There’s Room in the Boat

Matthew 14:22-36 — Proper 14, Year A (Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost)

NOTE: The Lectionary text ends at verse 32. The actual text runs through verse 36.

---

A Familiar, Thrilling Story

I’ve always loved the story of Jesus walking on the water. It’s a thrilling text — the water-walking awesomeness of Jesus, set against the almost-drowning doubt of Peter, all wrapped up in the backdrop of a boatload of bedazzled disciples hanging on for dear life against a raging sea.

You know how it goes. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sends the disciples ahead by boat while he stays behind to pray. All is well until just before dawn, when they see someone walking across the sea.

“It’s a ghost!” they cry.

But it’s Jesus. “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter’s Bright Idea

Peter — always impetuous Peter — isn’t so sure. “Lord, if it’s really you, let me come out on the water to you!”

I dare say that’s not what I would’ve proposed. I might have suggested, “Jesus, just get over here and into the boat and let us see if it’s really you!” But that’s why Peter is Peter, and I’m just a guy who prefers a life jacket even in the bathtub.

Jesus says, “Come.”

Peter scrambles over the gunwale, steps onto the water, takes a step — so far so good! — and then realizes: this is the ocean. These are waves. That’s wind. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

He starts to sink. “Lord, save me!”

Jesus catches him, pulls him to safety, and asks, “Why did you doubt?” The wind stops. The disciples exclaim, “Truly you are the Son of God!”

And so the story ends.

Or does it?

The Point Was Never the Storm

It’s easy to get caught up in the flash-bang drama — the water-walking, the sinking, the arm-waving — and miss the story behind the story.

Listen to how it begins: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side.”

And how it ends: “When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret.”

The point of this whole death-defying adventure isn’t the drama along the way. It’s about getting to the other side. Remember the old riddle — why did the chicken cross the street? To get to the other side. Why did Jesus send the disciples across the sea? Same answer.

So what was on the other side that Jesus cared about so much?

“When the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.”

That’s why. There was a world of people over there who needed him — his compassion, his healing touch, his power to redeem the lost and broken.

What About the Boat?

So where does the storm-tossed boat trip fit in?

Have you ever looked up at a church ceiling and noticed the beam running front to back, almost like a keel, with ribs extending on either side like the frame of a hull? That’s not an accident. The central part of a church — the part you’re sitting under right now — is called the nave, from the Latin nāvis, meaning “ship.” Early Christians used the ship as their primary image for the Church itself and Church architecture over the centuries reflects it.

So the boat in this story carries Jesus, and Peter, and the disciples — and you, and me, and us – together, in the boat, to the other side.

But the seas are treacherous. It’s not easy being a church on its way to “the other side.” The wind is often against us. Some congregations face fights over the call to reach out to others, especially if those others reflect different values or lifestyles. Others want to keep the church to ourselves, with a Gospel that enhances our own needs, but ignores the needs of others. The world doesn’t understand why we do what we do, love the people we love, forgive the sins we forgive. Doubt urges us to give up; fear tempts us to cling to safety. That was true for Jesus’ first disciples. And it has been true for the early Church, for the martyrs, for the Dorothy Days and Mother Teresas and Martin Luther Kings — as well as the countless unnamed saints and sinners over the centuries who got into that boat anyway and headed for the other side, where God’s children needed the healing touch of Christ.

Room for You

So let’s end this sermon where today’s text began. Jesus is sending us “to the other side.”

Where is that “other side” in your life? Where is that “other side” our church is being called to go to? And who are the people who need us to help them touch the hem of Jesus’ cloak and find healing and grace?

Here’s the great news of the Gospel:

There’s still room in the boat…for you!

RELATED READING: