Why Get on the Water?

What I think is most amazing about the story of Peter walking on the water is that HE ASKED TO BE INVITED!

Why would anyone ask to do what was so dangerous and unbelievable?  And remember he makes that request soon after thinking Jesus was a fearful ghost!  Notice that none of the other disciples were that foolish!  The boat meant safety.  The boat was the prudent thing to do.  When trying to cross a lake during a storm you SHOULD use a boat.  Why would you want to get on the water?  That is foolishness!

Rob Bell in one of his Nooma videos (Dust) talks about the roles of master and disciple in the first century.  Rob says that the Rabbis were like rock stars today, that a disciple wanted to become just like his rabbi.  I think he is right but this event in the life of Peter goes beyond that.  The other disciples also wanted to be like Jesus but they didn't get out of the boat.

Others would say that Peter asked to join Jesus because he was impulsive and didn't really know what he was saying.  He saw something cool and wanted to be the first to experience it also.  I can see the truth in that as well but I think it goes deeper still.

Perhaps Peter's love for Jesus was so strong that he just had to be closer to Jesus.  It is interesting that the Gospel of John, written by the "beloved disciple" talks about the trip across the lake but does not mention what Peter did.  Is it possible that Peter's love upstaged John's in this event?  That is purely speculation, but I do think Peter had a great love for Jesus.  But still there is more in Peter's motivation in asking to come out to Jesus on the water.

Maybe Peter had been ruminating over what he had just experienced a few hours earlier.  Jesus and the disciples had been on the far shore of the Sea of Galilee with a great multitude of people.  There were over 5,000 people and they were hungry.  Jesus said to the disciples, "YOU give them something to eat."  Jesus had invited them all to do the miraculous, and they refused!  So Jesus proceeded to feed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish.  They ended up with twelve baskets of leftovers!!!!  Peter had seen one miraculous event that day and now out on the water he was seeing another!  He wondered if the invitation to do the miraculous was still open and so he asked Jesus to call him out on the water.

Peter stepped from safety to incredible fear and uncertainty because he wanted to live in a miracle!

Last Tuesday we wrote our rent check to our landlady and I felt we needed to include a note saying that our future is up in the air right now.  Although I am looking for a local job, we are not sure I will find one and may have to move to another state.  I have been guaranteed enough $ to pay rent for March and April and so I promised our landlady that we would be around through April at least.  I felt bad writing that note because I know she depends on our rent check to make ends meet.  She has been very kind to us and I know how hard it is to find good renters.

On Wednesday I received a phone call from our landlady.  She was a bit hesitant as she began and said, "I hate making this call, but I need to move back into my home."  I laughed!  I told her about my note which hadn't reached her yet.  I told her I was relieved that she needed to move back in to her home.

Now we have to move by the end of April.  It is no longer a maybe.  I guess some people would look at the news as bad news.  Maybe the other disciples looked at Jesus' invitation to Peter as bad news, "Peter!  Don't you know that you are stepping out of the safety of the boat?"

I, along with Peter, choose to look at the news as an invitation to join my wonderful, loving, exciting Savior to live in a miracle!