Have any of you ever been stuck on a body of water during storm? I have and it’s miserable! I always want to laugh a little bit at the disciples in today’s story because Sea of Galilee is actually a misnomer and in reality, we have many lakes bigger than it in Minnesota! While not quite the same, I imagine it would be like someone going to Green Lake and telling everyone that they saw the ocean…A little bit of a hyperbole, but you get my point. But, then I remember what it’s like to be caught on a lake in the middle of a storm.
When I was in high school, my dad, grandpa, and I went salmon fishing with some of their friends on Lake Michigan. It was the whole ordeal where there is a guide who brings you around, keeps you on the water until midnight and has you back in the boat at 3 A.M. That sort of thing. Well, our first night on the water we hit a massive thunderstorm and I have never been more seasick in my life! As the boat keeps drastically rocking from side to side, everyone kept trying to get me to go inside the boat so I wasn’t soaked by the pouring rain, but even the thought of moving kept me glued to my spot. When we got back to shore, I tried to ask if I could skip the morning run in a few hours, but my dad convinced me to try it again with even more seasickness medication this time… it was nice for about 5 minutes and then my body remembered the feeling of the boat knocking us from side to side the night before. So, I slept on the boat, woke up in time to catch a fish, and then went right back to sleep to keep from being seasick again. What I’m really trying to say here is that I have a lot more empathy for the disciples in today’s reading when I remember my experience of storms and lakes too.
Now, today’s Gospel is an interesting one for many reasons and I’ll do my best to connect the dots on my thinking! But, it begins with Jesus sending the disciples away so that he can finally get this alone time that he has been trying to get for a while now… remember last week’s story when he tried to go somewhere to be by himself and that is when the crowds followed him. In fact, he insists that they go ahead of him (Matthew 14: 22)! We don’t know how long he actually gets to spend alone, but it would seem like at least several hours as night falls and he goes to the disciples around 3 A.M. I would think that at that time of the morning, in a storm no less, someone would have an extra boat that Jesus could borrow, but instead he decides to walk on water. Sometimes I think he does it just for the sake of scaring the disciples, but that’s just me.
Now the other interesting thing about the disciples being caught in the storm at this time is the fact that this is not a very large body of water. Don’t get me wrong, it would probably take several hours to get across the whole thing, especially without the motors we have on today’s boats, but you can see the land from the other side. Why was it taking the disciples so long to get there and did none of them know how to tell a storm was coming? I can feel it in my knees and in the Midwest you can smell it in the air, but certainly as fishermen they had to have some way that they learned to pay attention to the weather, right?
There are a lot of things that I question about what the disciples do, like Peter’s decision to walk to Jesus even though by his flailing around perhaps he couldn’t swim. If I could have fit it on the reader board this week, it would have said: “Don’t be like Peter…wear a lifejacket!” But, ultimately, despite their questionable choices and sometimes comedic relief (they often feel like Shakespeare characters), this story ultimately is about who Jesus is, not about the disciples.
I say that because there are two big things that are happening in this story that tell us more about Jesus as the Son of God. The first is naturally when Jesus walks on the water and calms the storm with his presence upon entering the boat. Because God was the only one involved in creation and control of creation, this would have been a sign for the disciples that Jesus really was divine, that he really was the Son of God. His divinity is being shown in a different way here than one might expect, by calming a storm instead of waging war, but it is just one way that his identity is solidified for the disciples today. The other is how he identifies himself. Now, our inclusive Bible translates it a little differently, but in the NRSV it is translated “it is I” (Matthew 14:27). In Greek this would more formally be translated to something like “am I,” grammatically incorrect in English, but it connects back to God being “I am” in the Hebrew Bible.” God, and therefore the Son of God, are the only two who go by the identifier “I am.”
So, in the midst of this storm, when their world is literally rocking, Jesus comes to them and again shows them who he is and that he is trustworthy. And, I think when we look at it in the context of our lives, I actually really like the example of Peter sinking because there will be times when we have doubt in our lives or we want to question God. I think that is a perfectly natural thing to do, and today we are reminded today that even in his doubt, Jesus still reaches out to save him. This isn’t a story where everything goes smoothly and perfectly, but it is a story where Jesus shows up for the disciples in their time of need with a reminder that they can trust him. This will look different to every person, as was highlighted for me at my Foss Village Bible Study this week, but Jesus remains through the storms with us. We aren’t sent out into the boat alone or in this case to walk on stormy water alone. Although, I still have a hard time understanding how he walked on those waves because I feel like so many images depict him walking on clear, still water. But, that’s a digression for another day.
For today, I don’t know how the other disciples responded once Peter and Jesus returned to the boat or how Peter was feeling about needing to be saved, but despite his foolishness of walking on stormy water, I admire that Peter at least tried. He answered Jesus’ call, even though he made some mistakes along the way. I hope this can be the reminder that we need in order too metaphorically jump out of the boat, away from the safety and comfort of what we have always known to see where God calling us. A reminder that we can trust that Jesus is with us through all of life’s storms, even when it feels like the weather is battering us alone.
And, I know Emily will roll her eyes when she hears that I told this in church, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to make a rock joke when Peter and water are involved. For context, since apparently I forgot that when telling Emily this joke last night, Peter’s name in Greek, Petros, means rock and he is the rock Jesus says he will build his church on. So, why did Peter start sinking? Because he wasn’t skipping! Don’t worry, I’ll keep my day job!