Reflection: August 9, 2026
Sunday’s gospel (Matt 14:22-33) follows immediately after last week’s gospel, when Jesus fed the 5,000. It also refers back to the opening elements of that gospel,
When Jesus heard...that Herod had beheaded his cousin John the Baptist... he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place... (Matt 14:13)
Jesus had sought out a place to pray and reflect, perhaps recalling his baptism by John. Instead, early in last week’s gospel we learned that,
the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
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As this morning’s gospel begins, Jesus has fed the crowd, and the disciples have picked up the remainder.
Immediately, Jesus 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...
Despite the interruption for curing and feeding, Jesus still wanted to pray and perhaps to reflect on the meaning of the capricious and cruel murder of his cousin and its significance for him.
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The gospel shifts from Jesus in prayer to the disciples in the boat,
...but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.
It had been a difficult night for the disciples. At least four of them were fishers and would have had experience with the wind and waves, but the storm that night was more violent.
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And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.
This is highly unusual! Not only was he walking on the water, but in conditions where the disciples were having difficulty managing the boat.
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."
Perhaps the wind-driven spray in the dull light of early morning obscured the disciples’ vision and they did not recognize Jesus. Beyond that, the sight of someone walking on the water defied experience... and physics.
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Jesus’ reassuring words, it is I have a rich background. In Isaiah 41:2-4 God asks several rhetorical questions
Who has roused a victor from the east, summoned him to his service?
He delivers up nations to him, and tramples kings under foot; he makes them like dust with his sword,
like driven stubble with his bow....
Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?
It is I, the Lord,
The phrase functions as a divine name. (Isaiah 43:10 also uses the expression in the same way.)
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Then he added, do not be afraid, a phrase that has a spiritual as well as a physical sense – Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Fear rather, the one who can kill the body and the soul... (Matt 10:28)
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The gospel continues
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?"
Peter had seen that Jesus had special powers. He asked Jesus, impulsively, to let him share the same defiance of physics and to share this divine power. (As a fisher and sailor, the ability to walk on water must have tickled his imagination as a useful and great power) Nevertheless, Peter’s impetuousness faded fast when he realized that he was really walking on the water. He had faith, but it was little, or shallow.
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When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
This was the second time that Jesus had calmed the wind and the waves. Earlier, (chapter 8) when he had been asleep in the boat, and a storm came up, the disciples were all afraid, and woke him,
And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. (Matt 8:26)
The disciples’ exclamation ... “Truly you are the Son of God... while true, seems strange. They had seen Jesus work many miracles (Matt 4, 8, 9) had heard him teach (The beatitudes, Matt 5, 6 & 7) had learned how to pray (Our Father (Mat 6:9-12) and had received from him the power to teach and heal (Matt 10). Hadn’t Jesus’ relationship to God been clear before this?
Like Peter, their faith in him was little and needed constant reinforcement. Jesus’ disciples had just seen him cure and feed people. But the sight of him walking on the water in the middle of a storm, calming the waves, surpassed the prior miracles, in their minds.... at least temporarily.
Even though the disciples had many dramatic indications that Jesus was divine, they still feared. While we have been blessed by the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we lack the in-person contact with Jesus’ miracles and our faith may, sometimes, be little.
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· Imagine being one of the crowd who had watched Jesus heal and been fed. Then he said something like, ‘The evening is coming. It’s time for you to go back to your homes.’ How do you react? Are you suddenly sad that this marvelous day has ended? Do you go in peace? Do you want to stay with Jesus for a bit more time and savour his company?
· How do you think of Jesus walking on water? Was it some kind of optical illusion? Was it some kind of “party trick”? How do you think of Peter’s ability to walk on water when Jesus called him? Was that an illusion too? or does it have something to teach? (That Jesus was the master of creation? That faith in Jesus enables powerful things?)
· Have there been times when your own faith was little or shallow? What turned that around? Was it a reversal or your worst fears? Was it in reflection and prayer? Was it an external event... with internal implications?
Peace,
Deacon Michael