11th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14) – August 13th, 2023
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Matthew 14:22–33
“Trusting Jesus through the Storm”
Theme: Although we see many causes of fear, Jesus is our Lord, the LORD, and He focuses our eyes of faith on His peace.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
What you see can often be deceiving. Even before the age of photoshop, sight has always been the least trustworthy of your senses, even if it the sense that we probably use the most to analyze our surroundings. Our sense of sight often fools us. Smell and taste are connected, and they are probably the most trustworthy—you can smell something dead and rotting from a ways away. You have a visceral reaction when you taste something nasty. You spit it out. Your sense of touch is not precise. I remember in middle school putting my hand into boxes and trying to figure out what the things inside are just by the sense of touch. It’s not easy. But touch is electrifying and has its own power, especially when we shake hands or hug or kiss a fellow human. Hearing is powerful for the mind. We should take St. Paul seriously when he says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17).
But returning to the sense of sight, we have quite the visual spectacle in our Gospel text for today. After feeding the 5000, Jesus gets a chance to rest. He sends the disciples on while he dismisses the crowds and goes up on a mountain to pray. You can almost see in your mind a tired man trudging up a mountain to look for a cave or somewhere to pray.
During this time, a storm is brewing. We get the benefit of living in a place where you can see clouds darkening in the horizon. This is not so on the Sea of Galilee. Cold, easterly winds would blow over the Golan Heights and slam into the warm air that covers the sea. We in the Midwest know well what happens when cold air needs to drop into a pocket of warm air: tornadoes happen. At the very least, thunderstorms. Even to this day in the Sea of Galilee, winds can whip up waves that are ten feet high. And these storms are fairly sudden, without much warning.
So, this is what happens. Again, the visuals in your mind should be spectacular but also horrifying. Imagine a small wooden sailboat with its sails taken in, and it’s only being powered by oars at this point. There’s lightning and thunder. The wind is picking up, as are the waves. Wave after wave hits this frail boat. It’s dark. You can only see what’s happening when the lightning flashes.
And then, at 3 am, the “fourth watch of the night,” they look out on the water and see a figure of a man. He’s walking on the water! Again, quite the image, especially with lightning being the only way to view this man.
Now, all of them are sane and rational men. At least four of them are fisherman, acquainted with the ways of the sea. But we all know how our eyes can play tricks on us. So they were terrified. Understandably so. Who wouldn’t be? You would, of course. You—and they—know that men can’t walk on water. So what is it? They assumed it was a phantom, an apparition, a “ghost” as we sometimes say. They cry out in fear. Again, who wouldn’t? You’re there in a boat, all alone on the water, at 3 AM, and you see a figure walking toward you on the water. I don’t know about you, but I can sense the heart rate increasing just thinking about it.
Well, seeing is not believing, but hearing is. As the apostle Paul reminds us, “faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.” Jesus speaks to them. “Take heart. Chill. It is I. Do not be afraid.” It is I. Ego eimi in Greek. The reason I mention this is that the full import of what Jesus said gets lost in translation. He’s not simply saying, “Hey, it’s me, boys” though that’s part of it. He says “It’s me” in such a way as to evoke the divine Name Yahweh. I AM. The one who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who said I AM who I AM. Yahweh. Ego eimi was how you said I AM in Greek. And Matthew, speaking to a Jewish audience, is rather reluctant to use the phrase “ego eimi” unless he really wants to make a point. And here, he doesn’t want us to miss the point. Jesus is saying, “Have courage. I AM the Lord. Don’t be afraid.”
Here is the point where they should have believed. Again, faith comes by hearing. But Peter and the others aren’t so sure. But Peter speaks up first and says what’s on his mind: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (28).
Now, we should hear that he is hedging his words by saying “if it is you.” Nonetheless, he knows that phantoms may speak—the ear can be deceived too—but they have no real power to do anything, much less make a man walk on water. Yet Jesus answers one word: “Come.”
It is a word of command. Peter obeyed. He steps out of the boat and steps on the water as if it were land. Then he too begins to walk, his eyes on Jesus. In fact, he probably made it almost up to Jesus. But then, Peter’s eyes tricked him. Instead of focusing on Jesus, they wandered to the wind and waves around him. He doubted.
Doubt is not merely unbelief. Thomas in the upper room after Jesus’s death and resurrection did not believe that he rose from the dead. That wasn’t doubt. That was rank unbelief. Doubt is seeing two realities and wondering how they both be true. Peter saw Jesus. Jesus was his Teacher, the one he followed, the one who called him out onto those waves. But Peter also saw death. He saw the wind and the waves through all the lightning. He knew that by the laws of physics he shouldn’t be able to do what he is doing. He was scared.
In biblical thought, the sea was the place of chaos. The sea was filled with all sorts of creatures—Leviathan and great sea monsters. It was a picture of death that swallowed you up whole and didn’t spit you back out again. When Jesus walks on water, He is showing not only His Lordship over creation but also over death.
Peter’s doubt comes because he sees both these things, and he eventually loses focus on Jesus. See what happens when you lose focus on the Word of God? You sink through doubt and despair into the sea of death as well. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. That’s where Peter’s eyes need to be—on Jesus. Not the wind, the waves, the boat. Jesus. Nothing but Jesus. Same with you. Look around you at the world, look inside yourself, and doubts will rise, fear will grow, and you’ll sink like a stone. That’s why we’re here every Sunday to hear the Word, to receive the Supper.
We know the many ways that this goes wrong. There are so many distractions, so many causes of doubt. When we lose sight of Jesus, and I don’t mean Jesus in our hearts or Jesus in our thoughts or Jesus in our prayers but Jesus in the Word, in the Supper, in that unique gathering of two or three come together in His Name, when we lose objective sight of Jesus, we drown.
We drown in despair, in guilt, in fear. We drown in our doubts, our skepticisms, our failings and weaknesses. We drown in Sin and Death. The answer is not to turn even more to your own strength or power. I’m not going to stand here and tell you to trust more in Jesus when you are floundering. But do what Peter did: cry out simply, “Lord, save me!”
Peter, the burly fisherman, we could even say, a “man’s man,” cried out that simple prayer of faith. “Lord, save me!” Jesus is all that Peter has in that moment. And Jesus is all that we need in our moment of doubt as well. And immediately—again, visualize this last-second lunge and grasp by Jesus—Jesus takes hold of Peter. Whose grip matters at that moment? Not Peter’s, but Jesus’s.
“O you, little faith one, why did you doubt?” Why do you doubt? Why do I? Simply this: We don’t trust the Word. We think we need to add something to it. It’s deep within us, that horrible, doubting question, “Did God really say?” Adam and Eve let it in to our humanity and it’s been rumbling around ever since. Doubt. Did God really say? Does His Word really work? Am I really forgiven? Justified? Holy before God? How can I be sure?
I wonder what Peter thought about when they were safely back in the boat. By the time, the wind had died down, the waves were quiet, and the disciples were staring at Jesus and worshipped Him. What else can you do at that point but worship Him? And confess Him: Truly you are the Son of God.
And that He is! No one but the Son, the eternal Word, can pull this off. The prophets did miracles like healing and even raising the dead. No one ever walked on water or caused another man to do the same. The power of the Word that does what it says.
Jesus comes to us in the fourth watch of our day, when we are weakest and most exhausted. When we can’t pull our oars any longer. When the depths of Death have had their way with us. And He speaks a sure and powerful Word to us: Forgiven. And you are because He says so. You are God’s own beloved child because He says so. You stand justified before God’s judgment seat because He says so. And that Word is sure and certain. It’s the same Word that caused Peter to walk on the water will raise you up to dance on Death and the grave. You can count on it, dear friends. The Word always does what it says.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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