Day 16: Matthew 14:22-31

When I read stories like this I really try to imagine what it would have been like to experience this first hand. Many of the disciples were experienced fishermen who had grown up on the Sea of Galilee. They had weathered many storms there through the years, but this one was especially bad. They were struggling to row across the water and against the storm that had suddenly blown up. It was 3:00am, and all of the sudden they saw a figure walking across the surface of the water towards them!? The wind is blowing, the waves are crashing, the rain is coming down in sheets. They couldn’t make out who or what it was. And then they hear the voice of their Master.

Peter, still unable to see if it really is Jesus, yells, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” Why would you say something like that in this situation? Peter doesn’t even know if that’s really Jesus out there or if it’s some sort of apparition or ghost, but Jesus tells him to come.

What must that moment have been like? Peter is sitting on the edge of the boat, his feet dangling over the side, the storm is still raging, and he still can’t see Jesus clearly. Yet, he has heard his Master’s voice tell him to come. What a leap of faith that was! Peter jumps! And he gets to experience something that no other person besides him and Jesus have ever experienced, walking on the surface of the sea! His faith gave him something that no one else had the privilege of doing.

But then he sees the wind and the waves; he begins to fear for his life and immediately begins to sink. Jesus reaches out and grabs him, and says something very interesting: “Why did you doubt?” Now, depending on which translation you are reading, it may say “Why did you doubt me?” But that is not in the original language. The question in Greek is simply “Why did you doubt?” Peter didn’t doubt Jesus. He didn’t think that Jesus was going to sink. He doubted his ability to be like Jesus, to do the thing that Jesus was doing.

Jesus didn’t doubt Peter. He believed that Peter could and would do exactly what he was doing. I struggle with those same doubts sometimes. It’s not that I don’t believe that God can still do miracles, it’s that I don’t believe he can use me to accomplish those things. You probably struggle with the same thoughts as well. “God can use this person or that person, but am I good enough for him to use me?” Jesus’ response is still the same, “Why do you doubt?” He believes in you; he knows that you can do amazing things with him. We just have to believe the same thing.