This week’s children’s lesson for the church

July 5

Walking on water

Matthew 14:22-33

At the end of the day when Jesus had fed 5,000 men and their families, that evening He told His disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side of the lake. Then He dismissed the crowds for the night while the disciples started across the water. Then He climbed by Himself up the nearby mountain to pray. When it was dark, after His prayer time, the disciples had made it by boat far out to sea. But they were stuck there, because strong winds were keeping them from being able to reach the other side.

At around 3 AM, Jesus came up behind them, walking on top of the water. He was able to walk on the surface of the water, without sinking. He touched the water with the bottoms of His feet, but the rest of Him stayed dry. When the disciples saw Him, they were so scared. They cried out, “It’s a ghost!” It can be a problem to believe in false things like ghosts, because then you may get scared even though there is nothing there to be scared of.

Jesus saw them in a panic and called out, “Have courage. I am. Don’t be afraid.” Nothing will help us get over our fears more than realizing God is real, God is there for us, and He loves us enough to help.

Peter was excited to see Jesus walking on water. He also figured that must be a fun and exciting thing to do. So he wanted to try it, too. He called back to Jesus, saying, “Lord, if that’s You there, command me to come out and walk on the water with You.” Jesus called, “Come.” He was talking to all 12 of them, not just Peter. But only Peter was brave and faithful enough to obey. (It would be scary to get out of a boat in choppy water, but God can see us through anything He tells us to do.)

Peter got out of the boat, and in God’s power and by a miracle, he walked on the water toward Jesus. It was thrilling and wonderful. For a moment, anyway. As he got nearer to Jesus, Peter took his eyes off the Lord. He looked instead at the bouncing waves, and got scared. As he stopped thinking about trusting Jesus, and started worrying about the water, Peter began to sink. Now he was all wet, and in trouble, because the water was too wavy to swim well in it.

But in that moment of danger, Peter did exactly the right thing. “Lord, save me,” he shouted to Jesus. And that very instant Jesus reached out and pulled Peter back up out of the water. Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” He put him in the boat and then got in the boat with the 12 men. As soon as Jesus was in the boat, the wind stopped and the sea calmed down. And all of the disciples rightly worshiped Him. “Truly, You are the Son of God,” they said.