Get Your Feet Wet

The dis­ci­ples of Jesus were in a small boat trav­el­ing by night across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had stayed behind on the other side of the shore to pray in a secluded spot. It had been a busy day of min­is­ter­ing to a crowd of thousands.

The wind blew strong against the boat, and the dis­ci­ples strug­gled hard against the oars. They were most grate­ful for the expert skill of the for­mer fish­er­men among them, the Sons of Zebedee, Peter, and his Brother Andrew; though at times even their abil­i­ties seemed no match for the storm they fought against. There would be no rest this night.

As the morn­ing light rose over the hori­zon the weary wind-battered dis­ci­ples looked out across the sea and spot­ted a very strange sight. It looked like the form of a man skirt­ing over the sur­face of the water. Some thought per­haps it was a trick of the ris­ing sun’s rays across the water. A cou­ple rubbed their eyes con­vinced it was just the lack of sleep get­ting to them. The specter came closer into view and it was def­i­nitely a man — or some­thing. Judas seemed to sum up the opin­ion of the oth­ers as he cried, “A g-g-g-g-ghost!”; simul­ta­ne­ously scur­ry­ing back­wards like a crab to the bow of the boat.

The seem­ing appari­tion came into view and it called to them, “Don’t be scared. It is me.”

Peter knew the voice of his Mas­ter. “It’s Jesus”, he said in an excited man­ner to the oth­ers who were yet in var­i­ous states of dis­be­lief. Peter him­self was amazed. He had seen Jesus do many things like heal peo­ple of their sick­ness and raise the dead. Prophets and holy men were expected to do that sort of thing. Jesus had just mul­ti­plied some loaves and small fishes to feed an entire mul­ti­tude. Elisha had done some­thing sim­i­lar; albeit on a smaller scale. But, this was some­thing new — strange and unusual. Was such a thing even pos­si­ble? He couldn’t believe his eyes so he decided to set­tle it once and for all.

He stood up at the edge of the boat and called out to Jesus, “Lord if it is you, com­mand me to walk across the water!”

Jesus was the pic­ture of tran­quil­ity and peace. The strong wind didn’t even seem to rus­tle his gar­ment. The Lord met his chal­lenge and called out to him, “Come”.

So with­out giv­ing it a sec­ond thought Peter sprung over the side of the boat and began walk­ing across the sur­face of the waters. As he headed toward Jesus there was such a mix of thrill and joy in his heart and a slight queasy feel­ing in his gut. His mind was try­ing to tell him this was impos­si­ble but it was hard to argue with his feet as they moved across the water’s surface.

Jesus awaited him with open arms; much like a par­ent watch­ing their child walk for the first time. A smile spread across the Lord’s face; Peter always had that affect on him.

–

I’ve been think­ing about this story lately. I’m par­tic­u­larly stirred by that pic­ture of Peter leap­ing over the side of the boat — throw­ing all care to the wind. What pos­sessed him to do such a thing? Sure it was one thing to expect Jesus to walk on water; but, what in the world made him think he could do the same? After all, he was just a man, not the Mes­siah, not the Son of God. But, that was really the point. His faith wasn’t in him­self; he just knew that as long as he had Jesus he could do any­thing — even the impossible.

I think about what Peter didn’t do. He didn’t try to intel­lec­tu­al­ize the sit­u­a­tion. He didn’t pause to check the direc­tion of the wind and the air­speed. He didn’t try to fig­ure out if it would be bet­ter to run, or walk, or crawl. He didn’t reach over the edge of the boat and test the water with his hand or his big toe. He didn’t do some prac­tice runs. He didn’t stop and hold a the­o­log­i­cal con­fer­ence with his fel­low dis­ci­ples to deter­mine if it was pos­si­ble. He didn’t stop and pull out a scroll and see if any of the prophets had any­thing to say about walk­ing on water.

He just did it.

He didn’t ask that Jesus would catch him up and tele­port him across or whisk him out of the boat with a whirl­wind. He didn’t ask that Jesus would take over his legs and drive him out of the boat. He took the first step and then another and other. He took the ini­tia­tive. He jumped out in the water and got his feet wet.

And he walked across the water …

… at least for a short while; but, that is another story.