Nineteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
MATTHEW 14:22-33 (1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Romans 9:1-5)
“Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.” Thus begins this Sunday’s gospel reading, the immediate sequel to the feeding of the five thousand men besides women and children. Jesus does not join the disciples in the boat. After dismissing the crowd, he goes up onto a mountain to pray alone. He finally got the opportunity to be alone – a private retreat, a recharging of his batteries, so to speak. Matthew makes us aware of Jesus’ more than natural knowledge of events. The disciples in the boat were by now “many furlongs distant from the land.” A furlong (Greek: stadion) is about 600 feet. John’s version has twenty stadia. They were therefore a few miles out to sea, as the new translation has it. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and eight miles wide.
Matthew continues, “During ‘the fourth watch of the night….” The day and night were divided into four quarters of three hours each. The fourth watch of the night would be sometime between three and six o’clock, the hours of predawn or dawn. The disciples were having a rough time rowing, making little headway against a strong wind. After noting the time, Matthew adds, “He came to them walking on the sea.” The influence of the Old Testament must never be neglected in the formation of these stories decades after Jesus left this earth. Psalm 77:19-20, originally sung about God delivering the Israelites by crossing the Sea of Reeds, reads as follows, “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.”
That passage from the Psalms, together with Isaiah 43:16, “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,” and Job 9:8, speaking of God, “who trampled the waves of the sea,” proclaims that only God can walk on water. Therefore, a major catechesis of this story is that Jesus is God. If however that point is not yet clear,
Matthew follows up with a further clarification of this catechesis. The disciples were terrified, rightly so, and exclaimed, “It’s a ghost!” Their screaming was brought to an end, when Jesus calmed them with words that can only identify him as God, when he says, “Take courage! I AM! Do not be afraid.” Matthew attributes to Jesus the divine name, God’s personal name, the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14, when God said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Through the previous story, the feeding of the multitude in the wilderness, Matthew proclaimed Jesus as Messiah. Through this story Matthew proclaims Jesus as God.
Although Jesus walks on the water in all the gospels, Matthew alone shows a special interest in Simon Peter. There are three episodes in Matthew that occur in no other gospel. The first of these is part of today’s gospel reading, Simon Peter’s attempt to walk on water. The second is the symbolic bestowal of the keys of the kingdom of heaven on Simon Peter and his confirmation as Rock of the Church. The third is the most entertaining of all. Tax collectors ask Peter if Jesus pays the half-shekel tax, probably the annual tax collected from male Jews for the needs of the temple. Peter answers “Yes.” Jesus already knows about Peter’s encounter with the collectors of the half-shekel tax, when Peter returns to his house. After a brief dialogue Jesus sends Peter down to the seashore to catch a fish. This fish had in its mouth the correct amount to pay the half-shekel tax for both Jesus and Simon Peter.
Simon Peter attempts to walk on water just like Jesus did. He says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus says, “Come on down!” Simon got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But the wind was very strong, which would cause a surface too choppy for walking. Surfing was not yet invented. Peter, unaware that when the going gets tough the tough get going, became frightened, and began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus stretched out his hand, caught sinking Simon, pulled him up, and said, “O you of little faith! Why did you doubt?”
Jesus’ words to Simon Peter tell us that Matthew’s story is a catechesis about faith or the lack of it. There was already a hint at the beginning of the story that this is a story about doubt and faith, when Simon says, “If it is you….” Unfortunately this echoes the words of the tempter in Matthew’s version of Jesus’ temptation, “If you are the Son of God….”
Also those who tempt Jesus to come down from the cross, “If you are the Son of God….” It will not be long before the Matthean Jesus will say to Simon the Rock, “Get behind me, Satan.” The man of little faith was being groomed by Jesus to be the foundation of the Christian Community, to hold that Community together. Jesus was using tough love.
By the story of feeding the multitude, last Sunday’s gospel, Matthew proclaimed Jesus the Messiah. By the story of Jesus walking on water and identifying himself as the I AM, Matthew proclaimed Jesus as God. As if to say that the disciples of Jesus began to under-stand the meaning of these episodes in their lives, Matthew credits them with this conclu-sion, “Those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are Son of God.’”
