Matthew 14:22-33
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
August 9, 2026
Prior to the 1993 Super Bowl, Dallas Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson addressed his players just before they took the field. He asked them to imagine a two-by-four wood beam laid across the locker room floor that they had to walk the length of without falling off. He said he knew they’d each make it to the end because they’d have no trouble focusing on the task. He then said, “But if I put that same board 10 stories high between two buildings, only a few of you would make it because you’d be so distracted by the possibility of falling you couldn’t focus.” He then urged his players to tune out any concern about the fans, the media or the game’s outcome, that they might focus entirely on doing their specific task in each play, one play at a time, one play after another.
The Cowboys won that Super Bowl 52-7.
After feeding the 5,000 Jesus finally got the alone time with His heavenly Father He’d been longing for. To have it, He sent the disciples to cross the sea without Him, sent the crowd home and “went up the mountain by himself to pray”. He lingered in that One-on-One dialogue with the Father until “early in the morning” – literally, until “the fourth watch of the night”, which is between 3 and 6 a.m. At some point that night, either Jesus realized He’d heard from the Father and said to the Father everything that needed to be heard and said at the time; or He sensed in the Spirit that His beloved disciples were in distress and needed Him. Whichever was the case, Jesus stopped praying and hurried to join them. As it turned out, a fierce storm had attacked their boat and threatened to capsize it – and drown them.
No force of nature or any other power in all of creation can keep Jesus from reaching His beloved when they desperately need Him. So Jesus defied the howling winds and stepped on the raging waters to stride over that turbulent sea to save them. As he emerged out of the night’s murky darkness and came within the sight of the disciples, they did not rejoice at His approach, but were “terrified”, thinking He might be a ghost.
To calm them down, Jesus called out to them over the storm, “Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter responded by crying out, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Note he didn’t say, “since it is you” but “if it is you”. Peter was not yet sure whether it was Jesus. He just hoped that such was the case, and that the identity of the dark figure would be confirmed upon closer inspection.
By the way, are you surprised, as I am, that Peter did not ask Jesus to command the storm to grow still as Jesus had done just a short while before in an equally violent storm on the same sea? No, Peter asked Jesus to command him to walk over to Him on the water! In this case, at least, the normally impetuous Peter restrained his impulsiveness and asked for Jesus’ permission before He jumped into action to be at His side! Was Peter trying to show forth a new level of deference to Jesus’ authority or was the raging sea too scary for even a foolhardy man like Peter to take the risk of stepping out into it? Who knows? But is it not curious that Peter asked Jesus to conquer, not the waters, but his fears by ordering him to come over to Him? Maybe Peter realized the Lord’s command would inspire in Him the courage he needed and embolden his weak and divided heart to resolve to step out in faith to answer Jesus’ call? At any rate, Jesus did order Peter to come to Him; and, to his credit, Peter did bravely obey Him. Peter stepped over the gunwale and on to the tumultuous waves, though no one else joined him.
And as Peter locked his eyes on Jesus, the sea held his weight and he walked on water! But, as the forbidding swells rose higher and the fierce winds grew more violent, Peter lost his focus…and his nerve. His mind became preoccupied with his threats, and he lost touch with His trust in Jesus’ faithfulness and power – and so began to sink. But in his fright Peter still had the presence of mind to turn to the One who’d given him a daring spirit in the first place and to cry out, “Lord, save me!” Then “Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him;” and as the two of them walked together over to the boat, Jesus shouted into his ear above the howling winds, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Faith and doubt ever compete for the final say with us. Peter had enough faith to defy his fears and get out of the boat, but not enough to keep his fears from getting the better of him and to enable him to finish his walk of faith well. Peter was a person in process like the rest of us; and, like the rest of us, he would always have to work at giving his trust of Jesus the upper hand with his heart.
Once Peter and Jesus settled into the boat, the storm ceased completely. The sea flattened, the cyclone became a soft breeze and the clouds parted for the stars to sparkle off the water. Then, everyone in the boat worshipped Jesus.
It was the exactly right thing to do. For, in worshipping Jesus, we take in His reality; and in taking in His reality, we come to know Him; and in coming to know Him, we come to trust Him – and in coming to trust Him, we become brave.
In his book, What Is the Gospel?, Greg Gilbert describes his challenge in teaching his one-year-old how to live in a world that has swimming pools in it. The little guy hated getting bathtub water in his face, let alone dealing with the massive ocean of a swimming pool. Dad took it by little steps: he got him to sit on the edge of the pool’s top step and to splash water by kicking his legs, then to put his lips in the water to blow bubbles, and finally to travel around the shallow end with his arms in a death grip around Daddy’s neck. Finally, it was time for the Big Show – Jumping Off the Side. Daddy lifted him out of the pool, stood him up on its edge, held up His arms and told him to leap. Immediately, the boy replied, “No! I go see Mommy!” and ran away. Daddy chased him down and convinced him (with various bribes) to try it again. At last, the moment of truth arrived. Daddy, in the water, with arms stretched out to catch him, waited as his boy bobbed up and down in his swimmy-diaper to build momentum and courage. Once more, Daddy pleaded, “I’m right here. I’ll catch you. I promise!” Finally, the boy, fixing his eyes on Daddy, took the plunge with what was more a flop than a jump.
Daddy caught him, and the boy squealed with delight and demanded they do it again. And so began half an hour of jump, catch, lift, repeat, jump, catch, lift, repeat.
The boy became so comfortable with jumping into the pool that his parents began to worry he’d jump in when no adult was around. But after watching him carefully for a while, it became obvious he never gave it a thought when Daddy wasn’t there. The boy hadn’t come to trust in his own ability to handle the water. He just trusted Daddy and His promise to catch him.
May we trust the Lord as that little guy trusted His Daddy, and leap when the Lord commands us to jump into dangerous waters!
Write a comment: