The One Who Got Wet

Context

It is three in the morning on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus has just fed five thousand people, then sent his disciples ahead in the boat while he went up a mountain to pray alone. So now it is twelve guys, one boat, a wind blowing the wrong way, and no Jesus.

These are commercial fishermen. A rough night on the water is not new to them. This one is.

Story

Somebody sees a figure walking toward them across the waves, and the hardened sailors start screaming, sure it is a ghost. Then a voice cuts through the wind.

"It's me. Don't be afraid."

And Peter does not say come get in the boat. He asks to come out onto the water himself. Jesus says come, so Peter climbs over the side, steps onto the waves, and for a second the impossible is actually happening in front of all his friends.

Then he looks at the wind. He clocks the dark, the waves, the fact that he is a fisherman with no boat under him. And he starts to sink.

The hand was right there the whole time. Jesus catches him, pulls him up, walks him back.

What We Learn

Peter is the only one in the boat who got wet. He is also the only one who walked. The one who sank is the one who tried.

He went under because he remembered the audience he asked the question in front of, and the wind got louder than the voice that said come. Faith isn't never looking around. It's reaching when you do.