Floating on trust

“…Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’’ (Matt 14:27)

Matthew 14:22-33 (Year A: Ninth Sunday after Trinity 13th August 2017)

The story of Jesus walking on the waters, as recounted in the 14^th chapter of the gospel of Matthew, is a familiar one and resonates with a number of other stories in the life of Jesus.  For some reason, it reminds me of crossing a rope bridge over choppy waters or sliding into an MRI machine!

We look down (or up as the case may be) and we panic for a moment. Then, a calm voice reassures us: ‘Peace!’ ‘I am with you’ or ‘All will be well’.

The story of ‘walking on the waters’ is part of a series of episodes from chapter 13 through to chapter 18 where Matthew tells how the disciples were prepared and formed by the teaching and miracles of Jesus before the decisive events at the close of Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem.

The story has parallels in the gospels such as in the post-resurrection story found in the gospel of John when Peter swims rather than walks towards Jesus (John 21:1-8).  An earlier story is found in Matthew (8:23-27) where there is a storm at sea involving the apostles but, in this case, Jesus is already in the boat when the storm breaks out.  The episode recounted in chapter 14 follows the miraculous feeding of the crowd and comes before the definitive confession of faith by Peter in the Christ found in Chapter 16 of that gospel. There is a touch of a resurrection narrative about this passage from Matthew.

Writing for a mainly Jewish Christian audience, Matthew is anxious to stress the continuity of God’s saving power in the life of Jesus in such manner that all who follow Jesus become part of God’s salvation story first told among his chosen people and now told to the whole world.  

Detailed consideration of the passage

v.22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

Following the miracle of the multiplication of loaves, it is now evening time and dark is descending. Later that night Jesus would see the rising danger for his disciples. Going with the gospel of John, the summary and pressing dismissal of the crowd may reflect pressure on Jesus to make him king (John 6:14-15). On this supposition, Jesus needed to get the disciples out of the way quickly, and having dismissed the crowds, to retreat to pray on his own. This was no time for king-making or misrepresentation of the kingdom message.

v.23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone

There is a pattern of drama here following the miracle of the loaves and preceding the walking on the waters. Matthew, in his ordering of events, is preparing the reader for the climactic revelation of Jesus as the new messiah who will act in the power of God as witnessed through his power over nature. To pray on his own, Jesus gives a pattern to those who might follow in his steps. 

Apart from the testing time in the desert (Matthew 4), the only other time Jesus prays on his own, according to the record of Matthew, is when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the eve of his crucifixion. Could Matthew’s reference to Jesus going up the mountain to pray reflect an intended link to Moses who prayed on Mount Sinai? Like Moses, Jesus is in intimate conversation with his Father – on his own. Was Jesus interceding for his disciples in the boat? These parallels are very possibly intended by the author of Matthew given his audience and given his overall theological purposes.

v.24 but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.

The translation of ‘battered’ from the Greek word basanizomenon which literally means ‘tortured’ is rendered as ‘tossed’ in the King James Version. We can only imagine that the disciples were weary and greatly afraid as well as unsure of their whereabouts in the dark as they were driven off course at some considerable distance from the shore.

v.25 And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.

Sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. (the ‘fourth watch of the night’), Jesus walked towards the beleaguered and exhausted disciples. There is a precedent for God’s miraculous and all-powerful work over the chaos and danger of waters in a number of places in the Old Testament including Psalm 77:19, Psalm 107:25-32 and Job 9:8. 

v.26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.

In Mark’s account, the disciples were ‘astounded’, ‘terrified’ or ‘troubled’ depending on which English translation is used.  A similar word is used to describe the reaction of the apostles to the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection. It is likely that the disciples’ fear was linked to the sight of what could have been a ghost rather than, primarily, the stormy conditions on the sea that night.

v.27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

The discrete use of ‘It is I’ strongly hints at divine power at work in Jesus where Yahweh revealed himself from the burning bush as the one who is (Exodus 3:14).  There can be no mistaking, however, the link to the action of Yahweh resonating among a Jewish audience listening to or reading Matthew. The prophet Isaiah wrote (14:13):

For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Do not fear, I will help you.”

This is exactly what Jesus proceeds to do next. The use of Old Testament ideas and language fits with a Matthean style of extensive use of such sources to back up the message that Jesus is the new Moses or Messiah and that what was foreshadowed in the Old Testament matches the gospels ‘so that it may be fulfilled’.

v.28 Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

Some scholars question if Peter actually walked on the waters and that a miraculous event – as described in Matthew – took place at all. Some speculate that the story may reflect a post-resurrection experience retold and reworked into Jesus’ earlier life. However, others suggest that no definitive conclusion can be drawn as to the historicity of the walking on the waters. While doubt may be raised in relation to many details of the gospel stories it is striking how little direct evidence sceptical scholars have produced to assert the unlikelihood of particular events.

v.29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.

And Jesus does exactly as Peter asked and calls him. What Peter did next was, characteristically of him, rash and reckless. Having asked Jesus to command him to come to him on the water and having heard the call ‘come’ he got out of the boat and started walking! 

v.30 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

The King James Version of the Bible describes it in this way:

But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

When Peter ‘noticed the strong wind’ we can conclude that he took his eyes off Jesus for a moment. That was nearly fatal until Jesus stretched out his arm to hold Peter (they must have been near each other by now).  Fear took over when Peter lost sight of Jesus and focussed on the danger. Some scholars see, in this story, a case of individual disciples struggling with adversity and not a case of the ‘church’ struggling. However, many of the patristic sources including Saint Augustine of Hippo writing centuries later clearly identify the boat on the sea as the church.  It seems to me that both points of emphasis are valid and useful for a contemporary reading of this passage of Matthew.

v.31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

There is a strong echo of the consoling words of Isaiah 41:10:

Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

That victorious right hand is offered – in the person of Jesus – to Peter who has lost his trust for a moment and is sinking.

The doubting reaction of the apostles or disciples found in Mark is somewhat softened in Matthew.           

v.32 When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

The calming of the winds coincides with Jesus’ entering of the boat (strictly speaking ‘storm’ is not mentioned in Matthew 14 whereas it was in Matthew 8). Unique to Matthew is the entry of Peter with Jesus. The reference to the fact that ‘the wind ceased’ seems like an anti-climax. The focus, here, is what is happening to the disciples as well as the actions of Jesus and Peter. Jesus did not calm the seas or restrain the wind to make things easier for Peter to walk towards him. Rather, it was by coming into the boat that calm was restored. This required a gesture of despair, appeal and rescue confirming that God is in charge here but we need to invite him in. For all his recklessness Peter took the lead and walked towards Jesus in trust.

v. 33 And those in the boat worshipepd him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

The hero of this story was not, in the first place Peter. In fact, some may suggest that he was foolish to do what he did and he didn’t pass the faith test with full marks!. The hero of the story is Jesus himself who is proclaimed as The Son of God and worshipped accordingly. The next time his disciples would worship him in Matthew’s gospel would be after his resurrection (Matthew 28:17):

When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.

After Jesus’ death, we find in Matt 27:54 the testimony of the Roman centurion that ‘truly this man was God’s son’ follows the death of Jesus and the earthquake that accompanied it. It signals an extraordinary event in which God’s power was evident and faith in God’s son was proclaimed. There is a parallel to the story in Matthew 14 following the miracle of the loaves and fish and then the extraordinary events of that night including the storm and the walking on the water.

And so for us today….

Central to this passage in Matthew’s gospel is the power of God in situations of crisis and intense danger and fear. There is a personal message to the individual Christian disciple just as there is a message to the community of disciples gathered together in the name of Jesus.

The storm was not calmed as long as Jesus was not in the boat.  It was only when Jesus joined the disciples in the boat that the wind ceased. Is there a lesson, today, for us who struggle against the storms of life alone or with others? It is when Jesus is in our midst that we can find the way to proceed and find our destination. Walking that rope bridge or easing into that scanning machine in the loving presence of others is a help!