Walking on Water

I have been thinking lately about Peter’s trek upon the waters of the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 14:22-33) thanks to a currently meaningful song by Hillsong United, “Oceans.”*  The opening stanza of the song personalizes this experience of one of His disciples.

                He calls me out upon the waters, the great unknown, where feet may fail.

Most of us are familiar with this story.  Jesus had just finished up what was one of the most incredible miracles He performed while on the earth, feeding over 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  It was a desolate place where the people had come to see Him, hear Him and experience His miraculous wonders.  It was getting late and He urged the disciples to go on ahead of Him across the Sea.  He stayed on shore to dismiss the people and to spend some time in prayer.

Meanwhile the disciples had encountered some problems getting to the other side.  The wind was against them and they were rowing with all their might to try to fight it to their destination.  Along with the wind, they battled the waves.  It must have been a significant hindrance as they had been rowing practically all night and were still a good distance from land.

It was then that Jesus came to them in a manner they were not expecting, walking on the water as though it were pavement, and making much better progress than they were.  We are not told, but apparently the disciples assumed Jesus would catch a ride with another boat that was crossing, for they certainly didn’t expect Jesus to come across the water on foot.  When they saw Him, their immediate reaction was fear.

I am reminded how easy it is for me to experience fear in the midst of trial and hardship.  It is almost my first reaction to anything that I am not expecting.  And yet, as in the case of the disciples, it is often at the presence of God’s provision for the trial that I quake the most.   When the gracious hand of God is extended to me, I tend to cower in fear.

Once Jesus had identified Himself, very likely using the Personal Name of being that identified Him as God in the flesh, Peter asks Jesus to invite him outside of the boat to walk upon the wind-whipped waves that had been preventing them for getting to shore.  I have asked myself why Peter would do this.  Who would even think of such a thing at a time like this?  Did he think it was really cool and wanted to try it out?  Was he impetuous and just blurted out the first thing that came into his head without really thinking through the consequence?  Was his faith so large because he had been in the midst of all the miraculous activities earlier that day?  Why would he ask to do what, in all other cases, would be impossible?  Though we are left to speculate at the ultimate reason, it is obvious that Peter is ready to back up his request with the faith necessary to actually go over the side of the boat at Jesus’ bidding.

Most of us would not ask to be put in a situation of hardship and trial that would test our faith.  If you are like me, you have plenty of opportunities to test your trust in God without seeking more.  Yet the ride for Peter must have been incredible, albeit brief.  Can you imagine putting your full weight upon something that all your experience has shown will not hold your weight and have it now fully support it?  It must have been a tremendous faith-exploding experience!

Have you the courage to pray thus?   Would the experience of walking upon the water with Jesus be worth the wind and the waves?

Peter walked upon the water for a time, but the scripture tells us that instead of looking at Jesus and pressing

forward toward Him, Peter began to look about himself.  He was reminded again of all his experience with water in the past.  It had never held him up before.  And the wind and waves!  These had not ceased just because he was out of the boat.  These continued to rise and fall as they had been doing much of the night and now he felt vulnerable outside the safety of the boat.  He took his eyes off Jesus and focused upon his circumstances.  This is something you and I know well.  We know with all our hearts that God is good.  We know that He is more than able to do far more abundantly than we can think or imagine.  Yet our gaze is drawn with laser-focus to our circumstances and we begin to think these will overwhelm us.  We take our focus off the One who knows us and knows everything we are going through and knows the way through.  Just like Peter, we began to sink and the old fear comes back once again. 

While Peter’s faith waned, it was not completely gone as he knew to whom he needed to cry out.  He could have asked the other disciples to throw him a rope or reach out the oar.  He could have tried to reverse course and swim back to the boat.  But he did not.  He cried out to Jesus, “Save me.”  Even in the midst of failing faith, he turned to the one place he knew there would be help.

The reality is, Peter experienced a level of intimate relationship with Jesus that none of the other disciples shared.   He was the only one who walked on the water with Jesus.  He was the only one who experienced the strong hand of Jesus pulling him up to save him.  It is as though each trial we face in our lives is the opportunity to experience anew the grace of salvation.   Nothing assures us more that we belong to Him than when we see Him provide in the circumstances that are beyond our own ability.

A couple of observations to ponder: