After a hectic day of ministering and Jesus had
just finished teaching from the boat, they must be tired. Evening was fast
approaching, so He instructed His disciples, saying “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they obeyed, took Him along
with them in the boat, just as He was. Bear in
mind that the Lord was fully human and after such a frenetic day of work, He
was exhausted. So He must have moved to the stern of the boat, wearily rest on
a cushion and within a short time was fast asleep. The sunset scene must have
been beautiful as the boat took the five miles trip across the Sea of Galilee.
Suddenly, we are told that they were besieged and blasted by an enormous storm!
Verse 37 describes it this way. “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking
over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.”
The Sea of Galilee is actually a lake. And we may
wonder how can there be a storm in a lake? Geographically, the landscape
surrounding the Sea of Galilee has high mountainous areas, making it into a
gigantic funnel. When that fierce gale blew into the lake, the wind would be caught
in that funnel and churned, creating a storm in the lake. The situation that
happened to the disciples was a good moment for their spiritual development. It
was a good moment to enforce the knowledge of God and His power in their lives.
Similar to what the disciples went through, difficulties,
trials and stress are needful for our spiritual growth as well. Without them we
will never grow. It is part and parcel of our spiritual advancement. To the
disciples, Christ seemed to be uncaring about what they were going through.
They came, waking Him up exclaiming, “Teacher, do You not care
that we are perishing?” Isn’t this the way we would often ask when facing a
storm in life? Of course Jesus
cares about us. If only we know Who He is when we are facing a storm. Like what happened to the disciples next,
Jesus is still willing to calm the storm we encounter in our daily living.
In a
storm when we learn to lean on Christ, we will experience His peace. That’s
what happened in verse 39. It says, “And He (Jesus) got up and rebuked
the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And
the wind died down and it became
perfectly calm. Christ would instruct us not only in a storm but also whisper
through His peace. Both the storm and the peace were enlightening and
educational.
In stormy situations, God would teach us faith. So
through verses 40-41, the Lord gave the finishing touch to the precious lesson
from the storm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no
faith?” They
became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even
the wind and the sea obey Him?” In these verses we hear Jesus saying,
“Hey guys! Trust me in your storm! Don’t fret and fear, I am the Lord of your
storm. Don’t forget I am in the vessel with you.”
What Christ said left us with plenty of food for thought! Do we really believe that Christ loves us? Do we really believe that He cares about what happens to us? Do we have faith that He will never leave us alone in what seems like the toughest moment of our lives? We need to know today without a shadow of a doubt, that in the day to day moments of life, Christ is in the vessel with us. We must learn to smile at the storm.
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