Nature has forces that must never be trifled. Where I live, storms raised the water level in the local creeks, which spill onto the streets. The rushing currents are strong enough to uproot trees. All sorts of refuse washes downstream. I have even spotted a bodyboard stuck in the mud. Who rides a bodyboard in a creek?
Even the biblical Sea of Galilee has been known well up some menacing tempests. It is said that “the surface is more than six hundred feet below sea level, and the rapidly rising hot air draws from the south eastern tablelands violent winds whose cold air churns up the water.”[1] A violent storm on the Sea of Galilee is the setting for the memorable display of Jesus’ authority over nature.
Luke 8 tells us that Jesus “got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they set out” (v. 22).[2] The disciples are following the Lord’s instructions. As they were sailing over to the other side, Jesus “fell asleep” (v. 23a). Truly divine, Christ is without need for slumber, but being also truly human, He rests.
But then “a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger” (v. 23). Even though the disciples were doing exactly what the Lord instructed, they still experienced intense troubles. Panic stricken, they woke the Lord, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (v. 24a) “Save us,” they cried (Matt. 8:25). Their unbelief came exposed with the words, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mk. 4:38).
Next the spectacular occurs. Jesus “awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves” (v. 24b). “Peace! Be still!” Jesus exclaimed (Mk. 4:39). The tempest then “ceased, and there was a calm” (v. 24c). The Lord put a pause on the raging storm. He delivers the disciples who would have certainly perished otherwise. Supernatural intervention redirected the winds churning the water and the surface stilled. Inexplicable according to any natural phenomena and wholly mysterious.
Jesus then asks, “Where is your faith?” (v. 25a). The point is that “their confidence should have been in Jesus and his saving power.[3] Mark’s account of the Lord’s response is direct to the point: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mk. 4:40).
Luke lastly tells us that “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?’” (v. 25b). Here we find that “slowly the disciples begin to reflect on the identity of Jesus” and “the story ends this way because Luke wants the reader to contemplate the same question.”[4]
All can imagine what went through their minds. The Old Testament Scriptures these first century Jewish fishermen learned would have recalled “the one who ruled the winds and sea was God himself (Ps 107:29), though a few pious men were reputed to be able to persuade him to send rain.”[5]
Surely, they remembered, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit,” writes James (Jas. 5:17-18; cf. 1 Kgs. 17-18). God worked such wonders through godly people. But now Jesus commands the storm to settle and the storm settled!
Yahweh is the one who exercises rule over the water. Psalm 104:5-9 declares,
He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth
Job 38:8-11 similarly states,
Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
Yahweh parted the Red Sea and Moses along with the Israelites walked upon dry land to the other side, and then closed the way crushing the armies of Pharaoh underneath the waves (Exod. 14-15). Yahweh stopped the Jordan River so that the Israelites led by Joshua could pass through on dry land and the priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant led the procession into the promise land (Josh. 3).[6] Yahweh’s authority over water is undeniable.
Who is this fella inside the boat with us? Authority over the tempest as a self-disclosure of Jesus’ divine identity becomes hard to miss. The preacher from Nazareth was the ultimate expression of Yahweh coming to dwell among His people. They were beginning to realize Jesus to be incarnate deity.
Christ invites us upon an epic journey. We are rescued from the ruins of the old city of man and embark on a voyage to everlasting life in the City of God. It is a new heaven and new earth wherein righteousness dwells. Yet, we must remain steadfast through the storms along the way. Times of grief, sickness, despair, acedia, and rage are like tempests churning up waves delivering crushing blows of water onto the boat. But God is with us inside the ship. This never means the problems go away suddenly. It does mean that the one who can navigate us to the destination is beside us.
Fear, shame, and worry are useless refuse from the old city of man that can be tossed overboard. None of those things have use in the City of God. Our voyage calls for us to have faith. More than just simply understanding a set of factual propositions, faith is an enduring trust in the person of Jesus Christ.
Storms will decimate our wealth and health. Our notoriety simply disappears in a deluge of controversy, whether it is ever deserved. But the worst a storm can do to anyone never out matches Christ power to raise us to life again. Just as Christ died and rose again, we share in the blessed hope that though we experience death, we will also experience resurrection from the dead. This living hope makes all the difference upon the present journey. [7]
Where is God in the storm? God is with us.
— WGN
[1] D. A. Carson, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 215.
[2] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[3] Thomas Schreiner, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 1077.
[4] Schreiner, 1077–1078.
[5] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Lk 8:22–25.
[6] Yahweh was enthroned upon the mercy seat between the two cherubim covering the Ark of the Covenant (Exod. 25:17-22; Num. 7:89; 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:1ff; 1 Chron. 13:1-14; 15:1-16:43).
[7] The Apostle Paul writes, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:4-5).
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