“It’s coming for us Simon Peter. A bad mountain wind storm.”
“I see Andrew. This one’s not going to be easy,” Peter said, intensely looking at the waves. He quickly grabbed Andrew’s shoulder and the mast when the first large wave rocked the boat, throwing its tentacles into and over the boat.
“You guys know what you’re doing, right?” Matthew said, looking up worried. He ended up lying on the floor. “I mean, we have a boatload of lifetime fishermen.” No one answered.
“We can’t go back, can we, brother?” John said to Peter on the starboard side, more as a statement than a question. “He told us to go to the other shore.”
After the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus told the disciples to go on ahead of him to Bethsaida by boat. After they left, Jesus went up a mountainside by himself to pray. Jesus waited till the boat was in the middle of the lake and the storm. Then, Jesus walked on the lake and began passing his disciples, who were buffeted by the waves attacking the boat. (Matthew 14:22-25; Mark 45-48; John 6:16-18) Some, with John’s statement, began considering that they were in this precarious situation because Jesus told them to go by boat while he stayed behind on the mountainside.
“Look! It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. They had seen Jesus walking on the lake. Stepping atop one wave cap to the next, looking like he was floating in the air.
“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid,” Jesus said immediately.
Looking intently at Jesus, Peter replied, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus permitted him. As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he stood on the water. However, when his gaze turned away from Jesus and towards the turbulent waves, he began to sink.
When “we fix our eyes not on what is seen”, the storms we are in, but “on what is unseen”, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (6b), we are given grace to walk on water. That is, “we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (16) As the story goes, Jesus sent his disciples, who were later seen for what they are, “light and momentary troubles”. So, are the storms we are in. Jesus sends us into such storms for they are achieving for us and eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (17)
