Stepping Out in Faith: The Metaphor of Jesus Walking on Water

Today, we will focus on the biblical account of Jesus walking on water, as described in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John. All three accounts describe Jesus defying natural laws by walking on the Sea of Galilee. Only Matthew includes Peter’s attempt to join Him. While some dismiss this story as a myth or take it literally without reflection, I believe exploring it metaphorically reveals deeper spiritual insights into faith, action, and grace.

Before this event, Matthew tells us that Jesus fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves and fish near Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee. After the miracle, Jesus instructed His disciples to get into the boat and go ahead of Him to Capernaum. Meanwhile, He went to pray alone in the mountains because the crowds wanted to forcefully make Him a king.

The Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake shaped like an inverted pear. Traveling from east of Bethsaida to Capernaum required the disciples to follow a route along the northern edge of the lake. However, a strong wind pushed them out into the deeper part of the lake, making their journey challenging. According to John, the disciples had rowed 25 or 30 stadia, roughly 2.9 to 3.4 miles. Since boats back then used simple sails, sailing against the wind was difficult, forcing them to row the entire way. Mark’s account says they ended up in Gennesaret, southwest of their starting point. This means they intended to go northeast along shallow waters but were pushed southwest into the lake’s deep center, which is over 140 feet deep.

Why is this detail important? Because it rules out natural explanations, such as the idea that Jesus walked on underwater rocks in shallow waters. The distance they traveled and their location in deep water make such explanations impossible. This detail helps us see the miraculous nature of the story.

Metaphorically, life often feels like a stormy sea—unpredictable and full of challenges. When things are going well, the spiritual journey feels easier. But when life throws storms our way, fear can take over.

In the predawn hours, between 3:00 and 6:00 a.m., Jesus approached the disciples by walking on the stormy sea. The disciples, seeing a figure moving across the water, were terrified and cried out, thinking it was a ghost. Jesus calmed their fears by saying, “Take heart; it is I; do not be afraid.” The phrase “ego eimi” (ἐγώ εῐμί) translates to “I am,” echoing the divine name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. This is important because when life feels chaotic, God reminds us of His presence with the simple yet profound declaration: “I AM.”

The disciples’ initial fear, mistaking Jesus for a ghost, reveals an interesting truth about encountering God. The disciples had never seen anyone walk on water. Job 9:8 says, “He (God) alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.” By walking on water, Jesus demonstrated His divine nature, and this act evoked a visceral response from the disciples.

This story highlights how we struggle to recognize God in our lives. God’s presence often manifests in unexpected ways that can confuse or frighten us. Sometimes, we confine our understanding of God to doctrinal boxes, expecting Him to act predictably within the framework of our beliefs. However, this story shows us the importance of being open-minded to discern God’s presence and actions.

The sea, with its winds and waves, metaphorically represents the challenges and uncertainties of life. The disciples’ struggle to row against the wind mirrors our human efforts to control circumstances, even as we face forces beyond our power. This struggle reveals how the human ego clings to control and self-sufficiency. Yet, the story teaches that true stability comes from recognizing our dependence on God. When Jesus calmed the storm after entering the boat, the disciples experienced a shift in perspective, leading them to worship Him as the Son of God.

Peter’s response adds another layer of meaning. He boldly asked Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” With unexpected courage, Peter stepped out of the boat and began walking on water. This act, though seemingly reckless, illustrates the powerful connection between faith, action, and grace. Faith requires risk, courage, and trust in Jesus’ call. Grace—God’s unearned enabling power—makes the impossible possible, allowing Peter to take steps he could never take on his own. Many of us, like the other disciples, miss out on such rich experiences of grace because we hesitate to step out of our comfort zones.

Metaphorically, Peter’s walking on water symbolizes the transformative power of grace and faith. It reminds us that true faith involves stepping out into the unknown and trusting God’s grace to sustain us. However, as Peter took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the wind and waves, fear overcame him, and he began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately stretched out His hand, caught him, and said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

The Greek term “diastazo,” translated as “doubt,” literally means “to be in two minds.” It refers not to intellectual questioning but to wavering between trust and fear. Peter’s cry for help reveals an essential truth about grace. Jesus’ response—reaching out to rescue him—shows that grace meets us in our vulnerability, not our strength. Grace is found when we exhaust our efforts and surrender to God’s mercy. Peter’s experience teaches us that faith does not eliminate life’s storms but draws us closer to God, the ultimate source of strength and peace.

This story also balances two aspects of spirituality: mysticism and activism. Mysticism represents the inward journey of deepening our connection with God and nurturing our faith. Activism embodies the outward expression of faith through service, addressing injustice, and taking bold steps. True spiritual growth arises from harmonizing these aspects. We are called to cultivate a rich inner life while engaging meaningfully with the world.

“Walking on water” metaphorically symbolizes stepping out in faith during life’s challenges, even when circumstances seem impossible. When we do so, we are upheld by a power (dynamin) of grace greater than ourselves, capable of transcending human limitations. 

Faith requires more than belief; it demands action. We are called to step out of our comfort zones, embrace the unknown, and trust in God’s power of grace. True faith finds its ultimate expression in acts of love and compassion. By serving others, alleviating suffering, and embodying God’s love, we live out our faith and transform the world.

Grace plays a pivotal role in this journey. It empowers us to attempt the impossible, transforms our weaknesses into strengths, and keeps us afloat when we falter. As we receive and embody grace, we become conduits of it for others. Our acts of compassion and love create ripples of positive change, benefiting others and deepening our own spiritual connection. Through this outward expression of inward grace, we participate in God’s ongoing work of transformation.

In conclusion, the story of Jesus walking on water invites us to embrace a holistic spiritual journey. Our faith is not just about personal enlightenment. It is about becoming active agents of love, compassion, and divine presence in the world. Let us integrate trust, action, and love to navigate life’s challenges with grace and resilience, transforming both ourselves and the world around us.

Discussion questions
1. As we step into the New Year, how does the story of Jesus walking on water challenge our understanding of faith and its relationship with action? Can you share examples of how stepping out of your comfort zone deepened your faith or reliance on grace?

David: I’m taken by this story back to one of my long-held premises that I’ve mentioned often in class: while grace is always available, it only shows up when you really, really need it. So, I am not sure we can say that grace sustains us—not, at least, in the sense of keeping us alive. I don’t think it does. I think it’s faith that sustains us. Grace didn’t sustain Peter when he stepped out of the boat: he sank! But grace saved Peter and lifted him up when he sank. It seems that grace steps in when faith fails.

C-J: In the military, it’s about actionable and verifiable choices. So, if Peter recognized the voice of God—spiritually meaning the voice of God—instead of just the voice of Jesus, and his action was to respond, to step out of the boat and come forward, the verifiable would only happen if he believed that it was God speaking to him and not one of the other disciples or something. He would have been able to sustain walking on that water without sinking. I think that’s what I interpreted in my head.

I do think we are always in the grace of God; it’s just whether we recognize it. Even my faith isn’t my faith—it is a gift. If I’m constantly moving and second-guessing myself, then I’m not relying on, not leaning on, not trusting—it’s under my own volition. The verifiability comes when, as Kiran implied, you look back and say, “Wow, only God could have done that,” because I was out of my depth, or I didn’t even see that coming. I think we all have those moments, great or small, whether they happen many times a day or all day long.

David: It seems that Peter had enough faith when he immediately stepped out of the boat; he actually took a few steps on the water. Perhaps, then, the story is intended to illustrate how difficult it is to achieve that level of faith—and even more incredibly difficult to maintain it.

Carolyn: What is the difference between faith and presumption? To me, presumption is a negative and faith is a positive.

C-J: Presumption to me is when you say, “I know this could go sideways, but I’m going to do it anyway.” Faith, on the other hand, is when you really feel led by God. It’s almost a compulsion—you know that you can. You can’t resist it because it just floats in your head. You’ll feel it so strongly in your spirit that you’ll do it without hesitation. God will go before me—I mean, you just don’t question it.

When I feel that strongly about something, I just do it. The other, presumption, is when I say, “I don’t know if this is your will or not, God, or if this is the right way to do it, but I’m going to take this leap because there’s no movement here, and I want something to change.” Can you see that as an option in terms of how it’s internalized? For me, that’s how I experience it, though I don’t know if others do. Part of living is risk-taking, but it’s a calculated risk.

Don: There’s another story where Jesus is asleep in the boat, and a storm comes up on the Sea of Galilee. It reminds me that grace can be both internal and with you, and it can be external and outside of you. Maybe that’s what David has been trying to say repeatedly in terms of our understanding of the different aspects of grace.

David: Perhaps presumption is kind of a second-best when it comes to faith. If you presume the existence of God—maybe from the evidence around you, the beauty of nature, and so on—it’s better than having no faith at all. But the best faith, the most secure faith, may be for those who have literally experienced God, as I feel I have. As a result of that experience, I know that God exists, so my faith is secure. Before that experience, I had a presumption that God existed, and maybe that’s better than nothing.

Kiran: I used to think that faith was like magic—like a power source that enables you to do miracles and extraordinary things. But now I see it differently. Faith enables me to take on the opportunities that God brings into my life, to serve others, and through that service, get much closer to Him.

I don’t know if you all agree, but when you see a need in someone within your circle of life, none of us are so rich, capable, or self-sufficient that we can just do it effortlessly. Acts of compassion, charity, and love require some sort of sacrifice. We always calculate in our minds: Is it worth it for me to do this? What if I fail? What if what I’m doing doesn’t work? And sometimes, we think, Every good deed goes unpunished.

Faith is what we need at those moments to take hold of God, step out of our comfort zone, and go forward. It’s not our strength that, in the end, helps the person in need—it’s the power of grace that accomplishes what seems impossible.

For me, this story taught me that I need to have the faith of Peter to walk on water because sometimes I’m just sitting too comfortably in the boat. It’s not wrong to sit in the boat—it’s needed sometimes. There are moments in life where I don’t have the tools, and staying in the boat is necessary. That discernment also comes through the help of the Holy Spirit, which is nothing but grace within us. I don’t know what you think.

Michael: I think the church misunderstands the meaning of the story. I think Peter had much more courage and faith than any of the other disciples. Even though Jesus called him out and said, “You of little faith,” I still think Peter had an experience that none of the other disciples had. It seems to have been transformative for him.

In the end, Jesus had a very special relationship with Peter. He called him the rock, and Peter ended up being a very important figure in the early church. So, I think Peter’s “little faith” was still much greater than all of the other disciples’ faith combined.

C-J: I also think that God never asks us to do anything that He hasn’t prepared us for. Whenever I think about Moses—being raised in Pharaoh’s house with this incredibly privileged and expansive life and access—and then later in the desert with nothing but sand and sheep, I see the preparation. In the desert, it was about survival: Will I get food today? Where will I find water? But through that, Moses learned to hear the voice of God. He learned to be completely submissive to God through the elements, and he learned how to lead vast amounts of people in the desert.

Whenever I face something and think, I don’t know if I can do this, I think about Moses. He had to completely surrender himself to God, including confronting his own sin. I killed, he had to admit, and then work through that to feel worthy. He questioned: Why would you choose me, Lord? I’m not fit. I can’t do this. But God prepared him for the mission of his lifetime, as He does for all of us.

When Kiran speaks about his son, I think about how God already knows what he will become. He already has his personality, his purpose. God chooses specific people for the missions of their lifetimes and gives them all the tools they need. When the time comes, you might say, I’m not ready. But God says, Yes, you are.

Don: Michael’s concept—that Peter had a little bit of faith, but that small amount was still more than the other disciples—is a lesson for us as well. It raises a question in my mind: What does it mean to quantify faith? Why would Jesus say Peter had “little faith”? He tells the centurion, You have great faith—faith greater than all I’ve discovered in the Jewish population. What constitutes the quantitative measure of faith? That’s the question that comes to mind for me.

C-J: Peter didn’t see himself as having authority. The centurion, on the other hand, knew that if he gave an order, it would be done. That was his life experience. Peter’s life was different—he was a fisherman in a small village. So, when Jesus said, Oh, you of little faith, I think He was saying it through a lens of potential: You have great faith potential; you just don’t see it yet.

The centurion was fully aware of his authority and position—he commanded with confidence. Peter, however, was learning this authority over time. Later, when other things happened, people turned to Peter because Peter recognized the voice of God. He never questioned it. Thou art the Son of the living God, he said. That was it for him. Meanwhile, others were still asking, Are you sure?

David: Maybe I’m selling presumptive faith too short. Maybe it’s the best faith of all. The centurion presumed that Jesus was indeed God, and Jesus applauded his truly great faith from afar. The centurion had a firm belief that God would act on his behalf, even though he had never met Him. Maybe that’s the greatest faith. Maybe I’ve got it backwards.

C-J: I think Jesus was referring to relationship. If I have a good friend, I can say, I know this person, I trust this person.That’s an act of faith, but it’s grounded in relationship. The centurion had relationships with his troops and with his leadership. I think Jesus built that kind of relationship with His disciples. Know who I am, and you will know the Father. I do the Father’s bidding. I don’t say anything unless the Father gives Me authority to do it. It’s all about relationship—tried, tested, and activated through faith. Jesus spoke with certainty because of His relationship with the Father.

Reinhard: We’ve been talking about small faith and about quantity, but I believe it’s not about quantity—it’s about quality. In Matthew 17, Jesus talks about faith the size of a mustard seed, which is tiny, yet it can move mountains. The quality of faith is what matters.

Think about the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat and the one Kiran brought up about Jesus walking on water. Interestingly, the first event—Jesus sleeping in the boat—happens earlier, in Matthew 8. The second story, Jesus walking on water, comes later. The first story seems to set the stage for the second.

In the first story, the disciples are still learning. They’ve seen Jesus perform miracles, like feeding the 5,000, so they know He has great power. They are in awe of Him, but their faith in Him as a person—someone they could fully trust—wasn’t yet developed. It’s a process. Even in the second story, when Peter walks on the water, we see this lesson continuing.

After Jesus ascends to heaven and the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit, that’s when they fully grasp what faith is about. But during these earlier moments, Jesus was teaching them, building their faith step by step.

In the first story, when Jesus is asleep during the storm, it’s a lesson for us too. Even when we believe in God, temptations and doubts can come. The story teaches us to keep our faith in Him. The disciples themselves asked Jesus to increase their faith.

In the second story, Peter starts off with faith—enough to walk on water while he keeps his eyes on Jesus. But the moment he notices the external forces—the wind, the waves—his focus shifts, and he starts to sink. That’s when Jesus helps him again. This teaches us that as long as we keep our eyes on Jesus—stay focused on Him and trust in Him—we will be alright.

This whole sequence of stories is about Jesus teaching His disciples to trust Him—not just as a powerful figure who can perform miracles, but as someone with whom they need a personal relationship. For us, it’s the same. We have to trust in Him, and the quality of our faith—our relationship with Him—is what really matters. That’s the lesson.

Carolyn: In my own experience, stepping out in faith is an action. Does that mean you can still be afraid as you step out in faith, or do you think the fear is squelched, and you just step out in faith totally because of your relationship with the Lord—even though you’ve never seen Him physically, never touched Him physically? I’m going through an experience right now of stepping out in faith, but still, I have within me a certain amount of fear of the unknown. Yet I feel the Lord has nudged me.

C-J: Fear is essential to survival. It slows us down and causes us to consider what can go wrong. It makes us think about other strategies. But if you feel something in your spirit that lingers and is constantly speaking to you, listen to it. God will open the doors, and you’ll say, Ah, now I know. But if you’re still wrestling with it—if you feel it but don’t know the direction—wait on the Lord. Don’t move forward on your own, like, Well, I think this is what I should do, unless God gives you confirmation.

Reinhard: I think having that kind of faith is a lifelong process. Until Jesus’ resurrection, some of the disciples didn’t really have faith in Him. When He was crucified, they went back to the sea—they didn’t know what else to do. They lost faith. Even Thomas couldn’t believe that Jesus had risen.

So, even the disciples who were with Jesus for three and a half years had their faith shaken. It wasn’t until Jesus sent the Holy Spirit that they fully realized who Jesus was, their relationship with Him, and what it meant to follow Him.

For us, it’s the same. This is a process. Eventually, we have to surrender—no matter what. We need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit for discernment and knowledge about what we’re doing and what our life is about. We will go through tough times. Sometimes, we may not find the answers we need, but God knows the level of our faith and what we’re facing. Eventually, He will come to the rescue. That’s how we grow in faith in this lifetime.

David: It’s being asserted that faith is actionable, but doesn’t that depend on what you mean by faith? To have faith in your ability to walk on water is one thing, but to have faith in the existence of God is something else entirely. I have faith in the existence of God, but no faith whatsoever in my ability to walk on water.

I’m not sure that faith in possessing some supernatural power is really the kind of faith that God wants us to have—metaphorically, maybe, but not in a literal sense. He wants us to have faith in Him, in the “I Am.” To me, that kind of faith is sufficient to activate the principal commandment to love your fellow man. But it will not cure anyone of cancer or let anyone walk on water. That’s not the kind of faith I think Jesus is talking about in these stories.

C-J: Let me just say that God is not an entertainer or a magician. Every miracle had a profound, intentional purpose—to reveal provision. Pick any miracle—it’s about God’s provision and presence. If you’re going to provide for something, it’s concrete. He met people through their own culture, their own language, their own history.

Sometimes what we call faith really isn’t faith. For example, saying, I have faith it’ll snow today because I want to go skiing—that’s not the kind of faith we’re talking about here. The faith described in these stories is about provision—God’s provision of the ability to have a deeper relationship with the divine. It’s not about what you can get, but about understanding what you’ve already been given.

Food is sustenance; wisdom comes with courage—these are things God provides intentionally. The miracles, like feeding the multitudes, weren’t just to draw crowds. People came to Jesus because they knew something very different was happening. The things they witnessed had to be of God. God was being revealed—not as a performer, but as a God of provision.

Michael: Peter has always seemed like a hotheaded personality throughout the story. He takes out his sword and cuts off the ear of the guy trying to take Jesus. He also boldly tells Jesus, Even if they all deny you, I won’t. None of the other disciples acted like that. These actions feel similar in nature to the moment Peter says, Let me jump out of the boat and walk to you. But in the other instances, Jesus doesn’t explicitly mention faith. So, were those actions out of faith? Was it faith that drove Peter to cut off the man’s ear or to tell Jesus he would never deny Him?

C-J: I agree with you. I think they’re challenges, but maybe not so much for Peter. Maybe it was just his personality—hotheaded, impulsive, and prone to doing bold, goofy things. But think about it: Peter had seen Jesus heal people. Maybe, when Peter slashed the man’s ear, he thought, Good grief, what’s it going to take for these people to see who Jesus is?Maybe he knew Jesus could heal the man, and it was an attempt to show those who came to arrest Jesus that this wasn’t smoke and mirrors—that Jesus was truly who Peter believed Him to be.

As for Peter saying he wouldn’t deny Jesus, perhaps that was an act of faith, a prayer: Give me enough faith, enough courage, so I never do that, because I know in my flesh I’m capable of it. It’s all about perspective—looking at it from a different lens.

Peter was imperfect in many ways—hardheaded and impulsive—but in the end, he got it right. When Jesus asked, Who do you say that I am? Peter didn’t hesitate: Thou art the Son of the living God. Others were unsure, saying, Maybe Elijah, maybe a prophet. But Peter knew. He knew and confessed without hesitation.

Don: Looking at the story of Jesus in the boat, when He’s awakened in the storm, He challenges the disciples with a statement contrasting faith with fear. It suggests that the opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear. I’m wondering how that relates to Carolyn’s question about whether having fear means you don’t have faith.

I think the story of Peter, as Michael has suggested, is a back-and-forth between faith and fear. And I’m wondering if that’s the nature of humankind—that we are constantly flipping between faith and fear. Grace, then, becomes the mitigator. Coming to understand grace, its power, and its provision might be what helps us, when we find ourselves in fear, to move back to the side of faith.

Carolyn: I see a triangle there—faith, fear, and presumption. There’s the fear of presumption, the attitude of faith I desire with all my heart, and the inadequacy of my small world and small mind compared to the divine. Where do I measure up?

We need a thread to weave through all of this to bring peace and joy, knowing we’re not overstepping, but also not failing to step far enough. I even see this at the cross with Jesus, when He prayed, Father, if it be Thy will. I always end my prayers that way—Thy will be done. But if I say that, does it mean I lack faith?

Jesus had all the faith—I would never deny that. But He still said, Thy will be done, knowing that God could stop what was about to happen. Do you see where my mind is going with this? I love this topic, and I need it.

C-J: Here’s the other thing: God said, I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And He said, In the mouth of two or three witnesses, confirmation will come. You never stand alone in God. You always have the promise: I will never leave you or forsake you.

We may miss the mark, but God says, I was standing right here. Nothing is wasted in God. Even if you pray, Oh Lord, forgive me for what I did, for I have sinned, God uses that moment. It’s always an opportunity to see where and how God provided, where and how His intentional purpose was being worked out. And the more we learn about God, the better we become at seeing the signposts along the way.

Reinhard: The faith we need is total commitment and surrender to God. Whatever we do, we should pray honestly and earnestly for the things we are seeking to accomplish or for what we ask God to do. As humans, we have significant limitations—whether it’s about our plans, our lives, or our health. Sometimes, when we ask God for something, we don’t receive it, or we don’t see the results we hoped for. That can be hard. But when we look at the big picture, God provides us with many good things in our lives.

Our feelings often deceive us, especially when we don’t achieve what we hoped for. Those moments can lead us to doubt, and we find ourselves going back and forth—faithful one moment, questioning the next. But faith is something we have to exercise. We learn to grow closer to God through prayer and by reading His Word.

Take Abraham, the father of faith. The Bible shows us his faith in action, especially when he followed God’s instruction to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own son. That’s total faith—not in his own power, but in God’s.

This isn’t about using our own strength to “walk on water,” so to speak. God knows our limitations, but He also calls us to have faith. Jesus said if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains. This is a way of showing us the magnitude of what faith can do when it’s placed in God.

Consider the disciples who tried to cast out a demon and failed. When they asked Jesus why, He told them it was because they didn’t have enough faith. Later, when Jesus sent out the seventy, they were able to cast out demons and heal the sick. What was the difference? I think it was their connection with God and their reliance on Him. God worked through them because they had faith and stayed in touch with Him.

For us, life is a process. We may go back and forth in our trust in God—sometimes strong, sometimes weak. But the key is to keep returning to faith. Jesus said, Believe, and it will be given to you. Sometimes we don’t receive what we ask for, but we have to trust that God has a purpose. Maybe it’s not the right time, or maybe there’s a reason we don’t yet understand.

Life is about continuing to trust in God and moving forward, even when we don’t have all the answers. That’s what faith requires, and that’s what we need to do.

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