Peter and Jesus Walking on the Lake: Matt: 14:23-36
May I speak in the name of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the gospel narratives Peter is portrayed as a big character: he is impetuous, the one who speaks first and thinks afterwards, the one who does not realise the consequences of his actions until it is too late, and who infamously denied Jesus and then wept bitterly. But alongside this, Peter is also courageous, willing to speak out, he takes the lead and Jesus choses him to be the rock on which he will build his church and to whom he gives the keys of the kingdom of heaven. In the end, as we know, Peter’s faith in Jesus and faithfulness to the gospel cost him his life. He was martyred on a cross in Rome.
This morning I want to reflect on Peter in this familiar story of Jesus walking on the water. Jesus has sent his disciples ahead to sail across the lake whilst he prays alone. By evening, a fierce storm has begun to rage, and waves batter the disciples’ boat. They are frightened and alone on a lake which was known to unexpectedly throw up terrifying storms. As the dawn breaks, into this chaotic and terrifying scene, Jesus appears walking towards the disciples on the raging waters. There is something eerie about this image, with the roar of the waves crashing around violently in the dim half-light of dawn. Unsurprisingly, the frightened and confused disciples mistake him for a ghost. Then as Jesus comes closer, he identifies himself with the words ‘Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid’. In response, as on so many occasions, Peter speaks first. It is a moment when both his impetuosity and courage come to the fore, and he asks Jesus to command him to walk towards him on the water. But then, as Peter starts to walk towards Jesus, he notices the ferocity of the waves and his fear overcomes him. He begins to sink, only to be saved by Jesus reaching out to him, then come Jesus’s words of sharp rebuke “You of little faith, why did you doubt?’
It’s a poignant moment in the story and one in which it is perhaps it is too easy to criticise Peter for his apparent impetuosity and doubt. Let’s not forget that before stepping out of the boat Peter asked Jesus to command him to walk towards him. An astonishing ask and one that indicates that at that point he is prepared to make the highly risky act of stepping out of the boat in the raging storm. Surely here, Peter is demonstrating his absolute faith in Jesus and his power to keep him safe. And it appears that for a while he holds this confidence in Jesus and is able to make some initial steps on the water, until the moment when suddenly he realises what he is doing is frankly impossible. You can’t walk on water; the laws of nature forbid it. So as Peter rationalises what he is doing, his doubt and fear take over, he takes his eyes off Jesus and begins to sink. Here in this moment, I think Peter finds himself dramatically confronting the tangled knot that exists between fear, reason, doubt and faith.
What are we to make of this? I want to suggest that in Peter we can recognise our own struggle to navigate this tortuous line between what our reason and feelings tell us sometimes on the one hand and our faith in the God who promises in Mother Julian’s words that ‘All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well’. In Jesus’s rebuke of Peter’s doubt in the raging storm, I believe that we too are challenged to ask ourselves where we place our trust when life seems threatening and overwhelming. Jesus’s instruction to Peter to come across the water then becomes for us an invitation in our journey of discipleship to hold fast to our faith in Christ Jesus as Lord of all, whatever the challenges we face. But more than this, His ‘come’ is also an invitation to draw close to him and discover the power of his presence in the midst of the storm. Ultimately, we are invited to trust in the overarching love of God and His sustaining power through the painful and dark, overwhelming times when our doubts most threaten our faith. In other words, to hold on, looking to Christ with the knowledge that only God can help and save us.
Paul writes to the Romans that the Word is near to you on your lips and in your heart. God is neither remote in the heavens nor in the abyss. It is an assurance of the closeness of God. God in Christ is with us. However, the reality for some of us on this risky journey of faith is that when we are most tested and threatened, God can feel distant even absent and we find ourselves sinking. The doubting and believing seem to compete with one another just like Peter experienced when he took those remarkable steps on the lake.
The poet R. S. Thomas wrote many poems about the paradox of the presence and apparent absence of God. He wrote about a disturbing time when ‘no God leans down out of the air to take the hand extended to him’ but in another poem he writes ‘As I had always known, he would come, unannounced remarkable merely for the absence of clamour.’ In the roaring clamour of the storm, Jesus calmly and gently reached out his hand to Peter and saved him. God in Christ comes to us and is always near to us. In the midst of our storms when we are most fearful and threatened, he calls us to come and trust in him, and the loving purposes of God.
Faith and doubt in this life will always wrestle with each other, but Jesus says in the storms of life “it is I, do not be afraid ‘. He invites us to draw close to him and hold on in faith with the assurance given by St Paul that ‘everyone who calls on his name shall be saved’. Amen