Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-november-7-2025
Matthew 14:22-33
Jesus Walks on the Water
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
This is one of those stories from the life of Jesus that has given us a common figure of speech. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say that another person is thought to “walk on water” – able to do amazing things, even to do the impossible. But I suppose it has to be said that it’s usually said a little sarcastically, suggesting that the person is ‘over-rated.’
It seems to me that this particular story is intended to teach us something about what it means to be a disciple. And I’d say it’s also meant to communicate a ‘Christological’ lesson – to teach us a lesson about who Jesus really was and about the power he had at his command.
To think about the Christological lesson first, the New Testament scholars say that one of the main things that was considered to mark Jesus as having power from God is that he could control the forces of nature. Sometimes his miraculous acts demonstrated power over sickness and death – he gave sight to the blind, he healed the sick, and he resuscitated Lazarus and at least two others. And in today’s story, Jesus walked on the surface of the Sea of Galilee and then caused the wind to die down when he got into the boat, demonstrating that he had power over the larger forces of nature. His first followers clearly believed that only power from God could accomplish these things.
You might remember that in past Reflections, we’ve said that the scholars believe Matthew wrote his gospel primarily for Jewish readers. There’s something in this story those Jewish readers of Matthew probably noticed right away, but that gets lost when it’s translated into English. Our NIV Bible quotes Jesus as saying to the disciples, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” But in the original Greek, the phrase that’s translated “It is I,” would more typically be translated, “I am.” And you might remember that “I am” is the heart of the traditional Hebrew name of God, “Yahweh.” (It seems to mean “I am who I am” in Hebrew.) So in this story, Jesus seems to be identifying himself with the God of Moses and Israel.
So that’s the Christological lesson. And what does this story tell us about the life of discipleship?
The scholars say that in the gospels, Peter is meant to represent the rest of the disciples. He seems to say and do things the rest of the disciples wanted to say and do but were too afraid. In fact, I think you could make a case that Peter is actually meant to represent the rest of us, too, in our lives as followers of Jesus. And that might make a difference in how we understand this story.
Peter actually gets out of the boat and walks on the waves toward Jesus. He has enough faith in Jesus and enough enthusiasm for following him that he tries to do what seems impossible. And for a few steps, it works. But then, Matthew says, Peter sees the wind (and presumably the waves and the storm in general), and his fears overwhelm his faith. So Peter starts to sink. It strikes me that’s not far from a lot of people’s experience. Lots of us – maybe most of us – make a commitment sometime to follow Jesus wherever he leads us. But then the storms and danger of the world get scary and make us feel like we’re going under, too.
But in the story, at that point of doubt, Peter has the faith to cry out to Jesus and to reach out for his hand. And because he does that, Peter is brought safely into the boat and rescued from the storm.
You don’t really need to be a theologian to see the point. Just about all of us find ourselves in scary circumstances sometimes in our lives of faith. This story seems to illustrate a promise – that no matter how scary those circumstances might be, no matter how much we might feel like we’re ‘going under’ – crying out to Jesus and reaching for his hand represents our surest hope – maybe our only hope – for rescue from the storms of life.
Of course, this story also seems to say that we can do amazing things – maybe even do the impossible – if our faith is strong enough. Most of us probably won’t ever “walk on water,” but we might be meant to see that we can do what seems to be impossible if we step out in faith to do what Jesus calls us – invites us – to do.
I’m not sure I can think of another story from all of the gospels that covers as much ground in teaching us about who Jesus is and about the challenges and possibilities of life as his disciple.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the power Jesus demonstrated over the forces of this world, and for the promise that we can call on that power when we feel caught up in those forces. Help us to live boldly, secure in our confidence in him as our master and friend. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and worship God joyfully on Sunday!
Henry
Recent Comments