My Questions to Peter about walking on Water

Photo: smiling_da_vinci

I love this story in the Bible. It is fascinating to read and meditate on. Leading up to this – Jesus feeds the 5000 with the 2 fish and 5 loaves – a pretty amazing miracle it has to be said. One that I would have loved to have seen that is for sure. The disciples must have worked hard distributing all of that food.

At the end of the day, Jesus tells the disciples to get in boat and go over to the other side of the lake, ahead of Him – whilst He goes and spends some time alone, praying. Seems reasonable – especially after the day they have had.

But it is not straight forward. They get in the boat and start to go to the other side – just as Jesus had told them to do – yet the Bible tells us that after many hours of sailing, they are around half way across the lake. Not only that – they had been beaten and tossed, and the wind was against them.

Matthew 14:24-33 (Amplified Bible)
24 But the boat was by this time out on the sea, many furlongs [a furlong is one-eighth of a mile] distant from the land, beaten and tossed by the waves, for the wind was against them.
25 And in the fourth watch [between 3:00--6:00 a.m.] of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It is a ghost! And they screamed out with fright.
27 But instantly He spoke to them, saying, Take courage! I AM! Stop being afraid!
28 And Peter answered Him, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
29 He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus.
30 But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me [from death]!
31 Instantly Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
33 And those in the boat knelt and worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God!

That is not how a successful day on the mission field, being involved in one of the most talked about miracles of all time should end, surely? If it was me, I would have got into that boat tired, but feeling like Superman.

Yet within a few short hours, the winds of life have battered them and made it very hard to do what God told them to do. I have said it before, and I’ll say it again – an absence of problems is not a sign of the strength of your walk with Christ. It really isn’t. The disciples – if they were modern 21st Century men – would be all down beat and dejected, questioning what God was doing and indeed whether they heard Him right in the first place.

“Did Jesus really, tell us to get in the boat and do this?” “Surely, it would have been easier than this – especially after the miracles of today!”

So many of us judge how well we and others are doing by how many problems we DON’T have in life – those with the easy life must be more spiritual and have less sin…

But the disciples hadn’t made much progress and they were battered and beaten, whilst in the will of God and doing what He told them to do! Yet the disciples remained faithful to their instructions. They didn’t give up and head back to shore with the wind with the idea of trying again in the morning. They toiled and worked hard, despite being tired and worn out.

And it wasn’t until the very last hours of the night that Jesus actually came to them. Again – we measure the success of our prayers often by how quickly they are answered. If you want healing, get so and so to pray for you as God seems to answer their prayers immediately…

But these guys went through the night doing this, and it wasn’t until they had been through the darkest of times that Jesus came. If you are finding it hard, and you feel like you are beaten and tossed around like that boat on the exposed lake – then you are in good company. Please don’t take it as a sign that you are doing something wrong (unless you are of course!). If this is what God told you to do – just keep going – because at some point, in the small hours – you’ll start to see God walk toward you.

Imagine the disciples on the boat – fighting the tiredness and the wind. Finding it hard to concentrate and not feel dejected. They have been at this for hours. It would be great to be back on those green hill sides handing out food to several thousand people again – let us be anywhere but here.

As they work, they see something that doesn’t make sense – so they assume it is a ghost. This time – they are afraid. Not just beaten – but afraid, and here Jesus immediately intervenes by telling them to take courage.

How many of us just need a good dose of courage? We don’t hear many sermons on courage – but we all need it. Courage is what we need to face the fear.

The disciples are praying – and something scares them. It seems that God is not answering our prayers – but things are getting worse, and fear takes hold of us. Here we need courage. What was God intervening miraculously to get to the disciples in the midst of their storm – and the disciples misunderstood that miracle, and they became scared.

Learning to recoginise when God is at work is one of the key things that I pray for, as it is easy to misunderstand what God is trying to do. The disciples proved that – and if it happened to them, it will definitely happen to me.

Then, Peter does something that doesn’t make sense – he wants to walk on the water too. Why would he do this? Is it because that was his nature – give it a go? Perhaps, being out on the storm shaped waters with Jesus was safer than being in the boat without Him. I don’t know – it is one of those things that I will ask Peter when I see him:

“So Peter, exactly why did you get out of the boat?”

The interesting thing is that when Peter got out and walked on water (let me say that again – he walked on water, the Bible records that – Peter walked on water!) – the wind was still up, it didn’t stop. Sometimes, Jesus can be working one miracle in your life – but there are still wars raging in other areas of your life.
Here’s the next question I want to ask Peter when I see him:

“So Peter, exactly how far did you actually walk on the water?”

The Bible doesn’t tell us. And it doesn’t tell us how far away Jesus was from the boat either. In my mind he kinda got out of the boat, and began to sink immediately. This is wrong thinking though because of what the Bible does say. It tells us that he walked on water and came towards Jesus (v29). I am guessing now (with no real reason for my guess), but I reckon he walked a good 5-10m on the water (around 20-30ft).

I know that when he started to sink – he was scared of dying, so wasn’t close enough to the boat to grab it or swim for it.  This leads me to my next question:

“Peter, exactly how close to Jesus did you get?”

It must have been pretty close, because when he started to sink – Jesus immediately grabbed him (v31). So I reckon, on his first attempt – Peter must have had some success walking on the water. That leads me to my next question:

“So Peter, you started to sink. Jesus grabbed you. How far into the water did you go?”

Again, I seem to have the idea in my mind, and I don’t know why, that we went all the way into the water and just about had his head above the water when Jesus got him.

But I am not so sure that is right either – as Jesus grabbed him immediately – and it was by the hand. I’ll be surprised if Peter was up to his knees in water.

I have heard many sermons about how the winds caused Peter to lose faith in Jesus. He perceived and felt the wind, and that caused him to lose some measure of his spirituality. The preacher will then spend some time telling me how I should learn from this and keep my eyes fixed on Jesus and not allow the storms and winds of life distract me.

Are you kidding me?

Who never notices the winds and storms of life? Who is so robotic that they don’t realise they are there? You know what – I take my hat off to Peter. He’d been up all day serving bread and fish, then had spent all night fighting the beating of the wind, doing what God had told him to do. He was tired, and scared and at this point in his life – he still manages to find courage to walk on water for a while. Well done Peter, that’s what I say! Here’s another question I’d ask:

“So Peter, how did you feel walking on water?”

I bet he felt like Superman again.

Sure Jesus questions His faith – but Jesus can do that! He is allowed – except in most modern day churches where we have to be careful not to hurt people’s feelings! It isn’t very PC to question someone’s faith! Here’s another question:

“How did Jesus talk to you when He mentioned your faith and doubting?”

Was He annoyed? Was He kind? I wonder. I wonder how God talks to you when you have a momentary failure?

Here’s the thing though – Peter had to walk on water to get back into the boat. All the way back.

And the extraordinary thing about this – the winds stopped when they climbed back into the boat. There is a whole verse dedicated to this one point. The winds and beating stopped when Jesus got into the boat, and not before. Then they could set sail.

Sometimes, there are times when we do what God has called us to do and we feel alone, in the dark and battered by life. Deep down we know it is the right thing to do but it is hard work. Giving up is easy, you don’t need a degree in courage to do that. After what seems like ages, God seems to be finally on the move, only in ways that scare you at first. You dig down for that last ounce of courage but the storms don’t stop. But the miraculous is starting to happen and Jesus is getting personally involved. So you step out – do the impossible for a while. Could things be changing you ask yourself? No! The storm is still ragging only this time – you are in a crazy exposed position. But Jesus sustains you and walks you right back to your boat. The storm stops.

It might seem strange, but sometimes the best thing for God to do is take you back to where you were. The missionary who was battered on the mission field, feels God lead them back home. The family who started to Pastor a church return to their old jobs. It is not because of failure – but maybe, for this season – when God gets you back, the storms will stop and you’ll have time to worship before embarking on the next phase of life. In that worship there is healing. And sometimes, even the best of us need a time of healing, a time of refreshing and waiting on God.

I hope and pray that you have the courage to dig deep in the bad times, and find rest and refreshing to prepare for the good times. I pray that you get chance to walk on water and head towards Jesus. Let me know if you do, I would love to hear about it.