Fear and Trust

Matthew 14:22-33 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

I don’t care who you are, you might the world’s craziest extreme-sports enthusiast; you might be the original daredevil supreme; or maybe you’re just mister tough guy that has convinced everyone at school that no matter what the situation, you are always cool as ice. Ahhh…bull! Everyone knows what fear is! And everyone knows it because they experience it more often then they let on. It’s just something we all have in common. If we sat down and talked through everything you did today from the moment you woke up until now, I bet we’d find plenty of stuff you did out of a little bit of fear. Maybe you made a last minute outfit change as you were walking out the door this morning because you were afraid what people might think or say if you wore what you’d had on before. Maybe you straightened up your room because you feared the war that if Dad came home and saw the hurricane damage (or what looked like hurricane damage) that ripped through there. Maybe you avoided someone or a group of people at school because you feared how they might treat you.

And you know what? It’s okay to have fears. I know we’re told all the time how we need to conquer our fears and stop being afraid of whatever it is we’re afraid of. And okay, maybe some of our fears don’t need to be there, but for the most part its actually okay to be afraid.

What I love about today’s passage is the idea of Jesus walking out on top of this most dreadful of scenes. You know the story: the disciples are out in a life-threatening storm. They’ve been battling the waves and the wind to the point of exhaustion and are every bit as far out to sea as when they started. And to top it all off, people back then had weird superstitions about the sea which led to even more fear of it. But then in the midst of all this, here’s comes Jesus, waltzing out, un-phased by the raging wind and daunting waves, walking right across the water. This isn’t just some nifty little trick Jesus can do. It’s a demonstration to the disciples that He is so much bigger than their deepest fears.

And notice what Jesus says to Peter after he starts to sink in fear. It’s not, “Why did you fear, Peter?” Rather, He says, “Why did you doubt?” There’s a big difference. Again, Jesus is not expecting to never experience fear or never find ourselves in fearful situations. The issue is, will we trust Him when we’re in the midst of those situations. I think He’s certainly proving Himself worthy of being trusted. He’s demonstrated that He (not us!) has conquered and overcome every fearful situation. There is no situation that has Him beet.

So the question for you and me: in the midst of fearful situations will we trust the One who claims to be our Savior?