The Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
August 10, 2014- Pastor Adam Moline
Job 38:4-18 Romans 10:5-17 Matthew
14:22-33
Hymns LSB 722, 715, 805 Communion LSB 637
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the Gospel lesson just read.
Dear friends in
Christ. A miracle happens in our text
today, and no its not Jesus walking on the surface of the water. I mean, that would be miraculous if it were
us that were doing the walking on the water, but for Jesus, the great creator
of all that we know, see, feel and experience, it isn’t that big of a
deal. God can walk in His creation
wherever he desires to, whether we determine it to be miraculous or not.
No, the miracle
is, as I have alluded to, that Peter walks a few steps on the water. I know, Peter doesn’t walk very far, and he
does get wet, but he still walks upon the water at the command and word of
God. Jesus says, “Come,” and in
obedience to the very Son of God’s word, Peter walks out upon the water.
A miracle! An amazing event. Peter, as far as I know, is the only
non-divine being to have physically walked on unfrozen water without any sort
of trickery. How amazing and power is
God’s word that Peter is able to do such a thing at God’s command.
And yet, how
powerful is Peter’s sin as well. Oh yes,
for the word of Jesus is still ringing in the air as Peter suddenly gets
nervous. He sees the waves and the
water. He knows there is little hope for
him to survive if he were to fall in the water.
Would Jesus abandon him to the waves?
Will he fall in? Is this all some
hallucination that is occurring right before his lungs fill with water?
And so he forgets
the call of Jesus, and in his sin, begins to sink. He stops up his ear to the command of God,
and suddenly he is thrashing about in the water, sure and certain that he will
drown and die.
Dear friends, it
isn’t Jesus’ fault that Peter gets wet in our text today. It isn’t God’s fault that Peter had more
doubt than faith. Its the fault of sin. Peter, yes even the great Saint Peter, was a
poor miserable sinner, just like you.
Even in the presence of the Son of God in human flesh, Peter displayed
his sin time and time again.
You do it
too. Yes, you are guilty and wrong in
God’s eyes also. Just as Peter does in our text you stop up your ears to God’s
word, and you substitute you own fears and worries in their place. You are a sinner, and it shows in the many
sins you commit in your life. You judge
yourself not to God’s standards but to you own, whether they be higher or lower
than what God says. You determine your
own right and wrong, substituting your own opinions for God’s ten
commandments. And most of the time you
live your life as if there really is no God at all.
Its true. When you commit sin, most of the time you
don’t even realize it – because you are indifferent to what God’s Word
said. Just as Peter ignored God’s
command, “Come, walk onto the water” you ignore God’s command, “Love your God
with all your heart and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself.” You ignore God’s command, “You shall have no
other Gods,” and instead you create countless God’s for yourself, such as your
pride, your ability to accomplish things, your bank account, your work ethic
and your own false piety. Yes, you trust
in yourself more than you trust in God.
And so, when you
are confronted by the difficult things of this world, you begin to sink. You become overwhelmed, your footing starts
to falter, and it seems like your entire world is falling apart. And when this happens, you are quick to blame
God, “How could you let this happen God?”
But the truth is this, it is your own sin that is the problem, it is
your own guilt that makes you sink, it is your fault that you are drowning in
this world.
As Peter doubts
Jesus’ word in our Gospel lesson, he begins to sink right away. As he watches the waves instead of Christ, he
does a cannonball of unfaith, right into the water. And yet, he doesn’t drown, and he doesn’t
die. For the second great miracle of our
text happens. Jesus reaches out his
hand, and rescues poor sinful Peter. He
doesn’t not abandon Peter to the abyss, he doesn’t let him drown, but despite
Peter’s lack of faith, Jesus grabs ahold of his hand and pulls him out of the
water and back into the boat. Jesus
rescues Peter, despite Peter.
And dear friends,
the same is true for you as well. Jesus
will not let you drown in the sorrow and sinful troubles of this world. Despite your sin and indifference toward him,
Jesus rescues you.
He saves you by
reaching out a hand to pull you out of the water – out of the water of baptism
that is. In baptism your sinful nature was drowned in water and word, and you
were pulled out by the hand of Christ. He
grabs ahold of you, without any work on your part, and he drags you safely into
the ark of the church.
And the hand that
he reaches out to rescue you is a hand that has been pierced with a nail, and
hammered onto a cross, to bleed, and to die for your sin. It’s the same hand that laid dead in a tomb
for three days, in place of your own body dead with sin. And it’s the same hand that rose from the
grave to promise you life, forgiveness and salvation. It’s the hand of Christ, the righteous right
hand of God, that will save you from all your sin, and has rescued you from all
that is wrong in this world.
And so you see,
dear friends, that the miracle of today’s text isn’t that Jesus walks on the
water, as amazing as that is. But
rather, its that a sinner like Peter can be rescued from unbelief and doubt to
walk with Jesus. It’s the miracle that
the same is true for you, that you are rescued to walk with Jesus, and to be
with him, even forever more. In the name
of Jesus. Amen.
