Tell Out My Soul

Matt 14:22-33

In today’s reading from Matthew we hear the story of Jesus walking on the water. Amazing as this miracle is, what we learn most about this story is what it tells us about Peter. How can we not love Peter, he’s so relatable. He loves Jesus so much but he messes up a lot. We feel for Peter when he makes mistakes and blunders along, rushing in without thinking first. When we look at Peter’s personality, it’s very easy to put ourselves in his shoes. 

But we admire Peter’s undeniable love, and his great faith. And it was evident when Jesus asked the disciples, “who do you say I am?”  Even though what Jesus taught and said were so important, what was even more important was who Jesus was. The saving message arrived in a person, the person of Jesus, his identity. Son of David, Immanuel, Saviour. So he didn’t ask his disciples what do you think of my teaching or my miracles, or the things I do and say. The question he asked the disciples, and you and me too, is “who do you say I am?” That’s the big question. And we live by the answer to that question.

It was Peter who spoke up and said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Bingo! That was the $64,000 question and Peter got it absolutely right. Peter is central to our story today, and in the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, he represents all of us. 

Lake Gallilee was rough, and the wind was against them. And then the disciples saw this figure walking on the water. We can’t blame them for being afraid: was it a ghost, something evil, an apparition? Even when Jesus said to not be afraid that it was just him, they still weren’t convinced. How could he walk on water? They just couldn’t believe their eyes. 

So Peter, being Peter, said, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’

On the surface it seems such a simple and kind of naive way of proving that Jesus was real. Because, if it was an apparition or a demon pretending to be Jesus, then logically it would have deceived Peter and said something like, “yes it’s me Peter, come out onto the water,” and then Peter would have drowned. But Peter’s way of proving that it was really Jesus, was very subtle and very strong, not naive at all. 

During his ministry and throughout his interaction with the twelve, Jesus quite often commanded them to do things. He told them exactly what to do, and there was no room for interpretation, no committee or team to decide things. Jesus called all the shots. He instructed them at every stage. He said jump and they said how high. But Jesus did not command them arrogantly, but with great love and faith in them. And they responded and obeyed with love and unquestioning devotion to Jesus. 

So Peter was familiar with how Jesus put forward his commands. Jesus was persuasive; he was authoritative and loving all at the same time. He was the perfect teacher, the perfect leader. And logically, he had his own way of speaking to them. Peter knew Jesus so well, his tone of voice and manner, and he understood the source and nature of Jesus’ authority. Only Jesus could give commands like Jesus.

And most importantly, Jesus gave them the power and the will to do things that they didn’t know they could do, to make them go above and beyond. Only Jesus could do that for them and to them. Peter knew that only Jesus could command him to come out of the boat and onto the lake and be safe. Jesus could give him the power to walk on water, nobody else could. A ghost or apparition couldn’t do that.

And Jesus’ response to Peter was so simple and beautiful. Jesus didn’t say, “O come on Peter of course it’s me don’t be silly.” He commanded Peter, just as Peter told him to. Jesus said one word, “Come,” and that was enough, and Peter knew right away that this was the Lord. And so he came out of the boat and went to Jesus, walking on the water. 

But here is the important thing about Peter. He had left everything, his family and his livelihood to follow Jesus in very turbulent times. But no matter what the world threw at him, no matter how confusing or scary things got, the one thing that gave him an anchor point, the one thing that gave him certainty and comfort, was his faith in the Lord. Obeying the Lord meatn that everything was going to be okay. He didn’t take orders from just anybody. He didn’t listen to false prophets, or apparitions. Peter obeyed Jesus.

And so it is with us, we follow Jesus and we do as he tells us; only he can give us the will, the strength and power to do what we do, and achieve what we do, and to endure what we endure. We should have Peter’s words on our lips all the time. Lord, my Lord, command me. If you tell me to do something, I’ll do it, even if it seems impossible. Tell me what I should do, how I should be, what I should say. If you tell me to do it, I can do it, because you would never tell me to do something that I can’t manage.

Jesus doesn’t give us impossible instructions, all his commands are doable, otherwise he wouldn’t tell us to do them. He said to us, “my burden is easy and my yoke is light.”

But being human, we worry. Peter began to worry when the wind whipped up, he saw the danger and doubted. He took his eyes off the Lord and looked at the wind and the waves instead. He was afraid and he started to sink. Life will always have its challenges and worries, its dangers and fears. But we mustn’t lose sight of Jesus, we mustn’t forget that he is our Saviour and that he doesn’t give us challenges that we aren’t able to deal with.

But credit to Peter, even though he started to worry and doubt, he was the only one to get out of the boat and go onto the water. Jesus said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt? But Jesus meant his words to be supportive, more like, “Peter you were doing so well there, why did you start to doubt?” It was a lesson to Peter, not a put down. After all, the journey of faith is a long one, and it was with time and the power of the Holy Spirit that Peter grew in such faith that he was able to lead the early Christian church and was martyred for his faith. Jesus knew that Peter had the right stuff.

Okay, Peter had his doubts, but his first response when he felt himself sinking was to say, “Lord save me.” He put his life in Jesus’ hands. And that is the perfect response when worries overwhelm us and we only see the dangers. When we feel like we’re sinking we pray, “Jesus save me,” and just like on the lake that day, Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and catches us.

Jesus knows what we are capable of, but there’s a caveat; we have to have faith in him. Without faith in Jesus, we are only left with the self, but the self can fail. It makes mistakes, and the self can so easily lose heart. Faith is the foundation of our lives. It holds us up and stops our resolve from crumbling. Faith pumps up the heart, and it’s only through the strength of our faith that we can do as Jesus commands. 

And really, what is our purpose as Christians, our goal, and the thing we strive for every day of our lives? It’s to do the will of God, to do as our Saviour commands us. This is what it means, ultimately to be Christian, to be a follower of Jesus. In John 14 verse 15, Jesus says directly, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” 

You can’t say that you’re a follower of Jesus and just do your own thing, and ignore his instructions. What did he come here for if that’s the case, and why did he suffer and die on the cross, if what he told us to do didn’t matter?

The words, “command me,” are like a prayer. We pray, “God tell me what to do.”

Some people may look at this attitude of submission and call it a kind of slavery. What about self-determination? What about what you want to do as an independent individual? Modern society is so focused on the self. The world is all about the satisfaction of personal wants and desires, and we’re bombarded by social media and advertising into buying into this mindset. The primacy of the ego and the attainment of selfish ambition are number one in the modern world. 

Belief in Jesus flies in the face of this, and so many people recoil from it because it demands that the self be made subject to a higher authority, the highest authority. But Christians definitely are not slaves, and they certainly don’t feel like they are. Submission to God’s will and desiring and loving God’s will is actually the most perfect form of absolute freedom that a human can experience. And this is confirmed by Paul who said, “it is not I who lives but Christ who lives in me.” It’s not what I want anymore because the I is absorbed into the person of Christ, we become like Christ. And so what Christ desires is what we desire too. If we are to be Christlike, then it is inevitable that we do, with joy and total faith, the things that Jesus wants us to do.

“Command me Lord,” is a prayer of surrender to the God of love, over and above all things. We desire what he desires, and this is what motivates us. To do God’s will is our ambition and our highest aim. It is our fulfillment and our liberation. 

Amen.