Introduction
Here’s a question for you. See if you think you know the answer. What do the following species all have in common: the Brazilian pygmy gecko, the fishing spider, the western grebe, the basilisk lizard and the water skipper?
The answer is that all these creatures can walk on water. My favourite of all is the basilisk lizard and if you have never met this little fella, here’s a short video narrated by David Attenborough…
Isn’t he great?
Only two human beings have ever walked on water though - and neither was travelling at 65 mph. Jesus, of course, is famously one of them but, technically, Peter also walked on water, albeit very briefly. But he was hardly a master of the art and would certainly have sunk and drowned had Jesus not reached out and saved him.
This is what our passage today is all about, so let’s read it together…
Immediately after this, [“this” incidentally being the small matter of feeding a crowd of at least 5,000 people with the contents of a child’s lunchbox] Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”
But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!” Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
Prayer…
Our passage today opens with Jesus sending the disciples on and sending the crowds away - so he can be alone to pray. It’s so impressive, isn’t it, how Jesus always finds time to be alone with his Father, to pray in the Spirit? This is the beating heart of the Trinity.
Even with the pressing needs of so many people, and with time so scarce a commodity, the Lord makes quality solitary time with the Father absolutely non-negotiable.
This is the springboard of his authority and effectiveness in ministry. Jesus himself explains the mechanics of this in John’s Gospel; “I tell you the truth” he says, “the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing.”
This is what’s happening up on that hillside at night while everyone else is asleep. Soaking in the presence of God is the key to power and anointing in our ministries too. When you work, you work. But when you pray, God works. Jesus knows that and the early church did too.
Anyway, unlike for the basilisk lizard, Jesus walking on water is actually an amazing miracle. And it is extremely significant, because this is the first time the twelve disciples call Jesus the Son of God. It’s the first time they worship him as the Lord.
In chapter 2, you’ll remember, the wise men from the east bow down and worship Jesus. In chapter 8, a leper falls and kneels before him. In chapter 9, Jairus the synagogue leader also bows the knee to acknowledge Jesus’ supreme authority.
But here, despite all they have witnessed to this point, this is the first time the twelve are collectively awed to the point of worship. “You really are the Son of God,” they say in v33. You’re not just an unusually good rabbi who tells good stories. You’ve come down from heaven. You’re God, the Son. And this is what worship is; acknowledging who Christ is and being awed by his greatness.
There’s a scene in Prince Caspian, in the Chronicles of Narnia, where Aslan [the great lion who represents Jesus] Aslan turns and stands, regally, facing the children, looking, it says, “so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad.”
I love that blend of unspeakable joy at tasting the goodness of the Lord and yet awe and trembling at his fearsome strength.
I hope you are in awe of Christ! I hope, in your mind, is he utterly worthy of praise. I hope you are moved to extol him, to magnify his fame, to exalt his majesty, to worship him with delight and yet fear him with bowed reverence. Oh, what a thing to worship the Lord, in his exquisite holiness!
The Background
Anyway, this drama unfolds on the Sea of Galilee, a heart-shaped body of water into which, and out from which, flows the River Jordan. It sits at the foot of a mountainous area that rises to 1,300 metres above sea level, high enough to be snow-capped all year round. The lake itself is 220 metres below the Mediterranean Sea.
And when a front of cool air descending from the hills collides with moist, warm air rising from the lake itself, it stirs up abrupt, and ferocious thunderstorms.
That’s what it seems we have here and this is not, you may remember, the first time we have encountered bad weather on this lake. Matthew mentions another fierce storm in chapter 8 in which the disciples are convinced they are about to go under.
Facing Our Fears
This gale does not seem to be quite as extreme as the last one; the wind and waves make rowing difficult, but this time the disciples’ fear is not so much about a sinking boat as a haunted lake.
Matthew tells us in v24 that “the disciples were in trouble, far away from land, for a strong wind had arisen, and they were fighting heavy waves.”
They only need to travel a relatively short distance, but the weather conditions are such that, despite their best efforts, they have been driven several miles into the middle of the lake and can barely make progress.
Some Bible versions translate v25 as the fourth watch of the night. That's how they talked about time before clocks. It equates to 3:00am to 6:00am which means that the disciples will have been rowing non-stop for approaching nine hours at precisely the time when they could have done with some sleep!
If you’ve ever rowed a boat before, even for an hour, you know it’s hard work.
These guys will have been exhausted.
As they pull wearily on the oars, deflated from the reality that they are not getting anywhere, Jesus comes up alongside them (v25).
It seems he just wants them to know he is there. He wants to reassure them of his presence. But not only are they not assured by his presence, they don’t even recognise it! The point Matthew is making is this: when we are preoccupied by worry, we become blind to the presence of the Lord.
In v26 they think they’ve seen a ghost and like any group of fearless males in their prime, they scream. And here’s why; there was a superstition in the Jewish, Greek, and Roman worlds at the time of Christ that to see a ghost means you are about to die. That’s why they’re all scared witless – they think they see a ghost and they all assume it’s the grim reaper.
Fear of imminent death is understandable. When you’re under stress your nervous system activates a surge of adrenaline. You can’t control it.
Actually, some fear is good; the fear of getting run over has trained you to look left and right before crossing a busy road. The right kind of fear keeps you alive. But other fears can be bad; they can make life a misery and feel like they’re strangling you. That kind of fear and faith cannot coexist in the same heart.
“In their fear” says Matthew in v26, they cried out… The word translated “fear” in the original Greek is phobos from which of course we get the word phobia. There are hundreds of phobias which people live with. Many of them are totally irrational. These are bad fears.
Arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, is the most common phobia in the UK today. In our country, there are no venomous species of spider; it’s a completely harmless creature, so small and soft you can pulverise it into oblivion with no effort whatsoever.
You can unleash Armageddon on any number of UK arachnids, and yet bizarrely these creatures send panic and terror in the hearts of millions.
Pogonophobia is… anyone know? It’s the fear of beards.
Nomophobia is a relatively new one, so new my spellcheck flagged it as an unknown word; “do you mean homophobia?” No, I do not! I mean nomophobia, which is the fear of being without your mobile phone.
Here’s what I discovered online about this fear; “People with nomophobia experience excessive anxiety about not having their phone with them, their phone being out of service, or their battery running low. Regardless of the circumstances, not being able to use their phone causes people with nomophobia to become panicked and experience extreme symptoms of anxiety.”
Phobophobia is the fear of… phobias. And, my favourite, Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is… (can you guess?)… I’m not joking, you can look this up, it’s actually the fear of long words!
Have you ever felt in imminent danger of death?
When I was about four, on holiday in Italy, my mum and dad warned my little brother and me that the sand at the water’s edge had a gentle slope, which was quite safe, and then a sudden dip – which was not. So we were told to not venture far from the shore.
Of course we took little notice, and we were paddling around and splashing in the surf when suddenly we both lost our footing, fell down the steep slope, and found ourselves under the water, out of our depth, and both unable to swim.
I looked up and saw the sun shining above the surface and then two arms plunge into the water to… grab my toddler brother and leave me to drown. I was just coming to terms with this crushing rejection of being left to die, when suddenly two hands grabbed me as well and pulled me up to safety. It must have all happened in a few seconds, but it felt like ages. The feeling that you’re going to die can be terrifying.
Jesus sees that his guys are really scared, and so he says in v27, “Don’t be afraid. Take courage! I am here.” Jesus approaches these men in the boat specifically to bring them some encouragement. Here’s the truth: in the midst of your worst fears, rational or irrational, Jesus wants to draw near.
With Jesus close by, you can look at the world around you and, whatever is happening, you can take courage, and need not be consumed by worries. Jesus is not far away in life’s troubles.
Isaiah 43.2 says, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you are walking through the fire of oppression, the flames will not consume you.”
The Lord may not always seem to come to us at the exact time we think he should, but in his wisdom he does know when we need him the most. If you are in a painful season right now and are still waiting for the Lord’s deliverance, notice this; Jesus waits until the boat is as far from land as it possibly can be, right in the middle of the lake, the furthest away from any hope. And then he shows up.
The evangelist Simon Guillebaud, when living in Burundi at the time when it was the most volatile warzone on earth, when he was daily in peril of kidnapping or death, said at that time, “I only really knew that Jesus was all I needed when he was all I had left.”
Now, these guys have just witnessed the feeding of the 5,000. The previous day. But how different it all feels in the middle of the night, when the wind is howling, when you’re rowing hard, when your life is under threat… when events disappoint you, when your monthly income doesn’t look like it’s going to cover all your costs, when illness or loneliness feel crushing, when trusted friends let you down, or when months of spiritual dryness take their toll. Is that where you are today?
There may have been a time when you could say quite confidently, “to live is Christ, to die is gain.” But that ground under your feet doesn’t quite seem to be as firm as it once was.
Don’t be afraid, the Lord is near, it is really him. It’s in the valley of the shadow of death that we can say, “I will fear no evil for you are with me.”
Stepping Out in Faith
A pastor friend of mine from France put this picture on Facebook a when there was flooding in the Rhone valley. He said it’s the first time he’d seen walking on water forbidden in the highway code!
I bet Peter would have been relieved to see it when Jesus said, “Come, Peter!” He could have replied, “Well, I would do Lord, obviously, but look; it’s against the local bylaws, so I really ought to stay in the boat.”
You’ll have times, won’t you, when, like Peter who leaves his comfort zone and takes a step of faith, you know you’ve just got to for it. As John Ortberg says, if you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat.
When I was about 11, I went with my little brother to Southend swimming pool and I told him on the bus that I could dive off the top diving board. In fact, I lied through my teeth, and boasted that I’d done it many times before and it was easy. He thought I was an absolute superhero. But when we got to the pool, he still remembered. “Show me how you dive off the top board!” he said. I tried to look cool, but I was dying inside. When I got to the top of the stairs, at the highest diving platform, the pool below looked about the size of a postage stamp. It felt like I was looking over the edge for about half an hour, holding on to the rail, before I summoned up the courage to dive in.
Think about the hardest thing you face in your life this morning... With Christ, you can do it. Nothing is impossible with God.
Peter says in v28, “If this is really you, Jesus, then tell me to come to you.” Tell me to do something that is totally impossible for me to do by myself, unless you do a miracle. Jesus says, “Come on…”
Some of you are parents. Bringing up a child is not actually impossible – but it is hard. Having four children myself I’ll tell you what I’ve found; up to the age of about 7, your kids think you know everything. But before long they will be 16. Then they’ll think they know everything and you know nothing.
How are you going to shape Christian values in their lives in the meantime? How are you going to keep on walking and not sinking when they think you’re an idiot?
Peter’s baby steps of faith are all too few. When he begins to sink, what is the problem? Does he start to doubt that Jesus is really standing on the water? No. There is Jesus, right there, standing and waiting for him. Peter’s problem is looking at the wrong thing. The moment he takes his eyes off Jesus, he doubts he can keep going. We’ve got to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus too. We all have.
As soon as we take our eyes off Jesus and become consumed by our circumstances, we sink. And when we do start to go under, as we inevitably will from time to time, if we call out to Jesus in faith, he is there to catch us and lift us up.
Like Peter, there will be days when you and I have that sinking feeling, when we can’t go on. But when you call out to him, Jesus loves to grab you by the hand and pull you through. That's why we call him Saviour.
Peter momentarily lets his fears eat his faith alive. In all the time Peter has been with Jesus, after all he’s seen, he is still learning to trust the Lord completely. When we tell this story, we sometimes think about Peter’s failure – he starts to sink and drown and he suffers the indignity of having to be bailed out.
But don’t forget that Peter is the only one with the guts to get out of the boat in the first place while the others just sit around like lemons. At least he has a go. And he actually starts to walk on water. How many steps did he take? Two or three? Nine or ten?
However many it is, it’s better than having stayed in the boat and always wishing you’d had a go. I don’t want to get to my deathbed having played safe and missed out on the adventure. I’d much rather be scared than bored. Wouldn’t you?
Where is God asking you to take a step of faith today? A career move? A relocation? Witnessing to a colleague at work? A new sphere of ministry or service? Giving, in faith, a little bit more than you think you can afford? Never mind what other people say, never mind how scary it seems. If you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat.
Ending
Let me just end by saying a few words to anyone here today who has not yet made a firm decision to become a follower of Jesus. Is that you today?
Peter is sinking, so in v30 he calls out to the Lord, “Save me!” God loves to hear those words. It means we know we can’t save ourselves.
In the 1990s there was a TV commercial in the USA for a medical alarm lanyard called LifeCall. It was designed to appeal particularly to seniors who lived alone and who might fall, leaving them unable to reach the phone. The advert contained a scene where an elderly woman presses her medical alert button after having fallen in the bathroom. What she says is, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Spiritually, we’ve all fallen. And we can’t pull ourselves up again by our good works by turning over a new leaf – it’s not enough.
Like Peter, who cries out to the only one who can help him, we need a Saviour.
We all face an eternity without God, and without hope, until we reach out to Christ and say, “save me, Lord!”
As for Peter, as for you; the Lord is so near today, to lift you back to eternal safety – if only you will call out to him to save you.
Finally, I was reading Kenneth E. Bailey’s book, The Good Shepherd just this morning and I came across a testimony that I felt I should shoehorn into this morning’s talk. I hope you will be encouraged by it.
Bailey says, For more than two decades, I have been privileged to have a Middle-Eastern friend who is a leading pastor in his country. I will call him Pastor Farid. His own spiritual journey let him from a non-Christian background to faith in Jesus the Messiah.
In 2005 Pastor Farid described to me an event that had recently taken place in his district. An illiterate fisherman in Pastor Farid’sarea grew up with no contact with Christians or knowledge of the stories of Jesus. One night while fishing on the large river that runs by his village, the fisherman saw a man clothed in shining white robes approaching him, walking on the water. In great fear lest the approaching figure be an evil spirit, the fisherman asked him who he was, and the man in white robes answered, Ana ‘Isa al-Masih (I am Jesus the Messiah).
After a life-changing conversation, the man standing on the water told the fisherman, ‘you must follow me!’ and then faded from sight. In the morning, the fisherman, with no idea what to do next, rowed back to the shore, beached his boat, rolled his prayer rug on the shore and placed an earthenware pitcher of water beside it. The fisherman then knelt down on the prayer rug and bowed his head to the ground. While in that position, he reached over and poured water from the jug over the back of his head.
In time, the fisherman managed to find local Christians, who took him to talk to Pastor Farid. The good pastor listened to his story with its unique ending and told the fisherman, ‘I believe you and I’m thrilled at your story, may the Lord bless you, but we do not baptise ourselves. Come, let us talk.’ In time, the fisherman became an informed and committed follower of ‘Isa al-Masih. He was delighted to find that the original disciples had talked in the night to Jesus the Messiah in an encounter similar to his own.
Over the last generation unknown thousands of people in many parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East have had epiphanies of Jesus. Only we in the rationalistic west are surprised by such events.
Let's pray...
Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 30 June 2024.
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