Stepping Out In Faith

Matthew 14:22 - 33

Our Gospel lesson today follows immediately after the events that were in last week’s Gospel reading.  The crowd had been miraculously fed, and now the Lord wished to go off by Himself to pray.  No matter what Jesus’s schedule was like, He always made room and time in His busy day to spend time in prayer.  Jesus did nothing without going to God in prayer.  That is a practice that Christians should always get into the practice of doing.  If we see that Jesus, the Son of God, felt that it was necessary, we ought to also.  Spending time each day will nurture our relationship with God, and it will strengthen us for all of the challenges we face.  When we neglect going to God in prayer we can get burned out.  Even worse, we leave ourselves open to the attacks of the devil.

Jesus sent the disciples into their boat to go across the Sea of Galilee, and He will meet them later (vs. 22-23).  Shortly after they set sail a storm came up.  We know that God is omniscient, that He knows all things, and yet He sent the disciples out onto the water knowing that a big storm was coming.  Haven’t we seen times in our lives when we’ve obeyed exactly what God has told us to do, and yet a “big storm” arises?  We can rest assured that Jesus is on the way, and He will arrive just in time to rescue us, like He did with the disciples (vs. 24-25).

There were several instances when storms came up on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples were caught in them, and Jesus came to their aid, calming the sea.  This instance was a little different, though.  Peter, seeing Jesus walking on the water, calls out to Him.  Jesus had given them power in prayer for healing and deliverance from demons.  Peter, in faith, asks Jesus to let him come to Him, walking on the water (vs. 28-29).  We often criticize Peter for opening his mouth and speaking before thinking, and especially for his denial of Jesus, but he was the only disciple to step out in faith onto the water.

Imagine Peter’s amazement as he takes one step, two steps, out across the water!  He’s actually doing it, walking across the top of the waves!  Waves!  Oh no!  Look at the waves, the wind!  I’m going to sink!, he starts to think, and he proceeds to do just that (vs. 30).  When Peter took his eyes off of Jesus, and looked at the waves, his faith grew weak and started to fail, and he began to sink.  When we focus on the waves in our life, without looking to Jesus, we can despair and sink.  As Peter quickly learned, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, and not on our troubles.

What did Peter do when he saw that he was sinking?  Did he try to help himself, perhaps trying to scramble back to the boat?  Did he call out to the other disciples for help?  No, Peter called to Jesus as he was going down into the water.  What do we do when in trouble?  Jesus is the only one who can help us in our troubles.  Reach out to Him.  Peter was afraid, but he knew who could truly help, and turned to Jesus.

Jesus’s response was to reach out and pull him out of the water (vs. 31).  Just because Peter’s faith started to fail him, Jesus did not abandon him, nor let him sink into the water.  He said to Peter, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  There is a difference between doubt and unbelief.  Doubt wonders if it could possibly be true.  Unbelief is certain that it is not.  Peter may have been in doubt, but he was not in unbelief.  Jesus was saying to Peter that he needed to keep on with the faith that he initially had when he first stepped out onto the water.  He was saying to Peter to stop doubting and trust Him that He would never forsake him.  That was Jesus’s message to Peter and the disciples then, and it is His message to us now!