“Lord, save me!” Mt 14:22-36
Jesus came to his disciples simply to save them from the sea storm. By the way, he gave us a signal that his love for us is truly all-powerful and not even limited by the laws of nature. He can and wants to come to the aid of each of us always, also in humanly hopeless situations. However, there is an immensely important symbolic dimension to Jesus' walking on the sea.
In the Old Testament, still waters symbolize death, just as flowing waters symbolize life. The waters of death were, for example, the waters of the flood. In Noah's day, people flooded the earth with their sins, and almost all of them were drowned in their sins. The flood waters only revealed the death which these people had brought upon themselves before. The waters of death from which God saved his people were also the waters of the Red Sea. The prophet Jonah was cast into the waters of death. And to make this symbolism of death even more pronounced, we read in the Book of Jonah that the prophet was not only thrown into the water, but also swallowed by some sea monster. But it turns out - and this is the main message of the story of Jonah's throwing into the waters of death - that there is no such oppression from which God cannot save us.
The symbolic message of Jesus walking on the waters of death goes even deeper. It is like a prophetic announcement of what would happen at Calvary. Behold, the Son of God himself came to the earth which we have flooded with our sins. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for anyone to save himself from the death of sin: for sin floods the whole earth. It was just as impossible to be protected from the death of sin as it was impossible for a man to walk on water.
It turned out, however, that the Son of God not only did not drown in human sins, but also walked through these waters of sin with a dry foot. Even during this monstrous attack that the forces of evil took against him on Calvary, Jesus remained himself, he remained filled with a whole and purest love for his Father and for all people, even for his murderers.
Moreover, the Son of God came to our earth precisely to free us all from the waters of death, and even to enable us to walk through them with a dry foot. This is the meaning of the episode related to Peter. If anyone is close to the Lord Jesus, even if he finds himself in the midst of some evil storm, he will not perish in it, but will save his soul. And even if, at any moment, we feel doubtful and begin to sink, we only need to cry out in faith: "Lord, help us!" And we will be saved.
It is a great consolation for us that even if sometimes our weakness turns out to be greater than our faith - even then Jesus does not despise us, but wants to give us his hand and save us. If only we try to be close to Him and cry out in faith: "Lord, help us”
Until Tomorrow
fr. george