Scripture Daily

Context No. 645 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 14:22-27: in context

22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. 23After he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain by himself to pray. When evening had come, he was there alone. 24But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, distressed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It’s a ghost!” and they cried out for fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid.”

Jesus has sent the disciples ahead in the boat while he goes up the mountain alone to pray, and out on the lake things go badly for them. The wind turns against them, the waves batter the boat, and they are stuck far from shore, straining at the oars through the dark. And here the timing matters. Jesus does not come at the first sign of trouble, or at midnight, or even in the third watch. He comes in the fourth watch of the night, the last and darkest stretch before dawn, after they have been fighting the storm for hours with no relief. From their side, it must have felt as though he was never coming at all. But he comes. And he comes walking on the sea, on top of the very waves that are terrifying them.

Both of those details are worth holding. First, he came late, or what felt late, after a long night of exhausting struggle, not the moment they wanted him but the moment he chose. His apparent delay was not absence or indifference; he was praying on the mountain while they rowed, and he came. And second, notice what he was walking on. The disciples were being overwhelmed by the waves; Jesus came to them treading on those same waves, the thing that was drowning them under his feet. The storm that was master of them was no obstacle to him; he walked across the top of it to reach them, and said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.

That speaks to the long, dark stretches when I have been struggling for what feels like all night and Jesus seems not to come. I take his delay as proof he is not there, that I have been left to sink. This scene says he comes in the fourth watch, later than I want but not too late, and that he comes walking on the very thing that is overwhelming me, the storm beneath his feet. When I have struggled through the whole dark night and he still has not come, can I trust that he comes in the fourth watch, master of the waves that terrify me, saying take heart, it is I?

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