Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

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's 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 toward 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?"

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." Matthew 14:22-32

By this time in Jesus’ ministry, the disciples are reeling from the growing insight that Jesus was much more than just a prophet. Early in this passage, Jesus had miraculously fed the five thousand, now he dispatched his disciples to head across the lake without him. Stunned from the events they had just seen, now they were off in a little boat and by early morning, their boat was being knocked around by strong winds. More about that just below.

First, though, almost all Christian commentators underestimate how difficult, how nearly impossible it was, for those disciples to identify Jesus as the real Christ, the Son of God, God incarnate – in the flesh. Everything they had ever learned told them to stand against charlatan messiahs and false prophets. But far beyond that, it was absolute blasphemy to call any man God. To the Hebrew mind, Egyptians and Persians had man-gods, Greeks and Romans had gods who appeared to become human; the real God, YHWH, the unknowable God, was not going to become a man and walk with them. The enormity of this conviction propelled Jews above all other, so the recognition that Jesus was God among them was resisted, to put it mildly. Jesus had to break through that resistance, open up this new awareness, without confounding the disciples into inaction.
So sometime around 4 to 5 a.m., Jesus walked toward the disciples on the lake and they were, literally, spooked – they thought He was a ghost. Jesus’ calming, if paradoxical, words were to stay calm and not be afraid. Impulsive but willing, Peter knew that disciples were supposed to do what their masters did so he asked Jesus to direct him to walk on the water. Maybe this was faith, maybe it was trust, maybe it was some bravado but Peter did it and he began walking on the water. But a blast of wind scared him and his faith dropped and he started to sink. Then he said what all of have said or would say when we’re about to die: “Lord, save me.” Maybe this short sentence is the central idea of this passage. When nothing else can save us, when we’ve exhausted every other resource, when all the options are gone, only He can save us.
Jesus then referred to Peter as one of little faith, saying “why did you doubt.” Most of the commentators look at this as a rebuke of Peter, I prefer to think of it as a kind of affectionate chiding – Jesus know darn well why Peter would doubt: nobody in all of human history had ever been in this situation, now Peter was. My thought is that Jesus knew he would doubt. But Peter took the step, Peter was cautiously willing and he stood the test. That’s how faith grows, it builds as we continue to step out and watch what God does and learn to understand the way God works. Above all, faith grows through our relationship with Jesus, our Lord and our direct link to God’s power. Our faith grows as we come to know Jesus better, just like all relationships grow deeper as we get to know each other better.
Well, Jesus and Peter reached the boar and the wind died down – this is an indicator of Jesus’ mastery over the elements. At another point in the gospel, he stills the wind. Here the wind stills itself, almost as if to acknowledge the designer. Having watched all this from the boat, the others now worshipped Jesus, saying "Truly you are the Son of God." How much did they understand at that dramatic moment? Who knows. But they were beginning to get the point. And you know something? So are we? We’re learning or re-learning that Jesus is God and God’s Son who is with us to assure us and to save us. And we’re learning that He wants to be in relationship to us, very personally and that he has plenty of latitude for our frailty and our missteps. And we’re learning that just because the old orthodox crowd has said for the longest time that things were one way, that sometimes they’re another way. The Jews thought no human could be God and many could not change that set of beliefs. A lot of decent conservative Christians think gay people cannot be Christians and are not acceptable to God and they are not going to quickly change those beliefs. In both cases, God moved and moves ahead in spite of them.
Finally, miracles happened then and happen now but they are by God’s design and at God’s timing. We don’t get to call up miracles. Jesus’ miracles with the fish and loaves and walking on the water served a distinct purpose both to serve His people and to upset the old orthodoxy. Things have changed, God is doing new things, that’s the way God wants it. That might be comforting to you but at some point it will not be – God sometimes pushes us beyond our comfort zone, even to believe we’re sinking, if it leads to our awareness that we stand in the presence of the only One who can save us.