“Jesus Christ – Storm Walker”
By Dayle K. Barrett
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Reading: Matthew 14:22-33
Has anyone here ever needed a break? I mean, really needed a break. I mean, if you spend five more minutes in your situation, you're gonna lose your ever-loving mind kind of a break. Because this story tells us that Jesus knows exactly what that feels like.
You see, if you pay attention to all of Matthew 14, it's quite interesting. Jesus has been spending this entire chapter trying to get away from just about everybody. At the beginning of Chapter 14 of the book of Matthew, Jesus received some terrible news. A close friend of his, his cousin in fact, a colleague in ministry, John the Baptist had just been executed by Herod.
Jesus' reaction is to get on a boat by himself and cross the Sea of Galilee to the other side to a deserted place. And what's waiting for him when he gets there? Somewhere close to 10,000 people. The Bible says that the multitudes followed him from all the cities around. And this is the beginning of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He heals all the sick. He grabs the one person who remembered to pack a lunch and uses their lunch to feed everybody who was there.
Let's just bring to our minds what this would have felt like for Jesus. Imagine you're going through a terrible time. You're bereaved, you're grieving, you've been helping everybody else for so long. And finally, you say, you know what, I'm going to take a vacation. So, you booked the most secluded place you can think of as far north as you can travel. And when you get there, everyone from your office is gathered around your fireplace looking at their watches, tapping their feet, and your manager has a big stack of paperwork for you to read.
Jesus went to what he thought was going to be a break, a vacation, a time away from everyone, and everyone was waiting for him right there. So, he ministers to them. He takes pity on them. He has compassion on them because that's who Jesus is. And finally, when all of that's over, he sends the disciples and the multitudes away. And this story begins. Finally, Jesus is by himself. He got rid of them all. He's on a mountain and the Bible says that when evening came, he was alone. He was praying. The Bible doesn't say what he was praying, but I imagine it might have been something like, “Father, how about 24 hours? That would be nice.”
But he didn't even get 24 hours. Because while Jesus was praying on that mountain throughout the night, something in his spirit must have told him that those disciples he'd sent to cross the Sea of Galilee were in trouble. Because when evening came, he was on a mountain alone and they were in the middle of the sea being tossed by the waves because the winds were contrary.
Now, we keep using the word sea. In Canada, we'd call this a lake. The Sea of Galilee is about 13 miles at its widest part. If the weather was decent, it should have taken the disciples about two hours to get to the other side. If you want to have an idea of how bad this storm is, they were already in the middle of the sea when evening came. What's that? Maybe 6:00 or 8:00 p.m. Jesus goes out to them at the fourth watch of the night. That's at least 3:00 a.m., maybe all the way up until 6:00 a.m. Either way you look at it, these disciples are about nine hours into what's supposed to be a two-hour journey.
I wonder if any of us knows what it feels like to be on your way to somewhere where you feel like God has been leading you. You're trying your best to get where God wants you to go. You're striving, you're training, you're reading, you're praying, you're working as hard as you can, but it always feels like one step forward and two steps back. It's like nature itself is against you. And no matter how hard you try, you don't seem to be making it to your destination.
The winds were contrary and as it was in the dead of night, in the middle of the waters (no headlamps, by the way!) it was dark and scary. Then along comes a man walking across the water.
Now, when I first heard this story in Sunday school, I was very impressed. Walking on the water? I don't know anyone who can do that. But now I live in Canada and it's February. We all know very well that about two hours up north there are lots of people traipsing across the water as we speak. They're playing hockey. They're drilling holes in it and fishing. There are pickup trucks parked on the water right now.
I didn't just say that for a chuckle though. I said that to make us realise that when we read stories like this, context has a huge impact on the way we understand the miracle. And for people in first century Israel, this was way more to them than it even was to me as a child, because of what it means.
Let me help you understand. The Bible is absolutely chock-full of symbols. Every time you read a passage of scripture, it tells you something, it tells you a story about what's going on, but every single thing in the story also means something else, something a bit more profound that will give you a deeper understanding of what it's trying to say. And to an ancient Near Eastern person, water - sea - represented chaos.
This thing that Jesus did walking on water wasn't just a magic trick. This was a God thing. It was the kind of thing only God could do. We know that if we know the creation story. Genesis 1, in the beginning, God creates the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, (a bit chaotic, isn't it? )And darkness is upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the water when God says, “let there be light.” Before there's any order, before there's any life, before there's anything meaningful happening in all of creation, all is a dark, watery, chaotic void.
It's scary. It's the kind of thing that might destroy you. And it's like that all the way through the Bible. In Revelation Chapter 21, we hear the prophet say, “and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea.”
Apparently in the new creation there's no sea. Why? Why would you want sea? Sea is chaos. The completion of God's order and God's perfect will is everything being ordered. There's no more dark, watery void for you to be frightened of because that's what it represents. The sea represents the unknown. Even in the hymn that we just sang, we begin by singing: “When peace like a river” (see rivers are nice) “When peace like a river attended my way” (how do sorrows come?) “Sorrows like sea billows roll”.
The sea, the ocean, this dark, watery chaos is scary, and it's been like that throughout human history. Even today, NASA will tell you that we know far more about outer space than we do about what's under the seas on our own planet. Medieval explorers would draw these amazing maps showing everywhere they'd explored and everywhere they knew. And then off in a distant corner in some sea they hadn't traversed yet, they draw a picture of a monster and write, “there be dragons.” Because when there's chaos, when there's a lack of understanding about what's there, we invent danger, don't we? We make up monsters to explain the things we can't understand.
So, there might be a city called Atlantis, or there might be a Loch Ness monster in Scotland. Or there might be a Leviathan trying to harm Job. Even in Revelation, the dragons and the beasts that fight against God’s people all emerge out of the sea, because the sea is the place of chaos. But in the midst of that dark and watery chaos, in the midst of all that they could not understand and all that threatened to destroy them, along came the figure of a spirit hovering above the water. The text tells us that the disciples thought it was a ghost. And if there's anything that sounds like God, it's a spirit hovering on the water.
If that wasn't enough to tell us who it was, Jesus approaches the boats and he says to them, “Be of good courage” or our translation says “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” Literally, it means this… “Be of good cheer! I AM!”
I want you to know that if you're moving through life in what seems like a dark and watery chaos, if you're on your way to something and you have no idea why you're trapped where you are and everything around you looks like it's against you, if you feel like you might sink at any moment and you don't know how you're about to carry on, I came to tell you today that the great I AM, the Lord who created the heavens and the earth, is still in the business of hovering over your dark, chaotic voids. He's walking on your water as we speak. And all he has to do is say the words and creation will begin to happen. Order will begin to happen. Healing will begin to happen. Deliverance will begin to happen. Because in the darkest and the deadest of nights, when God is hovering on the waters, his words are the words of new life and the words of creation.
He's hovering over your sickness. He's hovering over your broken relationship. He's hovering over your financial situation. He's hovering over your legal troubles. He's hovering over our political fears. He's hovering over the wars all over the world because that's the God we serve. The God we worship is a storm walker.
Jesus comes walking towards them on the boat and the disciples are terrified because they cannot recognize the person coming towards them. Here's a question: What are you going to do when God doesn't look like God?
What are you going to do when your situation is so dire you can't even see that God is in it?
Here's what Peter did. He called out to Jesus who had called out to them. But, let’s listen to what Peter didn't say. He didn't say, “Lord, if it is you, command the winds to die down.” He didn't say, “Lord, if it is you, command the waves to stop tossing this boat about.” He didn't say, “Lord, if it is you, command this boat to get to the other side so we can all be safe.” And he could have. In Matthew chapter eight, all the disciples had already seen Jesus calm the wind and the waves. They knew that he could stop this storm at any moment. But what did Peter say? He said, “Lord, if it is you. Command me.”
I wonder my friends if the thing you're facing right now... The thing that you're frightened will destroy you. This chaotic mess that seems to surround you, the winds that are contrary to everything you're trying to achieve in life isn't there so you can find out that God knows how to calm a storm? Maybe this one is there so you can find out that God knows how to command you.
There's a place in your faith, my friends, where we have to move from assurance faith to endurance faith. Assurance faith says, “I know God is powerful and God can heal. I know God is great and he can provide. I know God is mighty and he can deliver. And I know God will make my situation better for me.” But there's another place in your walk with God, my friends, when you come to realize that some of the things you're going through aren't about finding out if the storm will end, they’re about learning how to walk on it. Because if we can cry out to God in the midst of our storm, if we can recognize who that spirit is walking across our chaotic void, then we can acquire the strength to walk on the water.
That's what Peter did. While all the other disciples were struggling to figure out who this figure is and were scared that they were going to die, Peter recognized the voice of his saviour and followed it.
One more step towards Jesus. The diagnosis is poor, but one more step towards Jesus. We're about to get slammed with tariffs, but one more step towards Jesus. There's war all over the world, but one more step towards Jesus. Your relationship is breaking down, but one more step towards Jesus. All hope seems lost, but if you can just keep taking one more step, you too, my friends, can be storm walkers.
This is the part of the story where we get to beat Peter up, isn't it? You've heard this sermon before, I'm sure, and a preacher often gets to this part and says, well, if Peter had just kept his eyes on Jesus, he never would have sunk. He should have had more faith.
Maybe he should have. But next time you hear a preacher say that, invite them on a fishing trip. In fact, invite 10 on a fishing trip. Because if your boat breaks down, I'm pretty sure seven of them will swim, three of them will sink, and none of them will walk on water. It's easy for us to give Pete heck there, isn't it? And say that he should have done better.
This story isn't about Peter. Do you know how I know this story isn't about Peter? Because the other gospels that tell this story don't even mention Peter's part of it at all. This story is about learning who Jesus is. It's about learning that every single time we take a step towards Jesus, he's always there with his arms open to help us. And guess what?
You're going to fall because all of us do. When you're out there on the storms and you're taking steps towards Christ on the very thing that's supposed to destroy you, there is going to come a time where you slip into the waters because none of us have perfect faith. None of us believe enough to just skate across life as if nothing matters. But if we know who Jesus is, then we can take that little bit of faith we have left and just before we drown, we can cry like Peter did. “Lord, save me!”
In Psalm 124, the psalmist said this: “If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, let Israel say… the waters would have overwhelmed us. The stream would have gone over our soul. The swollen waters would have gone over our soul.” Because sometimes we're this close to life taking us down. Sometimes we're this close to losing and giving up on absolutely everything. But when God is on your side, we can know He will be there to help us and guide us through.
Another psalmist said this: “If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I ride on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.”
Jesus stretched out his right hand and took Peter's. Just as he was about to become engulfed by those dark, watery, chaotic voids of his storm, he lifted Peter up, he walked him back to the boat, and then the storm ended.
He could have calmed the storm at any moment. He could have made it stop at any second. But this wasn't about showing that Jesus can calm storms. This was about showing that Jesus can show you how to master a storm. How to walk on it because when it's all said and done, when you've walked through a few things with your Saviour and you're back on the boat with everybody else, that's the testimony that gets everybody around you to exclaim like these disciples did, “Surely this is the Son of God!”
Do know what makes people believe? It's not always watching a miracle. Sometimes it's watching how you keep your faith when the miracle doesn't happen. Sometimes it's watching how you get up every single day, even when you don't look like you have a good reason to. It's the faith that gets you through atrocity. It's the faith that gets you through injustice. It's not assurance faith anymore. It's endurance faith.
You want to learn how to walk on storms? There are three lessons from this passage that I want you to take from you, with you. The first is this:
Go to the mountain alone.
Before Jesus walked out on the water and did the amazing things he did, he got rid of all the noise, all the people, and spent time alone with the Father, praying, seeking God's face. Why is that important? It's important because if you don't spend time with God, you can't be the person on the boat who recognizes his voice.
Peter was able to walk out to Jesus because out of all the disciples, he recognized Jesus' voice and went out to meet him. If you want to know God's voice, my friends, you have to spend time with God. You have to spend time in prayer. You have to spend time building a relationship with your saviour.
Second thing: When the storms come, because they will come, I can promise you that, pray for God to calm the storm. But if the storm is not calmed, pray for God to command you. Pray that you might find in this chaos, in this mess, in this darkness, something that will make you stronger. Something that will enable you to stand on the very thing that threatens to destroy you. Pray that through all of this, God might make you a storm walker.
And lastly, when you fall, because you will, take that last itty-bitty, minuscule, insignificant grain of faith that you have left and use it to cry out, “Lord, save me!” Because at that moment, at the darkest point of the night when it looks like all else has failed, God promises – and he has never failed to do this – to stretch out his hand and catch you where you are.
So, I can't promise that the storm will cease today, my friends, or next week or next month or next year. But I can promise you that if you know God's voice, if you ask him to guide you and lead you, and if you cry out when you fall, that his right hand will hold you fast. And even though it's hard, God will get to you to the other side for His glory and for our good, that all might say, truly, this is the Son of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.