Fear, God/Jesus and the Christian faith!

I have been thinking lately about fear, and in particular fear in the context of the Christian faith. I suppose what prompted this is a particular story in the gospel of Matthew chapter 14. (New International Version)

The gospel writer describes how Jesus has fed the five thousand and he makes the disciples get into a boat and to go ahead of him across the water while the crowd are dismissed. After dismissing the crowd Jesus goes up a mountainside to pray. Evening arrives and the boat the disciples are travelling in is buffeted by waves and is fighting against a prevailing wind. Matthew takes up the story.

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them; “take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

The questions that come to mind from this story are as follows:

What does the story say about fear?

What does the story say about us/faith?

What does the story say about God/Jesus?

Over to you for comment

Shalom

Stephen