“And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those who were in the boat came and worshipped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:31-33
These verses are right at the end of the famous scene where Jesus calls Peter to come walk on the water with Him in the middle of a terrible storm. Peter faithfully jumps out of the boat and starts walking on the water, but when He takes his eyes off of Jesus and looks at the terror of the waves surrounding him, he begins to sink. Often this event is seen as a failure for Peter who didn’t have enough faith in Jesus to keep walking on the water. Of course, Jesus clearly points out that Peter did begin to doubt, and that his faith is small. But this is only part of what’s going on. This trial is actually a demonstration of Peter’s, and all the disciples’, increasing faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the second time Jesus and His disciples were caught in a mighty storm in the middle of sea. The first time was in Matthew 8 at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Right after the Sermon on the Mount Jesus and His disciples get into a boat in order to cross over to the other side of the sea. The storm is so bad that the disciples are in a panic believing they are going to die. Jesus calms to the storm with a word. The disciples’ response to this demonstration of power and authority is, “Who is this?”
This second time, after having been with Jesus for a few years now, Peter has enough faith in Jesus to jump out of the boat in the middle of the stormy sea and even walk on the water at least for a little bit. Peter’s faith is growing. The Lord using these difficult, scary events in their life, these trials, to reveal and strengthen their faith, their trust in Jesus. Just as James 1:2 tells us that we should rejoice in our trials because the testing of our faith makes us more complete, more perfect in our faith. This is exactly what happened. At the end of this second storm instead of asking, “Who is this?” the disciples declare, “Truly You are the Son of God.”
Therefore, as disciples of Jesus Christ, when we find ourselves in the midst of a terrible trial, we should keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not on the storm raging around us. But if we should struggle and doubt, the disciple who cries out to Lord to save him will be lifted up and have his little faith strengthened. For the Christian, trials come in order to strengthen our faith so that we too can more boldly believe and declare that Jesus is the Son of God, even in the midst of the storm.
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn