Are you brave enough to step out of your boat, onto the surface of a stormy sea, and trust that Jesus will enable you to not only stand, but also to walk, on water? Today I want to share an object lesson on faith with you, inspired by Peter’s courage, faith, and spontaneity. If you are a Sunday School teacher, a father, a mother, a pastor, a youth leader – please share this with your children and youth! I love to use object lessons for youth in my teaching – it helps make big concepts really understandable!
Scripture: Matthew 14:22-32
Jesus Walks on Water
22 Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. 23 After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.
24 Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. 25 About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”
27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!”
28 Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
29 “Yes, come,” Jesus said.So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
31 Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
32 When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.
Object Lesson on Faith
I’m going to ask you a simple question: can you walk on water? Of course you can’t!
But sometimes, even things that are impossible to do, become possible with a little faith – so here we go, our object lesson on faith…
What you need:
- A glass or bowl of water
- A box of paper clips
- Dish detergent
How to do this Object Lesson on Faith
Try floating a paper clip on the water. It doesn’t work. Paper clips sink. Nothing unusual there.
Next, bend one paper clip to make a “holder” for a second paper clip to rest on. Place the second paper clip flat on the paper-clip-holder, and gently submerge the paper clips into the water. This time, the unbent paper clip will actually float on the surface of the water.
Lesson: by ourselves, we can’t do “the impossible”. However, if we rest on Jesus, or have faith in Him (like the paper clip rests on the holder), He will enable us to do what we never thought we could.
But we also need to beware of “doubt”. Just like Peter in the story, once he took his eyes off Jesus, he let doubt and fear invade his mind, and he started to sink.
Place some dish detergent in the water around the floating paper clip. It will start to sink.
Lesson: Jesus promises that even with faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. But if doubt crowds out our faith, we’ll start to sink just like Peter did. We need to guard our hearts against doubting Jesus’ power.
This object lesson on faith demonstrates:
- That we need to rest on Jesus in order to do whatever seems impossible to us (just like the paper clip holder was necessary).
- That doubt will cause us to falter (just like the dish detergent causes the floating paper clips to sink).
The Science behind the Object Lesson
This object lesson on faith, or making bits of metal float on water, is all about surface tension of the water. The water molecules at the surface of water create really strong bonds with one another (stronger than the bonds between water molecules that aren’t at the surface). Water actually has the strongest surface tension of any liquid other than mercury! So if you lay the paper clip flat on the water, and don’t break the surface tension, the molecular cohesive bonds will actually support the weight of the coin!
Dish detergent breaks down the cohesive bonds between the water molecules, which is why the paper clip will then sink if you add the detergent to the water.
A few thoughts on the scripture passage…
Although that’s the end of the object lesson on faith, feel free to keep reading a few additional thoughts on this scripture…
- The importance of prayer in solitude. Jesus started the night praying by himself up in the hills. Solitude. Prayer. Devotion. Meditation. This practice of quiet prayer and reflection is oh-so-important for instilling faith, for cultivating relationship with our Father. And I think critical to the rest of the story.
- We’ll find ourselves in storms sometimes, at inconvenient times and will have to fight for our survival. Storms come up at the most inconvenient of times – 3am is a fairly terrible time to be fighting off the waves – but no matter when they arise, we’ve got to bravely face them whatever the time and place. We love to romanticize storms, don’t we? However, this is just a reminder that there is frequently nothing very “spiritual” about the storms of life…in the midst of them, we just need to fight to survive. To survive emotionally, to survive physically, to survive spiritually – to “not lose faith”.
- Jesus will be there, perhaps just in unexpected ways. Jesus is there in the midst of our storms. But He may show up in unusual ways. The disciples thought he was a ghost!
- Don’t fear. I’m not quite sure what fears Jesus is dispelling in this scripture – is he quieting the disciples’ fears of the storm? Or is he telling the disciples not to be afraid of “the ghost” (himself)? Both were probably creating fear in the disciples hearts. But Jesus commanded them to take courage.
- Challenge God to require faith from you. I just love what happens next. Peter commands Jesus to call him out of the boat. In that moment, Peter was “all in” – his faith was absolute, like that of a child’s. There wasn’t a second thought about the ridiculousness, the impossibilities of walking on water. There was just his admiration for Jesus, and his own impetuousness that allowed him to jump out of that boat and walk on water toward his Rabbi. Are you childish enough to ask crazy things from God? Go for it…
- Don’t take your eyes off Jesus. If you’ve been so fortunate to have Jesus allow you to miraculously walk on water, don’t start doubting when you see the wind and waves, as Peter did. But know that even in your moment of weakness, Jesus will reach out his hand. Keep your faith.
- Jesus really is the Son of God. When Jesus climbed back in the boat, the storm died down. The disciples, earlier that day, had just seen Jesus feed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two small fish. And yet, it was here, in the middle of the night, in the midst of a storm, that walking on water and causing the wind to stop made them exclaim in amazement “You really are the Son of God!”