When Walking on the Water Is a Very Reasonable Thing to Do

I'm sure you have heard the expression "a blind leap of faith." Somewhere along the line belief in God, or living by faith, became unreasonable, irrational, and wildly speculative, like leaping in the dark. I've been thinking about leaping ever since a Brazilian rice farmer, who now runs an orphanage in Ethiopia, challenged my church to "Get out of the boat." He was referring to when Peter walked on the water with Jesus. And he was challenging us to rely upon the power of God, to do things that don't make sense to the world.

The immense gulf between blindly leaping in the dark and the measured faith of Peter stepping out of the boat really struck me this week. Walking home in the dark, I knew how stupid it would be to walk across the street with my eyes closed. No, I checked both directions first. But Peter didn't have his eyes closed as he stepped off that boat; he was looking into the face of Christ, the one one who created water.

Consider the evidence—the empirical evidence—the disciples had for trusting Jesus. The disciples had seen Jesus:

• Turn water into wine
• Calm a raging storm just by speaking
• Restore demon possessed men
• Heal the paralyzed, the blind, the mute, and lepers
• Heal numerous other sick people
• Raise a little girl from the dead
• And immediately before their boating trip, they saw Jesus turn five loaves of bread and two fish into food for 5000 people, with leftovers. 

What is too much faith when you are standing next to the Lord of the universe? Peter did not hear rumors or read books, nor was he asked a theoretical question. He had seen Jesus do things to water that no other man has ever done. He witnessed with his own eyes and ears and hands the authority of Jesus Christ over all things. Nothing about obeying Jesus command to "come out of the boat" was blind.

If we see Jesus the way that Peter does, the way Jesus wants us to see himself, we see it is not our faith that is unreasonable, but it is our unbelief that is blind. "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him." This is true blindness, a leap in the dark. Walking away from Jesus is absurd.

Jesus tells us to go, to step out of our safety boat and trust him. And it is a seeing faith, a faith that understands who Jesus is—having all authority in heaven and earth, that answers yes. He has promised us "I am with you always, to the end of the age." Not stepping out of the boat is the foolish thing to do.