Walking On Water

I had someone recently tell me that they wouldn’t want to be like Peter, because he didn’t have enough faith to be able to walk on the water without Jesus’ help.  I can sort of see that point, but it occurs to me that I would like even less to be like the other eleven who didn’t have enough faith to get out of the boat.  To be perfectly honest, most of the time I have more in common with the other eleven than I do with Peter.  That shouldn’t come as a surprise:  In Isaiah, we are told that our righteousness is as filthy rags.  Any time we try to do anything on our own, we are going to come up short.  The Bible even says that we are not sufficient of ourselves even to think as of ourselves.

Jesus once taught that a servant shouldn’t expect thanks for a job well done; after all, he (or she) is just doing his job.  I suppose that it has become courtesy to thank an employee, or to give some recognition when a worker does well, but, realistically, as a worker, you do what you do in order to earn a paycheck.  The words, “Thank you” may sound nice, but they don’t help pay the bills.  Don’t misunderstand me, I understand that a little appreciation goes a long way towards building up morale, which, in turn, helps people to put more effort into their jobs.  A good manager will thank his/her employees when they do a good job (whereas a poor manager will only criticize), but the worker should understand that the expression of gratitude that really matters is the paycheck.  Jesus went on to say that, when we have done all that has been commanded of us, we should say, “We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.”  To be perfectly honest, there are very few days that I feel comfortable saying that I am an unprofitable servant.  Most days I am just one striving to be closer to being unprofitable than to being a liability. 

The Bible says to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  This is hard for human beings to hear, but when one considers the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, it is hard to escape the realization that He asks less from us that what He has done for us, and even now, He continues to make intercession for us because He knows and understands that, in this life, we will never be perfect.  God understands our limits and our human frailties, and He has made a way for us to overcome.  If we ever think that we have done this by our own strength or by our own righteousness, however, then we are essentially just exalting ourselves.  Of course, God understands human ego, also, and will, if we allow Him, make away for us to get past ourselves.

To get back to the reference I started with, Peter may have needed Jesus’ help to walk on the water, but each of us needs Jesus’ help to do anything worthwhile.  None of us are “man enough,” or holy enough, or righteous enough to achieve salvation on our own, much less  impart salvation to someone else; we have enter through the door that Jesus provided.  Peter walked on the water, even for the short time that he was able to do it, by keeping his eyes on Christ.  When he took his eyes off of Christ and started looking at the physical things around him, then he lost his focus, and he began to sink.  When he cried out to Jesus, Jesus reached out and saved him.  Some would have you to believe that this represents the absolute worst of mankind; I am telling you that this represents the absolute best—we just don’t get any better than that.  We do well when we focus on Jesus, when we “keep our eyes on the prize,” as they say, but, ultimately, we allow ourselves to become distracted; when we turn back to Jesus, He saves us from whatever trouble we’ve managed to get ourselves into.  This is humanity at its best.  Strive to do better, but, this is basically who we are.