Jan 17 - Jesus Walks on Water

Read Mt 14:22-32

Context: Today's text occurs right after Jesus has fed the 5000.

Text:
22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but the boat was already a considerable distance[a] from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.
27But 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. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
31Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
32And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. (NIV)
Footnotes:
Matthew 14:24 Greek many stadia
taken from www.biblegateway.com

At this point, how could the disciples NOT know that Jesus was God? They have seen Him heal people for quite a while, and they just witnessed his miraculous feeding of 5000 hungry men (not to mention the women and children who were present). In fact, I imagine that there were baskets full of bread and fish, leftovers, on the boat with them! Now they see that not only can Jesus walk on water, but he can allow others to do it, too.

Why DO we doubt?