13th Sunday of Trinity August 23, 2026
Matthew 14:22-33
Scripture Readings
Isaiah 55:1-9
Matthew 14:13-21
Hymns
447, 514, 413, 364
Hymns from The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) (TLH) unless otherwise noted
“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17
Prayer of the Day: Almighty and most merciful God, preserve us from all harm and danger that we, being ready in both body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish Your will. We pray this through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Immediately Jesus urged the disciples to get into the boat and to go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed the crowd, he went up onto the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. By then the boat was quite a distance from shore, being pounded by the waves because the wind was against it. In the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and cried out in fear, “It’s a ghost!” But Jesus spoke to them at once, saying, “Take heart! It is I! Do not be afraid.” Peter answered him and said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come!” Peter stepped down from the boat, walked on the water, and went toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid. As he began to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. Those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God!” (EHV)
What are you afraid of? What is it that you fear? You can look up various “Top 5 Fears” lists on the internet, and you’ll find a variety of responses. One list I found had these five listed:
5. Fear of Heights
4. Fear of the Dark/Darkness
3. Fear of Spiders
2. Fear of Death
That’s right, “Fear of Death” is listed as number two on many “top fears” lists! What, then, could possibly be feared by people more than death, you ask? Well, number one is… 1. Fear of Public Speaking!
In our text for today, we read of a situation in which Jesus’ disciples were paralyzed with fear. It was bad enough that a windstorm had come upon them in the middle of the night while they were trying to row across the Sea of Galilee, so that their boat was being thrashed by the waves. Now they saw a figure walking across the water right near their boat! Verse 26 of our text tells us, “When the disciples saw him [Jesus] walking on the sea, they were terrified and cried out in fear, ‘It̵s a ghost!’” (Matthew 14:26).
The “figure” walking toward them on the water, of course, was not a ghost. It was not the scariest apparition their imaginations could conjure up at that moment of terror—no, it was the complete opposite! It was their friend and Savior, Jesus. What did He do to calm their fears? “But Jesus spoke to them at once, saying, ‘Take heart! It is I! Do not be afraid’” (Matthew 14:27).
“It is I.” What better words of comfort could Jesus have spoken to the disciples at that moment? If we look at this phrase in the original Greek, we see that what Jesus actually said was *ἐγώ εἰμι* (*ego eimi*), literally, “I AM.”
His words were not only meant to bring comfort to His disciples, but they were also a reminder of who He is: He is the “I AM” God. Even more significant is the fact that this is what God’s personal name, “Jehovah,” or “Yahweh,” means: “I AM.”
“I AM” is a perfect description of Jesus as well because He is “Jehovah,” “Yahweh,” true God in human flesh, as He proclaimed both here and in the many other “I AM” statements He made during His ministry. Jesus is “I AM” because He always IS, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
The disciples would have been well aware of this name for God since they knew their Old Testament. Therefore, Jesus’ words to them, “Take heart! [I AM]. Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27), were meant to give them a double measure of comfort.
Think of how comforting those words still are to us. What are the fierce “winds” and buffeting “waves” you are facing in your life? I am sure that you personally have “storms” you are facing in your own life right now—we all do. And some of those storms can seem overwhelming.
Jesus comes to us, walking right across the “winds” and the “waves” of life that swirl so menacingly around us, and He says to us, “Take heart! It is I.” “Take heart! I AM. Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). Jesus IS, and He is right here with us, standing with each of us in our “boat” of life and walking across our “stormy seas” to comfort us and rescue us.
But there lies the struggle. It is not always easy to take Jesus at His word and to trust…
A) that He IS there, and
B) that He can and will make good on His promises.
Our fears often overpower our faith. We often view our fears as a raging, powerful windstorm with devastating waves, while our tiny little faith tends to see Jesus as an “itty-bitty” lifeboat that we aren’t so sure will get us to shore—but we’re going to cling to it with all our might anyway!
It obviously wasn’t easy for the disciples to take Jesus at His word that night on the sea either. After all, that was an incredibly frightening situation! Only one of the disciples showed enough faith to take Jesus at His word. Of course, it was Peter who did it! We don’t often take note of the courageous faith Peter exhibits in this account, but he really does exhibit it—at least initially. With the Holy Spirit empowering him, Peter’s faith in Jesus and His words overcame his fears. Remember Peter’s words and actions from our text? “‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ Jesus said, ‘Come!’ Peter stepped down from the boat, walked on the water, and went toward Jesus” (Matthew 14:28-29). What courageous, fear-conquering faith!
But what was it that made Peter begin to sink? He took his eyes off the object of his faith: JESUS. “But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid. As he began to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matthew 14:30). He began to look again at the wind and the waves instead of focusing on Jesus, the One who was allowing Peter to walk on the water with Him.
It can be very hard NOT to look at the “wind” and the “waves” of life that are all around us—especially in times that are particularly troubling. It is easy to lose our focus on Jesus and the fact that He IS and is right here with us. Our problems are real. Our struggles are real. Our fears are real. It is not surprising that we are afraid many times. We are not surprised that the disciples, in the situation they were facing in our text, were afraid! We probably would have been too. Our problems and struggles—life-threatening or not—our tragedies and losses, our sins, our guilt, and our fears are all too real. Jesus can seem very unreal. We can easily become afraid and begin to sink, just like Peter.
But Jesus reminds us that He IS real! “Take heart! I AM. Do not be afraid.” When we are drowning in the “winds” and “waves” of life, we can—and should—do exactly what Peter did: We can cry out to Jesus, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30). He has saved us! He reached out His hands on the cross to forgive us—to forgive us even for all the times our fears have overcome our faith. If He was willing to do that—to die for us in order to forgive us and give us life—we can be certain that He will also “reach out His hand” to catch us, pull us out, and rescue us from the “wind” and the “waves” of life’s troubles—at just the right time and in just the right way—just as He rescued Peter!
We read again from our text: “Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:31). Jesus comforts us by calling out to us in the storm, “Take heart! I AM. Do not be afraid.” But doesn’t He also often have to gently rebuke us for our lack of trust in Him? “You of little faith,” He says to Peter and to us, “why did you doubt?”
Jesus is not some “itty-bitty” lifeboat in the midst of the stormy seas of life. He is mighty to save—and to save completely! Listen again to one of the last verses of our text: “When they got into the boat, the wind stopped” (Matthew 14:32). The Gospel of John also tells us that after they let Jesus into the boat, “immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading” (John 6:21).
Jesus is able to save us completely as well—not just to reach down and pull us out of the “storms” of this life, but also to take us safely to the “shore” toward which we are heading—our true home in heaven. Jesus has reached down to us to save us. He came down from His throne in heaven to put Himself in the midst of the “wind” and the “waves” of life on this earth. He came to live as “God with us” (“Immanuel”)—“Jehovah,” “Yahweh,” the “I AM” God, with us! He came to die for us so that we would never drown in the sea of our own sins or be pulled under by the “waves” of our guilt. And He proved absolutely, once and for all, that He IS and always will be “I AM” by His resurrection from the dead.
How are we going to respond to Jesus’ words? With fear? Or with FAITH? May we respond to Jesus’ words and His rescue of us in the same way His disciples did that night on the sea: “Those who were in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God!’” (Matthew 14:33). Amen.
Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Sermon archives, and subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail. Audio Sermons are available at: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail
All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version® (EHV ®) © 2017 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.