The Apostle Peter – His Great & Imperfect Love, His Active & Little Faith - Homily on the 9th Sunday after Pentecost (2025)

Inspired and impassioned, fearless and foolhardy, ardent and audacious. It is difficult to understand the Apostle Peter, for what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? (cf. 1 Cor. 2.11). But for the sake of our edification here today, let us try.

Narration

The Miracle in brief

Looking at today’s Gospel passage, we hear of the miracle of Jesus walking on the water. When His disciples see Him, they are afraid. Jesus calms their fears and then Peter exits the boat, wishing to come to Him, but begins to lose faith and then sinks into the water, yet Jesus catches him and keeps Peter from sinking. Upon entering the boat, the disciples exclaim to Jesus, “Truly, You are the Son of God.”

However, let us look more closely at the text if we are going to be able to gather some insight into the Apostle Peter.

The Parallel

We should recall that this miracle parallels a previous time when Jesus was asleep in the boat with His disciples and they feared for their lives because of a storm at sea, at which time, Jesus then calms the storm, and in response the disciples say, “What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4.38-41) Here is where the similarities end.

Jesus walking on the water

In today’s Gospel passage, after performing the miracle of feeding the five thousand, Jesus insists that his disciples take a boat and go to the opposite shore, and that He will meet them later. Near three a.m., during the fourth watch of the night, the disciples were getting closer to shore, although they were being tossed by the waves, and the wind was contrary; they indistinctly saw something walking on the water and believed it to be a phantom or a ghost. Their fear grows because of the tempestuous elements around them, and now because of an indistinguishable image on the waters in the dark of night. As their fears increased, they cried out, “It’s a ghost,” but Jesus, looking to alleviate their fears, “immediately” answers their cry, writes the Evangelist, He does not wait, and in the midst of this storm of fear and elements, says, “Be of good cheer. It is I; do not be afraid.” (Matt. 14.27). They could not see who it was, but now they heard a familiar voice. Commenting on this voice, St. Nikolai Velimirovic writes,

O sweetest voice! O life-giving words! From this voice demons fled, diseases disappeared, the dead were resurrected. But what is there to say? This voice commanded heaven and earth, the sun and the stars, angels and men. This voice is the source of every good, the source of life, the source of health, wisdom, and joy. Be of good cheer; it is I, do not be afraid.[8]

Peter coming to Jesus

Upon hearing this voice, Peter was uncertain that it was Christ, so he says, “Lord, if it is you…” No other disciple responded, nor did they question, only Peter, and it is to ask something: “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

Notice what Peter did not say. He did not say, “Lord, still the wind and calm the sea.” Nor did Peter ask for Christ to come closer, to make Himself more obvious. Nor did he ask simply to be like the Lord and to be able to walk on the water.

What he did say was, “command me to come to you [on the water],” because it is Jesus whom Peter wants. He wants to be near his Lord. He wants to be with his Lord. Do we see the zeal of the Apostle Peter? Do we notice his ardent faith? Do we see, despite his imperfection, his immaturity, how he risks his safety and his life? Leaving the security of the boat, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, knowing that if Jesus commands, Peter will be able to come to Him.

Jesus responds, “Come.”

Peter’s love for the Lord makes him reckless. Peter’s love for the Lord makes him impetuous. Peter’s love for the Lord makes him rash. He’s reactionary and not careful and takes (seemingly) unnecessary risks. However, by adding this one virtue to his character changes everything: Peter loves Christ. All he wants is Christ. His mistakes and missteps are because of his immaturity, but the fuel for his zeal is his love. However, this love is not perfect, nor is his faith perfect; therefore, what begins in zeal starts to shutter and usher in doubt and fear, which causes Peter to begin to sink into the waters.

Yet how does the Lord respond? He does not calm the waves or stop the wind, but catches him up. He does not call Peter faithless, but only “of little faith.” The external causes of temptation are left to rage around him; the internal one, of doubt, is redirected, and Christ Himself lifts up Peter from sinking into the deep. Peter is then brought into the boat, the storm settles, and the disciples, who have remained in the boat the whole time, exclaim, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

Review of the main point

What we see with the Apostle Peter is his zeal, fueled by love and supported by faith, albeit a weak faith, one that at present cannot withstand the storm. Yet, the Lord did not reject him but pointed out where he fell short - his faith was not strong enough. What the Lord tells Peter is what Peter needs to know about himself because it is the proper “zeal with knowledge” that will allow him to stay the course and to weather the storm. Mapping the Apostle Peter’s experience here writ large, St. Nikolai writes,

Such moments happen even to ordinary believers, to those of little faith, whose joy in the Lord is mixed with doubt. Often they have a desire to separate themselves from their bodily clothing and go to Christ, the King of the spiritual world; but, quickly feeling that they are drowning, they return to their body, as if to a boat on the waves. Only great men of spiritual desires, the greatest ascetics of the human race, after long exercises in constancy of faith, could leave their physical boat and go on the stormy spiritual sea to meet the King Christ.[9]

Conclusion

The lesson of Peter’s little faith and doubt is not that we should avoid stepping into the storm, especially if that is where the Lord is, but, with much wisdom and spiritual counsel, to know when we should. As St. John Climacus writes, “All who enter upon the good fight, which is hard and close, but also easy, must realise that they must leap into the fire, if they really expect the celestial fire to dwell in them.” (Step 1.9) This is the path of the Christian life. We who desire to strengthen our faith so as not to doubt, pray to be given the spiritual fortitude to endure those trials. This whole drama is so well illustrated in many of the Lives of the Saints. At the beginning of Elder Anthony of Optina’s monastic life, he writes,

When I felt that in my heart the flames of love for God had begun to burn, all earthly cares appeared to me loathsome and prosperity repellent; and I ran away from Rostov like a bird from a net or a thirsty deer and settled in an impassible wilderness hoping that God would deliver me from faintheartedness and from the many sins which possessed me.[10]

That “impassible wilderness” was the Roslavl Forest with its severe, God-loving ascetics.

A zeal mixed with love for the Lord burns within the Christian bosom, directing us to strive harder and further, if only we would finally draw nearer to the Lord. As St. John Climacus writes in another place: “So who is a faithful and wise monk? He who has kept his fervour unabated, and to the end of his life has not ceased daily to add fire to fire, fervour to fervour, zeal to zeal, love to love. (1.27)

St. Philotheos of Sinai, speaking to this Christian desire, writes:

Let us study [Christ’s] life in the flesh, so that in our own life we may be humble. Let us absorb His sufferings, so that by emulating Him we may endure our afflictions patiently. Let us savour His ineffable incarnation and His work of salvation on our behalf, so that from the sweet taste in our soul we may know that the Lord is bountiful. Also, and above all, let us unhesitatingly trust in Him and in what He says; and let us daily wait on His providence towards us. And whatever form it takes, let us accept it gratefully, gladly and eagerly, so that we may learn to look only to God, who governs all things in accordance with the divine principles of His wisdom. If we do all these things, we are not far from God; for godliness is ‘perfection that is never complete.’” (St. Philotheos of Sinai, Texts on Watchfulness, #20).

Remember, when the disciples in the boat were afraid, Christ addressed not only Peter, or only Peter, James, and John, but all of them, saying: “Be of good cheer; it is I, do not be afraid.” Even if we are not ready to step into the storm yet, Christ unhesitatingly and “immediately” says: “Be of good cheer; it is I, do not be afraid.”

Fathers, brothers and sisters, the night is far spent, the day is at hand (cf. Rom. 12.1). May we heed the wisdom of Elder Nikon of Optina who lived amidst the turmoil and the storm of the godless revolution that killed millions, when he says, “Let the sea rage, let sorrows rise from all sides, do not pay attention to them, look at Christ, remember that the Lord is near, the Lord lives: and my soul lives  (1 Samuel 20:3). The Lord is always ready to come to our aid!..”[11] Amen.

THROUGH THE PRAYERS OF OUR HOLY FATHERS, LORD JESUS CHRIST, HAVE MERCY ON US. AMEN.