Fear, chaos, a boat battered by waves, and Jesus walking on the water. We’re looking at a great story today of Jesus walking on the water in Matthew 14.
Here’s the Scripture readings and sermon for Sunday, August 9. This sermon on Matthew 14:22-33 from Pastor Daniel Flucke was created for St. Peter Lutheran Church, a congregation of the ELCA in Greene, Iowa. Visit us online at stpetergreene.com.
Grace to you and peace from the One who was, who is, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today’s Gospel story from Matthew picks up immediately (literally – it starts off with the word immediately) after last week’s story of Jesus feeding that huge crowd of over 5,000 people with 5 loaves and two fish.
If you remember from that story, Jesus had been trying to get some alone time with God, but when he went to a deserted place, this huge crowd of people followed him. Since they were in the deserted place, there wasn’t really anywhere to get food, which is why Jesus had to miraculously feed them.
Jesus still really needs some alone time to rest and pray, just to spend a couple hours with God, so as soon as the disciples gather up all the leftovers, Matthew tells us that Jesus made (made!) the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side. Then he sends the crowds away, and he finally gets to go up on a mountain by himself to pray.
There’s a good lesson for us there in just those first two verses, isn’t there? Prayer is important, even for Jesus, and it’s especially important in the times when you don’t have time to do it. Sometimes, you just need to make time to pray, and send people away, and take a break to talk to God. I know for me, making that time can be hard to do, and maybe that’s true for you too.
Today, though, I want to talk not so much about prayer but about fear. There are two different places where fear shows up in this story.
So. Jesus has finally gotten his time alone to pray. Meanwhile, the disciples are out there on their boat, and it’s getting dark out, and the weather is getting worse. The wind has come up, and the waves are battering the boat.
Now, this has happened before. The water they’re crossing is the sea of Galilee, and because of the geography and the weather patterns there, sudden storms are common. Back in Matthew 8, the disciples and Jesus had been on board their boat when a severe storm came up and the disciples panicked and woke up Jesus, who had been sleeping, and he calmed the storm.
The problem this time, though, is Jesus isn’t on board with them. If it were me, this is where fear would show up in the story. If I were out in a small boat at night getting “battered by the waves” I’d be pretty scared. But remember, most of the disciples are professional fishermen, so even if they’re a little anxious, they’re used to it.
But then, one of them looks up and sees…something. Someone? Walking towards them on the water. Now, they’re scared. Matthew says they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!”
I was discussing this story with some other pastors earlier this week, and someone asked why the disciples were afraid. At first I thought it was kind of a silly question. Obviously, they’re afraid because someone is walking on the water, and that’s not supposed to happen! I’d be terrified too, if there was a ghost strolling across the water through a storm to me.
Here’s the thing, though. In John’s version of this story, in John chapter 6, the disciples recognize Jesus, and they’re still terrified. They know Jesus, but they’ve never seen him like this.
In the Bible, water is often an image for danger and chaos, for the dark underworld. The sea, the deep water, is the home of the sea monsters. It’s a place of fear and evil. It’s mysterious. It’s not quite hell, but it’s sort of the opposite of heaven, the opposite of God’s kingdom. It’s the place of the evil powers.
Remember in the very first verses of the Bible, in the beginning when the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. God’s work at creation was bringing order out of the watery chaos.
So here comes Jesus walking out to the boat in the middle of the night, over the waters and the waves and the disciples are thinking (a) one of the ghosts or monsters from the depths of the sea is coming to attack them, or (b) this Jesus guy is doing something supernatural, something only God can do, ruling over the evil powers, controlling even the worst parts of the world. Either way, they’re terrified.
But immediately, Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Do you ever feel like you’re being battered by waves? Do you ever feel like you’re just barely staying afloat over some unknown chaos? I mean, there’s a lot to be afraid of right now, isn’t there?
First, there’s the COVID virus itself. It’s been almost two weeks since I was in Wisconsin and saw some family, so I’m almost clear from that trip, but every time I’ve coughed, I’ve wondered if I need a test.
And besides the fear of getting sick, there’s all the other stuff so many people are dealing with, fear of losing a job, unknowns about school starting, fear about elections, and of course, all the regular fears we had at this time last year. Maybe you feel like you’re in a boat with a lot of waves battering you. Sometimes the waves are so rough that you don’t recognize God coming to you.
Jesus comes to the terrified disciples in the boat and says to them, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Then there’s this whole thing with Peter, where he asks Jesus to call him out onto the water. On the one hand, look at how brave Peter is for daring to step out of the boat. Look how much he trusts Jesus to protect him from the chaos and danger of the waves.
On the other hand, getting out of the boat wasn’t Jesus’ idea. I don’t think the point of the story is that we need to get out of the boat. The point of the story is that Jesus comes into the boat with the scared disciples.
But when Peter wants to get out of the boat, Jesus lets him do it. Peter starts walking on the water, and everything fine, and then when he takes his eyes off of Jesus, and notices how strong the wind is and how high the waves are, he starts to sink. You know the story. He became frightened.
That’s the second place fear shows up in this story, and again, the solution is Jesus. When Peter starts to sink, Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches him. He doesn’t let him flail for a minute to teach him a lesson about getting out of perfectly good boats or showing off and trying to do things he can’t do. Even though this was Peter’s idea, Jesus refuses to let him sink. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him.
Jesus says to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Remember, though, a little faith—faith the size of a mustard seed, faith like a little child—is all Jesus says you need.
I like the way the VOICE paraphrase puts it. In that version, Jesus says, “Why did you doubt? Why did you dance back and forth between following me and heeding fear?”
And when Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind ceased.
I mentioned that Jesus had calmed a storm once before, and at the end of that story, the disciples were amazed, wondering who this person could be. This time, though, Matthew says “Those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”
In the midst of the storms and chaos around you, may you recognize Jesus walking towards you, and may you know he is indeed the Son of God.
May the Holy Spirit keep your eyes focused on Jesus, the one who is not stopped by waves. And may you know that Jesus is there to catch you.
Amen