Upon the Water: Peter's Faith

And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:25-31 ESV)

There are a few Bible narratives that always strike me to the core, no matter how many times I've read them. This is one of them, This is a story we have all heard a hundred times. Every time I heard it preached or discussed, it was always framed in terms of Jesus's perfection, Peter's failure, and Jesus saving Peter. The scolding tone Jesus seems to give Peter at the end is the note these tellings typically ended on. I think this does a disservice to the text and what we can learn from it.

Yes, Peter fails at the end and nearly sinks into the water. But let's back up. The disciples are all out on a boat in windy weather when Jesus walks on the water to meet them. After a moment of fear (which I think any of us would have in the same situation), they realize it is Jesus. They see and believe this "ghost" is Jesus. But one of the Twelve goes one step further. He asks Jesus to call him out to the water. He believes not only that Jesus is there, but he has faith in Jesus's power to allow him to do the exact thing Jesus is doing. Yes, he sees the wind and gets scared, yes Jesus must save him, yes he gets a small lecture at the end. We as Christians are generally completely content to stop the story with the lesson that Peter should have had more faith. But here's an interesting thought.

Peter had more faith than you or I have at most, if not all, times in our lives.

You see, all twelve disciples saw Jesus and believed it was Him. They were offered concrete proof through experience and incorporated it into their lives. But one of them wasn't satisfied with that. One of them had the faith to ask for the power to act and walk (literally!) just as Christ was walking. He asked for the power to do what God Himself was doing and he believed he would receive it. And he did. Peter's walk upon the water is not about his failure, as we all will fail as sinful, fallen human beings. It was about his faith and willingness to step out of the boat in the first place. Most of the time, we are the other eleven disciples - people who have had Jesus come and meet them in powerful ways but are content to take that experience and stay in the comfort of our own lives, incorporating Jesus into them where He might fit. Peter, though, stepped out of that comfort in the power of faith. The experience the disciples had affected Peter in a different way than the other eleven: he was no longer content to simply remain in the comfort of his current state, so he asked and trusted Jesus to call him out of it in the power of God. Peter's failure is not the only thing we should take away from this story; we should learn from the way he responded to Jesus.

Shouldn't we all want to be a little more like Peter?

Walking Like Jesus

I believe we struggle to line Jesus up with what we do. We try to boil down Christ and Scripture into small phrases and concepts that we can fit into our lives and day-to-day activities. We make time to have a couple of Christian songs in our music playlists on our drive into school, to read a verse or two before the ever-present hand of time dictates we move to another activity, and try to recall His sayings when we are angry or scared or stressed.

This is wrong.

I'm not saying it is wrong in and of itself. It's a decent start. However, it betrays our attitude toward Christ; an attitude that He is a nice, even a great, section of life that helps us be better people, but that we also have other things in our lives we need to plan around. I personally have spent years being an apologist or even an advocate for this lifestyle - one in which we do not have to pick between Jesus and the things that distract us from Him, as long as the Bible doesn't specifically condemn them. No mention, no problem, right? Netflix, video games, Reddit, the Internet, and a million other things - as long as they aren't sexual or crude we can use them in moderation, right? I have said yes to this all of my life.

What we are missing by saying yes to this lifestyle is what the Bible, what Jesus intended for us to do with His Word, His life, His ministry that we have been so graciously given. It's not meant to be one thing in our lives:

1 John 2:5b-6: "By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."

This statement has rekindled a passion within me to study the life of Jesus and how He lived. Notice how it doesn't say we should walk "like He walked" or "try to walk like He walked," it says we should simply do it. And you know something that I keep realizing as a read about Christ and the way He walked? He was permanently, eternally, unquestionably living in the knowledge of both His mission (Matthew 3:15-17) and the swift coming of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:17). We don't know what Jesus did on His off days, but I get the feeling that He didn't lounge around or waste time (certainly, He rested, but He rested with meaning and purpose, not just to mindlessly shut down and laze about). Every moment of Jesus's life we know about is lived with these two things in mind, and I can't imagine any moment of His life we don't know about was any different. And we are called to live just like this!

I want to challenge you and myself. Let's live with purpose like this. Let's work with purpose, rest with purpose, engage with others with purpose. And let's put away all those things that distract from that purpose. For me, when I watch TV or play a video game, if it isn't with other people, being used as a tool to maintain a relationship or encourage fellowship, I find myself drained afterward. It serves no purpose but distraction. This is the thing I am being convicted to weed out of my life so I might walk with the purpose with which Christ walked. It will be a long journey, but I have faith that it will be fulfilling and rewarding in ways I cannot even imagine right now. I challenge all those reading this to pray for God to reveal those things that distract you from walking with Christ's purpose. They will surely be different for each and every one of us, but I am convinced one thing will remain the same for all: the freedom and reward that will come.