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.”
34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Listen to Peter…“tell me to come to you on the water.”
Why not wait a couple of more minutes and Jesus would have been in the boat? We’ll never know why…but Peter clearly thought Jesus was preferable to the boat. I can’t read his mind but…the boat was being buffeted and it was deep water. Maybe Peter thought it was safer next to Jesus.
Go figure…
He wasn’t as impetuous as we sometimes think. If he was, he would have jumped out of the boat without permission. Well, maybe on dry land I could see it, but the water was deep!
He didn’t leave the boat until Jesus said “come”.
So…he walked on the water until he realized what he was doing. Then, he faltered and needed Jesus to rescue him. Which, of course, Jesus did.
And Jesus asked…“You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
I, for one, am not going to criticize Peter. I’ll leave that up to Jesus. I doubt I would have ever left the boat.
Generally, we hesitate to cozy up to Jesus because of the uncertainty. No the uncertainty of our current situation, but of what a cozy relationship with Jesus might demand so…we keep our distance. Might I suggest that’s easy when we’re safe on dry land? But…what about when we’re in deep water?
Look around you. What’s the situation? How deep is the water? Now look in the distance. Is that Jesus coming? I can’t say the distance between us and Jesus is safe and smooth. I can say if Jesus says “come”, there’s no better place to be.
And…He always says “come”.
Live boldly out there today…
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