Matthew 14:22-32, John 6:16-21
If, as a child you attended more than two weeks’ worth of Sunday School classes, you probably heard the gospel account of Jesus’ walking on the water. It’s a miracle that holds an important message on having an abiding faith in Jesus. It gives us all we need to know about Jesus’ desire to pull us out of whatever dark, sinful, burdensome thing we may be drowning in and bring us to a place of peace and rest.
This miracle is documented in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John. Luke doesn’t mention it and it’s only in Matthew’s account that we get Peter stepping out of the boat and walking with Jesus on the waves, albeit briefly. Mark and John give vivid descriptions of Jesus’ walk but say nothing about Peter. John’s account also closes with an often overlooked – but important – little miracle that I’ll get to.
In Matthew’s Gospel we’re told that after feeding all those people, “Jesus insisted that His disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while He sent the people home. After sending them home, He went up into the hill by Himself to pray. Night fell while He was there alone.”
Something worth noting here…Jesus had boundaries. He’s just pulled off the biggest catering job in history and did it after probably hours of teaching. Jesus is tired. He needs a break. Not just from the crowds but from His friends too. And that’s okay because look what He does with that time. He spends it in prayer with His Father.
The lesson for you and me? Personal boundaries are good, healthy and at times necessary and coupling your “Me Time” with your Father in Heaven is a good idea too.
Back to the apostles. They’re now on the water rowing. It’s the middle of the night, 3:00 am, when this violent storm kicks up. Their boat, small and not built to withstand that kind of weather, is taking a beating. Matthew tells us that at that moment, Jesus comes strutting towards them on the water.
Now…here’s a test of faith worth considering. In the time that the apostles have been with Jesus they’ve witnessed several of Jesus’ healing miracles. They had front row seats to the Sermon on the Mount. They’ve listened to Jesus’ challenge, rebuke, and embarrass the powerful religious leaders of the day. You would think, given all that, that the only emotion they would experience upon seeing Jesus coming towards them would be relief, but no. It’s terror. They think they’re seeing a ghost.
Seriously?
Jesus identifies Himself and tells them not to be afraid. And that’s when Peter says something worth making noticing. Peter cries out to Jesus, “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” In other words, in that moment Peter needs to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is Jesus. If it’s really you.
Jesus in response tells Peter to come on in the water’s fine and the Word says that Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.
Peter wasn’t trying to walk on the water, the boy was doing it! Until. And here’s the lesson for you and me. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus and saw the strong wind and waves, he was terrified and began to sink. Peter’s terror trumps his faith in his Savior and when we do that, like Peter we sink. Here’s Jesus, wanting to share a miracle with Peter and Peter fails to see that Jesus is bigger than the storm. Jesus overcome the storm so that Peter can too. Peter fails to see that; he lets the possibility of death from a storm overwhelm the promise of salvation through Jesus.
We all walk that road much too often.
“Save me Lord!” Peter screams. And immediately Jesus reaches out, grabs Peter, and says to him, “You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me?” We should all take a week and count on our fingers and toes how many times we put Jesus in the position to ask us all that very same question! We’d likely run out of fingers and toes!
Everyone gets back in the boat, the storm subsides, and the apostles decide at long last they can now worship Jesus. They shout it! “You really are the Son of God!” That’s a great realization for the guys to arrive at but. Imagine if their faith had been such that when Jesus approached them on the water, they all felt empowered to step out and walk with Him on the wild waves. Imagine that degree of faith! It’s great to celebrate Jesus in the moments when He’s pulled us from the storm, but faithfully celebrating his presence in our lives before the storm hits can save us from so much worry and fear.
John’s Gospel is mostly consistent with Matthew’s, minus the Peter moment but with a significant twist. John tells us that when Jesus is welcomed into the boat, their terror overcome, “…immediately they arrived at their destination!” Note the exclamation point. John is amazed by this outcome! It’s like Jesus latched an Evinrude outboard onto their boat and zipped them across the sea! But that’s not what happened. When the apostles chose faith over fear, Jesus delivered them to the place they needed to be. No more rowing against a storm.
And listen, in the moment we surrender our storm to Jesus and let him climb aboard our little storm-tossed canoe, we do immediately arrive at our destination. Because the destination we want to reach is found only in an abiding faith in Jesus, our one and only Lord and Savior.
Jesus wants us to share in a miracle. He has one for us anytime we need it. We just need to not be afraid of the world, the storm and when we see Jesus walking our way, we need to let terror give way to a supreme sense of joy! That needs to be our desired destination.