Last week, as we commemorated the feast of the Transfiguration, Michelle educated us all on the Ancient Greek term “anagnorisis” which describes the moment in classical plays “when a character makes a critical discovery” about someone else. It is recognition of what the person stands for, who they really are.

In our gospel reading this morning we have another dramatic encounter between Jesus and the disciples, another moment where the disciples realise something deeper about the man they thought they already knew. 

We find ourselves halfway through Matthew’s gospel at something of a turning point. 

At the beginning of chapter 14, John the Baptist was executed by King Herod Antipas on the orders of his wife, Herodias. The man who had prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry has had his own life unjustly taken from him. 

In so doing, Jesus has not only lost his cousin but finds the trajectory of his own life and ministry turning, as it was always meant to, towards Jerusalem and the way of the cross.

After hearing about John’s death, Jesus withdraws to a deserted place by himself. But the crowds follow him and Jesus, seeing their need, performs a miracle: with just five loaves and two fishes he feeds 5000 men – and that doesn’t even include the women and children. 

This brings us to our gospel reading this morning. And it begins with urgency. 

“Immediately”, we are told, Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side” of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus then disperses the thousands of people he has just fed before going up the mountain to pray by himself. 

In v24 we are told that from evening until early morning the disciples’ boat is battered by the waves and is far from land with the wind against them. 

It was only as I re-read this passage more closely that I realised how long the disciples were in these perilous conditions. 

For at least several hours they were battling to keep their boat from running aground. 

It is perhaps at this point that Peter and the other disciples may have remembered an earlier storm they had endured, a storm recounted in chapter 8 of Matthew’s gospel. 

During that storm Jesus was asleep below deck while the disciples became fearful for their lives. They had rushed to him and cried “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”. 

After asking them why they were afraid, Jesus got up, rebuked the winds and the sea until all was calm. The disciples, we are told, “were amazed, saying “what sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?””

That was then. But, as that previous experience may well have played in the disciples minds, a new fear must have gripped them; last time Jesus was there with them. Now he is nowhere to be seen. 

Yes, they had seen Jesus’ power before, but now he is not here to save them.

Yet, it is not this fear that the passage emphasises. 

Instead in v25 and v26 we are told casually that “early in the morning Jesus came walking towards them on the lake” but, seeing him, “they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear”. It is this mysterious figure approaching them that fills them with terror. 

In response to this, Jesus does something “immediately” for the second time in this passage; he speaks to them: “take heart, it is I; do not be afraid”.

Jesus does not hesitate to console them with his presence, with assurance that it is, in fact, Jesus, and they need not be afraid.

In v28 it is Peter who responds by stepping forward to meet Jesus. Who, in seeing that it is their friend, puts his trust in him. 

But, as Peter takes his miraculous steps towards Jesus on the Sea of Galilee, he becomes frightened and begins to sink crying out, in words similar to chapter 8, “Lord, save me!”. 

Here we have the third and final time Jesus takes action “immediately”. In v31 Jesus “immediately” reaches out his hand and catches Peter – followed by a question “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”.

Whereas in chapter 8 the disciples were left amazed, wondering who Jesus could be, this time, the disciples worship Jesus saying “truly you are the Son of God”. 

They have seen something here that has made them recognise Jesus’ true identity. For the first time in Matthew’s gospel, the disciples recognise Jesus as the “Son of God”. 

It is perhaps easy to look at Peter and the other disciples and judge them for their lack of faith. We know the ending of the story, after all.

I know how easy it is for me to believe in God after something has worked out for the best or been resolved or somehow blown over. 

But, in times of distress, of confusion, of fear, where the end is not in sight and where it feels like nothing will ever be right again, I can doubt very easily.

Perhaps there are times when we have felt God’s presence with us keenly, just like the disciples safe in the knowledge that Jesus is there, asleep on the boat, and available with only a shout for help.

Perhaps other times we’ve found ourselves distressed by a feeling of God’s absence, a feeling that he is uncaring and far away. Perhaps even a feeling that God is not there at all.

But sometimes I have found it is God’s presence itself that can be the most unsettling thing of all, especially if it comes in a form I did not expect, through people I would never dream God could use, or in situations I never thought God could speak through. 

Just as we are told that the disciples were afraid when they see Jesus, so recognising God’s presence in the storms of our lives, in ways we were not expecting, can be hard when trusting demands something of us which seems impossible.

Jesus comforts the disciples by assuring them that this strange sight is indeed him; he comforts them with the knowledge of his presence. 

Jesus does not hesitate in telling the disciples not to be afraid or in reaching out his hand to pull Peter out of the waves.

No matter how it might feel, God is always present and never abandons us. It’s just that he might make his presence known in ways we would never expect. 

As we recognise Jesus as he approaches us in unexpected ways, perhaps in unexpected people, we can trust in him to take us by the hand and lead us. 

Perhaps we have found and continue to find, as the disciples did, that recognising Jesus as the Son of God is only the beginning of the story.

Service: Anglican Ordinand Laura Elworthy. 13th August 2023. (St Luke’s Church Peterborough UK)

Referenced Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33