Proper 14 Year A 2026: Matthew 14:22-33

Last week, my husband and I took our kids to Raising Cane’s for dinner for an LPS Foundation fundraiser. The kids love eating “inside the restaurant” so we got a corner booth and they were in seventh heaven. There are a bunch of old movie posters framed on the wall, and right above our table was a life sized photo of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. As my seven year old looked up in awe at Wonder Woman, she asked me, “mom, is she real?” Which is a hard question to answer for a live action character. Because Lynda Carter is absolutely a real person. But, of course, Wonder Woman is a character. So I told her, “she’s a real person, but she’s acting; she’s playing a character.” And my daughter looked at me with skepticism. Like that wasn’t quite good enough of an answer. Which is fair, because Wonder Woman looks so real.

This isn’t a perfect metaphor for our Gospel text, because while I’m certain that Wonder Woman is not a real person, I’m not certain about whether or not Jesus literally and historically walked on water. I’m just not. And it’s tough when my kids ask me those same questions as they do with a lot of Bible stories: did this really happen? And, with this one, all I’ve got for them is “I’m not sure”.

But too often we get caught up in what scholar Marcus Borg calls the "happenedness" of the story and miss both the deeper meanings of what the writer is saying about Jesus, that is the actual point of the story, and the intrinsic meanings of the story that doesn’t depend on whether it literally happened in exactly the way that the text reports.

In today's Gospel, the disciples take off directly from last week’s feeding of the 5000 in their boat. It’s almost like they’re acting as a diversion - they immediately take off in the boat while Jesus goes up the mountain to pray, like Moses does time and again in Exodus. Up the mountain is where you meet the divine. It’s not clear how Jesus will eventually follow them alone. Many of the disciples are fishermen and are therefore competent when it comes to boats, but leaving one person whose family trade is carpentry alone to meet them doesn’t seem like a great plan. It turns out Jesus doesn’t need the boat, but Jesus walking on the water is so much more than a neat and convenient trick. The water, even for fishermen, was scary. It was unpredictable. And this is a time before waterproof sealant, life jackets, and Red Cross certified lifeguards. You go overboard during a storm and you are, in all likelihood, out of luck. Jesus, in putting the water under his feet, is showing mastery of and control over chaos.

Fear is a reasonable response to this. But when the disciples cry out in fear, Jesus does NOT say, “It is I,” Jesus says “I am”. In the same way that the Lord told Moses, “I am who I am” and to tell the Israelites that “I am has sent me to you”. In the same way that, in the Gospel of John when Jesus is betrayed in the garden, he asks the soldiers “who are you looking for?” they answer, “Jesus of Nazareth” and in the same way as Jesus does not say “it is I,” Jesus does NOT say “I am he,” as the New Revised Standard Version translation reads. That translation  is wrong.  The text is translated in English to make it read more smoothly and in so doing, we miss the true power of what Jesus is really saying. He actually says, “ego eimi,” which roughly translates to “I, I am”, after which they step back and fall to the ground - not because he identifies himself as Jesus of Nazareth, but because he identifies himself as I AM. The story of the Exodus is foundational to Judaism. The original readers of Matthew would have noticed that Jesus is completely at ease, walking ON TOP OF water - choppy water at that, and saying “I am”. It’s not particularly subtle. It isn’t supposed to be particularly subtle.

But even without knowing Biblical Greek - without knowing any background information at all - there are plenty of metaphorical meanings that can come from the story. Just to name a few: without Jesus, you’re at sea and in the dark; Jesus is the answer to your fear; following Jesus may put you in difficult situations; Jesus comes to you in distress; Jesus stills storms (207).

By having all of this information, as we now do, Peter’s clarification may seem almost silly. “Lord, if it is you…” But in Peter’s defense, what a thing to witness. People get in trouble throughout the gospels by testing Jesus. It usually starts with “if you are the Son of God…” But that isn’t what Peter is doing. It feels more like an “are my eyes deceiving me?” like he’s saying, “Lord if it is really you that I am looking at, do this thing that I know you can do.” It’s like having a code word to pick up your kids. It’s like Peter is thinking, “I know I can do this with Jesus, but let’s make sure it’s really Jesus before I get out of this boat.”

Peter gives us additional metaphorical meanings that we only get from the Gospel of Matthew. In Mark and John, both of which contain this story, Jesus just gets in the boat. The whole story line with Peter doesn’t happen. But Matthew’s addition might teach us: without faith in Jesus, fear takes over; without faith in Jesus, you sink; with faith in Jesus, you can metaphorically walk on water; when you’re sinking, call out, ‘Lord, save me!” and he will. (208)

My problem with Marcus Borg’s "happenedness" barometer is that I think he overapplies it. Because there are some things that, while they have metaphorical meanings to them too, they happened and my faith depends upon them happening. The big one being the resurrection. Some things need to have happened bodily for them to carry weight. A metaphorical death and resurrection are hollow. The metaphor in that story, for me, is that Jesus shows us the transformation of resurrection and that what happens to our physical bodies, our great gifts from God made in the image of God, matters.

But whether or not Peter got out of a literal or a metaphorical boat, into a literal or metaphorical storm, sinking into a literal or metaphorical sea, at the end of the story, Jesus ultimately helps Peter get back in the boat. Yes Peter’s back where he started, but everything has changed. Jesus, the I AM, is there alongside him. And as soon as they get in the boat, the wind stops - the chaotic wind, like the chaotic water, is again no match for Jesus. Amen.