What Was Peter Thinking?

Scripture Reading

{Transcript}

Sermon Text

Matthew 14: 22-33

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Beyond the Surface

Three things we wish for when we pray are to see God more clearly, love God more clearly, and to follow God. Sometimes the way we look at the scripture is very limited and I think that is a problem of modern society. We don’t know the scripture very well. We are believers, we are Christians and yet we don’t understand the scripture and our way of reading the scripture is very much elementary in a way. We still have a Sunday school mentality an that’s how we treat the scripture. We read it in that way so we don’t really get the depth from the scripture. We still think that scripture is an archaic document, which was written 2000 years ago. That is true, but it’s not just archaic document. We believe that it is a living word of God and yet we just treat it as an archaic document or like a moral code or a manual that we just read it and follow. We don’t really get deeper into the message of the scripture. We don’t go beyond what’s written on the surface without understanding the meaning and implication of the text. We lack imagination and we lack creativity. So we read the scripture, but we don’t really read it in depth.

For example, in the scripture passage, all we can think about is about the question of miracle. Jesus performed the miracle of calming the storm and walking on the water, and so we only look at it in that way. Then next question is, can a human being walk on water? Some religious person was say, “yes, of course Jesus can walk on water”, and some scientific skeptics will say, “how can a human being walk on the water? I won’t accept that story”. The person with the religious piety will say, “I accept the story”. That’s it. Beyond that, there’s nothing. I don’t think Matthew was simply interested in telling us that Jesus performed a miracle by walking on the water or calming the storm.

What was Peter Thinking?

I think there is a deeper message that Jesus wanted to get across and a message that Matthew wanted to get across. As you look at the scripture today, it was Jesus who told the disciples to go into the boat and go out into the lake. Then in the lake they faced a ferocious storm. When you look at the scripture this is what it said, “immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side”. It was Jesus who told them to go into the lake. Late a night, at 3 am, in the pitch dark, they were in the lake, and they were struggling because of the storm. And then they saw a man, a kind of human being walking on the water towards them. Then they said in fear ‘It’s is a ghost!’. That’s a natural response because when you see a man in the darkness walking on the water without a boat, what else can you conclude? And also Jewish people, they all thought that the place a for ghosts is in the sea. So all the ghosts were captured within the sea and they automatically assumed that it must be a ghost.

The real story, however, was about Peter. Jesus said to all the disciples “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Jesus said to take heart, be courageous, be strong, and do not be afraid. And Peter’s response was strange. He said, Lord, if it is you call me to come to you on the water. Why did he ask thafddt? There’s a storm and it is pitch dark. Everybody was scared and they are really struggling for survival. And they could say, “please save us!”. That’s a natural response. And then a Peter said, “Lord, command me. Call me to come to you”. That was a very strange response.

What was Peter thinking at that moment? Was he trying to show off? I don’t think showing off was in his mind. I mean, he’s busy surviving. He didn’t try to show off. Was he tests trying to test Jesus? No, you don’t test somebody when you’re at the risk of death. I don’t think so. I think when Jesus said ‘it is, I take heart’, something happened within Peter. The scripture doesn’t record that there’s not enough space for the scripture writers to write everything. So he didn’t write it, but something happened within Peter’s mind at them moment is almost like an ‘a ha’ moment. His eyes opened when he saw Jesus and when he heard Jesus say ‘it is I, take heart. Be Courageous. Do not be afraid’. As soon as he heard that his eyes opened and something happened within him. It was a divine presence that he encountered and  experienced at the moment.

Ego Eimi, It is I

The expression “it is I” is a very interesting expression in English. In English it is “It is I”, but in Greek it is a ego eimi. That’s the Greek term ego eimi is ‘I am’, and that is also ‘I am that I am’. Ego eimi is the expression that was used to refer to God in the Old Testament. So often in a lot of places you see ego eimi, it refers to God. So when you read the Gospel, John used it quite a bit. I am the shepherd. So he uses ego eimi as a kind of expression that refers to God. For example, when Moses first time met the living God, in the burning bush, Moses asked God, ‘What is your name?’ and in Septuagint, a Greek Bible of the Old Testament, it says ego eimi. I am that I am.

Because Jesus said ego eimi, plus take heart and be courageous that there was a divine moment. Peter experienced divine presence, and when he had experienced that divine presence, courage came to him. With that courage he asked Jesus to call him, to come and walk through the storm towards Him. I’ll be where you are in the storm. When we experience God the experience courage. When we experience divine presence, the first thing that comes to us is courage. Jesus was very happy with Peter’s response, so Jesus said to Peter, “come”. Peter actually got out of the boat and was able to walk through the storm.

Face the Storm

That’s what God wants. God does not want you to be a begging person. God wants you to have the courage to face your challenges and walk through the storm. God does not want you to be a spiritual beggar. Saying, “Lord, save me. Save me” all the time. God does not want you to be a beggar. God wants you to leave your safe boat and start walking even when it means walking through the storm. Peter was able to do that, but soon his eyes, started seeing the waves and fear started filling his heart. There was a storm outside, but also there was a storm inside Peter. Then he became a spiritual beggar again, with no choice. He said “Lord save me” because he was dying.

Of course he needed that. He had no choice. Sometimes we need that too. Sometimes we need a crutch. Sometimes we need to say that, but not all the time. There are two kinds of faith I realized, and the two kinds of faith is this: faith that asks God to call us, to walk through the store and faith that begs God to save us out of desperation. The second one is little faith. The first one is the authentic faith. In the beginning, Peter had that authentic faith that asked Jesus to call him to come  and walk through the storm because he had courage. He had that divine moment when he experienced divine presence, so he had courage and ask God to call him to walk through the storm. As soon as he saw the wave, however, fear started controlling him and he was dying. He was falling and falling and falling, and out of desperation, he said, “save me”. You know a lot of people’s faith comes from fear. That’s not the kind of faith Jesus wants. Just because you’re scared, you’re crying out to God for help with a faith that comes from fear, but the faith God wants is a faith that comes from courage, not from fear.

For people whose main interest is in survival, security and safety and success. Their prayer is always ‘save me’. ‘Save me from financial difficulties, save me from disease, save me from misery, save me from difficulties of life’. But people who have met the living Christ who have met the divine presence in their lives, their prayer is different. ‘Call me. Call me to walk through the storm, give me the courage to face my own storm and give me the strength to overcome it”. What they want out of life and what they want from God is not the easy way out. What they want is two things: courage and strength. Jesus wants us to be strong and courageous. He said in John 16:33 “In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”, this is my favourite passage. Don’t pray that the storm may avoid you. Pray that you have the courage and strength to walk through the storm.

Learning From Challenges

Sometimes God drives us into the storm, as Jesus did in today’s passage. Why? Because there are things in life you can only learn through the storm. There are things in life you can never learn in the classroom. I wished I could learn everything in my classroom, but there are things in life that you can never learn in the classroom. You can only learn them through the storm. That’s why sometimes God drives us into the storm. When you face that storm, take heart, be courageous to not be afraid. 

The other day I had a visitation at the hospital, one of our ESM members, and Reverend Chung was sitting beside her and he said to her, let us listen to Reverend Kim’s message on suffering. So he went to the website and turned on and for 20 minutes they were listening together. At the end of sermon, her eyes were filled with tears. Yesterday I got about 15 emails from her. She listened to every single sermon from the beginning of this year. And then in 15 emails, for every sermon she was recording was she experienced, what she felt, and what she learned. Sometimes there are things that we can only learn through the storm.

Peter, as he took the journey of stepping out of the boat and started walking through the storm, he experienced the power of God. Can you imagine walking on the water? Probably that was with him all his life, that power of God that he experienced. However, it was not just the power of God that he experienced. He experienced his own vulnerability, his own weaknesses, his own doubt. He encountered himself too, but he also experienced the saving hands of Jesus Christ. In that few seconds, probably maybe 10 seconds seconds, he experienced all that. He experienced the power of God. He experienced his own doubt, weakness and vulnerability, but he also experienced the hands of Jesus who saved him from the water.

That is how we encounter our true self. That is how we grow my friends. There are so many challenges in life you cannot possibly ask God that all these challenges to go around you, skip you, or avoid you. Then what you’re asking is, let me live in a bubble. You can’t possibly ask God to get rid of all the challenges in life. We better ask God to give us the courage and strength so that when the challenges of life come, we are ready to walk through them and learn.

There’s more message in this passage than just the miracle, valuable lessons. Scripture is full of them, but we don’t truly know how to read the Scripture and we put it aside. I hope that we can take the word of God in our lives. Jesus’ teaching is not about religion. Jesus’ teaching is about life.

{Reflection Song: Still}