Saturday, March 14, 2009

Today’s Passage: Matthew 14

I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to been one of the people in the crowds that always seemed to follow Jesus. Would I have been a Jesus fanatic and followed Him everywhere? I do know this, that if I was able to, I definitely would not have had any doubt that he is in fact the son of God. In today’s passage, we read of a three major events: the beheading of John the Baptist, Jesus feeding over 5,000 people, and Jesus and Peter walking on water.

It has been a while since I have heard a sermon on Peter walking on water, so that is what stuck out to me in today’s passage. Typically the sermon is directed toward Peter’s radical side of asking to walk on water with Jesus and his quick loss of faith when on the water or in the midst of doing what He asked Jesus if He could do. These facts have many lessons for practical Christian living today. I think, how many times that I have prayed for something to happen, and when some “door” opened for the purpose of making that prayer a reality, I only had more doubt about how things were going to play out. And to think that Peter had Jesus right there in front of him! Oh how we can be a people of little faith.

 

But, I would like to focus our attention on Jesus. This entire chapter seems to point to Jesus actions. Whether this be in his praying for John the Baptist’s loss of life, feeding the five thousand, or walking on water; the entire chapter is focusing on Him. Take a look with me at verse 31, “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" While Peter was denying the laws of gravity and walking on water, he turned his attention off of Jesus onto the more imminent wind that probably was fiercely beating on him. Now I had to think, Jesus probably was well aware of the fact that the wind was blowing before He invited Peter to come out there with Him. So even to transport this lesson into today’s happenings, we can be sure of the fact that Jesus knows what’s going on and even knows what we will face ahead of time. We also can rest assured that He is not going to send us into something that we cannot handle, so long as we keep our focus on Him. The main point I wanted to point out though, is Christ’s first action when Peter cried out for help. Christ immediately reached out His hand. It does not say Christ rebuked Peter, or any other thing. Rather, Jesus acted to save Him.

It is a reassuring thing to know that the God of the universe is looking out for me and that He reaches out His hand in my times of little faith. Challenge for today: Where is your focus? Has it left Jesus to the trials and issues that come about every day?