Jesus asked Peter, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” What is doubt and why do we doubt? Doubt, we are told in dictionaries is the lack of certainty of what was once perceived as truth. What makes us doubt? Frankly, lots of things can make us doubt. As Christians, unexpected situations happen, something with our jobs, something with our health, something with our families, and we begin to doubt the goodness or promises of God. Or perhaps people we know and trust say things and we begin to doubt what we have always believed. Frankly, it is easy to figure out why people doubt. But what about the other side of the coin, what helps us to grow in faith? What helps us stand firm in our faith? What can we do when we are, like Peter, suddenly attacked with doubt and fear?
Last week we read a miracle about which all the gospels writers wrote and this week we read of one to which only Matthew refers. After the feeding of the five thousand men and their wives and children, Jesus sends the disciples on their boat to a place across the Sea of Galilee several miles away, a relatively short trip. They are not eager to leave Jesus, it is either getting dark or already dark, but he sends them on anyway. Jesus himself dismisses the crowds and he goes up on the mountain to pray. Meanwhile the disciples are out on the lake and shortly after leaving Jesus they have encountered a wind which is blowing against them. So a trip that ordinarily would take about 40 minutes has now elapsed into hours. They are rowing like crazy but still the wind continues to blow them further from their destination and south into the center of the lake. Between 3 and 6 am, the Bible says the 4th watch of the night; Jesus finishes praying and begins to walk on top of the lake to where he had sent the disciples. They are still trying to obey Jesus and get over to where he sent them and they are still struggling with rowing the boat against the wind. Six hours of rowing, they are tired and wet and they although they can see the other side of the lake in the distance they just cannot get over there. We are not told whether or not there is a moon out that night or whether there are only the stars, but despite the winds and waves the disciples could see out beyond the boat some several hundred yards. One of them notices it at first. He looks over there and he sees something on the water. He begins to peer closer and perhaps he even stops rowing to stare which then of course affects the next guy who also begins to look in that direction. Pretty soon all of them are looking. These are all relatively tough, strong men in their 20s and 30s. If you were there, what would you think if you saw what looked like a person on top of the water? You know that people can’t be on top of the water so what other options are there, right? They come to the only logical conclusion they can; they are all seeing a ghost! And they are scared. But just as soon as they cry out in fear, this figure on the water says, “Take heart; be courageous, it is I. Don’t be afraid.” The disciples are stunned. Then Peter says, “Lord, if it is really you, tell me to come out on the water with you.” It is hard to know exactly what Peter was thinking at this time. Notice, nobody else in the boat says anything. They don’t want to go walk on the water. Jesus says to Peter, “Come.” So Peter hops out of the boat and walks over towards Jesus.
Is Peter really even thinking about what he is doing at this point? We know he tends to be impetuous. So was this a spur of the moment thing and he is out of the boat and half way to Jesus before he really even realizes what he has done? And then suddenly he does realize what he has done and he looks around and sees the wind and the waves and realizes he is in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and the water is at least 100 feet deep where he is standing. At that point of clarity he knows people cannot stand on top of water and he begins to sink. Instead of trying to run back to the boat, he turns to Jesus and says, “Lord save me!” Jesus reaches out immediately and grabs his arm, pulls him up to the surface of the water and says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Well, at first glance, it seems like kind of a silly question doesn’t it? I mean, it is obvious why Peter doubted. He knew that what he was doing was impossible; he looked around and became terrified. People do not stand on top of water; they sink or swim. Jesus though apparently thought Peter should have been able to keep it up.
Why did you doubt? Why do I doubt? What happens so that we doubt? Typically we doubt when, just like Peter, things look like they are going to turn out bad. We may have started out thinking that things were going to go OK but now something has happened and things don’t look very good. We look around and all we can see are the waves and wind and we know that we can’t walk on water. Or to put it in today’s language, we look around and see the problems we are facing and realize these problems are huge and we can’t fix them and we don’t think anybody can.
Why did Jesus ask Peter that question? Why did he expect Peter to carry on without doubting, without being afraid? How could have Peter remained on top of the water and how can we defeat our own doubts when they try to sink us? Two ways are found in our text.
The first is to remember. Peter should not have doubted because after all, he had been walking on the water with Jesus so it should have made sense Jesus would not let him drown. Peter had a long list of things that Jesus had already done that clearly had already shown power over nature, things like healing people, like multiplying bread and fish, like turning water into wine. Further Peter had only recently come back from taking part in a mission trip where he and the other guys had healed the sick and cast out demons. He knew and had experienced God’s power in a personal way. So Peter should have remembered. This lesson goes for us too. We have an advantage on Peter in that we know the whole story about Jesus. He was still piecing it together, but we know that he is the Christ. We know that he is God in the flesh. We know that he came to die for us and loves us; last week we read in Romans, “and what can separate us from the love of Christ!” The answer is: nothing! Plus we can look back on our own experiences and in fact should look back on our own and others’ experiences and remember how God has helped in the past. We can look back to remember how God has answered our prayers. In the Old Testament we read where God had the ancient Jews make monuments after He had helped them so later whenever they would see this pile of rocks or another monument they would remember how God had rescued them and continue to have faith in Him. So we need to remember how God has helped us and others. Indeed this is one of the reasons we have Eucharist every week to remember God’s great love for us.
The second way is to pray for help. And this is what Peter did. He may not have remembered what he should have, but he had a great and effective prayer for help. He said, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out and grabbed Peter by the arm and lifted him back up to the top of the water. I want you to notice that the wind and waves did not go away at this point. But Peter was back on top of the water. His faith and confidence in Jesus are back. When we are in a bad situation we need to have faith in God’s care and goodness. But just like in Peter’s case, the faith kept him on top of the water—it did not stop the wind and waves. It did not diminish the fact that he was standing in a very dangerous place. Prayer then is another effective counter to doubt and fear and helps us to continue to have faith, faith in the goodness of God through Jesus.
“O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” May God help us to grow in faith and in times of trial; and when doubts and fears attack us, may we remember all He has done for us and like Peter, turn to Christ for help.
