Come

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

COME

Matt 14:22-33

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."  28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"  32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."

NIV

If we were just to take the words of Jesus here, it would be a great lesson itself. “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid. Come, You of little faith, Why do you doubt?” Those words could apply to the summoning of people to the kingdom of God, the call for salvation, the call to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. It takes courage to believe in that which we cannot see, especially in the face of opposition. Although it seems many believe in ghosts, in the supernatural, the paranormal, but they endeavor to find proof of their reasons for such belief, whether it is true or false proof matters not, as long as they proved they saw that which they believe. We, on the other hand are asked to believe without any proof, other than of course this book we call the bible. How can we prove God? No one has ever seen him and lived to tell about it. Well, that sure smacks of sarcasm. Moses saw God and lived to tell about it, even if it was his back side, he saw him. The disciples saw God, in the flesh, and lived to tell the whole world about it. We are in the midst of one of those accounts, Matthew is telling us all about his encounter with the living Son of God, who is in fact still God. We need to take courage. We have already come to Jesus. At least we hope we have come all the way. Have we actually stepped out of the boat? There is a lot of symbolism in that stepping out of the boat. The boat represents all that we know which sustains us in the midst of life itself. It is the physical realm of our reality, what we can see, what we can trust to provide a means to live, and even a way of live itself, being not just used for transportation, but for a means to support ourselves and our family, a vessel to catch fish. Here Jesus beckons us to step out onto the water, a place that is outside the realm of our reality, but is in the realm of his reality. There are a whole lot of places or ways we could go with that statement. Perhaps each person would go somewhere a little different with it. We would travel to the place where we need to get past our realm of reality and get into his. What does that look like? We perceive the physical means of supporting life as the only means. We have been taught since childhood we need to learn as much as we can, get some form of education which will enable us to attain a career which will provide us with all the material goods of our desires. We have been programmed to aim for success in the world, both in stature and material gain.  It is true some people seem to aim higher than others and seem to be in a position to have a leg up, so to speak, on others. But we all want basically the same thing from life. Jesus is telling us to step out of that reality, our reality and step into his. He has a different way of life. He tells us to live by faith. He tells us the righteous will live by faith.

Rom 1:16-17

 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith ."  

NIV

2 Cor 5:7-8

7 We live by faith , not by sight.

NIV

The sight is the boat, the water is the faith, Peter was asked to come out of the boat and to stand on the water by faith. He did it, at least for a little while until us came to the realization he was not in the boat, but on water, outside his physical realm. He got distracted by his perceptions of reality and began to sink, but when he yelled out to Jesus to save him, all was well, and he was back in the realm of Jesus, and they walked together to the boat. Peter became afraid despite Jesus telling him not to be afraid. It is possible for us to be afraid at times living by faith, in the realm of Jesus rather than relying on our own physical realm which we might be more comfortable with. Taking courage is overcoming being afraid, it may not eliminate the fear, but courage allows us to function beyond the fear. Yet, when we look at our physical circumstance and fear begins to grip our heart, when can call out to Jesus and he is there to talk hold of us, lift us above our situations and bring us safely to a place of security as well as calm that storm which troubles us. Is there any reason to doubt this? Do we hear our Lord telling us we have little faith in him, that we doubt he will sustain us in our hour of need? We hear him calling, “Come”.