Mat 8:23-27, “He got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing." And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?"” We know the story. Mark narrates it a bit differently. He explains that the waves were breaking into the boat which was already filling; but Jesus was sleeping on a cushion in the stern. The disciples woke Him saying, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Then, He turned back to them and asked, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" (4:37-40)
If you are in a bunker or in a storm shelter, you will not be afraid to die when a strong hurricane is devastating your area. If you know you are immunized against measles or cholera, you are not afraid during an epidemic breaks. Jesus is our bunker in times of war, our shelter in times of tempest and our vaccine against all sorts of ills. The Bible calls Him the Prince of Peace and He said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” If this was not enough, Paul insists: do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Is 9:6, Jn 14:27, Phil 4:6-7). How can one have Peace and tremble? How can we have millions in the bank and panic because of a bill of a few hundred pounds or dollars? How can you be a prosperous restaurant owner with a deep freezer full of goods and be anxious as to whether you can afford diner? If you think that these questions are absurd, then, I ask again: How can one have Jesus, how can one possess Peace, and yet be afraid? He did not just say: “I’m leaving you with peace” but, “I give you My peace.” It is a done deal; it is finished. We have Peace, His Peace, just like the aforementioned multimillionaire and restaurant owner.
Peace: concord and interior tranquillity within states, families and societies. Peace: the serenity of the soul. His Peace, the Shalom: the tranquillity obtained by doing GOD’s will.
The disciples should have looked at Him and, seeing Him sleeping like a baby, understand that there was nothing to worry about. But they panicked and even expected Jesus to panic with them – as if this could have changed a thing- : Do you not care that we are perishing? If they were truly perishing, then there was nothing to do and crying/shouting would not have changed a thing. They should have rather prepared themselves to meet their Creator. And if they were not going to perish, there was no point wasting so much energy and adrenaline. In both cases, the best thing would have been to remain calm. Jesus rebuked them for their lack of faith.
1) Because, in spite of all the time that they had already spent together, the guys had still not understood who they were dealing with; hence their amazement:"What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?" Like them, we often stress and panic in front of certain situations because unaware of Who our guest is, we keep on treating HIM the Western way. There are two TV shows that I like watching from time to time. The first one is “Undercover boss”. Each episode features a senior executive or the owner of a corporation going undercover as an entry-level employee in their own company. They alter their appearance and assume an alias and fictional back-story. They spend one to two weeks undercover, working in various areas of their company's operations, with a different job and, in most cases, a different location each day. They are exposed to a series of predicaments with amusing results, and spend time getting to know the people who work in the company, learning about their professional and personal challenges. At the end of their time undercover, the employees who have worked with the executives are individually requested to the corporate headquarters. There, the bosses reveal their identity and reward the hard-working employees (promotion or financial bonuses), offer training to others, make their working conditions better and, in extreme cases, some contracts are terminated.
The second one is the “Secret Millionaire.” In this reality show, a millionaire leaves his/her luxurious life behind and goes undercover in an impoverished neighbourhood for seven to ten days in order to see what life is like for the financially destitute. They have to work and volunteer alongside the locals and find individuals or projects that they think deserve a cut of their fortune. At the end of this period, they reveal their true identity to the people they have chosen, surprising them with gifts of thousands of pounds or dollars to improve their lives.
It is about time we realise that Jesus, our Guest, owns the universe. He is bigger than the Secret millionaire, He is the Boss of all bosses and He is staying undercover in our hearts and lives… There is no faith without the revelation of the Person and the Lordship of Christ.
2) Their reaction didn’t even reflect the little that they already knew of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had seen HIM heal the sick, cast the demons out, raise the dead, multiply fish and bread, change water into wine; they had heard HIM reveal things that could not be humanly known (Nathanael, the Samaritan woman…), but they had witnessed all of this as if in a dream. It was surreal; and when the reality of a small storm caught up with them… If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved (Rom 10:9-10). There has to be a perfect harmony between what we know intellectually, what we believe deep down, and our actions. We cannot say that we have Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in our lives and fret in front of events. We cannot say that Jesus will supply all our needs and not sleep at night because we don’t know how we are going to pay the rent next week. We cannot believe that “we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us” and then, say: “Oh, I will never succeed in this or that; it’s my pet peeve.” With Jesus in our lives, we should be the devil’s worst nightmare instead.
Jesus is presently in your boat and He is peacefully sleeping. What is troubling and scaring you is only illusory and transitory: SHALOM!
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