THE CALL TO TRUST
Matthew 14:22-36
Dr. Wm. J. Maxwell
First Presbyterian Church, Newport, RI
February 27, 2008
His words were metaphor, but they were passionate and urgent nonetheless. David was in trouble, as his adversaries had brought him to the limit. And so he prayed, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.” [i] Peter could have used these very words on the Sea of Galilee – only the language would be literal, not simply in the way of metaphor!
Our passage this morning describes a very tense and stressful moment for Peter. Portraits of the scene help us to appreciate the anxiety of the moment. But none of us can sense fully what that moment must have felt like as this seasoned Galilean fisherman saw his faith dwindle and his life now in jeopardy in a sea of relentless fury.
THE SITUATION
Peter’s lesson in trust began with a time of separation from Jesus. A miraculous feeding of 5,000 men – plus women and children – left the Twelve and everyone else in utter amazement. The disciples were excited and so was this immense crowd of people, who now wanted to make Jesus their king! [ii]
Knowing the danger of His disciples being carried along by the crowd, “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd.” But Jesus also needed time alone with the Father in prayer. It is very clear from the Gospels that Jesus spent much time in prayer in all kinds of places and situations: a deserted place or a garden, alone or with others, early morning hour or all through the night.
Obediently, the Twelve went off on their voyage, a voyage for which they were hardly prepared, and a voyage unlike they’d ever experienced before or would again. Leaving Jesus around 7 or 8 pm, the Twelve found themselves on the lake for hours – severely hampered by opposing winds and destructive waves. In fact, after six to ten hours, harassed by the elements and helpless, they had gone a mere three to four miles!
The Sea of Galilee was known for this kind of weather. This lake – thirteen miles long by eight miles wide – lies 680’ below the Mediterranean Sea. The lakebed forms a depression that is surrounded by hills, including steep cliffs on the eastern side. Cool air currents rush down from Mt. Hermon or from narrow passes between the steep hills. When these collide and combine with the warm air over the lake, the result can often be in the form of violent winds and battering waves that can either swamp a boat or break it up. And this is just what the disciples encountered!
Now, putting it all together, it certainly wasn’t looking good for the Twelve! They were facing an angry wind stopping any progress; waves that were battering their boat; thick darkness in the period of 3 to 6 am; and Jesus nowhere to be found! But Jesus had surely been praying for His beloved disciples. And even more so, there He appeared before them, walking on the water. As if it wasn’t bad enough, all things considered, now they think they see a ghost, an apparition – literally a “phantasm.” As fear gripped them, the good, comforting words of the Savior quickly released them from terror’s grip. “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid,” the Master said. The disciples knew that these words were backed by the miraculous power and the power of His love that they had experienced so often before.
Peter knew that, but he just couldn’t “leave well enough alone!” Impulsive Peter, always ready to jump into the action, was now ready to jump into the water to be with Jesus! Peter is the kind of person who was always up to the challenge of the moment. But the consequence of his actions and his words could lead either to deep respect or to sheer embarrassment for him. While it’s not up to us to justify his request and his actions, we should note here that Peter expressed faith and not fear at this very point, and he obviously displayed tremendous confidence in Jesus’ power and ability to enable Peter to walk out to Him. Remember that at this point, the power of the winds had not abated, nor had the destructive fury of the crashing waves.
Well, as the Bible describes it, something happened to Peter. As long as he kept focused on Jesus, the sea was as solid as stone under his feet. But in the time of perhaps seconds, Peter’s focus drifted … His eyes turned to the violence of the winds and the waves, and fear came back to him. Trust was soon replaced by terror once again. Would you have done differently? Would I have done differently? Probably not. Because in the midst of our own storms, we’ve heard those same words coming to us from the Savior: “Oh, you of little faith – why did you doubt?” Yes, we’ve heard them before.
Peter would be all right, of course, for look what happened to him and the Twelve after this. Jesus reached out and took hold of Peter in a display of reassuring love and power. As the two of them climbed into the boat together, “the wind died down” and ceased in that very moment. It should surprise us very little as to what Peter and all the rest did after that: “They … worshiped Him saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’.”
BRINGING IT HOME
TO OUR OWN SITUATION.
This is a passage that is not difficult for us to understand. Some of us here know all too well what it feels like to be out at sea in a furious and unwelcoming storm; when you have no control over the forces of nature and you have no choice but to see it through.
But all of us know what it means and feels like to go through certain storms of life: the betrayal of a friend, the dissolution of a marriage, the illness of a child, the relocation or loss of a job, the lack of income to pay the bills, the vindictiveness of an adversary, the cancer that returns. We hear the howling noise, we see the winds at work, we feel the battering waves, and we hear the call to trust once again. And that’s when we need to cry out as did Peter: “Lord, save me!” And if we do, we can be assured that the Savior who saved us from sin and death and eternal separation from God will not fail to reach out His hand to us.
But as He does, let’s remember to extend out our hand as well, for it’s only when our hand is joined in His that calm will come in the way and the time He lovingly chooses. The alternatives of denial or stoic indifference simply don’t work. For example, in the movie Lonesome Dove, there’s a telling scene of seeking alternatives. Captain Woodrow Call heads an 1880’s cattle drive from Texas to Montana. Call had urged a young man named Newt to go on the drive with him and he did. Only in time, Newt’s best friend is killed by some water moccasins. At the burial, Call, the tough old cowboy, offers the young man his own form of advice. The weather-beaten cowboy, with a heart callused by life’s hard edge, says this to Newt: “Walk away from it, son. That’s the only way to handle death. Walk away from it.”
This might sound reasonable to us at first, because all of us would like to just walk away, whether the particular storm of life includes the death of a friend or spouse or something else. But changing the subject doesn’t remove the reality. Working more hours doesn’t divert the pain. Staying distant from everyone doesn’t keep you “safe.” And drinking or drugging doesn’t remove you from the place where you are or take you to the place you want to be.
No, there is a far better alternative than that found in any one of these. It is that of the psalmist who cried out in prayer, “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.” It is that found in a seasoned sailor’s anguish plea in a world of swirling waters and violent winds: “Lord, save me!”
Quite a number of years ago, then Vice-President George Bush spoke at a prayer breakfast. He spoke to those at the breakfast of a recent trip of his to the Soviet Union. He went there to represent this country on the occasion of the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev. As was the custom, the funeral was quite stoic and emotionless. Everyone had a rigid demeanor, showing no feelings or sentiment at all.
Except for one person. The widow of Brezhnev was the last person at the side of the coffin before it was closed and the body buried. After several seconds of standing there, she then took her finger to her husband’s chest and made a sign of the Cross. As one author has described that scene, “In the hour of her husband’s death, she went not to Lenin, not to Karl Marx, not to Khrushchev. In the hour of death she turned to a Nazarene carpenter who had lived 2,000 years ago and who dared to claim: ‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me.’” [iii]
Dear friends, I may not know the exact form of the storm you may be facing right now. But our Lord Jesus Christ does. So, keep your eyes on Him. See Him reaching out His hand for yours. See your hand reaching out for His, as you hear Him say, “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Take courage! Trust in God your heavenly Father, and trust also in Me.”