The worst sin is teach people to believe in God and not
teach people that God believes in you –Ancient Rabbi
Read Matthew 14:22-33 and journal your thoughts
In our culture, when we talk about being a disciple of
Jesus, we tend to water it down a bit and define it as someone who believes in
Jesus as their savior, but to be a disciple in Jesus culture was something
totally different. In Jesus day, to be a disciple of a rabbi meant that you
wanted to be exactly like your rabbi. You wanted to walk like them, talk like
them, think like them, everything.
In Matthew 14:22-33, the disciples are on a boat and
Jesus comes walking out towards them, and at first they think he’s a ghost. Jesus tells them who he is and Peter’s first reaction is to get out
of the boat and do what Jesus is doing. Why? Because his rabbi is doing it and if his rabbi did something, then the
assumption was that he could do it. And he actually does it!
At least for a little while, because Peter sees the wind
and got scared so he begins to sink. Jesus picks him up and asks him why he
doubted. Here is where we usually assume that Peter doubts Jesus, but Jesus
isn’t sinking. Who does Peter doubt? Himself. Peter doesn’t believe that he can
do what Jesus does, he’s not sure that he can be just like his rabbi and so he
begins to sink.
What about us? Do we really believe that we can be just
like Jesus? We say “well of course not, we’re sinners and he was perfect.”
Right, but so were the disciples! So do we believe that we can become just like
Jesus? What’s interesting about this story of Peter is that Jesus believed that
Peter could do it; otherwise he wouldn’t have called him out. Do you realize
that Jesus believes you can become like him, just like he believed in Peter?
Today may you realize that Jesus believes in you even
more than you believe in yourself.
So, it's our own doubt that causes us to sink? We doubt that we could be like Jesus and so we fail? Is that what Jesus meant when he said, "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?"
ReplyDeleteThat is why Peter begins to sink here. Definitely. As far as us in our culture I think we REALLY struggle with the idea that we can be like Jesus at all. I think we tend to get to held down by our past and our sins. In those moments we can relate to Peter and hear the words of Jesus speaking to us "Why do you doubt?"
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