Matthew 14:28-31 says...
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith, “he said, “why did you doubt?”
The Apostle Peter is one of the most interesting and important figures of all the Christian faith. He’s a fisherman who is called by Jesus to be one of his 12 disciples. He had no idea that his life would lead where it ultimately did but Peter was willing to drop everything when the call of God came upon his life. Not only was Peter a disciple but he was one of the leaders among the disciples being one of the few who witnessed many of Jesus miracles, one of the few to hear some of Jesus particular teachings, and one of the few to witness the transfiguration. He is a part of Jesus inner circle and spends time with Jesus on boats, on roads, on mountains, and in a garden. And while Peter is privileged and certainly set apart in so many ways by Jesus, Peter is also deeply flawed. Time and again Peter shows us his humanness and perhaps has made some wonder why he was so favored by Christ. I’m sure there were people then and maybe even today who wonder, why Jesus didn’t choose someone else. Why Jesus didn’t choose the best and the brightest. Why did he choose Peter? For instance there was the time when Jesus told his disciples that he would be killed and after 3 days would rise again. We are told that after Jesus makes this statement that Peter “took hold of Jesus and, scolding him, began to correct him” to which Jesus says to Peter “Get behind me, Satan.” There was the time when Peter told Jesus “Lord, I’m ready to go with you, both to prison and to death.” And then by the end of the day Peter denies Jesus 3 different times. There was the time Peter didn’t want Jesus to wash his feet, the time he was referred to by the council in Acts 4 as inexperienced and uneducated, and there is our scripture today from Matthew 14 in which we are told that Peter doubts Jesus. It’s enough to make us all pause and reflect on the fact that Jesus chooses Peter despite all of his flaws. This text in which Peter loses faith while walking on the water is unique to Matthews gospel and there are several other texts about Peter that are unique to this gospel. There’s the text in which Peter pays the Temple tax, the passage in which Peter asks about forgiveness, and the blessing of Peter. All of these stories only appear in Matthew’s gospel. This blessing of Peter is an amazing thing, Jesus says “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Think about this, the guy who doubts, who denies, who scolds Jesus is made to be the very foundation, the leader of the church. Jesus chooses Peter despite all of his flaws. Matthews’s gospel may even be a testimony to the witness of this flawed disciple. I mean why is there so much in this gospel about Peter that we don’t see in the other gospels? Why doesn’t the other gospels tell us about Peter walking on the water? It’s believed that Matthew was written in Antioch and this was a church that we know from the book of Galatians is where Peter lived. It’s also presumed that Peter likely started this church. A faith community started by Peter that produces for us a gospel of the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus chooses Peter despite all of his flaws. So yea there may be people who point to all the things Peter did wrong and may ask, why was he chosen to be the rock upon which the church was founded? Perhaps the answer to this question lies in the fact that we serve a God who is always turning what we believe up on its head and continues to surprise us time and again. The last shall be first and the first shall be last, blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, God uses us despite our flaws. God has always been in this business. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, throughout all of the New Testament, throughout church history and most certainly today God uses the most surprised and surprising people in ways only God can envision. I’ve met plenty of people who say things like “one day I’ll get into church, one day I’ll come but I’ve just got a lot of things I need to work on first.” “One day I’ll serve God with my life, but there’s first some things I need to change about myself.” Yea, I think Peter is the perfect person to be the rock for the church because Peter teaches all of us that God uses us. God uses us despite ourselves, despite our flaws, despite all of our fears and doubts. God meets us in those places and calls us to pick ourselves up and to follow him with our lives.
That’s grace, that’s forgiveness, that’s what church and the message of the gospel is all about. Making God a part of your life, deciding to follow Jesus doesn’t mean you will be perfect, but what it means is that you embrace the Spirit of God that has been calling you all along. And so maybe that’s the question for us to ponder, are there places in our lives where we have been saying to ourselves and to God that we’ll do that later. Are there things that we just finally need to give over to God and trust God despite ourselves? I wonder what that is for you today. I wonder what it is that has been stirring in your heart for a long time now and you have been saying, not right now. The Apostle Peter stands before us today as a testimony that God is ready to use us in ways we cannot even imagine. I’m sure when Peter was a fisherman he could not have imagined that God would use him to be the rock upon which the church was founded. Acts 4:13 says “13 The council was caught by surprise by the confidence with which Peter and John spoke. After all, they understood that these apostles were uneducated and inexperienced. They also recognized that they had been followers of Jesus.” It doesn’t matter who we are, doesn’t matter what we’ve done, it doesn’t matter if we have doubted and sunk and made mistake after mistake, God is there ready and eager to use us despite ourselves. I pray that we all like Peter recognize this truth and cry out to God in our weakness and trust God with all our lives. Amen.