Scripture Daily

Context No. 1464 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 8:21-25: in context

21But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” 22Now on one of those days, he entered into a boat, himself and his disciples, and he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. 23But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water. 24They came to him and awoke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are dying!” He awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; then they ceased, and it was calm. 25He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid, they marveled, saying to one another, “Who is this then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

After teaching that his true family are those who hear and do God's word, Jesus gets into a boat with his disciples to cross the lake, and falls asleep. A fierce squall comes down, the boat begins to fill with water, and the terrified disciples wake him: Master, Master, we are perishing! He wakes, rebukes the wind and the raging water, and at once there is a calm. Then he turns to them: where is your faith? And they are left afraid and amazed, asking one another, who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?

Two things stand out in this scene. The first is that Jesus was asleep in the storm. The same wind and waves that had the seasoned fishermen crying out in terror did not trouble him at all; he slept through the tempest, at peace in the very danger that panicked everyone else. His calm did not come from ignorance of the storm but from a deeper security than the storm could reach. The second is his question: where is your faith? The disciples had concluded, because he seemed asleep and unresponsive to their crisis, that they were on their own and perishing; and Jesus asks where their faith has gone. He was in the boat with them the whole time; the storm that terrified them could not touch the one who commanded it. There is a word here for the storms that frighten us and the times God seems asleep to our crisis. We panic when the waves rise and God seems unresponsive, concluding that we are perishing and alone; but the one who is with us in the boat is the one at whose word the wind and the sea fall silent. The storm is real, but it does not threaten him, and he is with us. Fear gives way, in the end, not to a calmer sea but to a truer knowledge of who is in the boat: the one whom even the winds and the water obey. Where is your faith is a question worth hearing in every storm.

When the storms rise and God seems asleep to my crisis, do I conclude that I am perishing and alone, or can I remember who is in the boat with me, the one whom even the winds and the water obey, and hear his question, where is your faith?

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