Wednesday,
August 16, 2023
Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm. The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”
Matthew 8:23-27
Among the disciples
were fishermen like Peter, accustomed to storms, even the fierce ones. They were familiar with violent storms which are
not uncommon on the lake, as winds can rush in suddenly from the west or the
east and generate waves over 10 feet high.[1] If you fished the sea of Galilee, you learned
not to stress over storms. But this storm
was more than enough to have the disciples wish they’d stayed ashore, or at
least checked to see if their wills were up-to-date. They thought they were on the brink of
joining their buried ancestors.
And there was
their leader, Jesus, sleeping like a baby in the back of the boat. What a time for a nap!
Mark’s Gospel
account showed how much this event overwhelmed him. Normally Mark wrote just the facts…quick and
to the point. But of this Mark adds
emphatic pathos, details of just how scared they were:
Jesus was
sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher,
don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” Mark 4:38
From Matthew
we get the sense of their faith – when they were at wits-end they went to the
One they knew had answers.
From Mark, we get the sense of insecurity they had – did Jesus not
care? From both disciple’s
accounts we see the answer…Jesus told the winds and 10-feet-high waves to HUSH! And they did! And Matthew records what that did to the
disciples…Jesus’ answer brought more questions:
Who…and What…kind of man is this?
Perhaps you’ve
been in that kind of situation. You were
in trouble, physically, emotionally, financially, or a relationship on the
rocks. You were drowning in some way, so
you cried-out to God, and an answer showed up.
You were grateful for the rescue, but when the dust settled, all you could
do was ruminate on the reasons why – why did this happen
to you? What – what
was God thinking to put you through that?
When – when is life going to be normal? How – how am I ever
going to get to where I really want to be?
It’s like the
disciples experienced; Jesus had the answers, but they brought more questions
than comfort. They were uneasy enough to
ask the question (what kind of man this is), but they did have that little
spark of faith to row back to land, and put one foot in front of the other, and
continue following Jesus.
After the cross
and resurrection, we find that faith grew into the power of God in their lives,
which changed the course of history. And
being in the boat with the source of that power, on that night, with all nerves
stretching their faith to the limit (and beyond), they knew it was real.
For You Today
Today’s faith
will be enough for today’s storms…as long as you stay in the boat with
Jesus. He’s a better weather-man than
any you’ve seen on TV!
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.
Title Image: Pixabay.com Images without citation are in public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
[1] Jesus’ Ministry in Galilee, Copyright © 2020 by David P. Barrett.
No comments:
Post a Comment