- Aug 9
- 8 min read
August 9, 2026
Matthew 14:22-33; Romans 10:5-15
Our reading from Matthew this morning picks up exactly where we left off last week with the feeding of the 5,000. Listen as God speaks.
READ Matthew
We are a little further along in Paul’s teaching on the Jews relationship with God in light of Christ. Paul does not make short, simple arguments in his letter to Rome. Listen as God continues to speak.
READ Romans
I think I want to focus back with our Matthew ready… and really look at this time in the boat in connection to the miracle that just occurred. Let’s think about this first from within the story… from the point of view of the disciples… they had just witnessed something powerful… the feeding of 5,000 plus people from five loaves and two fish. Now… I’m going to stay with my preferred interpretation that this was a miracle of sharing rather than a miracle of Jesus making the food appear out of thin air. I don’t feel like a miracle of sharing is any less powerful than a miracle of unexplained magic. For me it is more so. An unexplained magical miracle of food appearing out of thin air is amazing. But, if I’m in the crowd… or if I’m a disciple… all it does is make me into a passive witness. I’m amazed… right… and awed at this person of Jesus who could do such things. My focus is on him and on his abilities. But as a disciple or a person in the crowd, I’m not empowered by it. I’m dependent on a miracle of magical proportions… on a magic and power that I don’t possess. If anything, I’m made to feel smaller in my life… if those loaves and fishes are appearing out of thin air.
And is that what Jesus is doing in this gospel? Is that what Jesus is teaching to his disciples?
Again… imagining I’m one of the disciples… when we went and told Jesus he needed to send the crowds home for their own good, I heard Jesus tell us disciples, “The crowd need not go away; you give them something to eat.” If that food magically appeared out of thin air, how do I think about those words now? Was Jesus mocking us? Was that a statement of power… a power I will never have… a statement like so many I’ve heard from people who are in power over me… putting me in my place… reminding me of who I am in relation to them… telling me how only they have the means to solve my problem? Is Jesus just another great figure of power among the little people? As a disciple… sure… I’m allowed to recognize that power… to stand close enough to enjoy maybe some of the benefits of that power… but I am always outside that power. It’s not mine to share.
Is that what the story of the feeding of the 5,000 is about?
Or is there something else happening here? You give them something to eat. What happens when the normal hierarchical framework of the world we’re used to and expect… what happens when that hierarchy gets inverted? Because that’s what Jesus does, isn’t it? He doesn’t come to rule. He comes to serve. The Jesus of great power… the Jesus at the top of the hierarchy… wouldn’t be wasting his time with the common people and this group of nobody disciples. The Jesus of great power would be putting the powerful in their place… showing them how he is greater than they are with their armies and their violence. He would be placing himself above… and taking that seat at the top of the hierarchy… forcing everyone down a notch or two. The Jesus of great power would out rich the rich. He would out violent those who relied on the sword. He would out shame the self-righteous who lorded their greatness over others.
I don’t find that Jesus in the gospels. All he does is bless the fish and break the loaves and then sends the disciples out into the crowd of 5,000 to share what little they have and when all is said and done there are twelve baskets full of left overs. Could it be that his teaching… the example he has been setting… could it be that the crowd has actually been listening… and learning? Could it be that hearts are transforming and growing and being opened by this message of grace and love? Could it be that the crowd who has come to hear Jesus in this deserted place… could it be that they too are tired of playing the same old game the world has been putting upon them? Could it be that they are longing for something different?
The disciples have this experience among the 5,000 and then immediately afterwards Jesus puts them in the boat… there is no discussion about what happened… there is no debriefing where they can try to articulate what they have just experienced. They are put out into the boat and sent off as Jesus dismisses the crowd.
And this is the point in the sermon where I’m going to get all metaphorical with the story because while the story is about a boat on choppy waters… about scared disciples in a boat that might at any moment get swamped and sink… I don’t think the point of this story is nautical at all. I think the churning waters are not about churning waters… but symbolize the churning that is going on within the disciples themselves. This Jesus is inverting their normal ways of seeing the world around them… turning everything on its head. This Jesus isn’t following the well-established rules of power and hierarchy. He is talking about their common faith, but not in the same way that the religious rulers do. Jesus is revealing the blindness of these disciples and he is giving them new eyes to see. He is unstopping their ears and suddenly they are hearing a word from God that the world around them had silenced. He is giving them tongues to speak… to speak as he is speaking. All of this is happening within the disciples at once. The miracle that occurred among those 5,000 wasn’t about the food… it was witnessing what might be as 5,000 dead people started to come to resurrected life. What happens when the emaciated soul is finally fed and a person is made whole as God made them to be? Sure, we would like to think that such a transformation would be wonderfully joyful… but imagine with me the inner chaos that can come when everything you thought to be true turns out to be false… when the very things people have been telling you were wrong or weak… or unrealistic… or even against God… when you learn that what you’ve been calling false so long turns out to be God incarnate.
For the disciples in the boat, it’s easy to imagine the chaos and the rising fear that is happening within each of them.
I like that Matthew tells us how the wind was against them. Because that wind… that force pushing them away from shore where the miracle happened… is the same worldly spirit Jesus has just exposed among the 5,000. And when that worldly spirit gets exposed, it does what it always does: it whips up the waves. It stirs up fear. It tells lies. It warns you that if you let go of the old order, you’ll drown. It threatens to take away the stale, moldy bread it used to buy your loyalty with… as if sickness were better than hunger. That wind knows what happened among the 5,000. It knows that if people ever taste real abundance, real dignity, real resurrection, its days are numbered.
Do not be afraid. Those four words spoken by Jesus are more powerful than any magical miracle we can imagine. Do not be afraid. Now, I know I’m supposed to be distracted again by the amazing and awesome magical miracle of Jesus walking on water… by him again doing what no one else around him can do… this display of power that none of us have… to walk on water. But… the greater miracle than a man actually walking on water… is a man who has no fear because he is one with God. Jesus is not afraid. He is not afraid of the wind… of this worldly spirit whipping up the waves… causing the disciples to grip tighter and tighter to the boat… believing it is the only thing that will save them from the death that surrounds them… from the death that is sure to take them. In the boat is usual worldly salvation. In the boat is where you will do the right thing… where you will stop this transformation… where you bring the healing of Christ to an end and embrace the blindness and deafness and dumbness of the worldly spirit and its rightful hierarchy.
Thankfully Peter isn’t quite ready to give up the salvation of Christ that is happening within him. Is he afraid like the rest of them. Yes! But a new belief has taken a strong root in his heart and so he makes the confession with his mouth. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not saved as the worldly spirit tries to sell us. Saved where we’re now better than others. Saved where we’re now going to receive a reward greater than others. Saved where we’ve reached the pinnacle of the hierarchy. No! Saved through the inverting of grace and love. Saved by being like the Christ who is standing before him… untouched by the fear that is the churning waves.
Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Lord, if it is you, command me to feed the world with five loaves and two fish. Lord, if it is you, teach me to love as you love. Jesus says, “Come.” He could have said to Peter, “Do not be afraid.” And he would have been saying the same thing.
I think it is because Peter is still in a state of transformation from what happened among those 5,000… that he dares to step out of the boat. This is no delusion of grandeur… that Peter believes he is now imbued with the power to work unexplainable, magical miracles. This is a step made in trust of the gospel Jesus is bringing into the world. Peter lets go of his fear and trusts the grace of God. Let’s not forget that in the story… Peter steps out of the boat. Peter stands and walks on the water. Peter… for a moment… is one with God and tastes salvation… until his fear begins to rise and he starts to sink down into it. Or maybe it is fear that drags him down.
Do… not… be… afraid… not of the wind, not of the waves, not of the old order losing its grip.
This week I want you to pay attention to all the voices who are telling you to be afraid. I want you to be aware of how that wind is stirring up the waves around you. Pay attention to all the voices telling you there is a difference between Jew and Gentile… there is a difference between male and female… there is a difference that you need to know and fear… that to be one with God you must fear your neighbor… you must protect what is yours… you must rise above them if you’re going to show yourself to be truly worthy. Listen. And know that not a one of those voices know the salvation of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Step out of the boat… and do not be afraid. Amen.