Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ Jesus,
I read quite recently that someone has purchased the right to allow tourists to walk on the Sea of Galilee. No, they have not also purchased the rights to the law of gravity. Instead, what they intend to do is build a plexiglass walkway hundreds of feet out into the Sea of Galilee exactly at water level. To onlookers, the person will appear to be walking on water. And even for the person themselves, I assume that the plexiglass will allow them to look down and look through it, allowing them to feel as though they are walking on water.
I don’t know how much it will cost tourists for this privilege, but I suspect that the market will bear a fairly high price for it. I’m sure that tour operators will start including it in their brochures. “Day 5: See the site of the Sermon on the Mount. Visit Capernaum. Walk on water at the Sea of Galilee.” There will be many people who will want to do what Peter did, many people who will want to “walk on water.”
Today, then I offer you an incredible bargain! I am going to save you hundreds of dollars! Forget the passport, forget the airfare, forget the 5 or 10 or 20 shekels that it will probably cost to get on the plexiglass. Today I’ll teach you how to walk on water--for free. Yes, you can walk on water! You can do so by imitating the boldness of Peter, by learning from his weakness, and by relying on Peter’s Savior.
The details of the story are fairly few, and they are fairly familiar. Jesus had just finished feeding 5000 men--plus women and children. Far from having the intended result--that the miracle would back up the message he had been preaching--the people instead wanted to make Jesus their earthly king.
Jesus dealt with this problem in two ways. First, he makes his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him. By doing so, they would be removed from temptation to join in and buy into the idea of Jesus as an earthly king.
Secondly, he goes up on a mountainside by himself to pray. As a human, the idea of being a king would have been a temptation for Jesus. In fact, Satan himself had used a very similar temptation when he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worshiping him. Therefore Jesus spent some time alone with his Father, probably praying for strength for himself--and also that the Holy Spirit strengthen faith in the disciples and create faith in the crowds who had seen the miracles but not really heard the message.
But St Matthew tells us, “during the fourth watch of the night” (sometime after 3 AM) that Jesus went out on the water to them. It was dark out, the sea was choppy, the disciples’ nerves were all probably a little frayed from battling the storm all night, and so when they saw Jesus, they thought they were seeing a ghost. Popular Jewish superstition held that the appearance of spirits during the night brought disaster--very possibly death. While the disciples had faith in Jesus, they weren’t immune from the superstitions they grew up with and so they cry out in fear.
But notice how Jesus deals with his superstitious disciples. A few chapters earlier Matthew notes that Jesus had fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy in which Isaiah said, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” In other words, those who are the weakest, those who are in the greatest need of assistance and comfort--those are the ones to whom Jesus will especially reach out.
We see him doing that here with this boatful of bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. He doesn’t say to them, “Are you still so dense after having seen me feed all those people? Even supposing that I were a ghost, do you really think that you would have anything to fear? If I have power to feed 5000, do I not also have power to protect you from one or two or a hundred ghosts? When will you ever learn?!?”
No, rather he calms their fear by saying, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” And the disciples certainly “take courage.” In fact, Peter “takes courage” to the point where he is willing to do something seemingly foolish. He was willing to jump out of the boat and walk on water if Jesus asked him to. We read: “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat...”
I think sometimes Peter has gotten an unfair shake in the retelling of this story. When you have thought of this story, have you thought of Peter’s faith or of Peter’s lack of faith? But we read, “Then Peter got down out of the boat.”
Imagine the faith this would have taken! “Then again,” we say, “there was every reason for Peter to have this kind of faith. It’s no wonder that Peter got out of the boat. After all, he knew Jesus’ miracles, he knew Jesus’ power--and he also knew Jesus’ was the messiah – the Christ – the one sent by God to redeem Israel.
I’ve heard people say how eagerly they would have jumped out of the boat, how they would have run and skipped across the waves to Jesus, and I’d like to think that I would have done the same. And maybe you would have.
But then again, it hardly seems likely that we’ll get a chance to prove it. And yet, Jesus gives us all sorts of opportunities to walk on water. That is, Jesus gives us the same sort of opportunity that Peter had here to demonstrate trusting faith.
Walking on water is saying, “Lord, my work is causing me to neglect my family, my congregation, and my personal time with you and your Word. If it’s your will, tell me to come to you on the water. Give me a heart that craves your life giving Word. Help me see that in order to walk on water I must first seek your kingdom.
Walking on water is saying, “Lord, you’ve told me to get down out of the boat and to give up my pet sins. But if I do that, my life is going to change a lot. The ground I’ve been used to standing on won’t be there anymore. I feel like I might sink. But you’ve said so and therefore I’m coming out of the boat.”
Walking on water is, real simply, having the boldness of Peter—a boldness that will do whatever Jesus tells us to. The first step to walking on water, then, is having the boldness of Peter when our Lord tells us to come.
Have you walked on water when your Lord told you to? We’d all have to confess that there are times we have not. We’d have to confess that there have been times when we stayed in the boat because we were frightened. There have been times when we foolishly tried to take care of ourselves first, because we just weren’t sure that God would be able to take care of us any other way. And there have been times when we stayed in the boat simply because we wanted to. We liked it there, and we thought that we might not be as happy if we left the boat, if we truly committed to ridding ourselves of that sin.
Even when we have stepped out of the boat, we’ve at times been like Peter. We’ve seen the wind, we’ve seen the waves that wind is causing, and we’ve been frightened. And we’ve begun to sink.
Now let’s not fault Peter for seeing the wind and the waves. The man was not blind. We could hardly have expected that he would not at least have been aware of them. The problem is that he overestimated their power--while at the same time severely underestimating the power of Jesus.
For a moment, he thought that wind and whose waves could actually stop him from walking on water. He feared that they might actually overrule his Lord, who had commanded him to come. How utterly foolish of Peter--who had just seen Jesus feed a town the size of Redwood Falls with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish!
And we are just as foolish – just as weak as Peter. When the wind and waves of life distract us – difficult family situations, illnesses and the death of a loved one or mountains of bills, whatever the case may be. We see the wind and waves of life and we doubt that our Lord will take care of us.
Sure, there’s wind. Sure, there will be waves when we walk to Jesus on the water. Expect them. But don’t be frightened by them. Remember the words Jesus spoke to you before you got out of the boat. Remember the words he spoke to the disciples. “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Things are under control.
Yes, if we’re going to walk on water, we ought to learn from Peter’s weakness. We ought to learn to stay focused on Jesus, focused on his power, focused on his promises.
But as we were forced to confess that we have not always obeyed Jesus’ command to step out of the boat, so also are we forced to confess that we have not always trusted Jesus’ power once we have seen the wind and the waves. Whether we’ve stayed in the boat entirely, or whether we’ve started to sink after we got a few steps out of the boat, whether this was caused by laziness or selfishness or fright, let us not call it weakness. Let us call it sin--for any failure to trust in Jesus wholly and completely is sin which condemns us, which causes us to sink—not merely into inactivity, but into the depths of hell.
How comforting, then are the words of Peter, and the response of Jesus. Peter faltered, yes--but only for a moment. Instead of looking backwards at the boat, instead of thrashing around wildly in the sea and fighting the wind and the waves himself in an effort to get back to the safety of the boat, he looked forward to his Savior, saying, “Lord, save me!” And how quickly Jesus acts! He reaches out his hand and catches him. He gently reminds Peter of his foolishness when he says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
You and I have no reason to doubt--even when walking on water. And when we have doubted, when we have taken our eyes off Jesus, even then we have no reason to doubt. Rather, we do as Peter did, saying in a trusting prayer, “Lord, save me!”
We know that Jesus will catch us when we have taken our eyes off him and have begun to sink. Because he already has, hasn’t he? The hymn says, “When I was sinking down, sinking down, When I was sinking down, sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul.”
When Jesus removed his crown as the king of heaven, when Jesus refused to receive a crown from the 5000 as their bread king, when Jesus instead received a crown of thorns, he did so that he might pay for our sins—our sins of laziness, our sins of doubt, and all other sins that we have committed.
As he reached out his hand and caught Peter, he has reached out and caught us from the depths of hell. If Jesus can make us walk out of the clutches of Satan, he can also allow us to walk on water, to do great and bold things for him as we live our daily life to his glory.
And there you have it. Do you want the thrill of walking on water? Listen for the voice of your Savior calling you to get out of the boat and to come to him in trust, and then imitate Peter’s boldness in immediately doing so. Learn from Peter’s weakness, and don’t be intimidated by the wind and the waves. Instead, “take courage” and rely on Peter’s Savior--a Savior powerful and loving enough to save us from our sins--and therefore a Savior certainly powerful enough to allow us to walk on water. Amen.
