The dance that never was

Jo Penn August 14, 2026 3 1

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Matthew 14: 22-33 (NIV-UK)

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’

28 ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’

29 ‘Come,’ he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

Each year, I choose to holiday alone for a few days with the aim to rest, recharge and allow some inner silence to come into my life. Yet I have also experienced ‘loneliness’ and the vulnerability of being ‘on my own’ – I once fainted on the up-escalator at a London Tube station, where I was cared for by the station staff. Doing life together seems to me to be the way we were designed. Even God models Community with the persons of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

In today’s Bible passage, Peter and the disciples are in a storm in the middle of the lake when this murky figure comes to them walking on the water. I wonder what I would have done in that moment, even knowing that Jesus had been left behind?

Peter, and the disciples, would have known how Jesus walked, but it is only Peter who is brave enough to say, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’

Even though Jesus says come (and is heard above the storm), how much belief it would have taken a fisherman, well versed in the physical properties of water, to step out of the boat and start walking. Peter’s walking on the water is a miracle, but only possible by fixing his eyes on Jesus above everything else. I wonder whether the story could have gone differently, if Peter was able to stave off his fear and fully trust Jesus – with my personal visualisation of a cabaret show of dance moves that Jesus makes and Peter copies. Then again, Peter would have been insufferable to the rest of his disciple friends if it had happened this way.

We need Jesus, both with us in the boat facing the storm and out there when we are trying to walk on the water – only Jesus can reach out and meet our need. We can’t do it ourselves.

A prayer for people travelling together:

Jesus, Your disciples were travelling together in the storm when you walked to them. Give us eyes to see you in the unexpected places, courage to listen to your voice and trust your invitation to come closer to you. Amen