Jesus And Peter Walk On Water

One of the most famous stories from the Bible is where Jesus walks on the water. We have seen everything from shirts stating "The next time you think you're perfect, try walking on water." to a Jesus walking on water figurine to the picture above. It's just a famous story and a famous part of Jesus' life, but I think that for most of us, we miss something very important in it.

I have always focused on a few different things in this passage (Matthew 14:22-36) and yesterday when I heard Debi Tengler teach on this subject, something new jumped out at me. For years, I concentrated on the fact that Jesus didn't just call Peter to walk on the water, He simply said "Come." He invited them all on to the water. I also concentrated on the fact that Peter was able to walk on the water until he took his eyes off of Jesus. Yesterday, something new hit me that kind of floored me.

In verse 31, Jesus asks Peter: "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" I always thought that Jesus was coming down on Peter pretty hard, that Peter only had a "little faith." It always seemed to me that Peter had great faith because he walked on the water with Jesus and that Jesus was just tearing him down because he doubted, but yesterday this became new to me.

Just a little later, in Matthew 17, Jesus tells the disciples that "...if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." You see, this has a tremendous impact on the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water. Jesus tells all of the disciples that if you have even a little faith, you can do anything.

Let's jump back to Matthew 14. Jesus says to Peter "you of little faith." Is this a rebuke or an encouragement? All of my life I thought this was a rebuke. I thought that Jesus was scolding Peter for doubting. But when we read on in chapter 17, we can clearly see that Jesus isn't scolding Peter, but He is encouraging him. He is telling Peter, "Man, you had enough faith to walk on water! You did it! Way to go! Nothing is impossible for you! So why did you doubt?" When we put these 2 passages side by side, we see that Jesus is really telling Peter that he has what he needs to accomplish anything. The problem wasn't the amount of faith that Peter had, it was that he let doubt creep in on his faith. Jesus wasn't scolding Peter, but encouraging him to continue to put his faith in to action. That by acting on faith, he can accomplish anything.