As I'm writing this, storm clouds are brewing, the wind is whipping, and my weather radar is showing a broad band of thunderstorms racing across the state. It reminded me of one of my favorite stories in the bible. In Matthew chapter eight, and verse 25, Jesus had finished teaching, and needed to get away. What better place than to hop in a boat, and cast off. The rocking of the waves, the warm sun, and suddenly your asleep. While the Son of God slept within the fragile bowels of a tiny boat, a fierce storm comes up, and before you know it, the boat is about to sink. I love the reaction of the disciples, "Master, Master, we perish." Jesus slams them for their lack of faith, and calms the storm. End of story, Jesus is God, rules the sea, and commands the winds. What I love about the story is the unsaid dialogue.
Jesus never invited, nor demanded the disciples to get in the boat with Him, they followed Him. We who follow Christ, seek always to be in His presence, that is why we FOLLOW Him. I love the Presence of God. He is everything I long for. What we often don't take into consideration is the price of following Him.
I've heard many sermons on this passage, most dealing with the issue of faith. That would be my logical choice for teaching about faith. I've heard it taught, He was rebuking them for not rebuking the storm themselves. I've heard it taught, He was rebuking them for waking Him. I've heard it taught, He was rebuking them for not having faith in Him.
It's hard for us from our vantage point to see the unsaid language that was happening.
Jesus got in the boat to be alone, to get away.
The storm arose while He was sleeping.
HE WAS IN THE SAME BOAT, THEY WERE IN!!!!!!!!
He was sleeping through the storm, but it was such a fierce storm, seasoned fishermen feared for their lives.
They had to wake HIM in order to save themselves.
In the midst of our storms, there is a tendency to forget that Jesus is in our tiny ship. He is inside of us. The storms that buffet us, buffet Him. Still, the overriding point is; Jesus is in the midst of the storm with us. We are going to be in storms in our lives. These mortal frames, temporary tents, tiny ships, are subject to the storms around us. Still, in the midst of them, we can have the peace of God. Why? Because, we have the Presence of God, His precious Spirit abiding in us. It is our natural tendency to find a reason for the things that happen in our lives. As Christians we especially want to make our trials, and tribulations have some kind of purpose. We'll evaluate the storm, look at what came out of it, and then proclaim the lesson we learned.
LIFE ISN'T ALWAYS ABOUT LESSONS! Sometimes it's jumping in a boat, and following this guy named Jesus even when it takes us to the point of physical death. We miss the entire point of the voyage, we wanted to be with Jesus, so we followed Him. Death is death, financial ruin is financial ruin, illness is illness, life is life. The only difference between how a Christian goes through it, is that Christians have Jesus in the boat. What you do with that knowledge is what determines what your life will feel like.
The Presence of God is all that I long for, so I would jump in the boat with him, I'd probably be just like the disciples when the storm came, except hind sight being 20/20, I'd have at least stood upon the prow of the ship, raised one arm toward the storm, pointed toward the bowels of the ship with the other, and yelled out: "Hey, shut up you silly storm, don't you know the Master is trying to sleep."
