Secular culture tends to classify people into two stereotypical categories. On the one hand you have the “normal” person. This individual looks at the world through rational glasses. He or she doesn’t look for miracles or the supernatural. They build their world view on science and the conclusions of modern education. They are naturalists and materialists in heart, whether they know the meaning of those terms or not. They process insurance claims, operate restaurants, pay mortgages, and buy Budweiser. They are normal people.

Then there are religious people. They coexist in the work world with others, but they think differently. They are not as rational, and prone to believe in myths. They look for spiritual shortcuts to simple problems. They have strange views of how life works and love religious words and practices. They are drawn to the mystical and the paranormal as long as they can attach religious significance to it. They don’t read widely or think logically. They lack sophistication and are culturally backwards and anachronistic.

Though both stereotypes are unfair to both groups, they reflect some of the presuppositions that secular thinking often brings to the table when it looks at “religious” people and “non-religious” people. And when the New Testament is read, the disciples are often put into this “religious” category. They are viewed as backwards, prone to dwell on the fantastic and the supernatural, irrational, and out of touch with the world of their day.

One of the refreshing realities of the New Testament is that it reveals that the disciples were very common men. They did not have a “religious gene” to predispose them to a weird kind of thinking that would tempt them to transform a normal Jesus into a supernatural messiah, as some claim.

Matthew 14:22-32 offers an interesting glimpse into the disciples as “normal” guys. It’s the darkest part of the night after a long day. Jesus commanded them to go to the other side of the sea of Galilee on the fishing boat after an arduous day of teaching and interacting with a massive crowd well exceeding 5,000. They are weary, eager for rest, and trying to get to the other shore by rowing against a stiff wind. (My guess is that the felt like we would huddled together in a poorly heated van traveling 400 miles on icy roads with lots of blowing snow and unexpected drifts.) They were having a rotten time.

My guess is that they were questioning Jesus’ wisdom in sending them off when he did. Where was he? How would he rendezvous with them? What was his plan? At that moment they were absorbed in the immediate task, eager to get to the other side. In the blackness through the waves and the blowing water they see what looks like the shape of a man. (See Matthew 14:26.) As rational men, they don’t jump to the “spiritual” conclusion that it is Jesus. Flesh and blood people don’t walk on water. Searching their knowledge for other explanations, they conclude it must be some kind of non-corporeal being, a ghost. There were legends of such malevolent beings. They couldn’t put what they saw into a clear category, but they were afraid.

What is striking about the narrative is that they do not drift to a “spiritual” explanation. Like one in twelve Americans who believe they have seen something in the sky that could represent life on other planets, the disciples were struggling to find some kind of explanation for what they saw. It was a guess, not a conviction. But it reveals that they were not inclined to deify Jesus.

When this figure speaks to them, Peter devises a rather odd test. He wants this ghost or whatever it is to respond to a challenge. He says, “Command me to come to you on the water.” Peter speaks in the imperative. It’s a challenge. If this thing is for real, and it is really Jesus, he wants proof. Why Peter devised this kind of test is a mystery to me. I can think of other proofs that wouldn’t involve my getting my feet wet.

Perhaps the best part is that when someone like Peter made a rather oddball challenge to Jesus, he responded in grace and gave Peter the ability to take some steps in his direction until Peter’s doubt overcame his faith. And then he rescued him. Even in the midst of doing that which was impossible, part of Peter’s mind kept saying, “This can’t be happening. People don’t walk on water—especially in storms.”

But again, it reflects the kind of blue-collar “show me” thinking that was typical of the disciples. They lived in a world where fish smelled, boats could sink, customers could haggle for the price of a day’s catch, and people you loved became sick and died. They were not prone to mysticism or spiritualistic thinking. They were normal guys who were friends of the world’s creator and redeemer.