).

The M.O. of Jesus was the same as Nathan’s… for each person to understand their position with God.

For both groups, Jesus was the ‘Seed’ that could be planted. Within His Body was the very Identity of God. He supplied the water, the ground, and the Image; just as in the beginning, and like God, the Father, Jesus was about to plant His Seed in the ground. (I believe, as many do, that the Sea of Galilee was the northern lake in the Garden of Eden; the lake where Adam would stand all day to honor God: 

2 And to the north of the Garden there is a sea of water, clear and pure to the taste, like unto nothing else; so that, through the clearness thereof, one may look into the depths of the earth. 3 And when a man washes himself in it, becomes clean of the cleanness thereof, and white of its whiteness--even if he were dark.

4 And God created that sea of His own good pleasure, for He knew what would come of the man He should make; so that after he had left the garden, on account of his transgression, men should be born in the earth, from among whom righteous ones should die, whose souls God would raise at the last day; when they should return to their flesh; should bathe in the water of that sea, and all of them repent of their sins.

5 But when God made Adam go out of the Garden, He did not place him on the border of it northward, lest he should draw near to the sea of water, and he and Eve wash themselves in it, be cleansed from their sins, forget the transgression they had committed, and he no longer reminded of it in the thought of their punishment. (1 Adam & Eve 1:2-5)

 That sea was obviously the Sea of Galilee through which flows the Jordan River — ‘the River of the Garden’ as the name means. Jesus was near or possibly right there where Adam would come to stand on the rock and sometimes in the water.

Jesus was not only speaking to the multitudes but to Adam himself.

Adam was meant to stand on solid and stable ground but he slipped. He would stand on a stone and could fall again.

Adam was meant to be the good seed in the Garden of God, meaning that the Serpent mutated him with sin, so Adam became the ‘tare’ and all the multitude there would be tares as well, since Eve was the mother of all living.

The exception was those who would stand, not in the water, nor on the rocky soil, but on smooth ground. Adam failed to understand that, and so did many who heard Jesus.

The purpose of the Sea and the Jordan River was for a certain reason; that those who “should bathe in the water of that sea, and all of them repent of their sins.” The water, just as for Adam’s time, in the time of Jesus, was not for salvation but for repentance, to wit: 

And he (John) came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (Luke 3:3)

 Those on the stones might slip and fall. Where would they fall to? Into the water. Thinking that they were safe, they were in danger of falling into the water. Many times, as revealed in the Books of Adam and Eve, Adam would stand for days in the deep water of that sea and think that he was safe. Not so, the coat of skins that God provided kept him safe; the water was only a place for his repentance. 

Repentance is repeating penance.

‘Penance’ is abasing oneself to demonstrate sorrow for what one has done. Repentance is doing so after having done so before.

Penance is done in private whereas repentance is done in public. As such water baptism is a testimonial that penance has been performed in private and both precede the remission of sins. In other words, unless repentance is genuine, baptism is no more than bathing, and at best it is a statement that the Christian is sorry for debasing God.

Asking why Jesus spoke in parables, He said, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”

The Kingdom of Heaven was the location of the Garden of Eden. Whether it was ever really on Earth is questionable because it is obvious that now it is not a physical place here. Of course, it could have been here in a place called, ‘Eden’ and another place at the same time in another realm. Perhaps that is the “mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.”

What we should understand that in Adam’s haven, he acted out the very things that Jesus did. That makes sense does it not because Jesus is the ‘Last Adam’ (1 Cor 15:45)?

Adam was endeavoring to do what only the Last Adam, Jesus, would do.

There was a problem with Adam standing in the Sea of Galilee: That “he (Adam) and Eve wash themselves in it, be cleansed from their sins, forget the transgression they had committed, and be no longer reminded of it in the thought of their punishment.” God feared that if they thought that the water was what cleansed them, then they would forget how dirty their souls remained, and would continue on their way without guilt. They would fear no punishment because they thought that there was Power in the water!

Now that unorthodoxy is prevalent in those who think they are the only true Church. Standing in the water, for many churches, is sufficient without regard that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and that no man cometh unto the Father, but by Him. No man… including Adam. Adam’s way was the same way as ours… not by water alone but by water and the blood! (1 John 5:6). Adam had the water, but Jesus had yet to die.

What happened when Jesus was crucified? His was the blood and water. (John 19:34). His was the part that was missing with Adam. He could have stood in the water for eons and that would accomplished nothing.  

When Jesus shed his blood, “The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Mat 27:52-53). A good bet is that the first dead saint that was raised with Jesus was Adam.

The Jews saw Jesus raised from the dead after three days but failed to believe. What is worse is that they saw Adam who was long dead be raised and they still failed to believe.

Adam was kept safe outside the Garden and given perishable skin. Adam was saved when his rebirth was consummated; the blood of Jesus re-endowed Adam with the physical Image of God whereas the first Image was a “shadow” or “phantom” (Strong 2006).

Jesus was not only speaking to the multitude with the parable, was speaking about Adam and Eve, and even the multitude of today. That is the ‘mystery of Christ’ that God speaks to everyone all the time in all times.

The multitude needed not to be in the water with Jesus but on solid and stable ground as He was before they arrived.