Matthew 14:22-33
My brother and sister-in-law got their daughter, Courtney, from social services when she was six months old. She hadn’t had a very good life in those six months, and she and her two older sisters were finally removed permanently from their mother’s custody. It took awhile for Courtney to adjust to her new family, which included one of her own older sisters and two other girls who were already living with Philip and Angelina. But once she became attached to my sister-in-law, it was a deep bond. Once Courtney started walking, she tried to keep up with the older girls, of course. She would follow them around the house or back yard. But every once in a while, she would jerk her head around to make sure that she could still see Angelina. If she could see her, then all was right with her world and she would keep on playing with her sisters. But if she couldn’t see Angelina, she would screw up her face and yell at the top of her lungs. As long as she could keep her eyes on her mom, then she felt safe and content.
There was a time when Peter learned the importance of keeping his eyes on Jesus in order to feel safe. It was a day that had been very busy and difficult for Jesus. He had gotten word that his cousin, John, had been killed by King Herod. So Jesus went out to a solitary place by himself to pray. But the crowds followed him there, bringing with them people who were sick and wanted to be made well. So, Jesus had compassion on them and spent the day ministering to them, setting aside his own need to grieve. When the day grew late, the disciples told Jesus he should send the crowd away so that the people could find food for themselves in the villages. But instead, Jesus had them give him what food they had – five loaves of bread and two fish – and he blessed it, gave it to the disciples, had them give it to the people, and ended up feeding all five thousand men, plus women and children, with twelve baskets full of leftovers.
Finally, Jesus sent the disciples across the lake in the boat, telling them that he would meet them on the other side. Then he finally had the time to be alone, to pray and to grieve and to recharge. So the disciples set out across the lake and Jesus withdrew into the hills for his quiet time alone.
The disciples soon began to have a rough time of it out there on the water. Apparently a big storm was brewing, and the wind picked up. There were huge waves and the disciples were working to keep the boat on course. Then around 3:00 in the morning, they looked up and saw Jesus walking towards them on the water. When they saw him, they were scared to death and thought that it must be a ghost. But Jesus called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. It’s just me.”
Then something amazing happened. Peter, apparently unconvinced that this was Jesus and not some group hallucination, shouted out, “If it’s really you, Lord, then tell me to come to you on the water.” You have to admire him for his gumption. But then you have to admire him even more for what happened next. Jesus called back to Peter, “Come on, then.” And Peter threw his leg over the side of the boat, stepped out onto the water, and started to walk towards Jesus.
At first, Peter must have been amazed that he was able to do such a thing. People just don’t walk on water, after all. He stared at Jesus with awe and respect, and probably a million questions in his mind. He was actually walking on water! It couldn’t be! But it was. And then Peter took his eyes off Jesus and looked around and started to realize where he was. He was standing on water that was probably about a hundred feet deep. He saw the waves and felt the wind. And Peter got scared. He looked away from Jesus, and focused on other things, and he started to sink.
But Peter had the good sense and the faith to call out to Jesus for help. And Jesus reached out and took Peter by the hand and got him into the boat safely. The disciples responded to everything they had seen by worshiping Jesus and saying, “You are surely the Son of God.”
It seems to me that one of the lessons in this story is that it matters what we are looking at in life. Peter was fine as long as he was looking at Jesus. But as soon as he took his eyes off Jesus, he started to sink. That’s how it is for us, too. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus if we want to move ahead in the life of faith. When we look anywhere else, that’s when we get into trouble. We get in over our heads and we start to sink.
What are you looking at in your life? Are you keeping your eyes on Jesus? If you are like me, you really try to do that, but it seems that there is always something to distract you and draw your attention away from Jesus.
Some people, like Peter, are looking at the things that make them afraid. They are so worried about the dangers in life, the scary things in this world, that they can’t keep their thoughts and hearts centered on Jesus. They are so afraid that sometimes they can’t do anything for fear that they will do it wrong, or they will get hurt, or they will fail. The story is told about a man who was talking to a farmer. He asked, “How’s your cotton coming?” The farmer answered, “I didn’t plant any. I was afraid of the boll weevil.” “Well, how’s your corn?” was the next question. “I didn’t plant any. I was afraid of drought.” The man then asked, “How about your potatoes?” “I was scared of potato bugs.” Finally the man asked, “What did you plant?” And the farmer answered, “Nothing. I just played it safe.” Playing it safe will get you just what it got that farmer – nothing. When we look at the things that scare us, it can paralyze us. And the only way to face our fears, to find our courage, is to keep our eyes on Jesus. Because when we look at the things that scare us, we will begin to sink.
Other people are looking at all the things that they want. They are consumed with being consumers. It’s no wonder, really, that people can be that way. In the first twenty years of life, a child will see about one million TV commercials. That is about a thousand every week. That makes the TV commercial a person’s greatest source of information. And the message that we get from these commercials is that things will make us happy, make us healthy, make us popular, make us athletic, make us attractive, you name it. No wonder people spend so much time and money on possessions and things. We hear that money can’t buy happiness, but a lot of people would surely like the chance to prove it for themselves. And if money won’t buy happiness, they are willing to use credit cards. The indebtedness of Americans is frightening. A study done a few years ago found that most Americans owe so much money that if they miss two paychecks they are in danger of becoming homeless. When we look at the things of the world, and take our eyes off Jesus, we will get in over our heads and we will begin to sink.
Some people are busy looking at other people. They constantly compare themselves to someone else. They look at their neighbors to see how they measure up. They only get a sense of their own worth by convincing themselves that they are somehow better or richer or nicer or prettier or have a nicer home or better car than their neighbors. My grandmother told me that when she was growing up, she would have been mortified to have the label on her clothes on the outside, but now we all want those labels to show so that other people can see how nicely we dress. We all recognize the alligator on the shirt or the three stripes on a pair of sneakers. There is a story about a man who went into a restaurant wearing a shirt with the designer’s name sewn on the right sleeve. As he stood in line waiting for a table, the elderly man behind him pointed at the label and said, “Nice name.” Then he asked, “What do you call your other arm?” When we look at others to measure our own worth, we get off track, because we have taken our eyes off of Jesus. And we begin to sink.
And, of course, some people take their eyes off of Jesus to look at the things that tempt them, things that they shouldn’t be interested or involved in. The devil has a way of making the things that tempt us look so good, so inviting, that we hardly know how to turn them down. And we become very good at making excuses for giving in to those temptations. A three-year-old was trying to explain to his mother why he was caught in the kitchen standing on a chair eating cookies from the cookie jar. He said, “I just climbed up to smell them, and my tooth got caught!” Of course, there are much worse things than cookies that we can be caught with. People are caught every day stealing from their businesses, stealing from stores, stealing each other’s spouses. They lust after what they should not have. And as long as their eyes are focused on those things, they are not looking at Jesus, and they will get in over their heads and sink.
There are many things in life that we can look at besides Jesus. But it is only by looking at Jesus that we learn to live lives of courage and faithfulness and grace. And when we are looking at Jesus, he will teach us how to look at everything else the right way. One day we might even be surprised to find ourselves walking on the waves alongside Jesus and Peter. Thanks to Jesus, we don’t have to face the troubled waters and high winds alone. We don’t have to get in over our heads when we are faced with trials or temptations or the best that this world can offer. Instead, when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we will find a better way.
