Matthew 14

Radical Faith!

In the context of Matthew 14, we are given the account of a few different stories that have been taken to the extreme.

We read from Matthew 14:1-12 about the beheading of John the Baptist.

From verses 13-21 the feeding of 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Imagine that! To be one of the persons in the crowd, starving, wanting food, being impatient, and yet being full from a meal that could feed 2 people, fed 5,000 people.

And from verses 22-33, Jesus walks on water. This is where I want to focus our attention right now.

We read of radical faith in John the Baptist, trusting in God regardless of him dying for a little girl’s birthday present, by deceit from her mother. We see the radical faith of the disciples being obedient to Jesus to bring forth the food for the multitude. And then we see the radical faith of Peter, seeing God on the water, and being able to work up the courage to get out of the boat and to walk towards Jesus.

When reading verses 22-33, we may be saying to ourself, “yeah right, how could someone walk above the water?” Oh you of little faith! The reason we think of it to be impossible is because it is an “off-the-wall” thing to try and to imagine someone walking on water, who isn’t God, but Peter was curious, he wanted to know what was really happening.

What do we learn from this in Matthew 14? Is it the amount of faith that Peter had, and we can learn from that? Yeah sure we can. Is it the power of the Lord that He has the ability to walk on the water? Yes, of course because He is God and the waves bow at His presence. Or is it the small amount of faith that Peter had in relying upon Jesus?

I think it is the last statement. Why do I say that? Because if Peter continued on walking and kept His eyes on Jesus, he would have not started to sink. But because he was distracted by the waves, because he saw the force of the wind tossing and turning, he became afraid. Once he stopped focusing on Jesus, he started to sink and he started to drown.

Peter said to “the ghost”, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” And then when Jesus heard what he said, “Come.” He went onto the water, he saw Jesus, then he saw the wind, and then he sank.

Now there is something in this text that not too many really see. Jesus told him to come, he was obedient but he was not consistent when he went out in his step of faith, but he did not rely fully on the Lord.

When God calls you to be obedient and to take the radical step of faith, do you take that step of faith? Do you go full-hearted or half-hearted?

2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “for we walk by faith and not by sight,”. That’s it. There it is. FOR WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT! Peter was walking by sight, he wasn’t walking by faith. He saw the things around him that instilled a trembling fear into him, because he was not walking by faith.

Let us live the example in our own lives, “for we walk by faith and not by sight.”