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

32 After they got into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” 

At last – back in the boat.

Back in the community we see the only genuine response possible: “Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” While such actions may or may not have happened by the disciples in a small boat on a lake in Galilee, such responses should happen in every generation from a grateful church that experiences the impossible presence of Christ with it in its mission.

This confession comes as part of a longer discourse about Jesus’ identity that begins in 13:54. In vv. 54-58 Jesus is in his hometown and they understand him to be “the carpenter’s son.” Ch. 14 begins with Herod wondering if Jesus is John the Baptist  raised from the dead. Matthew 14:33 reveals the answer to “who is Jesus” – He is the Son of God.  And it shows the response of the true disciple: worship Jesus with the community of believers.

….A small thing to consider

Why did the disciples cross the lake (v.22)?  To get to the other side – not always a joking matter. What’s on the other side of the lake? What’s so important on the other side, that Jesus, literally, “immediately” (eutheos) “forces” (anagkazo) the disciples to get into the boat and head that direction? When disciples first cross the lake through a storm, they land on the Gentile/unclean side (Mt 8:23-34). With this boat trip, Jesus had sent them to “the other side” (14:22, see also 16:5), was that meant to be the Gentile side? In Mark, Jesus had sent the disciples to Bethsaida (Mk 6:45), which is on the Gentile side of the Jordan, but they didn’t make it. They end up in Gennesaret (Mk 6:53; Mt 14:34) which is on the Jewish side of Lake Galilee. Can storms at sea (and “little faith”) keep disciples from reaching the destinations where Jesus has sent them?  It is a question we can all ask of ourselves and our communities of faith.

This issue of “other” and “clean/unclean” is the issue Jesus takes up in Mt 15

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