Missing Faith Where it Should be Found

 

Sunset over the lake a Shawnee Mission park. The 
beauty of still waters - and God's hand
on this earth. 

Scripture:

Luke 8:22   One day he 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 put out, ²³ and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A windstorm swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. ²⁴ They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁵ He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

Observation:

The disciples have had the opportunity to listen to Jesus’ teaching and to observe the miraculous ways in which he has changed lives. Now, according to Luke, we begin a very busy day in the life of Jesus and the disciples where they cross the sea, Jesus heals the man of demon possession, heals Jarius’ daughter and the woman with the issue of blood. The problem with this story out on the water, is that the disciples don’t have faith that Jesus will take care of them. According to Neale, “As so often in Luke, faith is missing where it should be found. And faith is found instead in unexpected quarters, in this case in Gerasa of the Gentiles when the boat lands on the distant shore” (NBBC). 

The storm overwhelms the boat, as winds can suddenly come down the hillsides and whip up the waves. These people were truly in danger. They rushed to Jesus and awakened him, but he didn’t seem too overwhelmed. The storm is not representative of evil, but simply of the power of nature, and Jesus shows them that he has this under control as well. The storm ceases and there is calm. 

Jesus is disappointed with their lack of faith, but they’d never seen him control the weather before. As they considered, “who is this?” — we see that this is the God who rules the sea, then one about whom they had read from their childhood. In Psalm 89:8-9 we read:

O LORD God of hosts,

who is as mighty as you, O LORD?

Your faithfulness surrounds you.

You rule the raging of the sea;

when its waves rise, you still them.

They were astonished and all that they had seen, and they weren’t quite ready to make the connection that Jesus truly was God. 

Application:

To really grasp that Jesus is the Son of God means that we live our lives in faith. This is a faith that helps us to prepare for the storms that life will bring our way. The disciples were not prepared for they had not fully grasped who Jesus was. While they were the ones who should have had the faith, they did not. 

John Chrysostom, writing in the 4th century, said that we should “prepare a strong ship, the kind that the buffeting and discouragements of this life will not submerge, or the wind of false pretense raise up, but will be sleek and swift. If we prepare the ship, pilot and the crew in this way, we will sail with a favoring wind and draw to ourselves the Son of God, the true Pilot. He will not permit our ship to be overwhelmed, even if countless winds blow. He will rebuke the winds and the sea and will bring about a great calm in place of the tempest” (COMMENTARY ON ST. JOHN 1).

This past year has been one in which our ship has been buffeted by a raging storm in the form of a global pandemic, economic challenges, political and social unrest. It seems, that I hear many followers of Christ during this time, sounding like the disciples. They are afraid of the storm and cry out that we are going to perish! Do we really think that the bride of Christ, the church, is in danger of being destroyed by the storms of this world? I think Jesus would look at us and say, “Where is your faith?” Do we not know who Jesus really is? 

To live our lives in faith, we continually put our trust in the Lord. We will not perish (at least eternally), when we live and die in Christ. 

Prayer:

Lord, help my unbelief. May I be a person of faith that trust in you in all circumstances and may I learn the life of preparation. Amen.