Throughout the centuries one of the ways this story has been interpreted is as follows. They faced the storm. We all have storms in our life. Jesus calms the Storm. He can also calm the storms in our life. We just need to believe. Amen. And we can all go home early.
Now this is an important aspect of the story. But the deeper underlying message of the story is the question that comes at the end, “Who is this?!” Who is Jesus. What you believe about him won’t change the circumstances, but it will change your heart so that you can face the circumstances with a peace that passes understanding.
You see this whole section has been about steadfast and lasting faith. Not a faith that fails under the testing but a faith that lasts. A faith that produces. Not just a faith that hears, but a faith that acts upon that which it hears.
When it comes to our everyday life the question is not always whether we have faith, but whether we are using our faith. This is what the disciples should have done in this story. That is why the question that Jesus asks is not, “do you have faith?” But rather, “where is it?” Why are you not making use of it?
Who is this that even the winds and water obey him?!
- The storm brings panic and fear
- Jesus gives peace
- Questions
The storm brings panic and fear
One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”
Jesus knew what he was doing. He gets into the boat and tells them to go across the lake. So, whatever is going to happen, they are not there because of the foolish choices they made, or some mistake.
It was a result of obedience that they were going to go into the storm. It was their obedience that brought them to the place which challenged them. There is a lot of storms in life that we bring upon ourselves through sin or pride, but we must be reminded that just because you amid a storm does not mean God is punishing you, he could simply be testing you. He wants you to trust him that he will take you to the other side. But you wont trust him, unless you know he can. So don’t be surprised when Jesus leads you into places that make you wonder if he is there.
So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. I love their simple obedience. He says go, and they go.. They are traveling across the sea of Galilea which is a little over 12 km wide. Because it is so far below sea level, and the surrounding hills around sudden and severe storms occurred regularly on its waters.
And on this 12 km trek to the other side, Jesus decides to go below deck, grab a pillow and sleep. Here was the one who raised the dead, healed the leper, forgave sin, cast out demons, and needed sleep. Why? Because he is human in every way. After a full day preaching, he was tired. Wore out. Much like you feel on a Friday night. The Lord of life, frail as any human.
Sleep is evidence that he was tired, but sleep also showed his trust for the Lord. Especially when you are sleeping during difficult storms of your life. This is the great son of David, who wrote, I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. (3:5–6). In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (4:8)
As he is sleeping in peace, in perfect faith in his father. And as he is sleeping there in the boat, one of the famous storms comes upon them. And this must have been something to behold, because even hardened fisherman who are used to this are afraid. It says, “And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. Sinking seems like it will be inevitable. The picture here is one of extremes. This is as bad as it will ever get. The water is flowing into the boat faster than they are able to get it out, slowly but surely it is filling up. Their lives are in jeopardy – in danger of dying.
Live overwhelms them. It has confronted them with something outside of their control.
They see the storm and they fear. And as with all of us, a loss of control creates the ultimate anxiety and panic, especially when that loss of control could lead to death. They found they had lost control. Or at least the feeling that they had control was taken from them.
They cannot withstand the forces of nature and the power of creation. They thought they were doing to die. So they go to Jesus, and yell, “We are perishing!”
This is a cry help, not a calm question, it is not like they talked to each other and asked someone to gently wake Jesus, and says, “excuse me, I hate to bother you, but can you please help us, rabbi.”
No, its “MASTER! MASTER! We are in the process of dying!” Rather than trust, fear kicks in.
The disciples were seasoned fishermen. When the storm hit, their first instinct wasn't prayer; it was expertise. They likely spent the first hour or so of that storm bailing water, reefing sails, and fighting the rudder.
We do the same. When a crisis hits—a financial blow, a health scare, or a broken relationship—our first move is usually to "manage" it. We check the bank accounts, we Google symptoms, we rehearse arguments. We only "wake Jesus" when our buckets can’t keep up with the flooding water. We treat Him as a last resort rather than our first response.
Don’t we do this too. When crisis hits, we forget about resting in God, and we want action. Plans. We need to get to work. Rather than trust, prayer, and a waiting upon the Lord.
When things are going wrong it is hard - Very hard - not to take things into our own hands. To think that the Lord is distant. To want to take over from God. This is hard. Very hard. When the church or the mission, or something else is filling with water, and we feel like if something does not happen it will soon fall apart.
We do panic when we lose sight of who Jesus is and his promises, and our eyes are fixed on the circumstances surrounding us. Rather than on the Lord who is in absolute control. And this is not just any Lord, Remember, He is the one who heals the sick, cleanses the leper, raises the dead, gives rest to the weary, forgives the sinner. He is near the brokenhearted. A refuge for the anxious. Jesus Gives peace. Just look at his power and grace. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. I love that he gets up from his nap, talks to the wind and the raging waves threatening his flock, and they cease, they stop and there is calm.
It is interesting that Jesus uses the word rebuke here. The same word he will use for demons. This is about a world that is out of order. A world where both the natural order and spiritually things need to be set right. His rebuke was an act of correction. Jesus wasn't just asking the weather to "settle down." He was correcting a world that was out of order. He was re-establishing the original design of creation—where the elements obey the Creator.
Who is this?
Can you imagine.
One second, the wind is howling, the waves are crashing, the disciples are panicking, the boat is filling with water and sinking, and the next second peace. Calm, hardly a ripple on the water, and the wind is perfect still. All is quiet. Complete calm. This is what jesus brings. And this calms awakens them to the terrifying reality that they are in the presence of someone who has creation under his command.
And in that stillness, there he stands the man who just a few moments ago was taking a nap, because he was a tired human, now commanding creation and creation obeys.
Who is this person that we meet here in the gospel?
Will we trust him.
Will we follow him?
Will we go where he commands even if it places us in the storm, in uncomfortable places.. And when we are there will we look around us, or to him? The powers of hell must listen to him when he cast out demons, death mist listen to him when he raises the dead, and creation must listen when it threatens his disciples.
Who is this?
He is God in the flesh!
This is the God of psalm 29 which says, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic?” This is the LORD of Psalm 93 who is mightier! “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea— the Lord on high is mighty. Mightier then the breakers.
Questions
Where is your Faith?
He said to them, “Where is your faith?” He does not say “you have no faith.” Or you of little faith, or you should have rowed a little harder! But here the question is where is it? Is your faith hiding somewhere, that you did not make use of today. You see people often say, I wish I had so and so faith, as if faith is something you have or don’t have, that you can catch. But faith is something that is practice. We need to exercise it. It grows when you use it, just like muscles grow when you use them.
Faith is a deliberate action.
They panicked, and Jesus says, where is your faith. This means that faith is the opposite of panic. So the question is, “How do we get that faith so that we can have peace.”
Here faith is intentionally trusting in God’s sovereignty and promises, rather than your own strength, especially during trials.
And Jesus asks, “Where is it? Now would have been a perfect time to show in the way you react to peril and danger to confess what you believe about me.” You see when we panic, when we live in a place of anxiety and paralyzing fear the question is what do we do? Do we try hard to get out of it, or do we look up.
faith is to trust God – that the one that brought you to this place, will also provide in this place. Faith is obedience and trust him when the rubber hits the road in everyday life. Faith is a way of life. It is a way of interacting with the world, and the people around you. It is a way of responding to crisis.
And how you react will all depend on your faith. You faith in what? In Christ. In this man. What you believe about this man will impact how you react to life this week. This is why Jesus can ask them where is your faith? It is like he is asking, “Dear disciples, have you not seen what I did over the last weeks and months?”
I don’t know where you find yourself in life. But the question comes to you today? Have you met Jesus, have you heard what he has done over the last months, and years, and decades of preaching. That faith that has been strengthened and built up needs to be used in the real world. What you think about Jesus and who he is for you must have an impact on life.
The solution to not practicing our faith is not that we need to try harder, but we need to look harder at Jesus, and ask along with the disciples, “Who is then is this? That he command even winds and water, and they obey him.
Who is this?
This is the question that they should have been asking. And the answer to this question would have helped them face the storm differently. They would have been taught to fear the one who is greater then the storm.
And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Like ds. Gerrit sermon last week Sunday night worldly fear should be supplanted by godly fear., Now were afraid because they realized they were in a tiny boat with the One who owns the atoms of the ocean. This "Greater Fear" brings peace because if the One who controls the storm is for you, then nothing else can truly be against you.
They ask the right question. They don’t say give us more faith, they look at him and say here is someone greater than the storm. That is worthy of more fear. His power takes the disciples eyes off the circumstance and places them directly on himself! What you believe about Jesus should change how you face all things. It will bring rest.
This is what they should have been saying all along. Jesus is saying, you have seen me do all these things, and you forget and panic. What you are really doing when you panic is not a lack of faith; it is a refusal to exercise the faith you have.
This is why in the middle of life’s busyness; Jesus wants to remind us of who he is. To look up. To remember. To worship To rest. To remind ourselves that he is in control and not us.
We panic because we think we are the ones keeping the boat afloat. Our busyness, our "action plans," and our anxiety are all ways we try to play God.
Sabbath rest is the act of "sleeping on the pillow" while the storm is still raging. It is a declaration that: "The world will keep spinning if I stop. The boat will reach the shore because He said so, not because I rowed hard enough."
We don’t need to do everything and be everywhere. We don’t have to be controlled by the circumstances, and when anxiety strikes, and fear comes, as it surely will then it is important to look up and ask, “Who is this that even the winds and ocean obey him.” That is what we do again today.
Fear him. Marvel at his power. Let his grace guard and protect you. And worship him. Worship the Lord with gladness on the Lord’s Day. Recongnize who he is. And let the frenzied 247/ world scoff while we meet with the God of peace, who is our peace, who feeds us Word so that we never go hungry. He calms our fears, and bids our sorrows cease. O that we would know when we sing to “still yourself before the Lord” (Psalm 37:7).
So today, on this day of rest in the middle of the storms of the world. Breathe. Pray. Be still. And know that this man is the messiah. The deliverer. This man is God. He may not still the storm, but he can give you peace in the storm. And one day all creation will be at perfect peace.
Amen