We’ve been reading through Matthew lately, and really digging deep, as we tend to do in our Bible studies. This weekend, we were in Matthew 14–quite a chapter! We learn about the beheading of John, and how Jesus sought some solitude after getting the news, He tried to go off by Himself…only to be followed by quite a crowd that He ended up feeding. After that miraculous meal, He sends the disciples off on the boat, goes to get that prayer time that was interrupted before, and then catches up with them…in the middle of the storm-tossed lake. On foot.
These familiar stories that we know oh-so-well can sometimes be hard to dig deeper into. We’ve heard them so many times, we just assume we know what they’re saying, and what they mean, and what their import really is.
This time, something new jumped out at me.
As Jesus is walking to the disciples on the water, they see Him and think it’s an apparition. The Greek work used is phantasma, from which we get phantom–used to mean vision more than disembodied spirit, for which they frequently used angelos (angel). Regardless, the disciples are a little freaked out, to say the least.
And Jesus is quick to say, “Hey, chill out! It’s just me!” (Totally his words. Very literally translated. Ahem.)
We all know what Peter said in response. But have you ever really thought about it? Look at this.
“Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
Um…what? Who here has ever reacted that way? “Lord, if that’s You nudging me to do something, command me to perform a miracle”… “Lord, if that’s you tugging on my heart, tell me to jump out of the airplane”…”Lord, if that’s You beside me in my troubled times, tell me to do the impossible.”
That isn’t the human response. We never ask for anyone, even God to prove Himself by having us do something risky and awe-inspiring. We ask Him to do it, maybe…but in this passage, He already was. He was walking on the water already. (I mean really, who else could it have been??)
That takes a particular kind of faith, that Peter invokes. And as my husband said, “I wonder if this is the moment where it became so clear that Peter was the Rock on which the church should be built.” Because he’s the only one who greeted terror with, “Lord, let’s do something miraculous together.” Yes, he took his eyes off Jesus, and when he did so, he began to sink. But still–let’s not forget that first he not only asked to join Him, he demanded it as proof.
Do we do that? Do we demand, as proof of our Lord’s identity, that He do something amazing through us?
Should we?
When Peter and Jesus make it back to the boat, the storm ceases, the wind dies down. And the disciples all say–for the FIRST TIME in this Gospel–“Wow. This dude’s the Son of God.”
Why? Why then do they proclaim it? Just a few chapters before, Jesus calmed another storm on a tumultuous sea, and it made them ask. Made them wonder who this guy was. Why, this time, did it become clear?
My first thought was that it was because He did that little walking on water bit.
But many prophets had subdued nature and the laws of physics before. We have Elijah praying for no rain, then for rain. Making an ax-head float. Making oil never run out. We have a dead man springing to life by merely touching his bones.
Miracles, all. So Jesus calming storms made them certain He was, at least, a prophet.
But there’s a big difference between a prophet and the Son of God.
A prophet could have calmed the storm. Maybe a prophet could have even walked on water (after all, if an ax-head can be made to rise to the top of the water, why not a person?).
As I debated this question in our study, there was only one thing I could come up with that really set this incident apart as Son-of-God-unique. And that was Peter. That Jesus could command Peter to come to Him. So far as I can recall, no other prophet could confer the miracle like that. Yes, they had people act in faith–go dip in the Jordan five times; pour out the oil and make a cake. But the miracle wasn’t performed by them.
Peter partook in the miracle, though. Peter was the doer of it. Much like the disciples went out and did the work in Jesus’ name. That means that Jesus had to have the authority, to grant it to them. Only an heir could do that. Only a Son of the Most High.
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Peter…and in this passage, he really taught me something about what my faith should be. It shouldn’t just ask for God to DO…it should demand He do it through me. It should demand to partake of the miracle. Not just to watch, but to do. To be a co-heir. To have some of that authority.
Whenever I’m in doubt, I shouldn’t just say, “Lord, show me the way I should go.” I should be saying, “Lord, do the impossible through me.”
How exciting!
Thank you!