The Hand of the Lord Who Creates and Saves based on Matthew 14:22-33

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In our Lenten series for the Wednesdays of Lent we are thinking about the hand of the Lord and what that means for our lives. The hand of the Lord has created us and all things. The hand of the Lord also saves us from our sins and wrongs and fears. In today’s Gospel we hear about how the hand of the Lord Jesus reached down and saved Peter from drowning. The hand of the Lord Jesus saves us, too.

Right before the words of our Gospel lesson from Matthew 14 we read about how Jesus fed the 5000 men with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus multiplied the bread and fish. He handed the bread and fish to His disciples who handed the bread and fish to the 5000 men and women and children with them. They ate and were filled up. Then the disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers from the 5000 men and the women and children who were with them.

Jesus then had the disciples get into a boat and go out on the Sea of Galilee. While they were on the water, the wind and waves started to rock their boat. Next, they saw something or someone walking on the water near the boat. They were terrified. They thought they were seeing a ghost walking on the water. They cried out in fear.

We all have our fears, too. We might fear falling and breaking some bones. We might fear losing our friends. We might fear being alone. We might fear speaking in front of a crowd. We might fear losing our savings.

Jesus calmed His disciples with a few words. Matthew 14:27, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” Those were exactly the words those frightened men needed to hear. The voice of Jesus would have calmed them, but the words of Jesus were good words to hear, too. The same Lord Jesus who created all things is the same Lord Jesus who came to save them from their fear.

When our fears threaten to overwhelm us, we do not need to cry out in terror. Those same words of Jesus can calm our fears, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” Jesus can give us faith to overcome our fears, too.

Next, Peter wanted to step out of the boat and walk to Jesus on the water. Jesus told Peter to come to Him. Peter started walking on the water to Jesus. Then Peter looked at the wind causing waves of water and he started to be afraid. Peter lost his faith in a hurry and he started to sink down in the water. He cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me.” Jesus reached down His hand and grabbed Peter. Then He said to Peter in Matthew 14:31, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Before we are too hard on Peter, we can think about our own lives as followers of Jesus. Sometimes we have only a little faith. Sometimes we doubt the words and promises of the Lord for our lives. We try to take things into our own hands. We try to control everything around us. When things do not go the way we were hoping, then doubts arise in our minds, too. When challenges and struggles rock our boats, then we can have our doubts and our faith can seem very small. We can start to sink down in the problems of life.

When things in life fill us with doubts and fears, then we can cry out to the Lord Jesus like Peter did and say, “Lord, save me.” Nothing and no one else can really save us. The hand of the Lord Jesus can reach down and grab us when we fear that the problems of this life will overwhelm us. The promises of God’s Word give us hope.

Words like Ephesians 2:4–9, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Or words like Romans 8:38–39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Or words of Jesus like Matthew 14:27, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

After Jesus and Peter climbed into the boat, something amazing took place. The wind ceased and the Sea of Galilee was calm. Matthew 14:33 tells us, “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

We do not have the advantage of seeing Jesus walking on water and seeing Jesus save Peter and seeing the wind cease and be still like the disciples of Jesus. We do have the blessings of the hand of the Lord Jesus still today though. We have the blessing of the commands and promises of the Lord in the Bible. We have the blessing of being baptized into the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We have the blessing of forgiveness, life, and salvation in the Lord’s Supper as we receive the bread and the wine and the true Body and true Blood of Jesus in faith. Things in life will not always be easy for us. We will be tempted to fear the unknown. For those times, we can remember the words of the Lord Jesus, our Creator and Savior, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And we can worship the Lord Jesus who has all things in His loving hand and say with the disciples, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.