Living in the Tension

Living in the Tension

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-32

³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (NRSV)

Observation:

Paintings of Jesus walking on the water have always fascinated me. There is Jesus with his hair waving in the wind, and Peter sinking beneath the waves with his hand lifted up to Jesus. Jesus is depicted as lowering his hand to raise his disciple from the murky depths. Perhaps this is the image that Tolkien was going after when Frodo tries to leave Sam behind. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful picture of Jesus rescuing his friend.

The question that arises in my mind is what is Jesus rescuing Peter from. When I have heard the texted preached it seems that many focus on the impulsivity of Peter to step out of the boat. We tend to think that Peter gave no thought to what he was doing. That may be true, but perhaps Peter did think. Maybe Peter knew exactly what he was doing and he had enough faith to step out and walk on the water. In fact, the water never seems to be the issue for Peter. That blasted, unnatural wind, is what frightens him. In the original language, the wind is supernatural, at least in the eyes of the disciples.

They realize that this is no typical storm. Actually, the same type of storm was recorded when Jesus was sleeping in their boat. Apparently, the enemy was trying to destroy these followers of Jesus. Therefore, they are afraid. For the moment, Jesus has strengthened their faith. Peter asks Jesus to call him. He does not step out until Jesus says that it is ok to do so. Peter is exercising all the faith he has.

It is not until he feels the force of the winds pushing against him. It is when he remembers there is a fierce storm pressing against him that he begins to waver. He begins to doubt, and in this lapse of faith, he begins to sink. He does not seem to go directly under but as his faith wanes he slips increasingly under the water.

Application:

Peter lives where we all do, if we are completely honest with ourselves. We live between faith and doubt. Saying we have faith is great but until it is tested, we do not know just how strong our faith really is. Walking on water is not the test of our faith, but it was for Peter. He actually did pretty well. Considering he did not sink as soon as he stepped out of the boat.

Nevertheless, we all have a boat to step out of. Perhaps our boat is believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Maybe our stepping out is trusting Jesus with our job, children, spouse, financial needs, or physical needs.

We all have boats to step out of, and often we will do pretty well, until we reach the limit of our faith. It would appear that it is true that no matter how much faith we may boast we have, until it is tested it is not proven. Peter’s faith was good enough to walk on water, but not enough to face the attack of the enemy. He was happy to come to Jesus, but doubts set in when the enemy’s schemes caught his attention.

Perhaps someone has stepped out in faith recently, but some other distraction has caused your faith to wane. Perhaps you find yourself sinking into the deep waters of despair. The beauty of the story is that when Peter calls for Jesus to save him, Jesus does. This reveals that Peter’s doubt was not sin; no, it was merely doubt. He reached the limits of his faith and Jesus would reach out his hand and increase Peter’s faith a little bit more. Imagine, a little faith allowed him to walk on water, when Peter’s faith was greater he would be martyred.

Have you reached the limits of your faith? Have you come to the place where fear and doubts have set in? We all do, in some measure, at every point in our journey we are tested to our limits; nevertheless, do not fear for when you call on Jesus he will not let you sink. He will raise you up, he will teach you, and you will recognize that he is The Son of God.

Prayer:

O Lord, I am not all that I would like to believe I am. I have only as much faith as I have had tested and successfully exercised. Jesus, when I begin to focus on other things, and turn my eyes to the left or to the right I find I begin to sink. Strengthen me in my weakness, and O’ my Jesus, SAVE ME!