Dear Sisters, dear brethren in Christ, this Gospel we have just listened to from St Matthew is one of the best-known of our Lord’s miracles, but mainly because of Peter’s reaction and his confirmation in faith. Three of the evangelists tell us of Christ walking on the water, including St John, who rarely includes those events which are told by any or all of the other three writers, unless there is some specific point he wants to make in contrast to them. St John includes this scene of the walking on the water and the calming of the storm between the Feeding of the Five Thousand and our Lord’s great discourse on the Bread of Life which took place at Capharnaum on the other side of the Sea of Galilee from where this event took place.
What is especially significant about our Lord walking on the Sea of Galilee? To understand that more fully we should certainly look at what has just happened. We heard this in last Sunday’s Gospel reading: St Matthew’s account of the miraculous Feeding of the Five Thousand with five loaves and two fish. Hence the first words today: ‘After the crowd had eaten and were satisfied, immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds…’ Only St John tells us why Jesus did this. It was because after the miraculous feeding, the crowds were suddenly filled with great excitement that Jesus had just given them the long-awaited sign of the coming of the Messiah: that he would give his people miraculous bread to feed them. This made them want to take him by force, as John says, to make him their king. We might feel that this was not a great deal. Indeed, why should it not be a really good thing? After all, Jesus is the Messiah! Why would He not wish to be recognised for what we know He truly is? Well, since St John is the only one to tell us that this is what happened, it is not surprising that he alone tells us what our Lord’s reason for caution was. Having won the crowd’s admiration, He now saw the opportunity to tell them that He was not a fighting King, but the Bread of Life.
Our Lord had to calm the crowd down since they were at fever pitch of excitement after this miracle. He also wanted to save the Apostles from the situation. Maybe they would have been in danger of getting caught up in it? Maybe it was simply that they had only come to that remote spot in the first place so that they could have rest, and our Lord realised that they had most certainly not been allowed to rest at all. Hence His instruction to them to get into the boat and go back to the other side, the populous side, to Capharnaum and await His return to them after He had dealt with the crowds and calmed them down. The Apostles would be able to get some rest after the excitement by crossing over without Him. What St Matthew tells us Jesus did next was to go up on the mountain to pray. How often mountains appear in our Lord’s prayers. High places in remote country were particularly favoured by Him. It is important to see how He in His humanity, needed to return to His heavenly Father and seek comfort in communion with Him.
In any case, the Apostles began their journey without Him, expecting to meet Him when they landed. But of course, they were struck by one of those sudden and very violent storms that occur on that inland sea, and the Apostles had often experienced them before, including that time when Jesus was asleep in the boat. What happened next is more significant than we may realise. Jesus Himself comes to them on the sea, but at the fourth watch. This is very late indeed, about four or five in the morning by our time. In other words, they had been battling away all night in the pitch black, battered by the wind and waves, faithfully trying to do what Jesus had told them to do, remember, to get to the other side as quickly as possible. They were still very far from land. All this alone is a metaphor for so much that befalls those who do as Christ commands, and having commanded, then He disappears!
But if the Apostles were fearful because of the storm, how much more were they afraid when they saw Him walking through the storm and upon the water! It was astonishing when He had calmed the storm by a single word of command from within the boat, but this was even stranger to behold. No wonder they thought at first that they were seeing a ghost. This miracle, a word literally meaning something to make us stop in amazement, was different from any other. Here He was not doing anything at somebody’s request. It was His own way to get to the Apostles in their great distress. This image of walking on water, still proverbial with us today, was something associated with divine power. The psalmist says: ‘Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.’ (ps. 76:19) I doubt the Apostles thought about that on this occasion, but doubtless they would do so afterwards. His word of greeting is a reassurance to them: ‘Take heart; it is I; fear not!’
Fear not - what wonderful words! Peter, as so often the first to react and impetuously, looks for certainty that this is indeed the Lord, and asks for reassurance in the strangest of ways: ‘command me to come to you on the water.’ A strange idea, and hardly thought out! But Jesus takes him at his word and commands him. Peter does just that. At first all is well because Peter does not actually realise what is happening. But the moment he sees the wind he takes his eyes off Jesus and so begins to be afraid. Losing sight of Jesus, he also has no firm hold on his surroundings. Having been walking on the water at first, he sinks because he has stopped looking at Jesus. However, he instinctively does the only thing he can think of as he sinks beneath the waves: he calls to Jesus for help, Jesus grasps his hand and pulls him out, admonishing him, surely rather gently, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’
Together they get into the boat and suddenly all is calm, as the wind falls silent. The Apostles, too, fall silent in awe at the whole event. They worship Him: ‘you are the Son of God!’
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