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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. A saint is not a believer who never fails, but rather a saint is a believer who, when he does fail, and he fails often, gets up and is comforted by Christ’s grace. Do you believe this?
In the text, Peter is the representative of the twelve. And Peter steps out and walks on water. And Peter fails miserably and sinks. And Peter finds rest and comfort in God’s grace and forgiveness and gets back up. Do you believe this? Jesus is God in the flesh. Clearly, before this moment in our text, last Sunday He fed the 5,000, remember, with five loaves and two fish, showing clearly He is God in the flesh. His omnipotent power, feeding not just 5,000 men, but also counting the women and children, 10,000, 20,000 people maybe; regardless, a miracle indeed that shows His being God in the flesh.
Now this same Son of God, knowing full well what is ahead for His twelve, sends them in the boat to go to the other side. He could have said to them, “Start walking, boys, and I’ll meet you there when I get there.” He doesn’t. He sends them, of all places, on the sea. They’re very seasoned fishermen; it should not have been a problem. And yet, they who are in that boat going over, Jesus knows full well what they’re going to encounter. Jesus allows them to be sifted for the sake of strengthening their faith.
Now, while they’re out there being tested in the midst of that water, Jesus does not come walking to them until the fourth watch, and the fourth watch is sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. They’ve been out there on the sea since sundown. While they’re being tossed about in that boat, Jesus is up on the mountain praying. Do these twelve realize for whom Jesus is praying? Jesus is praying a whole host of things of which we do not know, but one we do.
In the midst of all this praying that Jesus is doing, we know He is praying for these twelve in the midst of their being sifted on the sea by God so that their faith would be strengthened and that they would have confidence not in themselves, but in God who is their God. The same God who questioned Job in the Old Testament reading: “Where were you when the earth’s foundations were laid and the water stepped over to one side and cut loose? I am that same God.”
So Jesus, who fed the 5,000, and Jesus who was about to appear to them, shows them He is that same God, but also is full of compassion to saints who fail. Do you believe this? Now, this Jesus, who is the Son of God, could have done anything He wanted to do to accomplish this sifting. He could have let them be scared out of their wits and then brought them to the other side, and He could have been waiting there with fresh fish caught and feeding them, kind of like He did in the post-gospel reading, the post-resurrection. He doesn’t.
He chooses to meet these failures of fear in the midst of their fear and where they are so fearful in that boat. That’s what He chooses to do. He doesn’t choose to find them when they’re at their zenith, their apex, their grandiose moment in the sun. He chooses to find them when they are at their most fearful. And what words come out of God’s mouth when Jesus speaks? The words that do not come out of Jesus’ mouth are these: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” as in sarcastic and “I told you so.” Those are not the words that come out of Jesus’ lips.
Before the disciples cry out to Jesus, before they acknowledge Jesus as Jesus, before He is seen as being Jesus, Jesus speaks words of comfort to them. Look at the text. In the midst of their fear, He says, “Do not be afraid. It is I. Take courage or take heart.” In the midst of their fear, He gives them absolution. Not when they’ve cleaned up their life. Not when they said, “Oh, you don’t need to see this because I’m ashamed of this, Lord.” But when they are at their worst, does Jesus find them and does Jesus speak the words of absolution to them?
And what do those words of absolution do to the twelve? They work. Those words work. So much so, it emboldens Peter to boldly go where no one has gone before, walking on water. Maybe not like your granddad’s clue or riddle. You can walk on water when it’s frozen all you want; you just can’t walk on it when it’s not.
Jesus, while He is walking on the water, and notice when He’s interacting with His disciples, is the water calm? Is the boat being calm? Are the disciples’ fears subduing and being subdued? No. They’re continually ramping up in all of the midst of this conversation. And in the midst of His absolution, their life is still in tumult. Even when Peter steps out in faith, their life is still in tumult.
So Peter goes from doubt to belief. Do you believe this? God’s saints act like this. As I said at the beginning, a saint is not one who never fails. A saint is one who fails often, but gets up and is comforted by the grace of God in Christ Jesus alone.
As Peter is humiliated in front of Jesus, he is also humiliated in front of his peers, the eleven. Here he is, Mr. Bold and Brash, stepping out, walking on water when they didn’t have the chutzpah to do so. He’s humbled by God in their very face. And what does God do? Tsk, tsk? Peter, in faith, still cries out, “Lord, save me.” And what does Jesus do but save him?
Amen. He picks him up with His hand. He saves him in the midst of the wind and the waves. The wind and the waves do not cease until Peter and Jesus get into the boat. Then the winds and the waves are quelled. Jesus continues to deal with Peter in the same way He’s been dealing with Peter from the very beginning and the same way He deals with you. Do you believe this?
For you see, Jesus deals with us who doubt and have faith and doubt and have faith and doubt and have faith. Your and my faith, though it is a constant, is never seen as a constant by ourselves. Because we go through those waves and fears just like Peter. And Jesus never throws Peter to the side, nor does He do the eleven that way. When He comes into the boat, when He has calmed the sea, when He has rescued Peter—not when Peter is walking on the water, but after Peter has failed and the disciples have failed—when He finds them in their failure, when He finds them in the place of their failure, strapping sailors in the midst of their own boat, is the storm calmed and Jesus pulls out of them a confession of faith? Not at their brightest moment, but at their weakest moment, do they make the confession of faith? “Truly you are the Son of God.”
God uses you at your worst. We would love for Him to use us at our best, because then who gets the partial glory? You. But God loves to use us at our worst when we can’t see it, and we shine the brightest because we’re not shining with ourselves, we’re shining with Him.
So He does here. Do you believe this? Jesus allows you to be sifted, knowing full well what you’re going to endure. Jesus prays for you while you’re being sifted, as He prayed for His twelve in the boat as it was storming, knowing full well what they were going through, as He knows full well the fears that well up in your heart.
Jesus comes to you in the midst of your fears, not when you’ve polished yourself and look beautiful, but when you look the most humiliated with the most ruffled tail feathers. Does He find you and bring you comfort and absolution? Before any words, “Lord, save me,” come out of your lips. Before any words come out of your lips, “Lord, save me,” He is there bringing salvation. We finally realize it.
And having failed, He remains faithful in the midst of your failure. Oh, we would not like for that to be true, but it is our comfort. Because then we know it’s not about us, but about His fidelity. A believer, a saint, is not one who never fails, but one who fails often. And gets up in the grace of God and His forgiveness alone, not by himself.
Do you believe this? Let it be done to you as you believe. Let it be done to you as you believe. In the name of Jesus, Amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
