You may know the story of Peter joining Jesus in walking on the water. If not you can find it in Matthew 14:22-33. (The following is also found in Matthew 14:13-22, just before the passage above.)
Jesus had just gotten the news that his cousin and ‘predecessor,’ John had been beheaded. Jesus got into a boat and headed out, looking for some solitude. He wanted to be alone. We need to remember that Jesus deliberately and knowingly had emptied Himself to become like us (Philippians 2:5-7). This means that he felt the loss of His cousin very deeply and needed to grieve, just like any of us would.
But when He went ashore, He saw that people had been walking from the villages in the hope of intercepting Him. By now His fame as a healer had spread and people desperate from their pain followed Him, hoping that they too would be healed.
But when He went ashore, He saw that people had been walking from the villages in the hope of intercepting Him. By now His fame as a healer had spread and people desperate from their pain followed Him, hoping that they too would be healed.
He went to be alone. Instead, He found a group of
thousands waiting for Him. I think we sometimes miss the significance of His compassion. But instead of getting back in the boat or trying to avoid them, His compassion drew Him to them and He healed the sick.
In the TV series The Chosen they show that at the end of one of these healing sessions, Christ is exhausted. I’m confident that the scriptwriters got it right. He started the day needing time alone to grieve. Then he healed thousands and miraculously fed them from just five loaves of bread and two fish. It’s no surprise that when it was all over he sent the disciples on ahead by boat. I somehow doubt He could have told them, “Go on ahead, I’ll walk!” And yet, that’s what he did. He sent the crowds away and went up on the mountain there to pray.
It was a windy night and the disciples were not making good progress. Between 3 AM and 6 AM, he caught up to them. Peter, the eager beaver, whose eagerness outpaced his faith, asked Christ to call Him to come to Him. If Christ was walking on the water, Peter wanted that too.
So Peter stepped over the side of the boat and began walking towards Jesus. But as he looked around and remembered the fierceness of the wind, he began to get scared. As he did, he began to sink. His focus shifted from the Lord to the worldly distractions around him.
A verse commonly misquoted is Philippians 4:13. When taken in context, Paul is talking about how he had lived through having plenty (money, food, etc) and not having enough. He explains being able to be content through Christ. Although Mark 9:23 shows Christ saying that all things are possible through faith, I want to focus on this similarity between Paul and Peter.
How do we get through trying times or scary circumstances? Either we struggle with stress and anxiety or we somehow live with contentedness. We need to keep our eyes on Christ! This may seem difficult when we’re already in a place of anxiety or stress. But, being proactive by living in Him will give us the strength to do that.
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Spot on, Matt! Preach that Word in context.