In the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis we hear about Aslan, the Christ figure, that He is “not a tame lion.” Aslan is certainly good; he’s boundlessly and unconditionally good. You can trust him. But you never know quite what to expect with him. He can’t be put in a box. He may take you completely by surprise, but what he does will be even better than what you hoped for.

Today’s Gospel comes right after the feeding of the 5000 in the wilderness. So Jesus has already done something wonderful and unexpected when he fed all those people by multiplying somebody’s lunch. The disciples were amazed at the miracle.

What He does next, may have seemed strange to the disciples. They were exhilarated after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Maybe they were ready for the next exhilarating experience. So perhaps it felt anticlimactic when the Lord just sent them away at that point. He tells them to go on across the sea of Galilee without Him; He’ll catch up with them later. And He goes up into the hills by Himself to pray.

Of course, in doing this, He teaches us to pray. He shows us the importance of finding a lonely place from time to time; a place to “be alone with God alone.” A place without distractions from the world, even if that place is only in our hearts. Presumably the disciples hadn’t learned the need for that yet. Maybe they were wanting to just stay with the crowds and watch the Lord keeping wowing everyone.

So they probably spent some time reflecting on the meaning of the Lord’s going off by Himself to pray. But as this was on their minds, and as the night wore on, something new and, again, totally unexpected takes place. Jesus comes walking on the water. They had no idea that this was about to happen, and they are terrified. They think it’s some kind of ghost. But Jesus calls out to them, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”

Now Peter does something a little unexpected. He’s not exactly tame himself, though as usual he isn’t quite aware of what he’s getting himself into. So he asks to come to Jesus on the water, and Jesus tells him to come. And, amazingly, he steps out of the boat and starts to walk on the water. Whatever the Lord has done to modify the molecular structure of the water under His own feet, He also does to the water under Peter’s feet.

But then Peter gets afraid, seeing the stormy wind and waves, and starts to sink. He cries out, “Lord save me!” Of course, Jesus does catch his hand and raises him back up, saying, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”

They get into the boat, the wind suddenly stops, and they quickly finish their journey to Gennesaret. And the disciples are completely dumbfounded at this point, and all they can say to Christ is “Truly you are the Son of God!”

On the one hand, we see this episode as a spiritual lesson. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov refers to this experience of Peter’s on the water as a model for prayer. When we pray, we have to be focused on Christ. The wind and waves represent the distractions we face during prayer. Rather than allowing ourselves to shift our focus to the distractions, if we keep our attention unwaveringly on Christ, begging Him to save us, He will strengthen us in our prayer.

The same lesson applies to our lives more generally. In everything we do, wherever we go, as Christians, Christ is our support and our life. He’s our hope. As long as we keep our attention on Him, we have hope. When we allow the storms of life to capture our attention, we lose heart, we grow anxious and afraid. We start to sink. At that point we have to do what Peter did and shift our gaze back to Christ and beg Him to save us. And He will. He’ll not allow us to drown when we reach out to Him.

At the same time, this event is a reminder to us that, like Aslan, Christ is not a tame God-man. He can’t be put in a box. He does the unexpected all the time. Following Him is a non-stop adventure. We never know exactly what He’s going to do in our lives or where He’s going to lead us. The important thing is being ready to follow, and trusting that He knows what’s best, and that He’s going to do the very best thing for us. He may call us to do something that appears impossible, like walking on water. But if He calls us to do it, it will become possible.

Like the disciples, let’s realize that “truly He is the Son of God,” and that with Him, anything is possible. And as they eventually learned from the Lord the value of concentrated and undistracted prayer, let’s also seek the Lord in prayer throughout each day, trying to set apart quiet times for that purpose, but also being ready to call out for help in every difficulty. And let’s “take heart and not be afraid” when He does the unexpected and calls us on wonderful adventures. For we have a “good God who loves mankind, and unto Him we ascribe glory, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.” Amen.