Ninth Sunday after Pentecost; The Holy Apostles Silas and Silvanus and those with them
1 Corinthians 3:9-17; Matthew 14:22-34.
Read Matthew 14:22-34
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
How do we “see” wind? By its effects. So, when Peter was afraid when “he saw the wind,” what effects did he see?
A first-century Sea of Galilee fishing boat was about 30 feet long. The disciples were rowing off-course into the wind to prevent being capsized so, for a boat that long, the waves would have been at least 9 feet. A trip that might only have taken 1 hour had been going on for 10. Whatever calm there was around Jesus, the wind (and, therefore, the waves) did not cease until he got into the boat. Religious paintings do not do justice to what this text says about the waves, and that doesn’t do justice to what Jesus means for the world.
When Peter “saw” the wind, what he saw was the waves and “he was afraid.” How could he not have seen them in such a situation? This story is less about what we see and more about understanding and remembering what is revealed about Jesus regardless of what we see.
Mark 6:52 connects Jesus’ walking on water to his feeding of the 5000 – Jesus’ command of watery chaos is the same as him being revealed as the One who fed Israel manna in the wilderness. Israel came out of a religious culture in which mythical deities personified the chaos of the seas and the conflict of the elements. But God revealed that, “In the beginning… the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters,” sovereignly creating and ordering everything just by saying so without having to overcome anyone else or be subject to the created elements. Today’s gospel is saying, in being “the Son of God,” Jesus is God the Son: “Take heart, it is I.”