Come

Jesus Says, “Come.”

By Lance Parrish

The story of Peter walking on the water to Jesus is a story that fascinates me. To my knowledge, Peter is the only human that has ever been able to walk on water (besides Jesus, of course). While I think that the walking on water is a powerful part of the story, I think we miss the point of the story because Peter walked on the water.

A short history study will lead one to learn that the apostles most likely couldn’t swim, which is huge since they were fishermen. Fishermen in that time never went out into water that was any deeper than they could stand in. People during the time of Jesus believed that water, especially water that was in motion, was the gateway to Hades – or the underworld. It was believed to be a place of death, and they feared being in water that wasn’t still.

Back to the story. The scene in Matthew chapter 14 is that of a storm, and the apostles are in a boat in the middle a lake. They are terrified, and Jesus comes walking up to them on the water. The apostles, thinking Jesus was a ghost (possibly from Hades), were screaming in fear. Jesus tries to calm them down, and Peter says, “Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.” (14:28) Jesus responds simply with the word, “Come.” (14:29)

Jesus gave Peter a calling. Peter had to choice to make. Do I A.) follow his call for my life, though the journey to get to where he is seems impossible, or B.) stay in the boat and ignore this calling that I’ve asked for? Don’t we all find ourselves faced with this same dilemma at some point in our lives? Jesus is calling out for us to come to him, and we hesitate because the journey to get to him seems impossible. Peter didn’t hesitate. He knew the journey was impossible. I mean, for crying out loud, the guy had to walk on water to get to the point where Jesus was calling – of course it seemed impossible. Sometimes Jesus calls us to go through the impossible to make us realize that it’s by his strength and power that we can achieve all things.