Hi, everyone. Welcome back once again to
Logical Bible Study. We're continuing to look at the
Gospel of Matthew, really diving into the text and seeing what
the riches are that are there on the literal level.
That's what we're all about in this podcast, helping you get at
the literal sense of the text. What does it mean on the most
fundamental level, which is where we're supposed to start as
Catholics when we're studying the Bible.
So we're looking today at Matthew, chapter 14, verses 22
to 33, and I think this will be a familiar passage for most of
you who are listening. But I think there's also some
things in here that you might have missed before as well.
So Matthew 14. Jesus made the disciples get
into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he would
send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away,
he went up into the hills by himself to pray.
When evening came he was there alone, while the boat, by now
far out on the lake, was battling with the heavy sea, for
there was a headwind. In the 4th watch of the night he
went towards them walking on the lake, and when the disciple saw
him walking on the lake, they were terrified.
It is a ghost, they said and they cried out in fear.
But at once Jesus called out to them saying courage it is I do
not be afraid. It was Peter who answered.
Lord, he said, If it is you, tell me to come to you across
the water. Come, said Jesus.
Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards
Jesus across the water. But as soon as he felt the force
of the wind, he took fright and began to sink.
Lord save me, He cried. Jesus put out his hand at once
and held him. Man of little faith, he said.
Why did you doubt? And as they got back into the
boat, the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down
before him and said truly you are the son of God, so this
passage is very familiar to most people.
Jesus walks on water. It's the miracle that a lot of
people think of when we asked about Jesus.
Miracles, and in a lot of ways it is quite a straightforward
narrative. There's nothing in here that's
particularly difficult to grasp. However, there's a few nuances
that are worth looking at. So firstly, the context here is
important. They've just fed the 5000 people
by the Sea of Galilee. This is only minutes later this,
that miracle is literally just happened.
It's the same day. It's only minutes later.
Verse 22, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat.
So they have a boat that they've been using on the Sea of
Galilee. Now Jesus is probably planning
to do this miracle. He knows what is he's going to
do tonight. So the timing is right for him
to do this miracle. But for that to work, he needs
for them to be in the boat and for him to not be in the boat.
So he's setting up the situation.
He tells them to go on ahead to the other side, while he would
send the crowds away. Now, Mark's version is a bit
more specific. Mark's version says that Jesus
sent them across to Beth Seder. Now that's not very far from
where they are. It's just on the other side of
the lake, and the lake is only about 8 miles across.
So it looks like the direction that he's sending them in, if
they did the miracle on the eastern side of the Sea of
Galilee, which it looks like they probably did, he's sending
them across to the northwest side where Beth Seder is, which
is actually near Capernum. So verse 23, after sending the
crowds away, now, it's worth noticing that Jesus at this
point actually tells the crowds to go away.
We often miss that. So he goes up into the hills by
himself. So the Sea of Galilee, even if
you go there today, it's surrounded by these small
rolling hills. There were actually hills
surrounding the sea, so he goes up into the hills by himself to
pray. This is one of these scenes
where Jesus goes to pray by himself, so he actually goes
looking for solitude. Remember that before the miracle
of the 5000, Jesus had actually been hoping to have some time by
himself. He was looking for some rest
time and now finally he gets it. Jesus often does this in the
Gospels. It's prayer is the source of his
energy and he's got this constant balance between work
and rest. And he's telling the apostles
that they need the same they need to work but pray as well.
When evening came, he was there alone.
Now given what happened in the feeding of the 5000, remember
the apostle said to him it's getting close to evening and we
need to feed them. And now it says when evening
came. So it's probably not that long
after Jesus has done the multiplication of the loaves.
This all happens pretty quickly. The loaves are multiplied, the
crowd gets fed, Jesus sends them away, and then he sends the
disciples into the boat and he goes up the hill.
This could have all happened within about an hour, verse 22,
while the boat by now far out on the lake, so they're probably
out in the middle of the lake, perhaps was battling with a
heavy sea for there was a headwind.
So this is the start of the evening, and already they're
battling with a strong wind in the sea.
Now big storms were quite common in the Sea of Galilee because
wind would whip down the hills and it would cause these quite
significant storms. Now don't get confused between
this and another story. When Jesus calms the storm on
the Sea of Galilee, that also involves a boat, and that also
involves Jesus doing a miracle and the disciples being scared.
But it's actually a different story.
It's easy to get them confused. So that has already happened
earlier in Matthew. Here we're not talking about the
miracle of Jesus calming the storm, but still the disciples
here are caught in a storm and it's evening.
Mark's version says the apostles here are worn out from rowing,
so there's no sails on these boats.
They have oars. So the apostles are trying to
row against the wind apparently. So as I said, don't get this
confused with Jesus calming the storm.
So in the case we're looking at, there is a strong wind, but it's
not life threatening. The apostles are not saying
things like, Lord, we're going to die in this storm.
We don't see that in this story. So it's not life threatening,
but it is still a significant wind.
Now Jesus is up on the hill. He probably can't see individual
people on the boat, but he can probably see that the boat is
not moving, that it's struggling a bit.
Verse 25. Now the time skips a bit in the
4th watch of the night. Now what does it mean by watch
of the night? Well, according to the Roman
system at this time, the 12 hours of the night from about
6:00 PM to 6:00 AM were broken up into four watches.
The last watch would have been between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM.
So we're now at 3:00 AM. Remember that last time we saw
Jesus, he was going to pray and it was 6:00 PM, and now it's
3:00 AM. So apparently Jesus has been
praying for several hours, and the disciples have been battling
the storm for some time as well. It's 3:00 AM in the morning.
Now, verse 25. Jesus went towards them walking
on the lake. Now this is a miracle.
Clearly it's a miracle. There's no magic going on here.
People have tried to come up with natural explanations of how
this could be done, but it's clearly presented as a miracle.
We're not given an explanation of how Jesus does it.
He just does it with his power. He walks on the water.
It appears the reason he does this, considering that the
apostles are not going to die in this case, they would be OK.
The reason he walks in them on water is to display his power.
He's doing this deliberately to show them or to get them to
think about who he is. He wants his disciples to
realize his identity and he believes the timing is now right
to do this particular miracle. Maybe if he did it earlier they
wouldn't be able to handle it, but he decides the timing is now
right for him to walk on the water.
So we don't know how Jesus does it.
Maybe it's some sort of change in the water molecules or maybe
a change in Jesus feet. CS Lewis actually has some
really interesting comments about this miracle.
He in his book called Miracles, there's a part where he talks
about this miracle of Jesus walking on the water and he sort
of frames it as like the water. The created water was waiting,
just waiting for the creator to set foot on it so that then
those water molecules could rearrange and accommodate their
creator. And he's got quite beautiful
language about this miracle. So Jesus walks on the water.
Verse 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they
were terrified and it says they thought he was a ghost.
Now, Jews did believe in ghosts or disembodied spirits, and they
believed that they were connected to the work of Satan.
So if you saw a ghost, it was considered to be demonic.
They probably don't think it's the ghost of Jesus because it's
dark. They probably don't see that it
looks like Jesus. They just see a ghost of some
sort. It's dark and they can't see
very far, so it's natural for them to say it must be a ghost.
So they cry out in fear. They're actually freaking out.
Verse 20 verse 27 Jesus says courage or take heart is what it
more literally says. There He says it is.
I do not be afraid. Why does he say that while
they're freaking out. So Jesus, main reason here is
stop freaking out. I'm not a ghost.
It is I take heart, it's me. But there could be more going on
here as well because it is I in Greek is ego.
I me and that literally translate translates as I am.
And of course that's God's name as revealed in the burning Bush
and in other places in the Old Testament.
So maybe Jesus here is actually saying I am as in I'm God.
There might be some of that going on verse 28, it was Peter
who answered. Now this is significant.
It's none of the other apostles do this.
Peter speaks up on behalf of the apostles.
This is one of those verses that we often forget about.
But it clearly shows that Jesus is the leader of the apostles
and that he is prompted by God in a special way that the others
aren't. So it's foreshadowing his future
leadership of the church as well.
He says Lord, if it was, if it is you, tell me to come to you
across the water. Now this is actually a profound
act of faith on Peter's part. He says if it if it is you,
Jesus. And then he knows that Jesus
will give Peter the ability to walk to him on water.
So it's actually an act of faith.
He's saying, Lord, I believe that you have the power to call
me out, to walk on the water. Even me.
I can walk on the water if you give me the power to, if it is
you that I'm speaking to. So Peter is putting himself on
the line here. He's willing to give it a try
and walk out on the lake. There's actually profound level
of faith going on here, if you think about it.
So Jesus simply says one word to him, come, and that's quite
beautiful. So Jesus accepts Peter's
conditions, accepts the proposal, and he invites Peter
to follow him out onto the water.
And of course this, in a way you could say it foreshadows his
future role as the first Pope. He's calling Peter to have faith
and to follow him and to be in touch with the supernatural
powers that would enable him to do these things.
So there's some interesting things going on here.
So Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking towards Jesus
across the water. So clearly this is a
supernatural miracle. Peter doesn't have this ability
himself. Now the source of the miracle is
Jesus. Certainly Jesus makes the
miracle possible. However, as we'll see, it's
Peter's faith that allows the miracle to actually happen.
If Peter doesn't have the faith, it seems that this miracle would
not have taken place. So there's this interesting
theology in the Gospels of we need Jesus will and people's
cooperation in order for the miracle to happen.
We have to let God's grace work through us.
In other words, verse 30, as soon as he felt the force of the
wind, he took fright and began to sink.
So when Peter begins to doubt, the miracle becomes less
effective. Did you notice that as soon as
he starts to have unbelief, the miracle stops working?
And this reflects the Gospel's theme that Jesus cannot do
miracles in places where there's a lack of faith.
The actual Greek here says that when Peter saw the wind, and
that might imply to Matthew's readers that Peter took his eyes
off Jesus and started to look at the wind because it actually
says he is sore when when Peter saw the wind.
Now often you'll hear sermons about what this means in terms
of we shouldn't take our eyes off Jesus, all those sorts of
things. There's probably not supposed to
be a universal principle here about faith and miracles.
This is a special one off miracle for Peter.
There probably are spiritual applications of this text here,
but we need to be careful because the literal sense it's a
one off miracle involving Peter and Jesus.
So he's sinking and he cries, Lord save me.
So Peter is clearly afraid, but at least he has faith that Jesus
can help him. Here Jesus put out his hand at
once and held him. So Jesus immediately helps as
soon as Peter asks for it. Notice that the language here he
held him or he caught him. So it's quite a dramatic scene.
You can imagine Jesus arm. So Jesus standing on the water
still and his arm reaches down to Peter who's sinking and he
literally grabs him and pulls him out of the water and he says
to Peter, man of little faith, why did you doubt?
So Jesus here says. Notice the implication.
If Peter had not doubted. If Peter had maintained his
faith, then Jesus would have helped him reach Jesus.
So he would have been able to keep walking on the water if he
if he hadn't have started doubting.
Now Jesus is not angry here when he says man of little faith.
Why did you doubt? It's actually a statement more
of correction rather than condemnation.
He wants to encourage Peter to have stronger faith in the
future. So basically he wants him to not
make the same mistake again. Verse 32.
As they got into the boat, the wind dropped.
So presumably God stopped the wind in order to help the
disciple see that Jesus has power over nature.
Jesus has already done this once in chapter 8 in verse 23 to 27,
when Jesus actually calms the storm.
That's what Jesus did in that story.
He calmed the storm, but in that story he rebuked the wind,
whereas here he doesn't say anything.
The wind just stops. It dies down automatically.
When this happens, the men in the boat bowed down before him,
so the disciples apparently realize Jesus identity and they
start to worship him as soon as he gets into the boat and the
wind dies down and they say truly you are the son of God.
Now there's some debate here amongst scholars about what to
make of this because Mark's version, they don't say this.
They actually seem to be quite befuddled and confused about
what to make of this incident and doesn't say anything about
them worshipping Jesus. In fact, the implication we get
from Mark's version, Mark's version says that the apostles
minds were closed. So if we're to take these words
when they say truly you are the son of God, if we're to say that
they actually did say this on this occasion, then it must be
not genuine. They must not really understand
that he's the son of God. They may be just saying it out
of amazement, but they don't really understand who he is.
It's only later that they fully grasp Jesus identity, and even
then they seem to not quite get it.
So there's some debate among scholars of did they say this on
this occasion? How do we reconcile Mark's
version where they seem confused about Jesus identity here,
versus Matthew's version where they confess that he's the son
of God and whether Matthew has inserted some words from a
different occasion? And that's quite possible.
So there's some debate about what the exact words that the
apostles said here were. Now Jesus has just calmed the
waves. He's calmed a storm.
This might have echoes to some other passages in the Old
Testament, particularly Psalm 107, which says this.
God satisfies the thirsty, fills the hungry with good things.
He spoke and roused a storm, wind it tossed the waves on
high. He hushed the storm to a murmur.
The waves of the sea were stilled.
So interesting link there. And it's possible that for the
disciples, and maybe also for Matthew's readers, when Jesus
calmed the storm, they might have understood this as an
action that only God can perform.
So maybe they would have started to look the genuinely look at
Jesus as God. So this is the end of chapter 14
of Matthew, and there's a whole section at the start of Matthew
15 which is the next part, but we never get to hear that in the
lectionary. So it all gets a bit messy in
the next bit here. So verses 1 to 2 and 10 to 14 of
chapter 15, which is the next bit.
They're read on Tuesday in week 18 of ordinary time, but only in
year A, so verses 1 to 210 to 14 You'll only get to hear them on
year A, not in B&C. Usually with most weekday things
you hear them every year, but this is one of those ones that's
only on a weekday in year A. Now verses 3 to 8, which is
about the traditions of men, which is often used against
Catholic teaching, actually. So verses 3 to 8 as well as
verses 15 to 20. And that's the passage where
Jesus says it is what comes out of the heart which defiles a
man. So those two passages, which are
also at the start of Matthew 15, they're never actually read in
the electionary. So if you want to hear those
missing parts of the start of Matthew chapter 15, which we'll
be starting to look at in the coming days, if you want to hear
those missing bits that you won't hear a mass, then we'll
cover those as bonus episodes of the podcast.
And the idea is, if you become a Patreon supporter of the
Ministry, you can get access to all the bonus episodes and once
they're all released, you will have heard the entire text of
all four Gospels. You won't get to hear that
through the regular podcast. You get to hear most passages,
but not all of them, because there's some which are never
read in the electionary. And if you want to hear those,
if you want to hear an exegesis or those missing verses, then
the way to do that is by coming a becoming a financial partner
of the Ministry. Even just $10 a month goes a
long way to help the ministry reach more people.
So please prayerfully consider doing that.
And there's information about that in the show notes.
Let's now turn to the catechism of the Catholic Church.
Where does today's passage from Matthew 14 inform Catholic
teaching? There's one place, and that's in
the passage about the title Lord.
It says very often in the Gospels, people address Jesus as
Lord. This title testifies to the
respect and trust of those who approach him for help and
healing. At the prompting of the Holy
Spirit, Lord expresses the recognition of the divine
mystery of Jesus. In the encounter with the risen
Jesus, the title becomes adoration, My Lord and my God.
It thus takes on a connotation of love and affection that
remains proper to the Christian tradition.
It is the Lord. So this paragraph makes
reference to a number of passages in the Gospels where
people call Jesus Lord. And we hear that today when
Peter is sinking, he says, save me, Lord, so we'll leave it
there for today. I hope you've learned something
new. There's always fascinating
things to discover in the text of Matthew's Gospel, and we'll
continue to look at chapter 15 in the coming days.