Analysis Of Matthew 22-33 Jesus Walks On The Sea

Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus Walks on the Sea

Grace and peace to you this day from God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Pastor and author Timothy Keller notes in his book The Reason for God “The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word “trust.” Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyway, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”

There are two things that stood out to me in this story… First, that fear is real and it is powerful. Second, that the promise of God is more powerful than fear.

At the beginning of this very same day, things seemed to be going fairly well. Jesus had just performed one of the greatest miracles of his ministry – first the healing of many people then the feeding of more than five thousand--making a measly five loaves of bread and two fish multiply to serve the multitude. The disciples must have been bursting with joy and awe as they walked back and forth through the crowd picking up twelve basketfuls full of leftovers. Amazing!

And then things