What kind of God walks on water? And what kind of Messiah doesn’t just calm chaos—but walks straight into it?
In this second half of the Sea narrative, Dr Tyson Putthoff leads us into one of the most mythically loaded, theologically explosive moments in the Gospels—Matthew 14, where Jesus walks on the stormy Sea of Galilee.
But this isn’t just a supernatural display. It’s a divine declaration.
In the ancient world, the Sea wasn’t a backdrop—it was the embodiment of primal Chaos. In Canaanite myth, Baal defeats Yamm, the Sea god, and strides upon the waves in triumph. In Babylon, Marduk slays the sea-dragon Tiamat and uses her watery body to forge the world. In Egyptian tradition, Ra crosses the chaos-waters of Nun to bring cosmic order. And in the Hebrew Scriptures, it’s Yahweh alone who tramples the Sea (Job 9:8), walks through the waters unseen (Psalm 77:19), makes a path through the deep (Isaiah 43:16), silences the raging waves (Psalm 89:9), and crushes Leviathan beneath his feet (Psalm 74:13–14).
Now—Jesus walks on the Sea.
This isn’t a party trick. It’s a theophany. A bold, unmistakable embodiment of Israel’s God—Yahweh in flesh—doing what only God does.
And just as staggering? He speaks into the terror with words echoing the burning bush: “I AM. Don’t be afraid”(Matthew 14:27).
We’ll explore why Peter’s attempt to join Jesus isn’t just about faith—it’s about participating in divine dominion over Chaos itself. And when Peter sinks, it’s not judgment he finds—but a hand reaching down, just like Psalm 18:16 says: “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.”
This episode dives deep into the biblical and ancient context, uncovering what it really meant when the disciples finally said, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” It wasn’t abstract theology—it was a storm-battered confession rooted in awe, mythic memory, and personal encounter.
And in our devotional close, we shift the lens: This isn’t a story about Jesus causing storms. It’s about the kind of God who shows up in them. When the waves are high, when the chaos is loud, when you feel alone or forgotten—Jesus is already on his way. He walks across the very thing that threatens to undo you. He doesn’t always silence the storm right away. But he always shows up. And he always reaches for your hand. So if life feels like it’s unraveling, if you’re gasping for air and unsure whether God still sees you—this one’s for you.
• New here? Start with Part A (S1E14) before diving into this second act.
• Visit BibleActuallySays.com for show notes, transcripts, and bonus resources.
• Grab the book: Jesus: The Strategic Life and Mission of the Messiah and His Movement—out now via Hekhal Publishing, available on Amazon.
• Follow the movement at Hekhal.co
• Share this with someone who’s in the middle of the storm.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
What's up everybody, Welcome to the What the Bible Actually Says
podcast. I'm your host, Tyson Bludoff,
and I am glad to have you with us today.
I'm also glad to be back. It's been a couple of weeks
since I posted the previous episode, so those of you who are
following along, I apologize forthe slowness in getting this
episode out, but I am super excited to be back.
(00:36):
I also want to remind you, if you haven't listened to the
previous episode, go ahead and do that.
Press pause on this one and go back to that.
Today's episode is the second-half of a cosmic story,
and it's going to hit a lot harder if you've already heard
Part 1 of this two-part study ofJesus versus the sea.
(00:57):
Last time we stood in a boat with Jesus and Matthew 8, we
watched the sea, the symbol of primordial chaos, rage and roar
against Jesus and the disciples and Jesus.
He was asleep, not out of neglect, not because he didn't
care, but because, as we saw, this was the ancient image of
the storm God, the Son of God atrest before battle.
(01:18):
So the disciples wake him. They're full of fear.
And Jesus rises, rebukes the sea, submits it and silences it.
And the disciples are essentially left speechless.
They don't know what to do with what they've just seen.
They ask who is this or what kind of being is this, that even
the winds and the sea obey him. So this was a battle, but it was
one that they weren't ready to understand.
(01:40):
And I think Jesus knew that theymissed it.
Maybe he saw at the moment that they weren't quite ready to
grasp the full weight of what they had just witnessed.
So not long after this, maybe a couple of months, he decides to
give him another chance. But this time things are going
to be different because in Matthew 8, Jesus is attacked by
chaos, by the sea. It rises up against him and his
(02:03):
disciples while they're in the boat.
But in the next episode, the next account, the next battle
between Jesus and the sea in Matthew 14, Jesus is actually
the one who starts the fight. So in this episode, we're
heading back to the Sea of Galilee, but this time it's a
few months after the previous account.
Right now, it's maybe mid to late summer of the year 28 AD.
(02:24):
And the Sea of Galilee, unlike the spring season when Matthew 8
took place, isn't known during this time of the year for sudden
storms as it was during that spring season.
So when the storm shows up, it'sno coincidence something or
someone has called it forth, hasinvoked it, has brought this sea
to life. And this time, Jesus isn't in
(02:44):
the boat. He's up on a mountain.
He's alone, he's praying. And the moment he's finished,
the storm starts. And what we'll see today is
this, and we're going to unpack all of this.
But Jesus isn't just responding to or reacting against chaos,
against the sea. This time, he's summoning it.
He's provoking it, challenging it, initiating the fight.
This is Jesus as a divine warrior.
(03:06):
He's not surprised. He's not passive.
He's fully awake, fully intentional, and fully divine.
This is Part 2 of a battle between Jesus and the sea.
And this time, as we're going tosee, the disciples do get it.
They understand what's happeningand they recognize him for who
he is, and that is the Son of God.
And we're going to talk about what that actually means because
(03:27):
I don't think most of us truly grasp why the disciples
recognizing Jesus as the Son of God in this moment is so
critically important to who Jesus is, how he fits within the
ancient cosmic narrative and within the traditions and
narrative frameworks of the ancient world.
But this is a huge moment, and the disciples at this moment get
(03:49):
it. So today we're going to walk
through Matthew 14, verses 22 to23.
We're going to explore the historical, seasonal, and cosmic
clues buried in this story. We're going to talk about divine
sonship storm God imagery and why this story would have hit
differently for Jesus's originalaudience than it does often
times for us. And why the original meaning and
(04:11):
its original importance should matter to us today as well.
Because the same Jesus who silences the sea in Matthew 8 is
the one who walks on it in Matthew 14.
And when he does, it's not just a miracle.
It's a declaration of war. To grab your Bible, grab your
notebook. If you're driving, just listen
along. And when you're in a spot to
open your Bible, you can re listen to the episode and follow
(04:33):
along. But let's dive in.
So before we even get to the storm, we need to take a step
back and really look at the landscape of this moment because
not just geography, it's theology, it's mythic, it's
cosmic. Matthew 14 opens with what might
seem like a small detail, and that is that Jesus sends the
disciples ahead of him onto the sea while he goes up a mountain
(04:54):
by himself to pray. So don't miss this.
That's a drum roll. And I think often times we just
think of it like, oh, Jesus was a really spiritual guy.
He had self-discipline and he liked to pray.
That is true, absolutely. But there's a lot more going on
in this moment than just Jesus being a spiritual person.
So let's start with the mountain.
First of all, in biblical and ancient Near Eastern thought,
(05:16):
the mountain isn't just a tall hill, it's the place of divine
encounter. So think about it.
Moses receives a Torah on Mount Zionai.
Elijah meets God in the whisper on Mount Horeb.
The psalmist says, I have set myking on Zion, my holy mountain.
In Psalm 2, mountains are where God speaks from, where God
rules, where the heavens and theearth touch.
(05:37):
It's no accident that temples inthe ancient world were often
built on hills and imagined as cosmic mountains.
They were imagined as meeting places between heaven and earth,
between the divine and human. So when Jesus goes up the
mountain, he's not just finding a quiet place to pray.
He's stepping into the posture of divine authority.
And don't forget, he's alone. This is a solitary ascent, like
(05:57):
Moses going up to Sinai. It's like a king entering the
inner chamber before a great battle.
And what's below him? What's below the mountain on
which he's praying? Think about it.
What's the setting? It's the Sea of Galilee, the
sea. Now, you and I might think of
the sea as a place of relaxationor recreation.
And Andy and I have been to the Sea of Galilee.
(06:19):
And it's interesting because we go and we're on these tours
checking out the sights. And I remember walking down to
the Sea of Galilee and stepping into the water and just trying
to soak it up and just absorb the moment and really imagine
myself there. And you see beachgoers a couple
100 yards out in their boat blasting their music and playing
and having a good time partying.And so we imagine relaxation
(06:42):
when we go to the lake, the sea,the ocean, the beach.
That's what we imagine. But in Jesus world, and
especially in the ancient Near Eastern and Jewish symbolic
imagination, yes, you could go swim in it, you could go play in
it, you could go fish in it, andyou could travel across it.
But the sea at the end of the day was terrifying.
It represented chaos, as we discussed in the previous
(07:03):
episode, it represented evil. It was the embodiment of the
ancient deity in Mesopotamian and Canaanite and Egyptian myths
and even in the Old Testament. It was the embodiment of chaos,
the unpredictable threat of destruction that always just
lurked about beneath the surfaceof life.
It was Tejom, the Hebrew for thedeep in Genesis 1/2, the place
(07:26):
that had to be subdued for creation even to happen.
It was the swirling, untameable abyss that God held at Bay so
that the world could even come into existence.
In Psalm 89.9, the poet says to Yahweh, You rule the raging sea.
When its waves surge, you steal them.
That's what we call chaos Kampf,a German word that describes
(07:49):
this ancient motif in which a God or or a deity is subduing
and going to battle against and defeating chaos.
Chaos struggle. Literally.
It's not just about God calming waves, it's about God subduing
chaos itself. The sea isn't just water, it's
the enemy in Psalm 89.9. So when the psalmist says you
(08:09):
ruled the raging sea, when its waves surge, you steal them.
This is divine cosmic battle language.
This is God going to battle against the most formidable and
undefeatable foe ever imagined. So now put those two pieces
together. Jesus is on the mountain, divine
King, like in communion with theFather, the disciples He has
(08:31):
already sent down into the sea, into chaos, into danger.
OK, he's done that knowingly. But notice this time he didn't
go with them. Jesus doesn't go with him.
In Matthew 8, Jesus was with him.
He was asleep in the boat with them when the storm hit, when
the sea attacked. But here in Matthew 14, he's
deliberately absent. He sends them into the chaos
alone and that tells us something huge.
(08:53):
I think Jesus isn't reacting to chaos this time.
He's orchestrating it. He's setting the stage for a
confrontation. Not just with the elements, not
just with nature as a lot of us often hear preached or taught or
talked about, but with the disciples perception of who He
is and with the forces of chaos themselves in the sea.
And this isn't just about calming a storm.
(09:14):
It's about unveiling glory. It's about giving them eyes to
see who He truly is. And I want you to imagine what
the disciples were actually thinking.
It's now well into the night, maybe between 3:00 and 6:00 AM,
what Matthew calls the 4th watchof the night.
They've been rowing for hours. The wind is against them, the
waves are turning, they're exhausted.
Maybe even remembering the last time, the other storm back in
(09:35):
Matthew 8 when Jesus had to be woken up.
That experience must have haunted them.
Maybe they'd even been talking about it over the past few
months, trying to really make sense of what they saw and what
they experienced. Because remember, at the end of
the episode in Matthew 8, the disciples didn't get it.
They were terrified, but they still didn't know who or what
Jesus was. What kind of man is this?
(09:56):
They literally asked. But here's what makes this
moment in Matthew 14 even more mysterious.
Matthew is clear that Jesus madethem get into the boat.
Matthew's Greek is an on kasin. It's a strong verb that means to
compel, to force, even to coerce.
He insists they go even without him.
I remember this is summer. It's late summer, 28 AD
(10:17):
according to the chronology I'vereconstructed.
And that's where I place this moment in my books on Jesus.
Grab your copy if you haven't yet.
And that matters. In the region around the Sea of
Galilee, violent, sudden storms were most common in the
springtime, when the cool air from the mountains would clash
with warmer air over the lake. That's when the sea would become
most unpredictable. But this storm, It's in the late
(10:40):
summer. That kind of sudden, violent
storm isn't as typical. It doesn't match the seasonal
pattern, which raises the question, where did this
particular storm come from? Because that kind of nature
naturalistic explanation that often is talked about where the
storm arose and Jesus calmed it with his voice.
And then we move on and we just explain that as a naturalistic
(11:01):
storm. That's not what's taking place
here. And that's exactly the point
that Jesus wants to make and tapinto in this moment.
Jesus knows that if a storm arises, this is not a typical
weather event. This is completely freak,
completely out of the ordinary. It's a divine orchestration.
And he knows that the disciples,if they run into a storm at this
(11:22):
time of year, they can't get around the fact that this is
something cosmic, this is something theological.
This can't be explained as a regular old springtime storm.
So Jesus is orchestrating a second confrontation with the
sea, a second battle with chaos,not because he's threatened, but
because the disciples missed it the first time.
And now he's going to show them again who he is.
(11:46):
Only this time not as the one who's roused from sleep, but as
the one who walks over the water, the one who descends from
the mountain like a divine warrior taking the fight to the
enemy. And that leads us to one of the
most mind blowing shifts in the story.
This time it's not the sea that attacks Jesus.
It's Jesus who attacks the sea. OK, I want you to catch that.
(12:07):
It's not the sea that attacks Jesus this time, as in Matthew
8, it's Jesus who attacks the sea.
He doesn't wait for the storm tocome.
He sends the disciples in. He stirs it up while he's up on
top of the mountain. And then, like Marduk
confronting Tiamat in Mesopotamian lore, or Baal, or
Baal facing Yom in Canaanite lore, or Yahweh facing the
(12:28):
watery chaos at creation and subduing it into order, here
Jesus comes down from the mountain and walks into the
heart of the storm. And just like in those ancient
stories, what comes next isn't just about whether it's about
identity, it's about sonship. It's about who truly holds power
over chaos. Because when Jesus steps onto
the waves, he's not just walkingon water.
(12:50):
He's walking into the mythic space where only powerful sons
of gods, powerful storm gods, dare to tread.
And the disciples are about to see what kind of son of God he
really is. So in Matthew 1424 to 27, the
storm has arrived. The disciples are miles out into
the sea, struggling against waves and being tortured by the
(13:11):
wind. Matthew says by the chaos around
them. And the word Matthew actually
uses basanidzo, it's a powerful word.
It's the same word that is used of demons tormenting or
torturing someone elsewhere in the Gospels.
So Matthew literally says that these waves in the sea right now
are torturing the disciples. They're not just an
(13:33):
inconvenience. They're not just waves.
This is cosmic warfare. And Matthew really captures that
in the verb here. And just when the moment hits
peak terror, when the chaos has pushed them to the brink, Jesus
comes walking across water. Now pause.
Because we've heard this story so many times, we forget truly
how absolutely wild this is. And I really like the scene as
(13:55):
it's depicted in the Chosen series.
I think they do a really good job of capturing this moment
cinematically, but even they can't capture it completely.
I don't think anything could. But we've heard this story so
many times we we forget really how absolutely wild this is.
And this is where things get really interesting because Jesus
doesn't calm the storm in this story.
(14:17):
Not yet. He doesn't say peace be still.
He doesn't even rebuke the sea. In fact, when they see him, he
just keeps walking on it. He steps onto the surface of the
deep like it's solid ground, like it's a road built just for
him. And for Matthew's audience,
which is steeped in ancient imagination, this isn't just a
miracle. It's a revelation.
(14:37):
It's a callback. It's a cosmic performance.
Because long before the Gospel was written, the ancient world
already told stories of gods whowalked upon the waters in the
Canaanite Baal or Baal cycle. Baal, the storm God, he's
mentioned throughout the Old Testament a lot.
He's the divine heir to the throne of his father, the chief
God in the Canaanite pantheon whose name is Ale.
(14:59):
But Baal, the storm God and son of God, he defeats Yom, the God
of the sea, And once the battle is over, Baal rides the storm,
striding over the waves with hisdivine club in hand.
One light says that he mounts his steed and treads over the
sea, proving his kingship by placing chaos beneath his feet.
In the Babylonian myth, the God Marduk, who's also the son of
(15:22):
the High and the chief God of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk,
defeats the primordial ocean goddess Tiamat.
She's this horrific sea dragon who represents the forces of
Chaos, and after slaying her, Marduk splits her watery body in
half and walks within her, usingher corpse to create the heavens
and the earth. Order is literally built from
(15:43):
the body of Chaos. The God walks through it, rules
over it, and names himself of king.
In Egyptian cosmology, the sun God RAW traverses the primordial
sea of noon. Each night.
He rides a celestial boat acrossthe underworld waters to battle
the Chaos serpent OP EP, the enemy of cosmic order.
And RAW doesn't avoid the sea here again, he moves across it
(16:04):
daily, trampling the waters of death and chaos to bring light
back to the world each morning. OK, so all of that context.
When Jesus walks on the sea in Matthew 14, he's not just
pulling off a supernatural stunt.
He's stepping into a story already told 100 different ways
in the ancient world. A story where only the divine
(16:25):
can do what he's doing. A story where to walk on water
is to declare victory over chaos, to act as ruler, not
subject. And the Hebrew scriptures pick
up this exact same theme in Job 98.
It's Yahweh, Israel Scott, who alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.
That language treads on the sea is the very phrase Matthew
(16:47):
echoes in his Gospel in the Greek Septuagint, which is the
Greek translation of the original Hebrew Bible.
The verb used to describe what God does in Job is the same one
that Matthew uses to describe Jesus walking on the water.
So Matthew gets it, and he's deliberately associating Jesus
with Yahweh, the God unveiled inthe Old Testament.
(17:09):
He's saying these two are the same.
Psalm 7719 says Your path LED through the sea, your way
through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not
seen. Psalm 77 is describing God
liberating Israel from Egypt in the Exodus.
But it's also about a God whose movements aren't bound by
geography or physics. It's about a God who makes a
(17:29):
road where there is none and walks where no human could ever
walk. Isaiah 4316 says this is what
the Lord says, he who makes a way in the sea, a path through
the mighty waters. So again, it's Yahweh alone who
forges paths across the sea, across chaos.
Or take Habakkuk 315. You trampled to see with your
(17:50):
horses turning the great waters.Divine power isn't calm and
tidy, it's violent. It's this storm riding, chaos
conquering movement. When God walks on the sea, he's
not just walking to get from point A to point B, He's
conquering the path from point Ato point B.
And in the ancient Psalms, it's Yahweh who reigns enthroned over
(18:12):
the flood in Psalm 29, who rebukes the sea and sets
boundaries for it in Psalm one, O 4, because otherwise the sea
does what it wants. If you don't set boundaries for
the sea, it floods and it terrorized it is, and it
destroys and it takes over everything it consumes like a
tsunami. But in Psalm One, O 4, it's
Yahweh who rebukes the sea and sets boundaries for it so it
(18:33):
can't step out of its place. It's God who pulls the drowning
from the deep in Psalm 18, and who in Psalm 74 is said to crush
the heads of Leviathan or Leviathan, this primordial sea
monster who lives within the seaand terrorizes people, but is
also representative of the chaosof the sea in monstrous form.
(18:55):
And I'm writing a book in which I'll discuss Leviathan or
Leviathan and other biblical monsters.
But all of this comes rushing into view when Jesus walks out
onto the sea. He's not justifying gravity.
He's fulfilling scripture. He's embodying myth.
He's walking like Yahweh walked.He's treading where only God
could tread. He's taking dominion over the
(19:17):
one thing that symbolized primalresistance to God's order, and
that is the sea. And just to pause for a moment,
I'm giving all of these examplesfrom other cultures in the
ancient world. And I'm not saying that Marduk
was real or Baal was real or these other deities in their
pantheons were real. But you have to understand that
(19:37):
the disciples lived in a world in which a lot of other cultures
had myths and had stories that described God's defeating seas
and sons of God storm gods goingto battle against this dragon in
this sea, in this monster of chaos.
And so when Jesus comes along, he knows he has to do something,
(19:58):
things to show his ancient audience who he is.
And sometimes that means doing things that they believed sons
of gods were supposed to do. It doesn't make those other sons
of gods real. But it's more like if I come
along and I say, hey, I'm a world class football player.
And then I show up on Universityof Oklahoma campus and I go to
(20:20):
football practice with some of the players and I say I'm a
world class football player. And then I sit on the sidelines
and don't do anything to prove it.
Going to wonder if I'm telling the truth.
They're going to wonder about who I really am.
But if I go out there, I put on the uniform and I start knocking
people around and outrunning people and catching passes and
doing what I'm claiming I can do, which I can't.
(20:42):
This is a hypothetical. Then all of a sudden everybody
I'm telling, hey, I'm a world class football player.
They're going to say, Oh yeah, he just proved it.
So when Jesus comes along, Jesusknows who he is, but other
people don't, and in particular the disciples.
So in order to prove who he is, he goes and carries out some of
these actions. And the battle versus the sea is
(21:03):
one of a handful in which Jesus comes along and he puts on the
uniform and says, hey, I know I've been saying it and I want
you to believe this about me. Now I'm going to prove it.
And so in this particular case, he takes that ancient narrative
of who a son of God is and what a son of God is capable of
doing. And he enacts it.
He does it himself. And he goes out and he defeats
(21:25):
the sea and shows everyone, hey,I am the son of God who defeats
Chaos. And he asks, now do you believe
me? All of this ancient narrative,
all of these ancient ideas aboutwhat sons of gods and what God
is supposed to be able to do comes rushing into view when
Jesus walks out on the sea. He's not justifying gravity,
He's fulfilling scripture. He's embodying these ancient
(21:47):
myths. He's walking like Yahweh.
He's treading where only God cantread.
He's taking dominion over the one thing that represented
primal resistance to God's order, the sea.
So when Matthew tells us that Jesus walks on water, he's not
saying, hey, look at this cool miracle.
He's saying, look again. This is that same divine drama.
This is Yahweh, this is the storm rider.
This is the one who walks acrosschaos like it's nothing.
(22:11):
So the question that I'm concerned about and that the
disciples were concerned about isn't how did he do it?
The question is, who does this? Because in all of ancient
literature, from Babylon to Canaan to Israel to Egypt, the
answer was always the same. Only a powerful God can walk on
water. And here we see it now Jesus
(22:31):
does too. That's what's happening here.
Jesus is doing what no one else can do, not just in terms of
physical power, but in terms of cosmic identity.
The sea, it's not just water, it's a character, it's chaos,
it's mythological. It's what the Hebrews called
Tejom, the deep and that which God subdued at creation.
It's Tiamat in Babylonian Lord, it's Yaman.
(22:53):
Canaanite myth. It's Leviathan or Leviathan in
the Old Testament. The sea is the embodiment of
disorder, rebellion, death, and Jesus, He just walks across it
like nothing. No resistance, no rebuke, no
armor. He doesn't have to conquer it
with Thunder or wind. He just steps onto the
battlefield and puts the enemy under his feet.
And that phrase under his feet should ring a bell in Psalm 110,
(23:14):
one Yahweh says to the Messiah, sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
And Paul echoes this in First Corinthians 1525 when he says
Jesus must reign until he has put all his enemies under his
feet. Matthew is showing us exactly
that. Jesus is walking on chaos.
Chaos is under foot. The battle isn't even close.
And the disciples, they freak out now, again, don't rush past
(23:37):
that because I think we often say, well, you know, the
disciples, they always lack faith.
But I think we need to understand this within the
ancient world in which this actually took place in 28 AD.
In the ancient world, the sea wasn't just a place, it was
chaos. But it was also where the dead
lived. The watery depths were often
(23:58):
imagined as the entrance to Sheol, or the realm of the dead.
So Job describes the scene wherethe dead tremble beneath the
waters. Jonah describes sinking into the
deep as being swallowed by deathitself.
And in the Psalms, the floodwaters constantly symbolize
a return to the underworld. So when the disciples see a
figure walking across the sea coming from the deep, they don't
(24:20):
think God, they think ghost. They think spirit, maybe even a
warrior soul from the deep. Some ancient traditions actually
called these figures the Rifaim,the mighty ones who haunted the
underworld or were remembered askings and combatants in ages
past. In the ancient mind, this wasn't
just unexpected, it was terrifying because you weren't
supposed to see something or someone coming out of the sea
(24:43):
unless it was the end for you. So they weren't just spooked,
they were terrified because they've seen something that
shouldn't be possible. Not for someone who's going to
continue living a long life at least.
And that's when Jesus speaks. And he doesn't just say don't be
scared. He says something much more
loaded. Take heart.
It is I don't be afraid or literally take heart, I am do
(25:05):
not be afraid. So in Greek, this is Eggo a me.
I am literally that phrase can mean it's me.
But in this moment on top of thesea echoing Job in Psalms and
all of these ancient cosmic stories, this is more than
identification. This is more than just seeing.
Hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, yo, it's me.
This is Jesus saying, check out who I am.
(25:26):
Eggo a me is the Greek version of the divine name.
I am used throughout the Septuagint or the Greek
translation of the Old Testament, and it renders the
name Yahweh. It's what God says to Moses at
the burning Bush. Remember, I am who I am.
It's the same way Jesus identifies himself in the Garden
of Gethsemane when Judas and allof the Jewish leaders and the
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Roman soldiers come to arrest him.
And Jesus says I am and they allsays they draw back.
John describes it, and they fallto the ground.
Jesus identifying himself using the divine name just flattens
everybody in his presence. And this is how Jesus identifies
himself standing on the sea in the middle of the night with the
wind and the waves crashing downon him and the disciples.
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So when Jesus calls out across the water, I believe he's doing
more than calming their fear. He's making a divine
declaration. He's not just saying it's me,
He's saying something like, honey, who I am.
It's a loaded moment with biblical memory, with the voice
of the one speaking from the burning Bush, with the name that
cannot be casually spoken. And now that same voice is
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echoing across the stormy sea. This is divine speech.
This is self disclosure. This is Jesus not only walking
like Yahweh walked, not only conquering like Yahweh
conquered, but speaking like Yahweh spoke and thus
identifying himself with the Godof heaven and earth.
And what's so powerful is that Jesus speaks this to his
disciples not in triumph, but intheir terror.
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He says it has a comfort, not a threat, not a judgement.
I am. Do not be afraid.
This is one of the most stunningdeclarations of Jesus identity
in the entire Gospel. He's not just a teacher any
longer. He's not just a healer any
longer. He is not just a man who works
wonders. He's the storm Walker, the chaos
subdur, the one who treads the sea and says, I am.
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And in this moment, this turningpoint in Matthew's Gospel, the
disciples are finally seeing it.They're glimpsing the divine
sonship, not in a sermon, not ina miracle, but in the fiercest
of storms. In a moment, we'll watch what
happens when Peter tries to joinhim and what it tells us about
faith and fear and the nature ofthe divine presence.
But for now, I just want you to sit with this image, Jesus
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walking calmly across the sea ofchaos, revealing his identity,
not in Thunder or fire, but in avoice that says, I am.
Don't be afraid if you need to pause just to sit with that
image, do it and then we'll moveon.
So let's talk about one of the most recognizable moments in
this gospel story, and that's Peter walking on the water.
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If this were just story about Jesus being powerful, this part
wouldn't necessarily be required.
Jesus is already displayed divine control by walking on the
sea itself, which, as we've seen, is a clear echo of Yahweh
and Job 98 and Psalm 7719 and some other psalms.
And it's a bold challenge to thesea that God has now taken back
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what you've thrust into chaos. But now something deeper is
happening. In Matthew 1428, Peter speaks up
from the boat. He's tossed by the waves.
He's surrounded by fear. He's barely able to believe what
he's seeing. And what does he say, Lord, if
it's you, command me to come to you on the water.
This isn't Peter being impulsiveor theatrical.
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There's something more in this request, I think.
Peter doesn't just ask Jesus to calm the storm again.
He doesn't beg for safety. Instead, he says, if it's really
you, tell me to come to you. That's not just about identity.
That's about an invitation. In Peter's mind.
If this truly is Jesus, the divine one walking on the chaos,
then he should be able to call Peter into the same reality and
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take care of him once he enters that reality.
Peter doesn't just want rescue, he wants participation.
He doesn't cry out for Jesus to stop the storm.
He asks Jesus to let him step into it with Jesus, and Jesus
responds with a single word. Come now, Jesus would have
spoken this in Galilee and Aramaic, likely something like
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TA or taha, but Matthew gives itto us in Greek.
Elfe, the Greek word, carries the weight of a long biblical
tradition. It's not just a polite
invitation. It's a divine summons.
It's not just saying, hey, have a seat, let's grab a quick bite
for lunch. This is a profound word.
And throughout the Scriptures, God calls people with the same
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word when he draws them into covenant, into calling, into
obedience. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram,
go from your country, a command that launches a movement of
faith. In Exodus 3, God says to Moses,
come and I will send you to Pharaoh.
He summons him into liberation and confrontation.
In Isaiah 1, it's come now let us reason together.
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And in Isaiah 55 come all you who are thirsty.
Even Jesus later says that in Matthew 11, Come to me, all who
are weary. So each time the word is used,
it marks a turning point. It's not just about comfort,
it's about transformation. And now, here on the water,
Jesus uses it again, not to calmPeter's fear, but to invite him
into the divine act, into this battle against chaos.
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It's a word of empowerment, not escape, not of safety.
And Peter takes the step, not because the sea is safe, but
because the call is real. And for a moment he shares in
the divine battle against chaos.He walks on chaos.
Standing on the back of this primordial dragon.
Peter is now participating with Jesus the Storm God, the Son of
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God, God himself, in subduing and conquering this primordial
chaotic force that has long brought disorder to God's good
creation. This isn't just a magic trick.
It's a theological demonstrationthat those who follow Jesus are
being invited not just to watch him conquer chaos, but to step
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into that mission themselves. OK, I want you to hear that this
isn't just theology. This isn't just a good story.
This isn't just a story about oh, you're safer outside the
boat than inside the boat, as I've heard preached and taught
for so many years. This is about those following
Jesus, taking up his invitation not just to watch him conquer
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chaos, but to step into the mission in which he and you
together go to battle against the forces of chaos in this
world. And then it happens.
The wind roars, the sea swells. On Peter's imagination it would
have appeared like a dragon trying to devour him on the
water. And when the disciples would
have told this story after it happened and passed it along,
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the ancients would have imaginedPeter and Jesus and the other
disciples who were in the boat still being attacked by this
dragon like monster. And for a few short moments,
Peter would have felt the exhilaration of walking through
the gaping jaws of this dragon like sea, unscathed, looking wet
but otherwise safe. But then it happened.
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Peter looks around, and he begins to sink.
This moment has often been interpreted as a failure.
Oh, Peter lost faith. And in a way, that's true.
But maybe that's not the whole story.
Because faith isn't the absence of fear.
And I've heard faith talked about like that, that if you're
afraid, if you're fearful, that's not true faith.
If you have doubts, that's not true faith, but that's not
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faith. Faith is not fear and it's
absence. Faith is stepping out in the
face of fear anyway, in the faceof doubts, in the face of the
unknown. Peter still made the request.
Peter still got out of the boat.And again, he didn't just step
on the water. He joined Jesus in treading on
the back of the sea, the primordial enemy of God.
So what he did was more than just get out of the boat and
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stand on roaring waves. He got out of the boat and stood
on the back of a dragon, the embodiment of disorder in the
devouring force that single handedly struck terror into
every single human in the ancient world, day and night.
And when he sank, he didn't drown in shame.
He cried out, Lord, save me. And what did Jesus do?
He didn't let him sink for dramatic effect.
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He didn't lecture him while he was going under.
Matthew 1431 says immediately. Jesus reached out his hand and
caught him immediately. It's one of the most
theologically rich gestures in all of the Gospels.
The one who just demonstrated cosmic control over chaos now
becomes the rescuer, reaching into human weakness, lifting up
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his struggling follower not withcondemnation but with care.
This moment is the living embodiment of Psalm 1816.
So check this out. And this is David talking after
having just gone through a series of near death situations.
He's being pursued by his enemies.
And he's he's describing this inpoetic and in theological form.
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And he's describing death as ensnaring him in the waters,
drowning him. And then he says in Psalm 1816,
he that is God reached down fromon high and took hold of me.
He drew me out of the deep waters.
That's fascinating, so incredible.
That's not just poetic. That's that's what's happening
here in Matthew 14. Jesus doesn't just calm the sea,
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he lifts the one who sank beneath it.
Or maybe we should put it in terms that the ancients would
have understood it. Jesus doesn't just defeat and
subdue the primal forces of chaos in the sea, but he rescues
those whom the sea has devoured.He literally reaches into its
jaws and rescues those that chaos has swallowed alive, like
Peter here. And this matters because for so
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many of us, this is where we live.
Not walking triumphantly on the waves, but somewhere between
stepping out in faith and going under.
Somewhere between faith and fear.
Somewhere between Lord if it's you and Lord, save me.
That's where a lot of us live our life, and sometimes this can
go in long stretches, and sometimes this can go from
day-to-day, But this scene tellsus that Jesus meets us right
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there. He doesn't demand perfection.
He doesn't shame the struggle. He honors the step, and then he
grabs our hand. That's what divine sonship looks
like. Because in the ancient world, as
we've discussed in these verses in which Jesus goes to battle
against the sea in Matthew 8 andMatthew 14, the Son of God
wasn't just a warrior. He was also the one who brings
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peace. He restores the cosmos, He
defeats the sea, and he makes sure the weak aren't swallowed
by the storm. Jesus is showing us here that
his authority over the sea doesn't just mean he's above it,
it means he has the power to lift us through it.
And Peter, he's this messy and flawed, temperamental Peter.
He becomes our stand in. That's you and me.
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And he shows us what it means towant to follow Jesus into power
over chaos and what it feels like to start sinking.
And in both, Jesus honors him. This isn't just a story about
Jesus walking on water. It's a story about what kind of
God he is. And it's also a story about what
kind of people we're becoming, those who walk the waves, those
who get wet, and those who get pulled up by the hand that never
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lets go. And now we come to the moment
that changes everything. The storm's been silenced.
The sea, which moments ago threatened to consume them all,
now lies glassy and quiet beneath their feet.
And the disciples are wide eyed and breathless.
They bow in the boat before Jesus and they declare, truly,
you are the Son of God. So let's pause there for a
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second. If you remember back in Matthew
8 when Jesus calmed the storm the first time, their reaction
was very different. They didn't worship him.
They didn't even seem to understand what they had just
witnessed. Specifically, they didn't
recognize him as the Son of God.They do here in Matthew 14, but
they didn't recognize this in Matthew 8 a couple of months
earlier when Jesus defeated the sea before.
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Instead, they asked the question, what kind of man is
this? Your translation might say who
is this? But they literally say what kind
of being, What type of entity isthis?
That even the winds and the sea obey him.
Back then they were afraid not just of the storm, but of Jesus.
His power scared them. The language they used of him,
what kind of being is this, suggests that Jesus defied their
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understanding of gods and humans.
They had no category to put him into at this moment.
And that's exactly why the second encounter here in Matthew
14 is so important. It's not just a replay of
Matthew 8. It's a sequel.
It's a progression. It's the moment when Jesus, the
sleeping God of the first storm,now stands wide awake and in
full command, not only of the sea, but of their understanding.
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They finally get it. Truly, you are the Son of God,
they declare, and this is the first time the disciples say it.
So in Matthew's Gospel, this title, the Son of God, doesn't
get tossed around lightly. It appears only a few times on
the lips of demons, when Jesus defeats demons, on the lips of
Satan in the wilderness when he refers to Jesus as the Son of
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God, and again at the cross whenthe Roman soldier says this must
be the Son of God. But here in this moment, it's
the disciples who say it, and they're not just making a
theological statement, they're bearing witness to something
cosmic. Because being the Son of God in
the ancient world wasn't just about identity, it was about
authority. In the ancient Near East, sons
(38:24):
of gods had to prove themselves in battle.
They had to go out and defeat some really challenging enemy,
sort of a David and Goliath typething.
But that's a different category.That's not a Son of God
category. But they had to go out and
defeat chaos, and that was the way they demonstrated themselves
worthy to inherit the throne andrule heaven and earth.
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And unlike those myths, Jesus doesn't wield a weapon.
He doesn't hurl a Thunderbolt orsplit the sea with a sword or
with a Mace. He walks, he speaks, he saves,
and that's enough. This is Jesus's coronation
moment, not in a palace, but on the storm tossed lake.
Not with a crown, but with the whispered confession of
awestruck fisherman. Truly, you are the Son of God.
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And for Matthew's readers, this isn't just a story about
whether. It's a story about worth, about
a king who has shown he can defeat the greatest enemy of
all, chaos itself, and who doesn't do it to dominate, but
to deliver. And that's the beauty of this
whole journey from confusion to confession, from what kind of
being is this to you are the Sonof God, From frightened
passengers to worshipping citizens of a new empire.
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Because in this moment, the disciples don't just understand
who Jesus is, they understand who they are.
They're witnesses to a new king,a new creation and a new way of
being in the world. A new empire, the Makuta de
Aloha, the Empire of God. This is a turning point not just
in the narrative, but in the disciples hearts.
Because once you've seen Jesus walk on water, once you've seen
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him tame the Sea of Chaos, once you've seen him confront the
Primordial Dragon and defeat it against all odds, you can never
Unsee it. And from here on out, they're
not just following a rabbi, and they know that they're following
the Son of God, the one who rules the wind, walks on the
deep, brings cosmos out of chaos, creates order from
disorder, and who welcomes you into the boat not just to be
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safe, but to worship. Let's end this episode not just
with a theology lesson or lessonabout ancient myths and stories
and texts, but with a moment of honest reflection.
Because this story is about Jesus, but it's also about you,
and it's about me. And it's about how the storms in
our lives might actually be invitations, not punishments, as
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so many of us have come to believe in our life.
And that's hard to hear, especially when we're in the
middle of a storm. But I want to say this as
clearly as I can. Sometimes Jesus sends us into
the storm. In Matthew 8, Jesus is in the
boat. He needs to sleep, and the
disciples panic. They wake him up and he speaks
the word and the chaos is silenced.
But in Matthew 14, it's different.
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This time, Jesus doesn't come with them.
He sends them on a head into thesea, into the night, into the
chaos. He knew what was about to
happen. And here's the thing, He still
sent them. And I think we need to think
about that for a moment, becausefor so many of us, we assume
that storms are always the result of disobedience or
failure or sin. That if we're going through
something difficult, some heartbreak, some financial loss,
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some unexpected tragedy, it mustbe because we're off course,
right? That's shame theology.
And shame and guilt do not existin this true Jesus approved
theology. If you are burdened by shame
theology, Jesus does not want you to feel shame any longer.
You are not to feel ashamed any longer, no matter what your
situation, no matter what you have done or you've been told
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that you've done. And if someone has made you
think that the chaos in your life is the result of your sin
and they've shamed you for it, and you listen to me now, Jesus
doesn't approve of that. Chaos seeks to wreck our lives
because that's what chaos does and is always done, and because
that's what chaos is. Sometimes storms come precisely
because we're following Jesus. Sometimes obedience leads
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directly into the waves, as it did in its case of the disciples
in both Matthew 8 and Matthew 14, and in the case of Peter in
particular in Matthew 14. And I think this is important to
emphasize. We have this sort of mixed
messaging in Christian theology,especially in more conservative
and evangelical theologies. On the one hand, we talked about
faith. We believe that the more power,
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the more wealth, the more security we have, then that's a
sign of God's blessing, right? So our faith in God is really
built on a foundation in which we trust what we believe God has
given us and what we can do withour stuff and with our power.
But I want you to think about this from a different
perspective for a moment. What if going through chaos is a
(42:41):
sign that you do align with the desires and will and imperial
aims of God and of Jesus and of the empire of God?
Remembering the two accounts in which Jesus went to battle
against the sea, the one time anyone was recognized in any way
for their faith was when they disregarded their desire for
peace and order and power and stability.
And they, and that is Peter we're talking about here,
(43:02):
stepped out into the realm of destruction and disorder.
Power and security is typically viewed as a sign of faith and
obedience, right? It is in my culture.
But if we are reading this episode in Matthew 14 correctly,
and frankly I am reading it correctly, then we need to
rethink what it really means andlooks like to follow the Jesus
of the Bible. The real person of Jesus versus
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that version of Jesus we've created who allegedly wants us
to be in control and in seats ofpower, versus standing alongside
him in the places of vulnerability and chaos.
Jesus didn't abandoned the disciples.
He ascended the mountain. He went up to pray.
He saw them, and in the dark, inthe middle of the night, he came
walking toward them. Not frantically paddling, not
running along the shore, but walking on the very thing they
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feared. Jesus walks on chaos.
And that means this, the storm that scares you might be the
exact place Jesus plans to meet you.
The most terrifying scenarios that we can face in life are
also those in which Jesus is already there.
He's out there waiting for us. He's not always in the boat.
He's not always on the side of power and peace and security.
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Sometimes He's already out therewith those who are being
battered by the waves of chaos, standing on the water, waiting
for us to look up and recognize him and to join him.
And man, I know it's hard to seehim when the wind is howling in,
the waves are rising in the jawsof the dragon are snarling at
us. But that's where he is.
He's there. And here's what blows me away.
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He doesn't just show up to calm the storm.
He invites us to walk with him in it.
Peter says, Lord, if it's you, call me out there.
And Jesus doesn't say no, no, no, it's too dangerous.
You stay there and your peace and security and safety and
power. He says, come, come into the
chaos. Come onto the waves.
Come learn what it means to trust me when everything is
unstable beneath you. That's not just an adventure,
(44:52):
that's discipleship. And yes, Peter sinks, Yes, he
doubts. But Jesus doesn't scold him
first. He catches him.
He reaches out his hand, just like in Psalm 1816, because he
is the one who reached down fromon high and took hold of me.
He drew me out of the deep waters.
Jesus comes. Jesus sees.
Jesus saves. And when they got back into the
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boat after the storm has stopped, after the sea has died
down, the disciples finally get it.
They spent the last couple of months whispering behind Jesus's
back about what really happened on the sea.
The first time in the spring of 2880 when Jesus subdued the sea
in Matthew 8. And they've been trying to
figure out what happened that day.
I guarantee you we're not told of these conversations, but I
(45:33):
guarantee they were sitting around whispering and trying to
figure it out. And now after round two in the
epic battle between Jesus and chaos, Jesus and the sea, they
finally get it. They finally say unequivocally,
truly, you are the Son of God. It's in the middle of the storm
that Jesus's identity as the fearsome and terrifying monster
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slaying storm God and the Son ofthe high God is most clearly
revealed. So if you're listening right now
and you're in a storm, if life feels like chaos, if the dragon
is attacking, if God feels far away, if Jesus appears to be
asleep, if you feel abandoned orafraid or like the wind and the
(46:14):
waves are going to defeat you this time once and for all, I
want you to remember this. Jesus sees you.
Jesus is coming, and the very thing that threatens to drown
you might be the thing he walks across to get to you.
He's still the storm God. He still treads on the waves.
He still speaks peace over the sea.
There is no sea, no dragon. Too enormous, too complex, too
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powerful, too horrifying for Jesus.
He's faced down all of them before, and he's in the process
of facing yours down right now as well.
Andy and I talk a lot in our life.
We've had a pretty good life, but we've been through some
challenges, infertility challenges for many years that
were very, very difficult, career questions and struggles.
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You've been through probably much more than us.
And we always pray God deliver us quickly and fully and get us
out of this mess soon as it starts, right?
And that's our prayer throughoutthe entire duration of whatever
it is that we're going through at the time.
And if there's one thing that God has made it clear, it's that
he always somehow delivers us. It's usually not in the way that
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we expected or hoped or prayed for.
And he's never late, but he's never early.
And in the case of the disciples, that storm beat him
up for a little while and he letPeter walk on the water long
enough to lose faith, start to doubt and start sink before he
pulled him up. In our lives, Jesus never seems
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to be early, but it's always at that last second, at that moment
when we genuinely feel like thisis it.
This is the time the storm is going to get the best of us,
where he reaches down and he says, come on, you've done well,
let's get back in the boat. And he defeats the storm and
gets us to the other side. So I'm saying to you right now,
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no matter what you're going through, hold on because Jesus
is near. If you think he's asleep, he's
not. He's a king prepping for battle.
If you think he's abandoned you because he's not in the boat
with you at all, he's on his way, treading on the back of the
dragon, trying to wreck your life and just wait and see what
Jesus is about to do to that dragon.
This is what the Bible actually says.
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And this is the Jesus who doesn't run from storms, He
walks on them. This is the kind of God who sees
the waves trying to drown you. And even in those times when he
doesn't come immediately, he's on his way and he's going to
meet you there and he's going tocalm the storm.
And I think that that's worth remembering anytime we're facing
a new level or episode of chaos in our lives.
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Share this with someone who needs it, someone who's in the
middle of the storm, someone who's wondering if Jesus still
sees them over the crashing waves.
And as always, Lake Ulmod, go and learn.
I'll see you next time on what the Bible actually says.
What's up everybody, Welcome to the What the Bible Actually Says
podcast. I'm your host, Tyson Bludoff,
and I am glad to have you with us today.
I'm also glad to be back. It's been a couple of weeks
since I posted the previous episode, so those of you who are
following along, I apologize forthe slowness in getting this
episode out, but I am super excited to be back.
(00:36):
I also want to remind you, if you haven't listened to the
previous episode, go ahead and do that.
Press pause on this one and go back to that.
Today's episode is the second-half of a cosmic story,
and it's going to hit a lot harder if you've already heard
Part 1 of this two-part study ofJesus versus the sea.
(00:57):
Last time we stood in a boat with Jesus and Matthew 8, we
watched the sea, the symbol of primordial chaos, rage and roar
against Jesus and the disciples and Jesus.
He was asleep, not out of neglect, not because he didn't
care, but because, as we saw, this was the ancient image of
the storm God, the Son of God atrest before battle.
(01:18):
So the disciples wake him. They're full of fear.
And Jesus rises, rebukes the sea, submits it and silences it.
And the disciples are essentially left speechless.
They don't know what to do with what they've just seen.
They ask who is this or what kind of being is this, that even
the winds and the sea obey him. So this was a battle, but it was
one that they weren't ready to understand.
(01:40):
And I think Jesus knew that theymissed it.
Maybe he saw at the moment that they weren't quite ready to
grasp the full weight of what they had just witnessed.
So not long after this, maybe a couple of months, he decides to
give him another chance. But this time things are going
to be different because in Matthew 8, Jesus is attacked by
chaos, by the sea. It rises up against him and his
(02:03):
disciples while they're in the boat.
But in the next episode, the next account, the next battle
between Jesus and the sea in Matthew 14, Jesus is actually
the one who starts the fight. So in this episode, we're
heading back to the Sea of Galilee, but this time it's a
few months after the previous account.
Right now, it's maybe mid to late summer of the year 28 AD.
(02:24):
And the Sea of Galilee, unlike the spring season when Matthew 8
took place, isn't known during this time of the year for sudden
storms as it was during that spring season.
So when the storm shows up, it'sno coincidence something or
someone has called it forth, hasinvoked it, has brought this sea
to life. And this time, Jesus isn't in
(02:44):
the boat. He's up on a mountain.
He's alone, he's praying. And the moment he's finished,
the storm starts. And what we'll see today is
this, and we're going to unpack all of this.
But Jesus isn't just responding to or reacting against chaos,
against the sea. This time, he's summoning it.
He's provoking it, challenging it, initiating the fight.
This is Jesus as a divine warrior.
(03:06):
He's not surprised. He's not passive.
He's fully awake, fully intentional, and fully divine.
This is Part 2 of a battle between Jesus and the sea.
And this time, as we're going tosee, the disciples do get it.
They understand what's happeningand they recognize him for who
he is, and that is the Son of God.
And we're going to talk about what that actually means because
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I don't think most of us truly grasp why the disciples
recognizing Jesus as the Son of God in this moment is so
critically important to who Jesus is, how he fits within the
ancient cosmic narrative and within the traditions and
narrative frameworks of the ancient world.
But this is a huge moment, and the disciples at this moment get
(03:49):
it. So today we're going to walk
through Matthew 14, verses 22 to23.
We're going to explore the historical, seasonal, and cosmic
clues buried in this story. We're going to talk about divine
sonship storm God imagery and why this story would have hit
differently for Jesus's originalaudience than it does often
times for us. And why the original meaning and
(04:11):
its original importance should matter to us today as well.
Because the same Jesus who silences the sea in Matthew 8 is
the one who walks on it in Matthew 14.
And when he does, it's not just a miracle.
It's a declaration of war. To grab your Bible, grab your
notebook. If you're driving, just listen
along. And when you're in a spot to
open your Bible, you can re listen to the episode and follow
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along. But let's dive in.
So before we even get to the storm, we need to take a step
back and really look at the landscape of this moment because
not just geography, it's theology, it's mythic, it's
cosmic. Matthew 14 opens with what might
seem like a small detail, and that is that Jesus sends the
disciples ahead of him onto the sea while he goes up a mountain
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by himself to pray. So don't miss this.
That's a drum roll. And I think often times we just
think of it like, oh, Jesus was a really spiritual guy.
He had self-discipline and he liked to pray.
That is true, absolutely. But there's a lot more going on
in this moment than just Jesus being a spiritual person.
So let's start with the mountain.
First of all, in biblical and ancient Near Eastern thought,
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the mountain isn't just a tall hill, it's the place of divine
encounter. So think about it.
Moses receives a Torah on Mount Zionai.
Elijah meets God in the whisper on Mount Horeb.
The psalmist says, I have set myking on Zion, my holy mountain.
In Psalm 2, mountains are where God speaks from, where God
rules, where the heavens and theearth touch.
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It's no accident that temples inthe ancient world were often
built on hills and imagined as cosmic mountains.
They were imagined as meeting places between heaven and earth,
between the divine and human. So when Jesus goes up the
mountain, he's not just finding a quiet place to pray.
He's stepping into the posture of divine authority.
And don't forget, he's alone. This is a solitary ascent, like
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Moses going up to Sinai. It's like a king entering the
inner chamber before a great battle.
And what's below him? What's below the mountain on
which he's praying? Think about it.
What's the setting? It's the Sea of Galilee, the
sea. Now, you and I might think of
the sea as a place of relaxationor recreation.
And Andy and I have been to the Sea of Galilee.
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And it's interesting because we go and we're on these tours
checking out the sights. And I remember walking down to
the Sea of Galilee and stepping into the water and just trying
to soak it up and just absorb the moment and really imagine
myself there. And you see beachgoers a couple
100 yards out in their boat blasting their music and playing
and having a good time partying.And so we imagine relaxation
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when we go to the lake, the sea,the ocean, the beach.
That's what we imagine. But in Jesus world, and
especially in the ancient Near Eastern and Jewish symbolic
imagination, yes, you could go swim in it, you could go play in
it, you could go fish in it, andyou could travel across it.
But the sea at the end of the day was terrifying.
It represented chaos, as we discussed in the previous
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episode, it represented evil. It was the embodiment of the
ancient deity in Mesopotamian and Canaanite and Egyptian myths
and even in the Old Testament. It was the embodiment of chaos,
the unpredictable threat of destruction that always just
lurked about beneath the surfaceof life.
It was Tejom, the Hebrew for thedeep in Genesis 1/2, the place
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that had to be subdued for creation even to happen.
It was the swirling, untameable abyss that God held at Bay so
that the world could even come into existence.
In Psalm 89.9, the poet says to Yahweh, You rule the raging sea.
When its waves surge, you steal them.
That's what we call chaos Kampf,a German word that describes
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this ancient motif in which a God or or a deity is subduing
and going to battle against and defeating chaos.
Chaos struggle. Literally.
It's not just about God calming waves, it's about God subduing
chaos itself. The sea isn't just water, it's
the enemy in Psalm 89.9. So when the psalmist says you
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ruled the raging sea, when its waves surge, you steal them.
This is divine cosmic battle language.
This is God going to battle against the most formidable and
undefeatable foe ever imagined. So now put those two pieces
together. Jesus is on the mountain, divine
King, like in communion with theFather, the disciples He has
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already sent down into the sea, into chaos, into danger.
OK, he's done that knowingly. But notice this time he didn't
go with them. Jesus doesn't go with him.
In Matthew 8, Jesus was with him.
He was asleep in the boat with them when the storm hit, when
the sea attacked. But here in Matthew 14, he's
deliberately absent. He sends them into the chaos
alone and that tells us something huge.
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I think Jesus isn't reacting to chaos this time.
He's orchestrating it. He's setting the stage for a
confrontation. Not just with the elements, not
just with nature as a lot of us often hear preached or taught or
talked about, but with the disciples perception of who He
is and with the forces of chaos themselves in the sea.
And this isn't just about calming a storm.
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It's about unveiling glory. It's about giving them eyes to
see who He truly is. And I want you to imagine what
the disciples were actually thinking.
It's now well into the night, maybe between 3:00 and 6:00 AM,
what Matthew calls the 4th watchof the night.
They've been rowing for hours. The wind is against them, the
waves are turning, they're exhausted.
Maybe even remembering the last time, the other storm back in
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Matthew 8 when Jesus had to be woken up.
That experience must have haunted them.
Maybe they'd even been talking about it over the past few
months, trying to really make sense of what they saw and what
they experienced. Because remember, at the end of
the episode in Matthew 8, the disciples didn't get it.
They were terrified, but they still didn't know who or what
Jesus was. What kind of man is this?
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They literally asked. But here's what makes this
moment in Matthew 14 even more mysterious.
Matthew is clear that Jesus madethem get into the boat.
Matthew's Greek is an on kasin. It's a strong verb that means to
compel, to force, even to coerce.
He insists they go even without him.
I remember this is summer. It's late summer, 28 AD
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according to the chronology I'vereconstructed.
And that's where I place this moment in my books on Jesus.
Grab your copy if you haven't yet.
And that matters. In the region around the Sea of
Galilee, violent, sudden storms were most common in the
springtime, when the cool air from the mountains would clash
with warmer air over the lake. That's when the sea would become
most unpredictable. But this storm, It's in the late
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summer. That kind of sudden, violent
storm isn't as typical. It doesn't match the seasonal
pattern, which raises the question, where did this
particular storm come from? Because that kind of nature
naturalistic explanation that often is talked about where the
storm arose and Jesus calmed it with his voice.
And then we move on and we just explain that as a naturalistic
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storm. That's not what's taking place
here. And that's exactly the point
that Jesus wants to make and tapinto in this moment.
Jesus knows that if a storm arises, this is not a typical
weather event. This is completely freak,
completely out of the ordinary. It's a divine orchestration.
And he knows that the disciples,if they run into a storm at this
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time of year, they can't get around the fact that this is
something cosmic, this is something theological.
This can't be explained as a regular old springtime storm.
So Jesus is orchestrating a second confrontation with the
sea, a second battle with chaos,not because he's threatened, but
because the disciples missed it the first time.
And now he's going to show them again who he is.
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Only this time not as the one who's roused from sleep, but as
the one who walks over the water, the one who descends from
the mountain like a divine warrior taking the fight to the
enemy. And that leads us to one of the
most mind blowing shifts in the story.
This time it's not the sea that attacks Jesus.
It's Jesus who attacks the sea. OK, I want you to catch that.
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It's not the sea that attacks Jesus this time, as in Matthew
8, it's Jesus who attacks the sea.
He doesn't wait for the storm tocome.
He sends the disciples in. He stirs it up while he's up on
top of the mountain. And then, like Marduk
confronting Tiamat in Mesopotamian lore, or Baal, or
Baal facing Yom in Canaanite lore, or Yahweh facing the
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watery chaos at creation and subduing it into order, here
Jesus comes down from the mountain and walks into the
heart of the storm. And just like in those ancient
stories, what comes next isn't just about whether it's about
identity, it's about sonship. It's about who truly holds power
over chaos. Because when Jesus steps onto
the waves, he's not just walkingon water.
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He's walking into the mythic space where only powerful sons
of gods, powerful storm gods, dare to tread.
And the disciples are about to see what kind of son of God he
really is. So in Matthew 1424 to 27, the
storm has arrived. The disciples are miles out into
the sea, struggling against waves and being tortured by the
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wind. Matthew says by the chaos around
them. And the word Matthew actually
uses basanidzo, it's a powerful word.
It's the same word that is used of demons tormenting or
torturing someone elsewhere in the Gospels.
So Matthew literally says that these waves in the sea right now
are torturing the disciples. They're not just an
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inconvenience. They're not just waves.
This is cosmic warfare. And Matthew really captures that
in the verb here. And just when the moment hits
peak terror, when the chaos has pushed them to the brink, Jesus
comes walking across water. Now pause.
Because we've heard this story so many times, we forget truly
how absolutely wild this is. And I really like the scene as
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it's depicted in the Chosen series.
I think they do a really good job of capturing this moment
cinematically, but even they can't capture it completely.
I don't think anything could. But we've heard this story so
many times we we forget really how absolutely wild this is.
And this is where things get really interesting because Jesus
doesn't calm the storm in this story.
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Not yet. He doesn't say peace be still.
He doesn't even rebuke the sea. In fact, when they see him, he
just keeps walking on it. He steps onto the surface of the
deep like it's solid ground, like it's a road built just for
him. And for Matthew's audience,
which is steeped in ancient imagination, this isn't just a
miracle. It's a revelation.
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It's a callback. It's a cosmic performance.
Because long before the Gospel was written, the ancient world
already told stories of gods whowalked upon the waters in the
Canaanite Baal or Baal cycle. Baal, the storm God, he's
mentioned throughout the Old Testament a lot.
He's the divine heir to the throne of his father, the chief
God in the Canaanite pantheon whose name is Ale.
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But Baal, the storm God and son of God, he defeats Yom, the God
of the sea, And once the battle is over, Baal rides the storm,
striding over the waves with hisdivine club in hand.
One light says that he mounts his steed and treads over the
sea, proving his kingship by placing chaos beneath his feet.
In the Babylonian myth, the God Marduk, who's also the son of
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the High and the chief God of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk,
defeats the primordial ocean goddess Tiamat.
She's this horrific sea dragon who represents the forces of
Chaos, and after slaying her, Marduk splits her watery body in
half and walks within her, usingher corpse to create the heavens
and the earth. Order is literally built from
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the body of Chaos. The God walks through it, rules
over it, and names himself of king.
In Egyptian cosmology, the sun God RAW traverses the primordial
sea of noon. Each night.
He rides a celestial boat acrossthe underworld waters to battle
the Chaos serpent OP EP, the enemy of cosmic order.
And RAW doesn't avoid the sea here again, he moves across it
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daily, trampling the waters of death and chaos to bring light
back to the world each morning. OK, so all of that context.
When Jesus walks on the sea in Matthew 14, he's not just
pulling off a supernatural stunt.
He's stepping into a story already told 100 different ways
in the ancient world. A story where only the divine
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can do what he's doing. A story where to walk on water
is to declare victory over chaos, to act as ruler, not
subject. And the Hebrew scriptures pick
up this exact same theme in Job 98.
It's Yahweh, Israel Scott, who alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea.
That language treads on the sea is the very phrase Matthew
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echoes in his Gospel in the Greek Septuagint, which is the
Greek translation of the original Hebrew Bible.
The verb used to describe what God does in Job is the same one
that Matthew uses to describe Jesus walking on the water.
So Matthew gets it, and he's deliberately associating Jesus
with Yahweh, the God unveiled inthe Old Testament.
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He's saying these two are the same.
Psalm 7719 says Your path LED through the sea, your way
through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not
seen. Psalm 77 is describing God
liberating Israel from Egypt in the Exodus.
But it's also about a God whose movements aren't bound by
geography or physics. It's about a God who makes a
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road where there is none and walks where no human could ever
walk. Isaiah 4316 says this is what
the Lord says, he who makes a way in the sea, a path through
the mighty waters. So again, it's Yahweh alone who
forges paths across the sea, across chaos.
Or take Habakkuk 315. You trampled to see with your
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horses turning the great waters.Divine power isn't calm and
tidy, it's violent. It's this storm riding, chaos
conquering movement. When God walks on the sea, he's
not just walking to get from point A to point B, He's
conquering the path from point Ato point B.
And in the ancient Psalms, it's Yahweh who reigns enthroned over
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the flood in Psalm 29, who rebukes the sea and sets
boundaries for it in Psalm one, O 4, because otherwise the sea
does what it wants. If you don't set boundaries for
the sea, it floods and it terrorized it is, and it
destroys and it takes over everything it consumes like a
tsunami. But in Psalm One, O 4, it's
Yahweh who rebukes the sea and sets boundaries for it so it
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can't step out of its place. It's God who pulls the drowning
from the deep in Psalm 18, and who in Psalm 74 is said to crush
the heads of Leviathan or Leviathan, this primordial sea
monster who lives within the seaand terrorizes people, but is
also representative of the chaosof the sea in monstrous form.
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And I'm writing a book in which I'll discuss Leviathan or
Leviathan and other biblical monsters.
But all of this comes rushing into view when Jesus walks out
onto the sea. He's not justifying gravity.
He's fulfilling scripture. He's embodying myth.
He's walking like Yahweh walked.He's treading where only God
could tread. He's taking dominion over the
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one thing that symbolized primalresistance to God's order, and
that is the sea. And just to pause for a moment,
I'm giving all of these examplesfrom other cultures in the
ancient world. And I'm not saying that Marduk
was real or Baal was real or these other deities in their
pantheons were real. But you have to understand that
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the disciples lived in a world in which a lot of other cultures
had myths and had stories that described God's defeating seas
and sons of God storm gods goingto battle against this dragon in
this sea, in this monster of chaos.
And so when Jesus comes along, he knows he has to do something,
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things to show his ancient audience who he is.
And sometimes that means doing things that they believed sons
of gods were supposed to do. It doesn't make those other sons
of gods real. But it's more like if I come
along and I say, hey, I'm a world class football player.
And then I show up on Universityof Oklahoma campus and I go to
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football practice with some of the players and I say I'm a
world class football player. And then I sit on the sidelines
and don't do anything to prove it.
Going to wonder if I'm telling the truth.
They're going to wonder about who I really am.
But if I go out there, I put on the uniform and I start knocking
people around and outrunning people and catching passes and
doing what I'm claiming I can do, which I can't.
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This is a hypothetical. Then all of a sudden everybody
I'm telling, hey, I'm a world class football player.
They're going to say, Oh yeah, he just proved it.
So when Jesus comes along, Jesusknows who he is, but other
people don't, and in particular the disciples.
So in order to prove who he is, he goes and carries out some of
these actions. And the battle versus the sea is
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one of a handful in which Jesus comes along and he puts on the
uniform and says, hey, I know I've been saying it and I want
you to believe this about me. Now I'm going to prove it.
And so in this particular case, he takes that ancient narrative
of who a son of God is and what a son of God is capable of
doing. And he enacts it.
He does it himself. And he goes out and he defeats
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the sea and shows everyone, hey,I am the son of God who defeats
Chaos. And he asks, now do you believe
me? All of this ancient narrative,
all of these ancient ideas aboutwhat sons of gods and what God
is supposed to be able to do comes rushing into view when
Jesus walks out on the sea. He's not justifying gravity,
He's fulfilling scripture. He's embodying these ancient
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myths. He's walking like Yahweh.
He's treading where only God cantread.
He's taking dominion over the one thing that represented
primal resistance to God's order, the sea.
So when Matthew tells us that Jesus walks on water, he's not
saying, hey, look at this cool miracle.
He's saying, look again. This is that same divine drama.
This is Yahweh, this is the storm rider.
This is the one who walks acrosschaos like it's nothing.
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So the question that I'm concerned about and that the
disciples were concerned about isn't how did he do it?
The question is, who does this? Because in all of ancient
literature, from Babylon to Canaan to Israel to Egypt, the
answer was always the same. Only a powerful God can walk on
water. And here we see it now Jesus
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does too. That's what's happening here.
Jesus is doing what no one else can do, not just in terms of
physical power, but in terms of cosmic identity.
The sea, it's not just water, it's a character, it's chaos,
it's mythological. It's what the Hebrews called
Tejom, the deep and that which God subdued at creation.
It's Tiamat in Babylonian Lord, it's Yaman.
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Canaanite myth. It's Leviathan or Leviathan in
the Old Testament. The sea is the embodiment of
disorder, rebellion, death, and Jesus, He just walks across it
like nothing. No resistance, no rebuke, no
armor. He doesn't have to conquer it
with Thunder or wind. He just steps onto the
battlefield and puts the enemy under his feet.
And that phrase under his feet should ring a bell in Psalm 110,
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one Yahweh says to the Messiah, sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
And Paul echoes this in First Corinthians 1525 when he says
Jesus must reign until he has put all his enemies under his
feet. Matthew is showing us exactly
that. Jesus is walking on chaos.
Chaos is under foot. The battle isn't even close.
And the disciples, they freak out now, again, don't rush past
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that because I think we often say, well, you know, the
disciples, they always lack faith.
But I think we need to understand this within the
ancient world in which this actually took place in 28 AD.
In the ancient world, the sea wasn't just a place, it was
chaos. But it was also where the dead
lived. The watery depths were often
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imagined as the entrance to Sheol, or the realm of the dead.
So Job describes the scene wherethe dead tremble beneath the
waters. Jonah describes sinking into the
deep as being swallowed by deathitself.
And in the Psalms, the floodwaters constantly symbolize
a return to the underworld. So when the disciples see a
figure walking across the sea coming from the deep, they don't
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think God, they think ghost. They think spirit, maybe even a
warrior soul from the deep. Some ancient traditions actually
called these figures the Rifaim,the mighty ones who haunted the
underworld or were remembered askings and combatants in ages
past. In the ancient mind, this wasn't
just unexpected, it was terrifying because you weren't
supposed to see something or someone coming out of the sea
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unless it was the end for you. So they weren't just spooked,
they were terrified because they've seen something that
shouldn't be possible. Not for someone who's going to
continue living a long life at least.
And that's when Jesus speaks. And he doesn't just say don't be
scared. He says something much more
loaded. Take heart.
It is I don't be afraid or literally take heart, I am do
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not be afraid. So in Greek, this is Eggo a me.
I am literally that phrase can mean it's me.
But in this moment on top of thesea echoing Job in Psalms and
all of these ancient cosmic stories, this is more than
identification. This is more than just seeing.
Hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, yo, it's me.
This is Jesus saying, check out who I am.
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Eggo a me is the Greek version of the divine name.
I am used throughout the Septuagint or the Greek
translation of the Old Testament, and it renders the
name Yahweh. It's what God says to Moses at
the burning Bush. Remember, I am who I am.
It's the same way Jesus identifies himself in the Garden
of Gethsemane when Judas and allof the Jewish leaders and the
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Roman soldiers come to arrest him.
And Jesus says I am and they allsays they draw back.
John describes it, and they fallto the ground.
Jesus identifying himself using the divine name just flattens
everybody in his presence. And this is how Jesus identifies
himself standing on the sea in the middle of the night with the
wind and the waves crashing downon him and the disciples.
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So when Jesus calls out across the water, I believe he's doing
more than calming their fear. He's making a divine
declaration. He's not just saying it's me,
He's saying something like, honey, who I am.
It's a loaded moment with biblical memory, with the voice
of the one speaking from the burning Bush, with the name that
cannot be casually spoken. And now that same voice is
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echoing across the stormy sea. This is divine speech.
This is self disclosure. This is Jesus not only walking
like Yahweh walked, not only conquering like Yahweh
conquered, but speaking like Yahweh spoke and thus
identifying himself with the Godof heaven and earth.
And what's so powerful is that Jesus speaks this to his
disciples not in triumph, but intheir terror.
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He says it has a comfort, not a threat, not a judgement.
I am. Do not be afraid.
This is one of the most stunningdeclarations of Jesus identity
in the entire Gospel. He's not just a teacher any
longer. He's not just a healer any
longer. He is not just a man who works
wonders. He's the storm Walker, the chaos
subdur, the one who treads the sea and says, I am.
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And in this moment, this turningpoint in Matthew's Gospel, the
disciples are finally seeing it.They're glimpsing the divine
sonship, not in a sermon, not ina miracle, but in the fiercest
of storms. In a moment, we'll watch what
happens when Peter tries to joinhim and what it tells us about
faith and fear and the nature ofthe divine presence.
But for now, I just want you to sit with this image, Jesus
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walking calmly across the sea ofchaos, revealing his identity,
not in Thunder or fire, but in avoice that says, I am.
Don't be afraid if you need to pause just to sit with that
image, do it and then we'll moveon.
So let's talk about one of the most recognizable moments in
this gospel story, and that's Peter walking on the water.
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If this were just story about Jesus being powerful, this part
wouldn't necessarily be required.
Jesus is already displayed divine control by walking on the
sea itself, which, as we've seen, is a clear echo of Yahweh
and Job 98 and Psalm 7719 and some other psalms.
And it's a bold challenge to thesea that God has now taken back
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what you've thrust into chaos. But now something deeper is
happening. In Matthew 1428, Peter speaks up
from the boat. He's tossed by the waves.
He's surrounded by fear. He's barely able to believe what
he's seeing. And what does he say, Lord, if
it's you, command me to come to you on the water.
This isn't Peter being impulsiveor theatrical.
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There's something more in this request, I think.
Peter doesn't just ask Jesus to calm the storm again.
He doesn't beg for safety. Instead, he says, if it's really
you, tell me to come to you. That's not just about identity.
That's about an invitation. In Peter's mind.
If this truly is Jesus, the divine one walking on the chaos,
then he should be able to call Peter into the same reality and
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take care of him once he enters that reality.
Peter doesn't just want rescue, he wants participation.
He doesn't cry out for Jesus to stop the storm.
He asks Jesus to let him step into it with Jesus, and Jesus
responds with a single word. Come now, Jesus would have
spoken this in Galilee and Aramaic, likely something like
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TA or taha, but Matthew gives itto us in Greek.
Elfe, the Greek word, carries the weight of a long biblical
tradition. It's not just a polite
invitation. It's a divine summons.
It's not just saying, hey, have a seat, let's grab a quick bite
for lunch. This is a profound word.
And throughout the Scriptures, God calls people with the same
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word when he draws them into covenant, into calling, into
obedience. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram,
go from your country, a command that launches a movement of
faith. In Exodus 3, God says to Moses,
come and I will send you to Pharaoh.
He summons him into liberation and confrontation.
In Isaiah 1, it's come now let us reason together.
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And in Isaiah 55 come all you who are thirsty.
Even Jesus later says that in Matthew 11, Come to me, all who
are weary. So each time the word is used,
it marks a turning point. It's not just about comfort,
it's about transformation. And now, here on the water,
Jesus uses it again, not to calmPeter's fear, but to invite him
into the divine act, into this battle against chaos.
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It's a word of empowerment, not escape, not of safety.
And Peter takes the step, not because the sea is safe, but
because the call is real. And for a moment he shares in
the divine battle against chaos.He walks on chaos.
Standing on the back of this primordial dragon.
Peter is now participating with Jesus the Storm God, the Son of
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God, God himself, in subduing and conquering this primordial
chaotic force that has long brought disorder to God's good
creation. This isn't just a magic trick.
It's a theological demonstrationthat those who follow Jesus are
being invited not just to watch him conquer chaos, but to step
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into that mission themselves. OK, I want you to hear that this
isn't just theology. This isn't just a good story.
This isn't just a story about oh, you're safer outside the
boat than inside the boat, as I've heard preached and taught
for so many years. This is about those following
Jesus, taking up his invitation not just to watch him conquer
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chaos, but to step into the mission in which he and you
together go to battle against the forces of chaos in this
world. And then it happens.
The wind roars, the sea swells. On Peter's imagination it would
have appeared like a dragon trying to devour him on the
water. And when the disciples would
have told this story after it happened and passed it along,
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the ancients would have imaginedPeter and Jesus and the other
disciples who were in the boat still being attacked by this
dragon like monster. And for a few short moments,
Peter would have felt the exhilaration of walking through
the gaping jaws of this dragon like sea, unscathed, looking wet
but otherwise safe. But then it happened.
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Peter looks around, and he begins to sink.
This moment has often been interpreted as a failure.
Oh, Peter lost faith. And in a way, that's true.
But maybe that's not the whole story.
Because faith isn't the absence of fear.
And I've heard faith talked about like that, that if you're
afraid, if you're fearful, that's not true faith.
If you have doubts, that's not true faith, but that's not
(32:41):
faith. Faith is not fear and it's
absence. Faith is stepping out in the
face of fear anyway, in the faceof doubts, in the face of the
unknown. Peter still made the request.
Peter still got out of the boat.And again, he didn't just step
on the water. He joined Jesus in treading on
the back of the sea, the primordial enemy of God.
So what he did was more than just get out of the boat and
(33:01):
stand on roaring waves. He got out of the boat and stood
on the back of a dragon, the embodiment of disorder in the
devouring force that single handedly struck terror into
every single human in the ancient world, day and night.
And when he sank, he didn't drown in shame.
He cried out, Lord, save me. And what did Jesus do?
He didn't let him sink for dramatic effect.
(33:22):
He didn't lecture him while he was going under.
Matthew 1431 says immediately. Jesus reached out his hand and
caught him immediately. It's one of the most
theologically rich gestures in all of the Gospels.
The one who just demonstrated cosmic control over chaos now
becomes the rescuer, reaching into human weakness, lifting up
(33:43):
his struggling follower not withcondemnation but with care.
This moment is the living embodiment of Psalm 1816.
So check this out. And this is David talking after
having just gone through a series of near death situations.
He's being pursued by his enemies.
And he's he's describing this inpoetic and in theological form.
(34:03):
And he's describing death as ensnaring him in the waters,
drowning him. And then he says in Psalm 1816,
he that is God reached down fromon high and took hold of me.
He drew me out of the deep waters.
That's fascinating, so incredible.
That's not just poetic. That's that's what's happening
here in Matthew 14. Jesus doesn't just calm the sea,
(34:27):
he lifts the one who sank beneath it.
Or maybe we should put it in terms that the ancients would
have understood it. Jesus doesn't just defeat and
subdue the primal forces of chaos in the sea, but he rescues
those whom the sea has devoured.He literally reaches into its
jaws and rescues those that chaos has swallowed alive, like
Peter here. And this matters because for so
(34:47):
many of us, this is where we live.
Not walking triumphantly on the waves, but somewhere between
stepping out in faith and going under.
Somewhere between faith and fear.
Somewhere between Lord if it's you and Lord, save me.
That's where a lot of us live our life, and sometimes this can
go in long stretches, and sometimes this can go from
day-to-day, But this scene tellsus that Jesus meets us right
(35:11):
there. He doesn't demand perfection.
He doesn't shame the struggle. He honors the step, and then he
grabs our hand. That's what divine sonship looks
like. Because in the ancient world, as
we've discussed in these verses in which Jesus goes to battle
against the sea in Matthew 8 andMatthew 14, the Son of God
wasn't just a warrior. He was also the one who brings
(35:31):
peace. He restores the cosmos, He
defeats the sea, and he makes sure the weak aren't swallowed
by the storm. Jesus is showing us here that
his authority over the sea doesn't just mean he's above it,
it means he has the power to lift us through it.
And Peter, he's this messy and flawed, temperamental Peter.
He becomes our stand in. That's you and me.
(35:53):
And he shows us what it means towant to follow Jesus into power
over chaos and what it feels like to start sinking.
And in both, Jesus honors him. This isn't just a story about
Jesus walking on water. It's a story about what kind of
God he is. And it's also a story about what
kind of people we're becoming, those who walk the waves, those
who get wet, and those who get pulled up by the hand that never
(36:16):
lets go. And now we come to the moment
that changes everything. The storm's been silenced.
The sea, which moments ago threatened to consume them all,
now lies glassy and quiet beneath their feet.
And the disciples are wide eyed and breathless.
They bow in the boat before Jesus and they declare, truly,
you are the Son of God. So let's pause there for a
(36:37):
second. If you remember back in Matthew
8 when Jesus calmed the storm the first time, their reaction
was very different. They didn't worship him.
They didn't even seem to understand what they had just
witnessed. Specifically, they didn't
recognize him as the Son of God.They do here in Matthew 14, but
they didn't recognize this in Matthew 8 a couple of months
earlier when Jesus defeated the sea before.
(36:57):
Instead, they asked the question, what kind of man is
this? Your translation might say who
is this? But they literally say what kind
of being, What type of entity isthis?
That even the winds and the sea obey him.
Back then they were afraid not just of the storm, but of Jesus.
His power scared them. The language they used of him,
what kind of being is this, suggests that Jesus defied their
(37:19):
understanding of gods and humans.
They had no category to put him into at this moment.
And that's exactly why the second encounter here in Matthew
14 is so important. It's not just a replay of
Matthew 8. It's a sequel.
It's a progression. It's the moment when Jesus, the
sleeping God of the first storm,now stands wide awake and in
full command, not only of the sea, but of their understanding.
(37:41):
They finally get it. Truly, you are the Son of God,
they declare, and this is the first time the disciples say it.
So in Matthew's Gospel, this title, the Son of God, doesn't
get tossed around lightly. It appears only a few times on
the lips of demons, when Jesus defeats demons, on the lips of
Satan in the wilderness when he refers to Jesus as the Son of
(38:02):
God, and again at the cross whenthe Roman soldier says this must
be the Son of God. But here in this moment, it's
the disciples who say it, and they're not just making a
theological statement, they're bearing witness to something
cosmic. Because being the Son of God in
the ancient world wasn't just about identity, it was about
authority. In the ancient Near East, sons
(38:24):
of gods had to prove themselves in battle.
They had to go out and defeat some really challenging enemy,
sort of a David and Goliath typething.
But that's a different category.That's not a Son of God
category. But they had to go out and
defeat chaos, and that was the way they demonstrated themselves
worthy to inherit the throne andrule heaven and earth.
(38:47):
And unlike those myths, Jesus doesn't wield a weapon.
He doesn't hurl a Thunderbolt orsplit the sea with a sword or
with a Mace. He walks, he speaks, he saves,
and that's enough. This is Jesus's coronation
moment, not in a palace, but on the storm tossed lake.
Not with a crown, but with the whispered confession of
awestruck fisherman. Truly, you are the Son of God.
(39:09):
And for Matthew's readers, this isn't just a story about
whether. It's a story about worth, about
a king who has shown he can defeat the greatest enemy of
all, chaos itself, and who doesn't do it to dominate, but
to deliver. And that's the beauty of this
whole journey from confusion to confession, from what kind of
being is this to you are the Sonof God, From frightened
passengers to worshipping citizens of a new empire.
(39:31):
Because in this moment, the disciples don't just understand
who Jesus is, they understand who they are.
They're witnesses to a new king,a new creation and a new way of
being in the world. A new empire, the Makuta de
Aloha, the Empire of God. This is a turning point not just
in the narrative, but in the disciples hearts.
Because once you've seen Jesus walk on water, once you've seen
(39:52):
him tame the Sea of Chaos, once you've seen him confront the
Primordial Dragon and defeat it against all odds, you can never
Unsee it. And from here on out, they're
not just following a rabbi, and they know that they're following
the Son of God, the one who rules the wind, walks on the
deep, brings cosmos out of chaos, creates order from
disorder, and who welcomes you into the boat not just to be
(40:13):
safe, but to worship. Let's end this episode not just
with a theology lesson or lessonabout ancient myths and stories
and texts, but with a moment of honest reflection.
Because this story is about Jesus, but it's also about you,
and it's about me. And it's about how the storms in
our lives might actually be invitations, not punishments, as
(40:34):
so many of us have come to believe in our life.
And that's hard to hear, especially when we're in the
middle of a storm. But I want to say this as
clearly as I can. Sometimes Jesus sends us into
the storm. In Matthew 8, Jesus is in the
boat. He needs to sleep, and the
disciples panic. They wake him up and he speaks
the word and the chaos is silenced.
But in Matthew 14, it's different.
(40:54):
This time, Jesus doesn't come with them.
He sends them on a head into thesea, into the night, into the
chaos. He knew what was about to
happen. And here's the thing, He still
sent them. And I think we need to think
about that for a moment, becausefor so many of us, we assume
that storms are always the result of disobedience or
failure or sin. That if we're going through
something difficult, some heartbreak, some financial loss,
(41:15):
some unexpected tragedy, it mustbe because we're off course,
right? That's shame theology.
And shame and guilt do not existin this true Jesus approved
theology. If you are burdened by shame
theology, Jesus does not want you to feel shame any longer.
You are not to feel ashamed any longer, no matter what your
situation, no matter what you have done or you've been told
(41:37):
that you've done. And if someone has made you
think that the chaos in your life is the result of your sin
and they've shamed you for it, and you listen to me now, Jesus
doesn't approve of that. Chaos seeks to wreck our lives
because that's what chaos does and is always done, and because
that's what chaos is. Sometimes storms come precisely
because we're following Jesus. Sometimes obedience leads
(41:59):
directly into the waves, as it did in its case of the disciples
in both Matthew 8 and Matthew 14, and in the case of Peter in
particular in Matthew 14. And I think this is important to
emphasize. We have this sort of mixed
messaging in Christian theology,especially in more conservative
and evangelical theologies. On the one hand, we talked about
faith. We believe that the more power,
(42:19):
the more wealth, the more security we have, then that's a
sign of God's blessing, right? So our faith in God is really
built on a foundation in which we trust what we believe God has
given us and what we can do withour stuff and with our power.
But I want you to think about this from a different
perspective for a moment. What if going through chaos is a
(42:41):
sign that you do align with the desires and will and imperial
aims of God and of Jesus and of the empire of God?
Remembering the two accounts in which Jesus went to battle
against the sea, the one time anyone was recognized in any way
for their faith was when they disregarded their desire for
peace and order and power and stability.
And they, and that is Peter we're talking about here,
(43:02):
stepped out into the realm of destruction and disorder.
Power and security is typically viewed as a sign of faith and
obedience, right? It is in my culture.
But if we are reading this episode in Matthew 14 correctly,
and frankly I am reading it correctly, then we need to
rethink what it really means andlooks like to follow the Jesus
of the Bible. The real person of Jesus versus
(43:23):
that version of Jesus we've created who allegedly wants us
to be in control and in seats ofpower, versus standing alongside
him in the places of vulnerability and chaos.
Jesus didn't abandoned the disciples.
He ascended the mountain. He went up to pray.
He saw them, and in the dark, inthe middle of the night, he came
walking toward them. Not frantically paddling, not
running along the shore, but walking on the very thing they
(43:45):
feared. Jesus walks on chaos.
And that means this, the storm that scares you might be the
exact place Jesus plans to meet you.
The most terrifying scenarios that we can face in life are
also those in which Jesus is already there.
He's out there waiting for us. He's not always in the boat.
He's not always on the side of power and peace and security.
(44:08):
Sometimes He's already out therewith those who are being
battered by the waves of chaos, standing on the water, waiting
for us to look up and recognize him and to join him.
And man, I know it's hard to seehim when the wind is howling in,
the waves are rising in the jawsof the dragon are snarling at
us. But that's where he is.
He's there. And here's what blows me away.
(44:29):
He doesn't just show up to calm the storm.
He invites us to walk with him in it.
Peter says, Lord, if it's you, call me out there.
And Jesus doesn't say no, no, no, it's too dangerous.
You stay there and your peace and security and safety and
power. He says, come, come into the
chaos. Come onto the waves.
Come learn what it means to trust me when everything is
unstable beneath you. That's not just an adventure,
(44:52):
that's discipleship. And yes, Peter sinks, Yes, he
doubts. But Jesus doesn't scold him
first. He catches him.
He reaches out his hand, just like in Psalm 1816, because he
is the one who reached down fromon high and took hold of me.
He drew me out of the deep waters.
Jesus comes. Jesus sees.
Jesus saves. And when they got back into the
(45:12):
boat after the storm has stopped, after the sea has died
down, the disciples finally get it.
They spent the last couple of months whispering behind Jesus's
back about what really happened on the sea.
The first time in the spring of 2880 when Jesus subdued the sea
in Matthew 8. And they've been trying to
figure out what happened that day.
I guarantee you we're not told of these conversations, but I
(45:33):
guarantee they were sitting around whispering and trying to
figure it out. And now after round two in the
epic battle between Jesus and chaos, Jesus and the sea, they
finally get it. They finally say unequivocally,
truly, you are the Son of God. It's in the middle of the storm
that Jesus's identity as the fearsome and terrifying monster
(45:53):
slaying storm God and the Son ofthe high God is most clearly
revealed. So if you're listening right now
and you're in a storm, if life feels like chaos, if the dragon
is attacking, if God feels far away, if Jesus appears to be
asleep, if you feel abandoned orafraid or like the wind and the
(46:14):
waves are going to defeat you this time once and for all, I
want you to remember this. Jesus sees you.
Jesus is coming, and the very thing that threatens to drown
you might be the thing he walks across to get to you.
He's still the storm God. He still treads on the waves.
He still speaks peace over the sea.
There is no sea, no dragon. Too enormous, too complex, too
(46:36):
powerful, too horrifying for Jesus.
He's faced down all of them before, and he's in the process
of facing yours down right now as well.
Andy and I talk a lot in our life.
We've had a pretty good life, but we've been through some
challenges, infertility challenges for many years that
were very, very difficult, career questions and struggles.
(46:58):
You've been through probably much more than us.
And we always pray God deliver us quickly and fully and get us
out of this mess soon as it starts, right?
And that's our prayer throughoutthe entire duration of whatever
it is that we're going through at the time.
And if there's one thing that God has made it clear, it's that
he always somehow delivers us. It's usually not in the way that
(47:21):
we expected or hoped or prayed for.
And he's never late, but he's never early.
And in the case of the disciples, that storm beat him
up for a little while and he letPeter walk on the water long
enough to lose faith, start to doubt and start sink before he
pulled him up. In our lives, Jesus never seems
(47:43):
to be early, but it's always at that last second, at that moment
when we genuinely feel like thisis it.
This is the time the storm is going to get the best of us,
where he reaches down and he says, come on, you've done well,
let's get back in the boat. And he defeats the storm and
gets us to the other side. So I'm saying to you right now,
(48:04):
no matter what you're going through, hold on because Jesus
is near. If you think he's asleep, he's
not. He's a king prepping for battle.
If you think he's abandoned you because he's not in the boat
with you at all, he's on his way, treading on the back of the
dragon, trying to wreck your life and just wait and see what
Jesus is about to do to that dragon.
This is what the Bible actually says.
(48:24):
And this is the Jesus who doesn't run from storms, He
walks on them. This is the kind of God who sees
the waves trying to drown you. And even in those times when he
doesn't come immediately, he's on his way and he's going to
meet you there and he's going tocalm the storm.
And I think that that's worth remembering anytime we're facing
a new level or episode of chaos in our lives.
(48:47):
Share this with someone who needs it, someone who's in the
middle of the storm, someone who's wondering if Jesus still
sees them over the crashing waves.
And as always, Lake Ulmod, go and learn.
I'll see you next time on what the Bible actually says.
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