Study
22–23 Jesus made the disciples. Jesus literally compelled the disciples to get into the boat. This was not an optional experience for them. One commentator suggests that this was in part to prevent this amazing miracle from getting political with Jesus winding up crowned as king. Another commentator suggests that perhaps Jesus wanted his disciples to have a break, or to give himself a prayer break.
24 the boat…buffeted by the waves. The Greek for “buffeted” means literally, tortured or tormented. This was no small storm.
25 the fourth watch of the night. The Roman daily night had four watches beginning at 6p, each of 3 hours. The fourth watch would begin at 3a and end at 6a. We have a sense, then, of how long the disciples fought the wind and waves.
26 Given the circumstances, the disciples might be forgiven for thinking Jesus is a ghost. Who walks on water? They are bone-tired and drenched. Their response (they were terrified) is that of all who encounter angels.
27 It is I. The Greek phrase here, e˙gw¿ ei˙mi (ego eimi), could be translated, “I AM.” John uses the same phrase to indicate Jesus is God. The reference is to the Hebrew name for God, YHWH—Yahweh or Jehovah, which means literally, I AM WHO I AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. (See Exodus 3:14) Don’t be afraid. God always let’s us know there is nothing to fear when He comes to us for a purpose.
28 Peter alone asks Jesus to confirm his identity by commanding him. By faith, Peter understands that the one who can make it possible for them to multiply loaves, can also make it possible for him to walk on water.
29 Peter succeeds! He walks on water!
30 But then he realized what he was doing—huge waves, ferocious wind, and he has no protection, how can he be doing this?—and begins to sink. Lord, save me!” The cry of disciples throughout the centuries. Peter (and we ourselves) recognize that we are lost without the power of Christ. We cannot achieve more than we imagined without the aid of our Lord. No matter how amazing what we have done might be, only God’s power makes it possible, and only God can truly save us when we are losing it.
31 Jesus catches hold of Peter and gives Peter insight into his problem without the other disciples hearing. Great coaching moment!
32 The boat is the safety zone, and when Peter and Jesus are truly safe, the storm dies down.
33 The Twelve rightly recognize that this miracle (John uses sign) points to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.
Message
The great preacher, John Ortberg, tells the story of a very different kind of birthday gift. He writes,
“Some years ago my wife arranged for us to ride in a hot-air balloon as a birthday gift. We went to the field where the balloons ascended and got into a little basket with one other couple.” After introducing themselves, the pilot lifted them up. As they rose the day was just dawning and they could see over gorgeous valley and mountain terrain all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He writes, “It was scenic, inspiring and majestic. But I also experienced one emotion I had not anticipated…Fear.
“I had always thought those baskets went about chest high, but this one came up only to our knees. One good lurch would be enough to throw someone over the side. So I held on with grim determination.”
Hoping to comfort himself, John turns to the pilot. “I asked him what he did for a living and how he got started flying hot-air balloons. I was hoping for his former job to be one full of responsibilities—a neurosurgeon, perhaps, an astronaut who missed going up into space.
“I knew we were in trouble when his response to me began, ‘Dude, it’s like this….’” He had never really had a job! “He mostly surfed.
“He said the reason he got started flying hot-air balloons was that he had been driving around in his pickup when he’d had too much to drink, crashed the truck, and badly injured his brother. His brother still couldn’t get around too well, so watching hot-air balloons gave him something to do.
“’By the way,’ he added, ‘if things get a little choppy on the way down, don’t be surprised. I’ve never flown this particular balloon before…’
“Then the woman in the other couple looked at me and spoke…You’re a pastor. Do something religious.
“So I took up an offering.”
The great question at a moment like that is, “Can I trust the pilot?”
That’s really the big question about life, isn’t it? Is someone really driving this thing? What’s this pilot like? Does he have the kind of character and competence that mean he can be trusted?
First, the most important part, the hardest part of life is recognizing Jesus’ call. John Ortberg writes, “Courage alone is not enough; it must be accompanied by wisdom and discernment…before Peter gets out of the boat he had better make sure Jesus thinks it’s a good idea.” “If it’s really you,” Peter says, “then command me to come.” Are we listening clearly? Are we tuned into the voice of Jesus? When we are in the midst of life’s storms, do we look to find Jesus there?
Once we have discerned the voice of Jesus, the next hardest part is doing it. I believe this story is not primarily about taking risks, but rather about obedience, or as we say in our house, “being a good listener.” When Jesus gives the command, Peter, being the good scientist that he is, tests the truth of Jesus’ call, but the only way to do that is to get out of the boat. Ortberg: “I believe there is something—Someone—inside us who tells us there is more to life than sitting in the boat. You were made for something more than merely avoiding failure. There is something inside you that wants to walk on the water—to leave the comfort of routine existence and abandon yourself to the high adventure of following God.” In my experience there are usually two things that get in the way of getting out of the boat: comfort and fear.
In our society, we like comfort. Most of our lives we are trying to get more comfortable. When you get really comfortable, however, there is no reason to get up, especially if you have the remote in your hand. So what do you call a vegetable that sits in the Living Room and won’t get up? That’s right a couch potato. For Christians, we have boat potatoes. Twelve disciples are in a boat, but only one gets up and steps out to go to where Jesus is. What about the other eleven? Sometimes I think we get so comfortable with our good worship, our good family and good friends around us, our usual rhythms, that when Jesus calls to us over the storms of life, we really don’t want to get up. Ortberg: “Your boat is whatever represents safety and security to you apart from God himself. Your boat is whatever you are tempted to put your trust in, especially when life gets a little stormy. Your boat is whatever keeps you so comfortable that you don’t want to give it up, even if it’s keeping you from joining Jesus on the waves. Your boat is whatever pulls you away from the high adventure of extreme discipleship.” I wonder, are we boat potatoes?
So what’s your boat? You can tell by what it is that raises fear in you if you think about leaving it. Whether we’re talking about leaving the comfort of a dead-end job, sharing deeply in a comfortably distant relationship, or daring to change a comfortably unhealthy habit—all these kinds of comfort encourage us to trust these things instead of putting our trust in God—and we may fear leaving them.
With the courage of our good leadership, we have stepped out onto the waves a little in the last year, but we need so many more people to join us out on the waves, to take chances in trying to make this fellowship what God wants us to be, in doing things perhaps you have not done before to make this the loving, warm and adventurous fellowship we enjoy. We can’t get so comfortable that we have no desire to reach out beyond ourselves. Instead, we need to cast our eyes out on the water of the future, to catch sight of Jesus who wants us to come to him.
Which brings us back to the question about who is the pilot of our lives, and can we trust them? Are our lives drive by the comfort, the fear, that will keep us in the boat? Or will we let Jesus pilot our lives into unknown terrain? Just as Jesus was an all-terrain savior, able to walk on land or water, so he wants us to become all-terrain disciples. I think sometimes we read this story, and we see Peter as a failure—after all, he lost his focus on Jesus and started to sink. But for that brief moment, Peter was the only one who took the chance to know what it was like to walk on water, and Peter was the one who experienced the greatest, most exciting growth. I crave that experience of being able to do more than we ever thought we could, being able to do what only the power of God could make possible, answering the call of Jesus to get out of our boats onto the waves. What gives me great courage as look out on the waves of the coming years, is that Jesus is out there already, to catch us if we forget to focus on him, to teach us how to get better, and to help us to do what we never thought we could do. If we will only get out of the boat…and answer the call of the pilot we can always trust.