Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
What Happens When Faith Is Hard to Come By?
I won’t ask for a show of hands, but how many of you trust me? Maybe what I should do instead is ask for a volunteer. Would one of you be willing to come up here, get blindfolded, climb onto the altar and then jump into my waiting arms?
If you don’t like the “trust fall,” would you trust me to file your taxes or replace the exhaust manifold on your car or cut your hair?
It’s one thing to say that you trust someone. It’s another thing entirely to do it. We saw a little bit of both in the words we just read from Matthew’s Gospel. At one time or another, every one of Jesus’ disciples lined up to profess their faith in him, but when it came down to it, only Peter stepped out of that boat, and he was only able to stay above water for a few seconds.
The reality is that life is hard and faith – real, trusting confidence in God – is hard to come by.
You’ve been in situations like that before, haven’t you – situations in which it’s easy to say that you trust in God, i.e. that you believe he is working all things for your good, but it’s hard to actually do it? Maybe you just lost your husband after years of poor health. Maybe your health isn’t doing so well. Maybe you lost your job or your relationships have broken down since COVID began. What happens when life is hard and faith is hard to come by?
Well, I want you to consider again the words of our Gospel, and, especially in those first three verses, the stark contrast between what Jesus was doing on the mountaintop while his disciples were out on the sea.
It’s worth mentioning that the events of our Gospel took place immediately after Jesus fed the 5,000. While Jesus volunteers to do some crowd control, he sends his disciples on their way across the Sea of Galilee.
At this point in the day it’s probably getting dark and quickly. Normally, a trip across the sea would have only taken a couple hours – 3 if they’re being leisurely – but Matthew tells us that by his reckoning it took them nearly six hours only to make it about halfway across the lake because they were fighting a “contrary wind,” i.e. a bad storm that was battering them with wild and uncontrollable waves.
No doubt, by the “fourth watch of the night,” i.e. about 3 in the morning, the disciples were frantic with effort, frazzled by stress, and exhausted. The scene on the sea couldn’t have been much more different than the sight on the summit.
While the disciples were struggling, stressed and drained, Jesus was quietly meditating by himself in peace. There were no people to bother him. There was no threat to his life. There was no demand on his schedule or urgency to his task. He was simply consumed by prayer; he was immersed in conversation with his Heavenly Father.
Now, Matthew doesn’t record for us what Jesus was praying about, but from where he was perched, he would have been well aware of the danger his disciples were in. You might suspect that Jesus would add a petition or two asking his Heavenly Father to keep those disciples safe, but the storm never stopped. Did Jesus not care, or was his prayer not heard or answered?
Those are the thoughts that usually run through our minds at moment like that, but this story serves to illustrate a point we heard last week – the presence of problems does not mean the absence of God’s love. Jesus’ care doesn’t always mean the removal of a threat. So, even with Jesus’ loving eye trained on them, those disciples weren’t out of the woods just yet.
What does that mean for you? What happens when you find faith hard to come by?
I think the first thing that you should know is that Jesus is praying for you right now the same way he prayed for his disciples. Paul tells us as much in none other than the book we’ve been reading all Summer long – Romans Chapter 8: Christ Jesus… is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
From where he is perched in Heaven, Jesus can see your every need, and he promises that he is bending his Father’s ear for your benefit. Now, that doesn’t mean that you will never experience hardship. The disciples still struggled through that storm while Jesus was praying, but the fact that you might still face hardship in this life doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you. The presence of problems does not mean the absence of God’s love. And sometimes, God even uses that danger to demonstrate his almighty power and abiding love.
Think about those disciples again. Jesus didn’t only intercede for his disciples in prayer, he also intervened for them with power.
Matthew tells us that “shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake” ! Talk about a demonstration of power! Jesus was literally putting under his feet the single greatest threat to his disciples’ lives. If they had reason to fear capsizing because of the power of those waves, they had every reason to be relieved at the sight of their friend Jesus owning the power of those waves and making it his slave.
As if that weren’t enough, when impetuous Peter realized that it was Jesus on the water and not a ghost, he asked to walk on water too. And Jesus let him! Not only does Jesus have power over the raw and unbridled forces of this world, but he even occasionally subjects them to the service of his followers; he takes a threat and he makes it a footstool.
Jesus has the power to bend the forces of nature to his will, but we don’t always have the strength of faith to trust that he does. Matthew doesn’t tell us how many steps Peter managed to take on the surface of the water before he began to sink, but what Matthew tells us next puts Jesus’ love on full display.
When Peter saw the wind (that had never gone away, even while Jesus was walking over the waves) and when Peter grew afraid, Jesus sprung to action to save him. He reached out his hand and physically pulled Peter out of the water. Think about that for a second. The man who was standing on water, the man who could wordlessly control with wind and the waves, reached out a hand and pulled Peter up physically. Jesus could have just snapped his fingers or issued a command, but in that moment Jesus wanted Peter to feel his love as much as, if not more than, his power.
At first, the disciples were afraid of Jesus because their feeble human brains couldn’t comprehend the good that God was accomplishing for them; their terror and doubt clouded their faith. But by the end, they worshipped him for who he was – the Son of God.
Of course, Jesus doesn’t always work in exactly the same way with us. When was the last time you saw him in your bedroom late at night when you were afraid of the dark? No one that I know. And even if you had, you probably would have freaked out like the disciples did.
Jesus doesn’t come to us that way, but he does still come to you in your hour of need to demonstrate his almighty power and his personal love. He comes to you in his Word, where he fills page after page with examples and explanations of the ways that he has always loved you, of the ways that he has spared you from trouble – and not the relatively minor troubles of storms and conflict, but from the greatest threat of all, i.e. your sin.
Jesus came to this world, he fed those 5,000 people, he rescued his disciples from a terrible storm, not so that they could live another single day on earth, but so that they could know that he is God who gives them an eternity in heaven because of his self-sacrificing love for them. He did not come to make our lives easy; he came to have a hard life himself, with a bitter end on a cross, all so that he could remove your greatest threat and turn one of your greatest fears, i.e. death, into the doorway to eternal life with him and all who believe.
Jesus still comes to you in his Word to repeatedly demonstrate his faithfulness to you and his power over this world, just like he did for Peter and his disciples on the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus has the power to intervene for you. Better yet, he loves you and intercedes for you. When life is hard and faith is hard to come by, look to Jesus. Put your problems in his capable hands and trust in his loving attention. He has never stopped looking out for you – not when you needed salvation from your sins, not now or ever. He is watching over you and praying for you. Even when you face problems, he has the power to keep you safe until the day he takes you out of this world and into his home in heaven.
When life is hard and faith is hard to come by, answer doubt with trust – not because you’re so strong, but because Jesus always has been and always will be faithful to you. Amen.