"He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples." Luke 8:23-25
Many of the Christian hymn writers used the picture of a storm as a way of talking about the troubles that come across our lives. Sometimes the troubles are big and sometimes they are small – just like storms. Sometimes troubles last a long time and others are over in moments - just like storms. Some troubles are so powerful they threaten to take our lives from us and others just gently buffet us – just like storms. But the Hymn writers didn’t invent that way of talking about life’s troubles, they saw the writers of the bible doing it.
King Solomon in the Proverbs wrote:
“When calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.” Prov 1:27
The prophet Isaiah also spoke like it:
“You [God] have been...a shelter from the storm...For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall”.
We are in the midst of one of life’s storms right now. The whole world is caught in it. It’s a storm that is powerful and has already taken lives and will take many more no doubt. It’s a storm that is long lasting and continues to rage around about us. So, it seems like a good time to see what Jesus did when his disciples were caught in the middle of a terrible storm whilst in a boat on the sea of Galilee.
Luke tells us in chapter 8 that it was Jesus’ idea to get in the boat and go across the lake. The disciples seem to have happily gone along with the idea.
So, there’s no reason to think that there was any sign of a storm brewing.
At least four of the disciples in that boat were able boat-men from the region, so they would have known the tell-tale signs of a storm if there had been any.
But it seems as though they had no idea what a terrible storm was going to come up on the lake that day.
Very shortly after they set out, the Lord Jesus fell asleep at the back of the boat, leaving the disciples on their own to guide the boat across to other side. And then the storm comes. And Luke says the boat was being swamped with water and that the sea was ‘raging’ (v.24).
In fact, so much water was coming into the boat that their lives were in great danger. It looked like they were all going to ‘drown’ (v.24). Luke doesn’t tell us that the disciples were afraid, but we can infer that they were by what Jesus says to them, “Where is your faith”. We also know, from the accounts in Matthew and Mark, that the disciples were very afraid. Matthew records Jesus saying, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid”. Mark has Jesus saying, “Why are you still so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” So, there’s no doubt about it, the disciples were very afraid. It’s unlikely that they were over reacting either.
The four boats-men, would have seen many storms on the lake, they would have known when things were really serious.
On this occasion, there’s no doubt, the storm was really bad – there reaction confirms it! The natural response to dangerous situations is to be afraid. We do have fear reflexes that God has built into us – they help to preserve our lives. But as we learn to control situations, we also learn to control our fears. For example, Benj climbs rock faces that I would be too afraid to climb. But he knows that because he has trained and practiced climbing, he can climb quite well. That means that he can control his fear and free himself to climb. I don’t personally have strength, or practice at climbing, in fact I’m hopeless, so I can’t overcome my fear of falling.
For the disciples the power of the storm was greater than the power they had to control the water coming into the boat.
That meant the situation was out of control and so they were very afraid.
We might think that is a very natural response, but the Lord Jesus isn’t so easily impressed.
“Where is your faith, you of little faith, have you still so little faith” he says.
Why does Jesus rebuke them for their fear when it was the most natural and normal response to their current situation?
Well, if fear can be controlled by belief in a power greater than the power which is threatening our lives – the power of an open parachute over gravity; or the power of a break over the turning of car wheels; or the power of a vaccine over a virus –
then the disciples had every reason not to fear.
If they had believed in who Jesus had said he was, they would have known that there was power enough in that boat to save their lives.
The disciples had heard Jesus equate himself with God and because of it the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him (John 5:18).
The problem was they still didn’t believe it.
If they had have believed they had God in the boat with them, they wouldn’t have been overcome with fear - they would have known that Jesus could have calmed the waves and the wind with a word. They didn’t believe he was who he said he was, that’s why they were afraid and that’s why Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith. It might have been natural for them to fear the storm, but given that God was with them it wasn’t right.
It didn’t honour him as most powerful in the situation and therefore he didn’t get the glory – the storm did. We might argue, “on this occasion it worked out well; Jesus did calm the storm. But he doesn’t promise to always save our mortal lives from calamity, so it’s reasonable to go on fearing in the face of danger.” If we are Christians, I don’t think that’s right. We might have reflex fears which are normal and part of who we are, but we ought not to have considered fears in our lives. That doesn’t mean we should be careless or fool hardy. It doesn’t mean we should take unwarranted risks. But it does mean that when we have done all the ‘bailing of water’ we can in the midst of the storm; we should not fear the threat to our lives.
Jesus’ death and resurrection are powerful enough to save our lives eternally. If we doubt it, we haven’t believed. And then he is not glorified. In the midst of Coronavirus, we Christians should do all that we can with the opportunities God has given us, to preserve our lives, but we must not be afraid of dying from it. Jesus is more powerful than the death of our bodies, he will raise us up at the last day. We must believe that. In the story, the disciples do get one thing right. As a last resort they go and wake Jesus up and Matthew tells us that they said to him, “Lord, save us”.
The Coronavirus is a very scary prospect if, all your hope is in staying alive for this life.
People who have been very close to death from the virus and have survived and are now recovered,
have spoken of their thankfulness to the doctors and nurses for saving their lives and of the relief to have come through the storm alive!
That’s understandable, but it’s strange in a way.
It’s strange because, they express their deep relief at delaying the inevitable.
Dodging death our whole lives is not a solution to the final problem, it’s a deferment of the final problem.
But the Lord Jesus represents the only solution to the final problem. He alone can ensure that the power of the storm doesn’t overwhelm our boat completely.
Our mortal lives may be lost, but our eternal lives are what must to be saved.
Jesus alone has the power to remove the sting of death, by raising us to eternal life.
Hebrews 2 says,
“Since [people] have flesh and blood, [Jesus] shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death”. Heb 2:14-15
So, death is a power.
And it holds people in its iron grip like slaves. And the way it holds them is through fear. People fear losing their lives. But the verse is telling us that Jesus took on a body and came and died, so that he could free people from their fear of death!
Every Christian is no longer a slave but a free person, because Jesus has taken away the threat of death by promising eternal life.
What a glorious gift!
But he gives it to those who believe.
It is by grace you have been saved, through faith.
And that brings us to a really odd thing about this story. When the disciples wake Jesus up and ask him to save them, they are gripped with fear.
Yet, they wouldn’t have asked him, unless they thought he might be able to do something they couldn’t.
Then at the end, when Jesus has calmed the storm, they are amazed (v. 25). On the one hand they think Jesus can do something, but on the other, they weren’t expecting him to still the storm.
That’s strange.
It doesn’t make much sense.
I wonder what they did expect him to do.
Let’s think about what they already knew of Jesus.
Earlier in Luke chapter 7, we know that the disciples saw Jesus raise back to life a boy who had died.
He was the only son of a widow.
That event mirrored very closely, the events recorded in 1 Kings 17 when the Widow of Zarephath’s son had also died and Elijah came, and by the power of God raised that little boy back to life.
In fact, the two events were so similar; so reflective of one another, that Luke records the watching crowd saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us”. So, putting those events together with the events in the boat in Luke 8, it looks like the disciples regarded Jesus at this point as a great prophet.
With that mindset, they went to him in the boat with the expectation that, by the power of God working through him, he might be able to do some sort of great feat and save the boat from being flooded.
But, when Jesus stands in the boat and with words rebukes wind and the waves, the disciples remark, “what kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him” Matt 8:27.
When they watched Jesus speak to the storm and still it, they would have been reminded not of Elijah who had to pray for a storm from God, but of God himself when he said about himself through the Psalmist:
“[You] stilled the roaring seas, the roaring of the waves” – Psa 65:7
Or even clearer, “You rule over the surging seas; when its waves mount up you still them”. – Psa 89:9
That it such a close rendition of what the disciples had seen happen in the boat. The waves had obeyed Jesus’ word – he had ruled over them.
Though they had mounted up, they had been stilled by his voice.
God is in view in Psalm 89 and God is in view in the boat.
That’s the point.
And even though we know it, it had only just dawned on the disciples. What kind of man is this, they asked? Answer: The God-man, Christ Jesus not a new Elijah as they had thought. Perhaps that’s our biggest problem. We don’t have a high enough view of Jesus. We’ve got him pegged as an exceptional man, but not as the God-man.
We’ll never believe in an exceptional man when our lives are on the line. But the all-power God-man who Hebrews 1 says made the universe and everything in it, there is someone to believe in. That though we die, yet in him, we may live again. Luke says the disciples were afraid of Jesus after they saw what he had done. Mark says they were terrified. Something massive happened on that little boat and it’s something that must happen to anybody who will believe in Jesus. Their fears were transferred from fear of death to a right fear of Jesus. From death to life.
Here’s how Jesus himself put it: “Fear him who, after the body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you fear him”. If the disciples had known who was with them in the boat, they wouldn’t have feared the storm. They would have feared fearing the storm, because they would have known it was dishonouring to God to fear for their lives, when the author of life was in the boat too. So, at this time, we need to fix our eyes on the God- man Christ Jesus who is powerful over the storm then and over Coronavirus now. One word from him and Coronavirus would be gone. He won’t play second fiddle to a virus. He can save to the uttermost. And so, we must believe.
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