Matthew 14:22-33; August 9, 2026; Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
If you were to read this story in your Bible, chances are it would be preceded by the title, “Jesus walks on water.” Or something to that effect.
Which, to be honest, has always irked me.
I mean, like yeah, he walks on water and that’s pretty cool. Pretty rad, as a kid from the 80’s might say. But that’s not really the main point of this story, is it?
A more appropriate title, I would think, would be something like: “Jesus calms a storm.” Or “Peter learns the hard way that faith doesn’t come easy.” Or “Like us, Peter tries his best; God bless him.” Something like that.
I mean, are we really shocked that Jesus can walk on water? After all, he had just fed 5,000 people with nothing but some loaves and a couple fish.
So, walking on water? That should be like easy-peasy for a guy who also masters in resurrection.
Moreover and in general, these little Biblical paragraph titles, much like this sermon title, aren’t always the most helpful as they rarely capture the best points, nor adequately summarize the main point.
I mean, the term “Technical Difficulties” as its commonly understood will have basically nothing to do with this sermon at all, outside of helping to prove this point. Because yes, I am annoying like that.
So, just as it is with titles for news articles, which can also annoy and sensationalize, we desperately need to learn that a single sentence, a soundbite, can never fully convey all the details necessary for our understanding of everything that is actually happening.
Simply stated, skimming past a title or headline on Reddit, or CNN, or God forbid, TikTok, and believing that’s good enough for comprehension and dissemination, needs to be put to a quick end.
And there’s no better day to do that than today as here our text pushes us to do the hard work of critical thinking, of reading and paying attention, beyond the mere fact that Jesus walked on water, because duh, of course he can… he’s the Son of God! Hello!
Our text today begins much like it did last week where Jesus goes off by himself to pray for a bit; and like last week the whole episode involves a boat.
In fact, the word “boat” is mentioned four times in this text.
Beyond that, we get clues that folks are getting angsty again. Whereas last week the crowd was pressing in on Jesus; this week a storm develops while out at a sea, and here the disciples are the ones left scrambling, looking for Jesus not knowing where else to turn and what else to do.
Verse 25, depending on your translation either reads “as night was ending” or “early in the morning.” Early in the morning, when the wind was against them and their boat, he came walking towards them upon the sea.
“Early in the morning” is a nice way of putting it as the Greek literally translates to: “in the fourth watch of the night.”
The fourth watch of the night was classically understood to be between 3:00am and 6:00am. So, between 3:00 and 6:00am, Jesus decides to perform this miraculous feat.
Given that, I think then we can all forgive these dudes for thinking that he was a ghost and being terrified of him at first. After all, it’s bloody 4:00am in the morning! At best, like 5:59am.
I mean, imagine if your spouse just sort of levitated over to you before your alarm went off, on a night where your mind was already unsteady due to a storm banging on your windows all night; I’d wager you too would be a tad frightened. A bit bewildered.
So, of course then the disciples, human as they were, were also bewildered and terrified. For like us when we get scared, the disciples also panicked.
Even after Jesus says, “take heart, it is I, do not be afraid” (which there’s just no way he said it like that… more like, “calm down bros, it’s me, JC”), they still remain afraid and beg him for proof of identification. Because again, like us, they don’t trust him or their senses in the moment. They couldn’t trust him, or his promises, in the middle of a storm that was raging.
Which makes me think that maybe one of the first lessons we are supposed to learn today (beyond the fact that, yes, Jesus can walk on water) is that we ought to trust Him in the middle of these storms. Not just after they pass, when times are good and the seas are calm.
Now, of course… that’s easier said than done. It’s super hard to have faith that all will be well when the eye is over your head and the diagnosis has been discovered within.
It’s also so hard to trust in anything when everything in life feels like it’s spinning out of control, and the only bearings that make sense are the ones heading towards doom and gloom.
And yet, it’s here, and there, in those gloomy moments when we are ready to jump ship, where faith and trust are ready to abandon us, that we are told to believe that Jesus will soon appear and say to us: “Come, for even if you can’t believe it, I’ve got this under control.”
See, that’s another problem I have with the titles so often ascribed to this text. Where it is said that this story is about “ye of little faith.” As in, “Don’t be like Peter but have greater conviction in your beliefs.”
I mean, yeah, that’s good and all, but to me, that also misses the crucial detail that out of everyone else in that boat, who was also caught in that storm, Peter is the only one who actually attempted to get out and swim towards Jesus!
The dude literally leaves his safety net, battered as it may be, to take the risk of entering the sea, into its crashing waves. Not because he doubts Jesus, but because, he so desperately wants to believe in him, to be like him.
So, I’m sorry, but as much as I sometimes like to do, I’m not going to fault Peter today for trying, even if it resulted in his flailing. I mean, just look at the lot of us who have gathered here today, all failing and flailing about in some way, in our own desperate attempts to trust and believe.
No, I’m not going to fault us either, my friends! Not for being imperfect. Not for being human.
For while Jesus, indeed, is said to have questioned Peter’s spiritual fortitude, like sometimes we need to question our own, it would be a tremendous oversight to miss that even so, despite it all, Jesus reaches out his hand to catch Peter and ultimately saves him.
Just, as he saves us, who are also drowning.
Who likewise are this close to succumbing to fear, as much as the deluge of this timeline itself.
So, perhaps then, here at the end, if we had to give a title at all to this story, to this sermon, knowing that titles will never be good enough to say everything that needs to be said, maybe a better headline might be something like:
“Jesus proves his love for us by overlooking our doubts in the storms of fear, in the seas of life we’ll never fully control.”
Amen.
