Goodbye Storm

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

GOODBYE STORM

Matt 8:23-27

23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" 26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"

NIV

We do not know how big this boat was but it was large enough for Jesus and his disciples. The number of disciples is not told to us, but we could presume it was the twelve. Yet Mark records there were many boats in the crossing of the lake. Other disciples who followed Jesus took other boats and it was a regatta of small open boats with sails, the type commonly used for fishing in those days. Nevertheless our lesson is in what happened on that lake, no matter the number of disciples and boats. As was typical on that lake a quick storm arose and the boats were being tossed to and fro to the point of almost being filled with enough waves to drown them all. Jesus was asleep as if nothing was happening. We could be sure this would be impossible for us to sleep during such an overwhelming storm that was sweeping waves over the boat. Yet there he was asleep, catching a few zees as if nothing was going on, as if the wind was calm and the sea as smooth as glass. In his reality it already was, but in the reality of the disciples it was horrifying and fear was cripping their hearts. Some of these were fisherman, and well accustomed to these circumstances, yet we are told they were afraid and woke Jesus to let him know what was happening and asking him to save them. At least they were looking to Jesus for a solution to their predicament rather than attempting to save themselves. Perhaps they tried to save themselves first and seeing their efforts were useless, they turned to Jesus. What a lesson for us. Although we may not find ourselves in a storm on a lake with Jesus in the boat with us, we certainly have had our share of storms in life itself. The fact is that Jesus was also in that storm with us, being calm, for in his reality there is no storm. So as we are tossed to and fro by some storm in life that just pops up from nowhere, with no warning at all, are we afraid? Do we try to fight our way through the storm by our own efforts? Or do we go to Jesus and say, “Master, help us, we are going to drown”. But what does Jesus tell them, which also applies to us? "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Just as he calmed the wind and the waves at that time, he does the same for us when we are overwhelmed by some storm in our life. But the point is that we should have had faith in the first place. What would have happened if the disciples did not wake him? What would have happened it they said to each other, Jesus does all sorts of miracles, he has power from God, certainly the storm would be no problem for him, but let’s demonstrate our faith in him and tell the storm to subside using his name. Let’s yell out to the storm in the name of Jesus and watch it settle down. But no, they were afraid, yet they did go to Jesus to be saved. When he did calm the storm by just speaking to it, they were amazed, perplexed at the power he had over the elements. It seems that some believers are amazed when Jesus preforms a miracle today. Some believers are not really believers because they doubt the solution for that storm was actually brought about by Jesus. We should learn by now that whenever a storm arises in life, our first response should be to rebuke it in the name of Jesus. If we just cannot muster that much faith, then at least we should go immediately to Jesus and ask him to calm the storm. But then will he tell us we are of little faith? He has told us we would do even greater things then he did. So then let us just speak to those storms when they pop up and rebuke them. Another idea would be to just live in the reality of Jesus and not even be aware there is a storm. Then we would have no reason to fear. Just trust in Jesus, either way, not seeing any storms that would drown us, or rebuking them when they pop up in the name of Jesus. Either way, goodbye storm.