Walking on Water

 Matthew 14:22-33 

Jesus Walking on Water
(I can't find the artist)

 August 13, 2023

 

Jesus has just fed more than 5000

people with five loaves and two fish.

And now he’s doing something amazing again.

 

After he’s done with the crowds,

he sends the disciples off in a boat.

And the wind takes them out into

the deep part of the sea.

And while they’re there,

they see a figure walking on the water.

 

At first the disciples are scared,

not because of the storm, but because they think it’s a ghost,

because what else could be walking on the water.

But they realize it’s Jesus. Jesus is walking on water.

Jesus calls out to them.

“It’s just me walking on water, don’t be afraid.”

 

And Peter is maybe emboldened by Jesus’s presence,

or moved by the Spirit, or just trying again

to impress everyone, he tries it himself.

He tells Jesus to command him to come out into the water.

And Jesus does. “Okay, Peter, come on”

But the wind is high and Peter freaks out and he starts to sink.

He calls out to Jesus, “Please save me”

And he does and Jesus says the oft quoted phrase:

“You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

 

Now the interpretation of this line I’ve

heard most often is that Jesus was

disappointed in Peter because Peter faltered.

He took his eyes of Jesus and became self-conscious.

He doubted that he could walk on water.

And his doubt caused him to become afraid

and he sank right then and there.

So based on this, the sermons kind of follow:

Don’t take your eyes of Jesus like Peter did, and you won’t fail.

If you don’t let your faith falter, then you won’t fail.

You’ve got to step out of the boat, take the risk,

believe you can do it and success will follow.

Don’t doubt for a minute, or you’ll end up like Peter.

Basically the power of positive thinking and faith,

enables us to do the impossible.

 

But I struggle with that interpretation.

Is that really what the Gospel writer wants us to come away with?

If I believe hard enough I can do it?

I can walk on water? Really?

Can anyone walk on water?

If this were true, you would think there would be

some Christians who could – walk on water.

I’ve known many with a faith that couldn’t be shaken for anything.

But they’re still not walking on water.

 

So maybe I’m just a cynical person,

but my main trouble with seeing this story that way is that

Peter can’t walk on water. He never walks on water.

Even in Acts, he’s filled with the Holy Spirit, he is courageous,

he sees the power of God, he has visions,

wonderful things happen, miracles all around him.

But we never see him walking on that water.

 

And I think that is probably what the Gospel writer

wanted us to leave this story with:

We can’t walk on water.

Only Jesus can walk on water.

 

But even though we know that in some portion of our brain,

it’s hard for us to remember.

It’s hard for us, as followers of Jesus, to remember that it’s not all

on us, that the world the church and everything else

doesn’t all rest on our shoulders.

We feel like we need to walk on water.

 

Whenever we see those difficulties of the world

that have been put in front of us as disciples:

Spread God’s love, feed the hungry, heal the sick,

bring good news to the poor, I mean,

at times even just keeping our churches open,

alive, and preaching the gospel

they all seem like a impossible tasks in themselves.

 

And at this point, it seems like our country

is slipping further and further into a dangerous place.

Hate and racism seem to be surrounding us.

We seem on the verge of violence all the time.

We have staggering inflation and looming evictions,

and poverty, hunger, and desperation.

And the climate is changing which is leading to disastrous results

and none of our leaders seem to have the will or courage

to do anything or formulate any constructive plan to

get us out of this situation that  

 

I look at this disaster at this present moment

and I say “this is impossible.”

How are we ever going to climb out of this hole?

How can we fix all of these issues ?

 

How can we help so many people in need

How will I change the world?

Sometimes I can hardly keep up with life in general

how am I going to do this?

You ever get that feeling of being overwhelmed?

We feel like we need to walk on water sometimes.

But we just don’t have the skills?

 

When I was in seminary, our very first class was Hebrew.

We did a month of intensive Hebrew in

August before the year started and our professor was Dr. Robinson,

he was very smart and exceptionally kind.

I was pleased to have seen him again at the reunion I just went to.

 

At the end of the month of this Hebrew class,

we all felt woefully inadequate, and it was our first dip into seminary

and a lot of us felt like we didn’t have a grasp on Hebrew it at all.

The month ended with an in-class translation test.

We were worried. Some people thought they might fail.

First class in seminary and we were going to fail.

We were all talking about it a lot and some of this talk

got back to Dr. Robinson.

 

Dr. Robinson came into class the day before the exam.

He said, “I hear some of you think you’re going to fail.”

“I have to say, I’m very disappointed in you.”

We thought, Here it is,

we’re gonna hear how bad at Hebrew we really are.

 

But he said, “I’m disappointed that you would think

I would let anyone fail.

I am here to help you learn Hebrew, not fail you.

We’ve spent a lot of time together over the last month and

I’m disappointed that you thought that of me.”

Which was a relief, but almost smarted worse than failing.

 

I think it’s important to look at this parable this way.

Jesus said to Peter “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt”

Jesus was not disappointed in Peter because

he doubted he walk on water and he failed.

Jesus was disappointed in Peter

because he doubted Jesus would save him.

 

Peter doubted that Jesus would save him.

And we doubt that Jesus will save us too.

Jesus is not here to fail us on our exam.

Jesus is not here to give us tests we can’t pass.

Jesus does not want to see us drown.

Jesus is here to save us.

So, let’s get this straight. We cannot walk on water.

Only Jesus can walk on water.

It’s God’s job to save this world.

God will do something

amazing with this mess, I have no doubt.

 

Now there are things that we can do.

It’s not permission to just sit out and watch

the world go by and do nothing.

We still had to work hard at learning Hebrew

and learning our vocabulary, and understanding it.

 

We all have our own part in this,

we do all have to help others,

we need to demand the changes to our systems,

we are asked to love others the way Christ told us to love.

There are things that we can do.

 

But it is not our mission to walk on water.

Jesus will walk on water.

The Spirit will do the heavy lifting.

It might take a while, it might not all look

and feel like we want it to,

but God will be the one to bring

all the pieces together in the end.

God will save us.

 

CS Lewis, the popular Christian writer said:  

“The problem is not that we expect

too much out of God, but we expect too little.”

 

Why do we doubt God’s love for us?

Knowing what we have known,

why do we doubt that Jesus will be there?

Why do we doubt that God will get things done?

Why do we think that it is all up to us,

and that we have to learn to walk on water?

 

We are living in the middle of this rough sea.

Some of us are out on the sea in our personal lives,

and all of us, I think, feel like this world is out to sea right now.

Listing this way and that, battered by waves and wind,

barely able to stay afloat, at times it seems hopeless.

 

At times we might feel like we’re drowning

and desperate and like there’s no hope for us.

Will God save us?

 

Oh we of little faith, why did we ever doubt?