Matthew 14: 22-33
[After the outdoor meal of bread and fish] Jesus immediately herded his disciples into a boat to travel thereby to the other side, while he stayed behind to disperse the crowds, following which he went up the mountain by himself to pray. He stayed there alone until the daylight began to wane by which time the boat [with his disciples in it] had made already considerable distance from land and was being lashed by waves because they were sailing against the wind. About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the surface of the water. They were frightened because they were sure they were seeing a ghost. "It is a ghost," they shouted in fear. Jesus spoke to them immediately and said, "Take heart, it is I. No need to be afraid." Peter [never satisfied] asked Jesus to prove it was he by asking him to come across the water to Jesus. Jesus obliged, saying, "All right. Come here." Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on the surface of the water toward Jesus. But with the wind blowing directly at him, he was overwhelmed by fear and began to sink, crying out, "Master! Save me!" With that, Jesus put out his hand and took told of him, saying, "Your trust is insufficient. Why did you hesitate?" By the time [Jesus got Peter] back in the boat, the wind had subsided. Those [who had remained] in the boat were awe-struck and paid him homage, saying "You really must be God's son." (Translated and paraphrased by Harry T. Cook.)
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The "walking on water" bit has provided grist for dozens of bad jokes. And preachers who take the text literally are a dime a dozen and none of them worth a cent. One has to give the first century gospel writers credit for not writing nonsense, and it would have been then as it is now nonsense to suggest that a human being could walk on water that had not frozen into ice. Thus such a text as this takes some work to parse if the homilist or bible class leader can help inquirers wrestle with it to good effect.
The Western, linear, literalist mind has done great violence to this narrative that is Markan in origin and which Matthew -- but not Luke -- appropriated. Jesus "walking on the water" is, in the common mind, proof that he was able to defy gravity because he was "the Son of God." The first century mind, however, would have understood that Mark, then Matthew, was identifying Jesus with the organizing power of Genesis 1:1ff astride the primordial chaos that the sea inevitably represented in antiquity. The Gospel of John with its metaphor of logos would come along to state the idea more directly.
The "storm at sea" narrative follows immediately in Mark and Matthew the narrative of the feeding of the 5,000, and one is moved to ask what may have been intended by the proximity. For Mark, it becomes a letdown because even after "the loaves" the disciples could not figure out with what and with whom they were dealing. Matthew pins that inability directly on Peter but uses the incident to demonstrate Peter's colleagues as praising Jesus as God's Son. These same folk in Mark's version were said to be of hardened heart (καρδίαπεπωρωμένη), but more in the sense of "not getting it, "or somewhat impervious to stimulus, or as C.S. Mann suggests "obtuse." That picture of the disciples probably reflects the situation at a 40-year remove and the 50-year remove, respectively, at which Mark and Matthew were compiled. It seems clear that the communities out of which the canonical gospels came were second-generation Jesus followers who had never known the Jesus of whom their evangelists had written.
Matthew's image of the disciples "discovery" of the Son of God in their midst is notable for its foreshadowing of Peter's confession at 16:16, and that of the centurion and company at 27:54. But Peter is two chapters away from that belief at this point, so he founders. And it will not be for the last time -- see 26:69-75.
Just a note here about the behavior of Peter as Matthew depicts it. It is said that Peter was doing just fine for a moment on the surface of the sea until he "hesitated." Jesus wanted to know: "Why did you hesitate?" The Greek here is έδιστασας. A form of that word appears in Matthew at 28:18 when it is said that "some hesitated" at seeing and hearing Jesus on the mountain in Galilee. The fourth gospel depicts Thomas essentially as "hesitating" as well, not being inclined to accept the idea of resurrection without proof.
It seems significant enough to mention that following the mass feeding episode Jesus forcibly sends his disciples to proceed "to the other side" without him - or "before him" (προάγειν from προάγω "to lead on or lead forth.") Having gone on ahead, the disciples almost immediately find themselves in trouble, even though they are depicted as having done Jesus' bidding. Talk about a pretty clear hint about life among Jesus Jews in the last third of the first century -- stormy sea and all. The reality of the situation was that the putative leader of this new movement had died almost before the movement got under way. All the community had was its "courage to be." Mark's experience seemed largely to have been that there wasn't much of that (6:52) and, most notably, at 16:8! Matthew's experience (or hope) was more optimistic.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the story is the terror or φόβος, in Homer "flight" and here "that which causes flight." It is what the disciples experience as they perceive Jesus astride the waves of the sea. Actually what they are depicted as seeing is a φάντασμα or something that appears to be but is not -- or something that is not commonly found as it is seen. This may be the evangelists telling their audiences that Jesus becomes visible to those dedicated to his teaching whenever they encounter trouble. If only (as Mark has it) they understood "about the loaves," they would see that he abides with them in their "share-meal" (J. D. Crossan) -- which they do to remember him.
The idea is that Jesus may appear as a φάντασμα in the mutual love and purpose of such a community. But he is there nonetheless. Therefore, those who, like Peter, take the plunge are to understand that their acts of courage are neither careless nor witless, but just one of those things a person has to do when push comes to shove. The community then becomes the one who reaches out to catch the one whose courage has caused him to take the plunge on behalf of others who remain in the boat. If everyone were to jump overboard at once, the boat would become flotsam, and there would be no one to effect rescue.
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Ecclesiastical architecture has often represented the church as a ship, hence the term "nave" for the main part of the building. Any watercraft worthy of the name is buoyed by the substance upon which it moves. The object is for the thing to be kept afloat. And it cannot be so kept if sailors who know what they're doing are not at the helm and have hold upon the sheets and tiller to maneuver the craft with or against the current, the tide or the wind.
The "walking-on-the-water" image is the flash of the passage at hand. Like the sensational television teasers ("World ending: Film at 11") that scene grabs the spotlight. But it is not the point of the story. The point of the story is that Jesus is depicted as sending his disciples off on their own. They encounter trouble, but nothing about which he could do very much. Jesus was never said to have been an expert mariner. Legend is that he was a carpenter, or at least the son of one. But some of disciples were supposedly fishermen and could presumably handle a boat.
Nevertheless, the evangelist says that Jesus came to them in the midst of that trouble - or seemed to do so. The Big Mouth in the crowd -- elsewhere called The Rock -- seemed to have forgotten about the trouble he and his friends were in and what should be done to keep the boat from capsizing. Peter had the unmitigated gall to ask the phantasm to prove he was Jesus by bidding him (Peter) to advance across the waves.
In that pointless exercise, Peter's resolve collapses and he begins to go under, requiring rescue. He never should have left the boat in the first place because it had not yet got to where it was bound. He should not have left the boat to prove or to seek proof.
What a model for what the church has consistently done wrong for time out of mind! Instead of "going on before" and getting to the appointed destination as bidden by the Christ, its raison d'etre, it jumps its own ship leaving the helm to swing to and fro with the sea's vagaries, all to engage in angels-on-pinheads theology. No wonder it finds itself on the verge of being swamped.
Whoever Jesus was in either imagination or real life, whatever his agenda for the world, he is long since gathered to his fathers. If you see him walking toward you on the water, you are delusional. If, however, your ship gets into trouble, don't be having visions. Keep your mind on where it is you are supposed to be getting, tend to the helm, the sheets and to keeping your craft afloat. He sent you on ahead. Get yourself there.
