Walking on Water

     One of the many miracles worked by faith happened at the time Jesus walked on the water of the stormy sea to come to His disciples.  It was, of course, a miracle that Jesus was able to walk on water, especially when that water was a stormy sea.  But the miracle I want to focus on is Peter walking on water.

     Let me give a little background behind the story.  The day before this, Jesus had gone to the desert.  A large group of people gathered around Him, and He proceeded to heal their sick.  When evening came, Jesus commanded His disciples to bring Him the five loaves of bread and two fish they had.  He then blessed this bread and fish, broke it, and had His disciples feed the large multitude.  Five thousand men and a large group of women and children were fed this way, leaving twelve baskets of food. 

     Then Jesus commanded His disciples to depart in a ship and go to the other side of the sea.  They departed and He went to the mountain to pray.  As the darkness of night descended, a storm broke out over the sea where the disciples labored in the ship.  These disciples labored all night, fighting against the storm in an effort to make it to land.

     Finally, during the fourth watch of the night (meaning between three and six), Jesus came to His disciples walking on water.  Since it was a stormy night, it would have been difficult for the disciples to see very far.  Thus, when they saw Jesus approaching them, they couldn’t see who it was.  People aren’t normally able to walk on water, so they believed it to be a spirit.  They were afraid.

     Jesus knew they were afraid.  So He said to them, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.”  This is where we see Peter demonstrate his great faith in Jesus.  I imagine he heard the familiar voice of Jesus from this figure he still couldn’t recognize.  He would probably believe a spirit was capable of sounding like his beloved friend, but he trusted Jesus and knew He was capable of working miracles.  If He could do all the things Peter had seen Him do, wouldn’t it be possible for Him to walk on a stormy sea also. 

     Marveling at the possibility, Peter responded, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.”  I imagine Peter made this response with a somewhat boyish hope.  He wasn’t certain, but he believed this was his beloved friend walking on water!  How cool was that!  Peter believed it was possible and hoped it was true.  He believed that, if Jesus his Master told him he could, he would be able to walk on the water also.  He hoped for this as well.  So he made his response.

     Jesus responded simply, “Come.”  Peter climbed out of the boat and started walking toward Jesus.  Imagine the faith this would take!  Peter had to truly believe Jesus was capable of working mighty miracles if he believed he could walk on water simply because Jesus said “Come”!  He had, of course, seen the Lord work incredible miracles, but nothing that required he put his very life in danger.  This water wasn’t just any water, either.  It was a large sea, and a stormy one at that.  Imagine the faith required to believe you would be okay leaving the relative safety of the ship and walking on a stormy sea.

     Furthermore, it wasn’t likely Peter could say for certain this was Jesus yet.  The figure was probably still hard to make out.  A spirit could possibly take on the voice of the Lord.  So it was possible this wasn’t Jesus.  After all, what human being had ever walked on water before this?

     Yet Peter believed it was Jesus and he climbed out of the boat.  Because of his profound faith, he was rewarded with some time walking across the top of this stormy sea.  That was the miracle wrought by the faith of Peter, the rock of faith. 

     Imagine what you could do if you had the faith of Peter.