JESUS WALKED ON WATER

Jesus’ Concern for Presence

²² Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. ²³ And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. ²⁴ But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

²⁵ Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶ And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

²⁸ And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

²⁹ So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

³³ Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

—Matthew 14:22–33

There is a twofold concern for Jesus in this passage: to be in the presence of His Father, and to be present with His disciples in distress. Having dismissed the multitude, Jesus sent the disciples across the bay in the boat. Matthew says, “Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him.” He must have given the impression that He would walk to the other side of the bay. On their departure He went up on the mountain slope to pray. As evening arrived He was alone with God in prayer, while the disciples in the boat were caught in a storm and driven with the wind. However, Jesus didn’t act at once, but continued in prayer, letting the disciples struggle, “laboriously rowing,” until the fourth watch, i.e., between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m.

Matthew says that in the fourth watch “Jesus went to them” (v. 25). It should be noted that His walking on the sea was to get to the disciples, to bring to them the reality of His presence. No matter what the difficulties in our lives, Jesus comes to us in the stress. His presence is our assurance. Not comprehending the reality of Jesus’ presence in their distress, the disciples misread Him to be a spirit and cried out in fear. And into their fear and despair came the remarkable words, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” The Greek for “It is I” reminds us of God’s word to Moses, “I Am,” that is, “I will be what I will be.” And Jesus stood there on the water, Sovereign of creation, saying, “I will be what I will be,” Lord in the storm. From Mark we learn that Jesus appeared to be walking on by them, having fulfilled His purpose of encouragement by His presence (Mark 6:45–52). But Matthew adds the account which Peter may have refrained from relating to Mark. Seeing Jesus walking by, Peter, the realist, cries out, “Lord, if it is You”—he wanted to be sure, for he knew the sea; he was a veteran fisherman, and no storm had ever made him lose his senses—“command me to come to You!” And Jesus said, “Come.” Peter had his answer, and now it was a question of faith!

It was Peter’s move next. All that Peter had upon which to act was the word “come.” This is the ultimate test of faith, to move on Jesus’ word alone. And Peter stepped over the side of the boat to go to Jesus. We might ask, “Peter, how did you do it? Had you practiced, had you studied yoga, had you studied surface tension?” And Peter might have answered, “It was when I thought of surface tension that I began to sink!” Faith rivets its attention solely on the Master who says “Come.”

We should avoid making this story allegorical. Schweizer falls into this trap in making the boat a symbol of community, Peter’s act a symbol of the faith of the disciples, and Jesus’ saving him as help in failure. The primary meaning is that Jesus as Lord of creation can be present in the lives of people in this material world.

As Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind ceased and the waves sank back to calmness, witnessing to the reality of the event that had just happened. The disciples fell before Him in worship, exclaiming, “Truly You are the Son of God.” This miracle in nature should be seen as a part of the cosmic struggle between Jesus and the satanic in all its forms of evil. The confession by the disciples was a step toward the great confession made later by Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16, kjv)¹

Following the miracle, Jesus has other lessons to teach his disciples. The crowd is dismissed; the disciples are despatched across the sea. Jesus himself goes up a mountain to pray. Mountains are important to Matthew (see 5:1; 28:16). So too is prayer (see 6:1–15; 26:41). Jesus prays to the Father, constantly drawing on his Father’s promises to him and seeking his Father’s will. In doing so, he gives his people a great example to follow.

While Jesus is alone praying on the mountain, the disciples are experiencing rough weather in the middle of the sea. Suddenly Jesus appears, walking on the water. The disciples are full of fear, an emotion they often experience (see, for example, 17:6). Jesus speaks to them and assures them that it is, in fact, himself.

We are meant, I think, to see a connection between Jesus’ prayer and Jesus’ presence. Although he was not physically in the boat, he was spiritually present with his disciples. Their fear was unfounded. Jesus was, in fact, thinking of them, and knew the danger they were in.

Peter’s response is to request the ability to walk on the water towards Jesus. He climbs out of the boat onto the surface of the sea and is able to walk slowly towards Jesus. But the sound of the wind distracts him and he begins to sink. His prayer, ‘Lord, save me’ (v. 30), is immediately answered. Once again, however, the disciples are rebuked for having little faith (see 6:30; 8:26).

The result is that the disciples worship Jesus, acknowledging him to be the Son of God (v. 33). Thus, while several refuse to obey Jesus, there are those who are willing to give him the glory that is his as Lord of the universe, Master of the waves—Jesus, the Son of God. The fame of Jesus continues to spread, and he continues to display his compassion and healing power

JESUS EVEN BRING GOD NAD THE NEED TO SPEND TIME WITH GOD. HE PRAYED AND ENJOYED FELLOWSHIP.

Immediately after feeding the five thousand, Jesus performed another miracle that struck terror into the hearts of His disciples. However, with that terror came an acute sense of reverence, and a new recognition and confession of who Jesus was.

Matthew tells us, Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away (v. 22). Jesus’ disciples had urged Him to dismiss the crowds as evening approached, but Jesus chose to feed them miraculously first. Once they had eaten, He sent the disciples to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and then sent the multitudes to their homes.

Why was Jesus so abrupt in His dismissal of the people? Matthew does not tell us, but John does. He writes: “Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone” (6:14–15). The people were very struck by the power of the miraculous feeding, so they were on the verge of demanding that He become their king. Jesus moved quickly to stop this campaign in its tracks. The political ambitions of this multitude were not in line with His mission, so He firmly and swiftly dismissed them. Perhaps the disciples were being carried along by the delirium of the crowd, and that was why Jesus sent them away, too.

Matthew continues, And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray (v. 23a). This is one of several instances in the life of Jesus when He purposefully went apart by Himself for prayer. No clear reason is given for this season of prayer, though a mission into Gentile lands was in the near future (15:21) and His passion was drawing closer. After He had been there several hours, He and the disciples were separated by a great distance and an expanse of the sea: Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary (vv. 23b–24). It seems the disciples were headed west, into the prevailing winds, which would indicate that Jesus was somewhere on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

One summer when I was a college student, I served as a counselor at a boys’ camp in Ohio. This camp had a lake that was about a thousand feet long by eight hundred feet wide. It was a small lake, but it was big enough for the boys to have a good time. One afternoon, a violent storm arose. The alarm system sounded across the camp, signaling that all of the children were to assemble at the cafeteria to be counted, so we could be sure that all of them were safe and sound. On that occasion, when the count was made, we were horrified to discover that two campers were not present. I and a couple of other counselors went out and looked all around the camp without success. Finally, I happened to look out on the lake, and at the far end I could see two boys in a canoe. They were trying desperately to get out of the storm, but in order to get back to the area of the cabins, they had to go directly into the wind. Every time they tried to head up the lake, the wind blew the canoe back. They could not make any headway.

I was in charge of the waterfront and the canoes, so I ran down to the lake and jumped into a canoe. I had no trouble getting to the boys because the wind was behind me. But when I got there to assist them, I encountered the same problem they were experiencing—getting back up the lake into the wind was nearly impossible. I’ll never forget that. It took us the better part of an hour to get back to safety, with the lightning flashing and the thunder booming. We had to labor as hard as we could just to make that thousand feet or so to safety.

I think of that incident every time I read this story, because the disciples were not young children. They were seasoned veterans of the Sea of Galilee. They were strong men, and there were several of them. Still, although they had been in the boat for hours, they were stuck in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. No matter how hard they pulled on their oars, the wind blew them back.

A Terrifying Surprise

I noted in the previous chapter that Jesus had a propensity for surprising His disciples. He surprised them by suggesting that they themselves should give the huge multitude something to eat. But that surprise was as nothing to what He did to rejoin His disciples en route to the western shore of the sea: Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear (vv. 25–26). The disciples were not only surprised, they were terrified.

Remember, it was evening when the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away (v. 15). He did not come to them until “the fourth watch,” that is, between 3 and 6 a.m., and if we read between the lines of this story, it seems that He came to them closer to dawn than to 3 a.m. So, the disciples must have been very tired after rowing fruitlessly almost all night. That exhaustion probably exacerbated their fear.

Imagine this experience from the disciples’ point of view. Their attention was fixed ahead, to the west, as they struggled to move the boat forward. Then, they caught sight of something behind them on the sea. Looking closely, they finally discerned the figure of a man, but he was not swimming or wading; he was walking on the surface of the heaving sea. They ran through the categories that reason offered to explain this extraordinary phenomenon, and they quickly came to a conclusion: “It is a ghost!” What else could it be? They understood the basic principles of buoyancy. They knew that human beings could not remain on the surface of the water but always sank into it. But a ghost, a disembodied spirit, would have no problem coasting across the water without sinking. I doubt that it ever crossed their minds that they were seeing Jesus. So, on top of the stress caused by the storm, by their exhaustion, and by the unnatural sight of a human figure walking on water, they believed they were encountering a ghost. It is little wonder they cried out in fear.

Jesus did not leave the disciples in this state of terror: But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid” (v. 27). Why did He say “Be of good cheer”? Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the giants of philosophy in the nineteenth century. He was contemptuous of nineteenth-century Europe, for he thought Christianity had made Western culture weak and fearful. He said the world’s only hope was the emergence of the übermensch, the superman. The übermensch would build his house defiantly on the slopes of Vesuvius and sail his ship into uncharted waters, for his major quality would be what Nietzsche called “dialectical courage.” That was a fancy way of speaking of absurd, irrational, or illogical courage. With this courage, the übermensch would defy the meaninglessness of life. So, Nietzsche’s message was basically this: life is meaningless, but be of good cheer anyway.

Jesus did not ask His disciples to defy meaninglessness, to take a blind leap of faith. He said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b). As He walked toward the disciples in their boat, they could see that He was no ordinary man. They could see that the supernatural is real. They could see that there is a God. Therefore, life is not meaningless.

Perhaps the best news for the disciples was hearing Jesus’ own voice say, “It is I.” But this little statement is packed with meaning. One of the fascinating features of the Gospel of John is his record of Jesus’ “I am” statements. Jesus repeatedly crafted metaphors for Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6), “I am the vine, you are the branches” (15:5), “I am the good shepherd” (10:11, 14), “I am the door” (10:9), “I am the bread of life” (6:48), and so on. Each time Jesus said “I am,” He used a unique combination of Greek words, egō eimi. Both the word ego and the word eimi mean “I am,” so it was as if Jesus were saying, “I am, I am.” However, this same combination of words, egō eimi, was used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to render the ineffable name of God, “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). Thus, every time Jesus said, “I am,” He was equating Himself with God. Ego eimi is rarely found outside of John’s Gospel, but here it is in Matthew as Jesus said, “It is I.” I am sure the disciples noticed this and were comforted by it.

Peter’s Brief Walk

Peter, ever impetuous, was still not sure of what he was seeing. So, as Matthew tells us: Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus (vv. 28–29). Peter had the incredible experience of walking on water, defying the laws of gravity and buoyancy.

This episode is a metaphor for the ministry of the Apostles following Jesus’ return to heaven. Peter had no power within himself to walk on water. If he had clambered over the gunwales of the boat before Jesus gave him permission, he surely would have plunged into the sea. But when Jesus empowered him, he was able to walk on the water. Likewise, after they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles performed many miracles, but not because they had the power within themselves to do so. It was because Jesus gave them His authority over the things of nature.

Peter’s stroll on the sea did not last long: But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” (v. 30). Thousands of sermons have been preached on this verse, and the basic application is this: Keep your eyes on Jesus. As long as Peter was directing his vision toward his Master, he walked on water. But then his eyes shifted. His attention was diverted from Jesus. He turned his gaze from super-nature to nature, and when he saw the boisterous wind and the heaving sea, his faith deserted him and he started to sink.

All of us are like Peter. Our faith is firm until adversity shows up. When we see the obstacles that we face and the threats that confront us, our hearts begin to sink, our confidence vanishes, and we have to cry for help. Nature is too much for us. At least Peter had the good sense to make the right call: “Lord, save me!” That is the most important cry any human being can ever make.

I essentially became a Christian with those very words. I knew where my life was going, and I knew I could not get out of the place where I was by myself. So, my conversion was a desperate cry to Christ for help. Some people do not make that cry until after they start sinking, and some do not make it until they sink all the way to the bottom. But there are multitudes that will not make that cry even on the bottom of the sea. We see people who have made shipwreck of their lives and we reach out to try to help them, but they want no help. Peter made a better choice. He knew where he was headed, and he did not wait to hit the bottom before he cried for help.

How did Jesus respond to His disciple’s cry? Did He berate Peter for becoming distracted? Did He let Peter get a good dunking to teach him a lesson? No. Matthew writes, And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (v. 31). Yes, Jesus chastised Peter for doubting, but only after He “immediately” caught him.

Finally, we read: And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God” (vv. 32–33). Jesus and Peter got into the boat, and at that second the wind died away, just as it had died away upon Jesus’ command during an earlier crossing of the sea (Matt. 8:23–27). This miracle, combined with seeing Jesus’ supernatural mastery of the water, brought the disciples to their knees. They worshiped Him and confessed Him to be the Son of God, an important confession, though not quite as extensive as Peter’s great confession that was yet to come (Matt. 16:16).

Matthew 14 closes with a brief mention of events that followed this momentous crossing of the sea: When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well (vv. 34–36). They came to Gennesaret, an area on the western side of the Sea of Galilee south of Capernaum. Word quickly got around that Jesus was there, so many brought sick relatives and friends that Jesus might heal them. Like the woman who had a flow of blood (Matt. 9:20–21), as many of the sick as touched the hem of His robe were healed.

I suspect the people who were healed were deeply grateful to Jesus, but I doubt they realized fully who He was. They did not have the benefit of the disciples’ experience, of seeing Him demonstrate His sovereignty over nature and hearing Him declare Himself to be Ego eimi, “I am.” They did not yet recognize Him to be the Son of God. But with each expression of His power, that recognition was growing in the disciples. It is a recognition we all need to make.²

1 Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Matthew (Vol. 24, p. 18). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

2 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 462–467). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.