Good morning. Have you ever thought that Peter just wanted out of the boat? A little background: The 12 disciples of Jesus are in the middle of the Sea of Galilee when a strong wind comes up. They are being beaten up by the wind and the waves and they know that their small boat is no match for the building storm. Peter, Andrew, James, and John are fishermen, and they know what storms can do. In all likelihood they had attended funeral services for friends and fellow fishermen who been lost to the wind and the waves on the Sea of Galilee. After feeling their stomachs turn upside down for the hundredth time and after bailing the water from the boat in what seemed like a losing battle, don’t you think that every single person in the boat would have wished that they could have been somewhere else? Wouldn’t it have been their prayer, “Oh God! Please! Get me off this boat and I promise to live a better life for you!” But when you are in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and the wind and the waves are pounding, there isn’t anywhere else to go, so you cling to the sides of the boat even as you pray to be somewhere else.
That was when they saw the ghostly figure walking across the water. Imagine what they would have been watching. This figure had to be either walking up and over the top of the huge waves and then down the other side, or the figure had to have been passing through the middle of the waves in a self-made tunnel through the water. Either way it would have been too weird. As they scream in even greater terror, the figure calls out to them, revealing Himself to be Jesus. Matthew 14:27-29 tells it this way: But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said.
Why do you suppose Peter would ask to do such a thing? Does he imagine that if Jesus can do something, he should be able to do it as well? That doesn’t seem to make sense. There have been many things that Jesus has done that has amazed them, things they know they are incapable of doing. So why would Peter ask, “tell me to come to you on the water”?
I think it is likely that if we could look into the eyes of Peter in that moment, we would not see quiet resolve or faith courage. I think we would see raw fear. This is a man who knows what is at stake and who more than anything wants to get out of the boat! If he would have given it a bit more thought, he may not have asked that question. Actually, he did give it a bit more thought, but not until he was on the water some steps away from the side of the boat. When he did think about it, and this happened after he considered the wind and the waves, he started to sink. He screamed, “Lord, save me!” Isn’t that something of a statement of what life can throw at us: one moment Peter is scared to death of being in the boat and a few minutes later he is even more afraid of being out of the boat!
In our adult Sunday school class, we have referred to the scripture from Proverbs 9:10 “For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” I wonder if that moment of fear in the heart of Peter may have been the beginning of a new kind of wisdom? I wonder if that moment of fear in Peter, which was momentarily replaced by a strange and perhaps courageous act as he got out of the boat, was enough to plant seeds of a new kind of faith and trust in God? If not, were the words of Jesus after He has rescued Peter enough to get his attention? Jesus said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Think of the times in your life when fear has propelled you into taking some kind of action. Typically, when we are propelled by fear our choices and decisions aren’t very sound. What if when we are feeling propelled by fear into making a hasty choice, we realize that the choice we made is going to take us to an even more fearful place? I think that could describe Peter’s ordeal. But what did he learn from this event?
Peter learned to call on Jesus. Peter learned that when Jesus is in control, the storms aren’t terrifying, and the waves wouldn’t sink him. Peter learned that his failure wouldn’t be the end of him, because Jesus took his hand. Peter learned that even though fear drove him out of the boat, and then fear made him wish he was back in the boat, Jesus was greater than his fears.
The smartest words Peter spoke that day were these: “Lord, save me!” And He did.
God bless your day!
Vern