After several parables about how the Kingdom of God grows, Jesus returns to doing miracles. This time He demonstrates that He is God by rebuking the wind and commanding the sea to be still.
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
The only possible answer is God Almighty. While there have been known cases of false healers throughout history (perhaps with the aid of demons), only God is known to be able to cause the wind and the sea to obey Him.
And Jesus, causing the wind and sea to obey Him, is God Almighty.
Faithful Christians have no problem accepting that once upon a time Jesus Christ really did perform the miracle of calming the wind and waves. But, as I’m sure we all understand, God is not ever required to do miracles. Just because He is capable of them and performed many as recorded in the Gospels doesn’t mean He is required to routinely perform them in our lives. Acknowledging this much also doesn’t mean that somehow we lack faith by not believing in miracles enough.
But our problem is with the smaller and less life-threatening storms we all experience, for which no miracle is forthcoming. How do we respond to these?
The same way the disciples responded to a much graver danger. We might forget that the storms that arose, for example, on the Sea of Galilee could arise suddenly and were capable of capsizing a boat the size the disciples were in. These were no mere landlubbers but included several lifelong fisherman. And they were afraid. The boat was already being swamped with water, and there was real danger and threat to life.
But Jesus seemed to be asleep at the wheel, so to speak. The disciples woke Jesus questioned whether or not He really cared for them. And He responded by rebuking the winds and the sea.
But immediately after He had rebuked the wind and waves, He rebukes the disciples. “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Their response is an interesting one. If I were one of them, I’d probably have felt tremendously sheepish about my lack of faith. Except that I’d be too afraid of the man who was God and could calm the wind and waves.
Though our emergencies and crises are rarely as serious as what the disciples felt, we often respond in the same way. We temporarily doubt that God will come to our aid. When He does not fully rescue us from our difficulties the way He did the disciples in Mark 4, then we wonder if He really cares as much as we thought He did. We throw little temper tantrums because we did not get our way and because life’s difficulties have not been completely removed. Or we become discouraged and less motivated to turn towards God.
I am tremendously sheepish about own lack of faith sometimes. In the Greek in Matthew’s version, it’s possible to think of Jesus as calling the disciples “little-faiths.” Not just that they have little faith but that they are Little Faiths. I know I am sometimes. A few years ago, as I was racing to try and put up my church's long overdue website, I began testing what I had worked on for two months, learning how to do it all from scratch. The time came for me to test the site I had put together and which looked fine on my own computer. But when I tested it on my wife’s older computer, my little-faith world crumbled for the rest of the evening. I couldn’t understand how something I had worked so hard and long on, for a good cause, could be taken away from me.
What a pitiful thing to lose heart over, compared to what the disciples faced. I find many such times when my faith falters. Some are larger, and some are smaller, but there are storms just about every day of our lives.
How do you respond to them? Do you become discouraged? Do you wonder where God is, even when you haven’t bothered to ask Him for help? Do you cry out to Him and because He doesn’t appear to be answering you lose your patience with Him? We have almost as many ways of being faithless as there are human personalities.
But remember, in all of the storms that arise in life that the same Lord who calmed the wind and waves is capable of calming yours. He may not choose to do so immediately, and He may not even choose to take the difficulty away. But He has promised to draw near to you if you draw near to Him. Whether your storm is related to a job, finances, children, relationships, loved ones who are self-destructing, physical pain or sickness, heartbreak, loss, disappointments, broken dreams, apparently wasted labor, lack of progress, or any other source, remember: the Lord of the wind and the waves is your Lord.
He hasn’t promised you a miracle today, and He hasn’t even promised to take away every source of pain (even He didn’t receive that promise from the Father, did He?) But He has promised to be with His people whenever they cry out to Him with faith.
And that’s enough for me. Having that promise, I’ll trust in the One who not only has the power to command the wind and waves but also the knowledge and love to have created them and me in the first place.
Prayer: Lord, I cry out to You in faith because I feel as if I am perishing today. You know the difficulties I have in my life and how they threaten to make me sink. I cry out to You this moment in faith, trusting that You will be with me today in all Your love and providence. O, Lord, I want to believe and have faith: help me in my unbelief. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
1. What storms have you been experiencing lately? Meditate on some of these, making sure not to leave the presence of the Lord until you have entrusted these storms to His loving care.
2. Practice remembering times in the past when the Lord delivered you out of difficulty when you cried out to Him. It would be useful to write these down and maybe even begin to keep a list of such deliverances.
Resolution: I resolve to turn to God in faith today in the middle of whatever storms I am facing today.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
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