Walking on Water (Matt 14:22-33)

I so wanted to sail it myself. When I was about twelve I guess my older brother had been working with my Pop building a P Class yacht. When it was finished I watched my brother sail his beautiful red and white creation all over the place. Then one day while on holiday at Mairangi Bay, north Auckland, I was given my chance. I was eager but also fearful at the same time; eager to sail into the horizon and fearful of what might happen if the yacht capsized on me away out there in the deep. I guess I prayed about it, I don’t remember. The idea came to me to get rid of my fear by purposely flipping the boat to practice righting it again in the shallows and relative safety of the bay. So I hauled in the main sheet, pulled the tiller hard over and climbed over the side as the sail dropped to the water stood on the keel and up she popped again as I climbed back in hardly even wet. Now that I had conquered the mind numbing fear that burdened me I had of faith not a doubt in the world that I could sail out around the bay and explore all the next bays one by one. Later in life I found out that my spectacular first outing annoyed my big brother immensely. It had taken him literally months practicing his skills to do what I had achieved in a matter of minutes. I just watched him and learned. I love the water and became a very confident distance swimmer, water skier and fisherman.

Let’s paint the picture here. In this reading of the walking on water miracle we are dealing with the disciple Simon Peter, another sailor, swimmer, fisherman, and would be skier, on whom Jesus would later build his church. The dark seas are being blown up by the wind, white crested waves are breaking over the bow, and the disciples have been rowing into the winds all night long and are still in the middle of the lake. Suddenly the watch sees a human form stepping towards them on top of these wind whipped waves. It must be a ghost; no man could do such a thing so they scream out with fear. But it is a miracle; as Job 9:8 says “He alone spreads the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea…” But it’s their Lord Jesus and he calls out, “Peace bro’s, take it easy, it is I.”  Peter in the midst of the wind and waves must recognise this familiar voice and Lord only knows why he calls out, “If it is you Lord command me to come to you on the water.” Maybe just like me watching my brother sailing his red and white yacht maybe Simon Peter thinks if Jesus can do it then so can he, God only knows. Anyway Jesus simply says, “Come.” Can you put yourself in his shoes, like waiting in line for the bungee jump at the canyon bridge near Queenstown, or perhaps the Pudding Hill sky dive? They call it a “leap of faith” or “stepping out of the boat.” Remember it’s a storm ravaged sea not the mirror flat surface often depicted, and Peter is about to do something never before conceived from the front of a floating devise until the Jesus People of the nineteen seventies; he would in effect hang ten. Yes, possibly the inspiration for the surfing movement of the late twentieth century was this very same Simon “the rock” Peter.

The implication in this Matthew reading is that he did in fact actually hang ten on those waves for a while, but as his impetuousness was overcome by the ever present reality he took on his true nature. Why did they call him “the rock” well maybe one reason could be that just within reach of his Lord he seriously began to sink like one and he’s desperately calling out, “Jesus, save me!” What Jesus replied opens our understanding that our fears cause us to doubt and it is doubt that destroys faith enough to do the miraculous just like Jesus walking on the waves. Doubt is an insidious thief. Doubt is the enemy of faith. Doubt is defined as a status between belief and disbelief. I’ve said it before “Doubt shuts God out!”

Doubt involves uncertainty or distrust, lack of sureness of an alleged fact, action, motive, or decision. Doubt brings into question some notion of a perceived "reality", and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for mistakes or faults or appropriateness. Some definitions of doubt emphasize the state in which the mind remains suspended between two contradictory propositions and unable to decide. Satan instilled doubt in the mind of Adam and Eve and they were swayed against God. Gen 3:4. God said eat of it and you shall surely die. Satan introduced man to doubt by saying, “You will not surely die.” Then Satan swayed them by desire and so mankind was burdened with doubt forever.

In the Mark version Peter does not walk on water but after the feeding of the 5,000 but after the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus says to beware of the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees; he called them hypocrites. The Pharisees presented with human formalism, hypocritical ostentation and traditionalism. Sadducees presented with rationalism, unbelief, free thought, worldliness. Mark 8, Matt 16. In other words our education often causes us to doubt the miraculous. We can find ourselves paralysed by indecision often for months at a time. Sometimes we don’t have time for “save me” as fear overpowers and we abbreviate it to a simple almost cussed “JESUS!” When Jesus calls, “Come” we have the hope of our superhero ready to save and we go, we leave the boat, we leap like a child into the awaiting arms of Mum or Dad in the pool. And when we do try Christ is already there to hold us up in his mysterious and awesome power. Now more than twenty years of walking that road of faith together with my Lord I don’t have to practice righting my boat to know the hand of the saviour is near. He is ever-present in the Spirit who lives in my heart. When I was called I came and when I came I am held up by the power of God. When I feel like I’m sinking when it all becomes overpowering his hand has reached down and hauled me back into the boat and all becomes calm again. The future does not matter because there will be another “Come” and there will be another attempt to “hang ten” and there will be another sinking and again a hand reaching down to save me. 

The one thing I do not want to do here is to lessen the miraculous by all the analysis theologians have made of Peter’s attempt at walking on water, not told in Mark 6 and John 6. The miracle of the Lord walking on water should never be diminished by rhetoric concerning what truth it highlights in our lives today. In Matthew the disciple’s, after witnessing this feat came and worshipped saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” Surely this is the outcome of the miracle. In Mark it says they were amazed beyond measure, and marvelled, for they had not understood about the loaves, for their hearts were hardened. Finally they were getting it; Jesus was more than a teacher and worker of signs; he was the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Jesus their Lord was showing them a better way to that of the Pharisees and Sadducees rules and worldliness. Juest as when I was a boy I watched my big brother capsize his boat and right it again.

People we learn so well by watching it done rather than hearing it spoken or reading it written. Peter saw what it is to be a son of God; what it is to be Messiah! Peter was to be “the rock” upon which the Church was to be built. He was being discipled in the way of the likeness of God. Jesus knows we will teeter between faith and failure, in the indecision of doubt, failing his master before the rooster crowed three times. However when empowered by the filling at the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost he would be “the rock” upon which Jesus built his church. Some of you have been dis-empowered by doubt with an eye on temporal matters. Perhaps if we can separate out the notion you are fearful of and take a small step of faith somewhere safe, climb overboard and step into that fear and confront it. Then walk in faith towards the goal at hand engaging the Lord’s assistance.

So you have been a sinner, is Jesus purchase of precious blood not greater than your sin? Jesus was looking for and testing Peter to become the foundation stone in the great kingdom to come. Is Christ too small to save you? Christ is looking for and testing such as this. Try him and if Christ be found false tell everyone, but I know you will have cause to tell them otherwise, “Jesus save!” Try him and see that the Lord is good! What joy I have found after overcoming the notions of the enemy and my doubts; the Lord is my shepherd!