Keith Fangman
Ron Foster
Paul Franz
John Fuduric
April 13, 2000
Edited by Sheila E. McGinn, Ph.D.
Jesus had just fed five thousand people and his disciples had picked up plenty of leftovers. Jesus then commands his disciples to go on ahead of him so that he could go pray by himself. A storm develops while the disciples are still in their boat and Jesus walks out to them on the water and calms their fears. This passage’s placement in the middle of Matthew’s Gospel is appropriate because it takes place during Jesus’ teachings and fits in well with the other miracles that Matthew describes. Further, Matthew 14: 22-36 is an appropriate length for this pericope because these verses by themselves are thorough enough to make Matthew’s point. Readers do not need an introduction, nor do they need more verses at the end to figure out what is going on during this pericope.
The author of this pericope is generally accepted to be Matthew, a Jewish-Christian tax collector who spoke Greek. He was not an eyewitness to Jesus. He either wrote the gospel itself or a collection of sayings that became part of the gospel (Brown 172). He was writing for a Jewish audience, which had recently become Gentile (214). Matthew may have written this for a group that had recently left or been ejected from the synagogue (215). This supports the widely held belief that the gospel was written in Antioch around CE 85-90, since this was the situation there at the time (Gospel According). Furthermore, according to an online source, the gospel was written to "bridge the gap between Jewish and Christian worlds" (Gospel According).
As mentioned above, the Gospel of Matthew was written in Antioch between CE 85-90. At this time, Roman rule was well established in Palestine under the reign of Domitian (Brown xli).
The literary genre of this pericope is a narrative, which describes a miracle story. There are also some text critical issues in this passage. One, the disciples describe Jesus’ appearance as a ghost (14:26). However, the original word used by Matthew - phantasma - has deeper and wider meaning, stressing the true fear the disciples had at that moment (Fuller 930, Schroeder). Second, Jesus responds to the disciples’ fear by saying, "It is I" (14:27). However, the words used by Matthew literally mean "I am," alluding to Peter’s statement at the end of the pericope that Jesus is the Son of God (Fuller 931).
Matthew used many sources when writing this gospel. The primary source of Matthew is the Gospel of Mark, which he sometimes copies verbatim, making only small changes to suit his needs (Brown 204). For example, in this pericope, which is taken from Mark, Matthew makes the miracle seem more miraculous by having Jesus walk a longer distance on the water (205). Secondary sources used by Matthew are Q, which was also used by Luke, and M, a collection of sayings available only to Matthew (Fuller 903). It is believed that the story involving Peter walking on the water with Jesus came from M, since it does not appear in the other Synoptic Gospels (931). Matthew also used the writings of Paul and those of the Old Testament when showing how the events he described fulfill scripture (Brown 206).
Courage, faith, doubt, and worship are the key terms contained in this passage. When Jesus says "Take Courage," he wants the disciples to stop fearing death and to stop being afraid (Mt 14:27). Matthew uses faith in this pericope to represent the confidence and trust that the disciples had in Jesus. Doubt, however, is used as the opposite of faith in this passage. Finally, worship is showing humility and awe to the powerful people.
The central idea of this pericope is that through faith in Jesus, we can overcome our fears and things that seem impossible can become a reality. However, the moment we try and take things into our own hands, we begin to sink, like Peter did, and we rarely succeed. It is through our faith in Jesus that our fears are removed and the pathway to success is paved. Matthew calls us to always keep our faith as the most important thing in our lives because everything else comes from that.
Matthew also includes many elements to make this passage persuasive to his audience. First, he has Jesus perform a miracle by walking on water, a circumstance that would have grabbed his reader’s attention. Second and more importantly, Matthew has Jesus invite Peter to join him on the water. This shows Matthew’s audience that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, if they only have faith, for as soon as Peter doubted, he began to sink (Mt 14:30-1).
A contemporary audience would be persuaded by the same elements, since walking on water is still impossible today. However, this passage also has some problems for a contemporary audience. For one thing, some people question whether this event is historical or just an exaggeration, maybe even entirely fictional. This may cause them to doubt the other miracle stories in Matthew for the same reasons, causing them to lose faith in Jesus. Even in accepting the account as true, there are still problems with its modern interpretation. The message of the pericope is that Jesus will always be there to help us during difficult situations. This may be troubling to people who have gone through difficult times in their lives, yet felt that God was nowhere around them. This passage shows that God has power over nature, but some may wonder why he does not use it to help modern readers.
Works Cited
Brown, Raymond. An Introduction to the New Testament. Doubleday: New York, 1997. p. 171-224.
Fuller, Rev. Reginald. A New Commentary on Holy Scripture. Thomas Nelson & Sons: Camden, New Jersey, 1969. p. 902-53.
"Good News Bible." American Bible Society: New York, 1976.
"The Gospel According to Matthew." Online. 5 April 2000. www.fireplug.net/~rshand/reflections/messiah/matthew.html.
Schroeder, Ed. "Buffeted by Wind, Waves, and Water: Mt 14:22-33." Online. 5 April 2000. www.crossings.org/theology/theolo23.htm.