Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. 41 And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, 42 for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 43 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter[g] said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” 49 While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler’s house came and said, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.”50 But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.” 51 And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child. 52 And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” 53 And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” 55 And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. 56 And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
Often in the Bible, faith is not defined in a precise way but rather is illustrated, that is, it is shown in the actions or inactions of people. Or, the Lord describes it with metaphors or pictures. Faith is likened to “receiving” Jesus – that is taking him to ourselves, welcoming him. But it is also described as a matter of “coming to” Jesus. Whoever “comes” to me, Jesus said, I will not drive away. And “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
In Hebrews 12:2 faith is “fixing our eyes on Jesus.” In Deut. 4:4 faith is “holding fast” to God, holding on and refusing to let go, as in Jacob’s long night of wrestling with the Lord at Peniel or, more timidly, the poor sick woman with the issue of blood who pressed through the crowd simply to grab the Lord’s clothes.
Or faith can be described, as it is in Micah 6:8 as “walking with God,” that is, living your life in the active awareness of his presence, as the spiritual classic has it, “practicing the presence of God.”
All of these metaphors and many more have been taken up into the heart and the song of the Christian church.
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress; helpless look to thee for grace…
So, when the Lord turns this episode on the waters of Galilee into a lesson in faith, He is following in a grand tradition of teaching his people the meaning of faith with a picture, with an illustration. And what does this picture tell us about faith? What is the lesson here?
Well, it is very simple and emphatically taught: faith is concentration on Jesus Christ.
This is pretty straight forward in the text. People cannot walk on water…but Peter asked and the Lord said come. And when Peter’s focus was on the Lord, he forgot about the wind and waves. He forgot that just a minute ago he and the rest were terrified thinking they were seeing a ghost. All of that is put away…He has but one focus and that is the Lord Jesus.
Peter sees the Lord standing on the water, he hears his Master invite him to come to him across the water, and he steps out of the boat on to the deep and starts walking toward the Lord.
But as soon as his focus was distracted…as soon as he no longer had Christ as the focal point, when he started to believe that he cannot walk on water, no one can…as soon as he saw the waves and was a distance from the safety of the boat…as soon as he felt alone and realized what he was doing…he began to sink down into the water
The Lord says that his faith was small. That is the Lord’s diagnosis of Peter’s problem. He would have been fine if he had continued to exercise the faith that got him out of the boat in the first place. But his faith was small which is meant that it was easily distracted, easily overcome by sight…by circumstance and by fear.
Oh, how these are the enemies to our faith! Distraction; thinking that all there is, is what I can see, being overcome by the difficulties of our circumstances and most dangerously being afraid.
Fear is the opposite of faith and when we see Christians or when we ourselves are quickly made to fear; to fear man, to fear circumstance, to fear disease…then we know, our faith is weak.
The verb “to doubt” that Jesus uses here in speaking to Peter means to be of a divided mind. A doubting man is divided in two…and remember James says that a doubting man is unstable…you don’t know what you are going to get…it could be good…it could be bad. And that was Peter.
He saw the Lord walking on the water, he remembered in a flash the other extraordinary things that Jesus had done, things that Peter had seen with his own eyes and how just a few hours before this, Jesus had fed more than 5,000 people with a few scraps of food.
And now, Jesus is saying, come on Peter…and Peter, instinctively took Jesus at His word, jumped out of the boat and began walking on water. That is the one Peter.
The other Peter…well…he sees the waves, hears the howl of the wind, feels the spray on his face and clothes, sees the distance growing between himself and the boat behind him and the distance that remains between himself and the Lord, senses the great depths of water that lie beneath him, and he panics. He is a man divided in two; he has a divided mind. And that division was the failure of his faith. [France, 239; Hagner, ii, 424]
What Peter needed was concentration, a single-mindedness, a fixation on the Lord that kept the worrying circumstances safely in the background and largely out of sight.
Prayer: Father, may I be strong and courageous this day that I may have the faith to obey all that You have spoken. If you have said it in Your word then it should be my delight and joy to walk in its fullness. Forgive me for how easily I turn aside, but Father, not this day, not to the left or to the right. Your Word is a light unto my feet, give me grace to be faithful to it, in Jesus name, Amen.
Hymn: Blessed Jesus At Your Word
