This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

28 Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw how (strong) the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

Given other stories we know about Peter, there is a bias for us to assume Peter is just being Peter here in this story, impetuously acting before considering the bigger picture.  But we should remember that this story is likely grounded in saying something about ekklesia (church).  Eugene Boring (328) points out that this is no longer a story about what Jesus alone can do:

The Christ who speaks with authority (chaps. 5-7), acts with authority (chaps. 8-9), and then confers this same authority on his disciples (chap. 10) here shares his power and authority with his disciples. The figure of Peter should not here (or elsewhere in Matthew) be psychologized as impetuous, but later failing. We do not have a psychological profile, but a character in a story representing all the disciples, portraying the theological meaning of discipleship as such. Peter addresses Jesus as a believer would, “Lord” (non-believers in Matthew use other titles). He has the right christological title and shows great personal faith, but he leaves the boat and the community.

At first things go well, but alone, outside the boat/community he has only his own faith to rely upon and he soon discovers he is of little faith (v.31).  But the core question Jesus asks is “why did you doubt?”  Peter is the first among the disciples, and the typical one, but he can become the agent and voice of Satan (16:33). Is Peter’s walking on the sea a sign of faith or lack of faith? Is he being like the Tempter who asked, “If you are the Son of God, ….” when he asks, “If it is you, ….” and he seeks proof that Jesus is really present? Is he putting God to the test?

Boring writes (328):

For Matthew, Peter’s problem was not only that he took his eyes off Jesus, but that he wanted proof of the presence of Christ, and so left the boat in the first place. . . . The gentle rebuke identifies Peter as the typical disciple in Matthew; ‘little faith’ is the dialectical mixture of courage and anxiety, of hearing the word of the Lord and looking at the terror of the storm, of trust and doubt, which is always an ingredient of Christian existence, even after the resurrection. The last point is underscored by the peculiar word used here for ‘doubt’ (distazō), which connotes vacillation, not skepticism. It is used elsewhere in the NT only in Matthew 28:17 of the disciples in the presence of the risen Lord.

Boring concludes (329-30):

The message is not “If he had enough faith, he could have walked on the water,” just as the message to us is not “If we had enough faith, we could overcome all our problems in spectacular ways.” This interpretation is wrong in that it identifies faith with spectacular exceptions to the warp and woof of our ordinary days, days that are all subject to the laws of physics and biology. This is wrong because when our fantasies of overcoming this web are shattered by the realities of accident, disease, aging, and circumstance and we begin to sink, this view encourages us to feel guilt because of our “lack of faith.”

What if the message of this text were “If he had had enough faith, he would have believed the word of Jesus that came to him in the boat as mediating the presence and reality of God”? Faith is not being able to walk on the water – only God can do that – but daring to believe, in the face of all the evidence, that God is with us in the boat, made real in the community of faith as it makes its way through the storm, battered by the waves.

What happened to Peter (the “Rock”) with his little faith and his doubts? One answer is, “He sank into the sea like a rock.” Another answer is, “He was saved by Jesus.” For most of us whose faith is unable to move mountains and thus must be smaller than mustard seeds (cf 17:20); we are assured that even our microscopic faith is sufficient for salvation. It is the person of faith who cries out to Jesus in time of need.  Martin Luther’s observation described the human condition well: simul justus et peccator (simultaneously saint and sinner).

Image credit: Jesus and Peter on the water – Gustave Brion, oil, 1880 | Public Domain