Stormy Weather

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Matthew 18:23-27

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

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Ridin' the storm out, just waitin' for the fall out.

"Ridin' the Storm Out," by Gary Richrath, recorded by REO Speedwagon from the "Ridin' the Storm Out" album

Hemingway described guts as grace under pressure. Let's just say that in this moment, this moment of ultimate pressure, Jesus shows grace where everyone else is running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Let's not blame them. Several of the disciples were fishermen and the rest were land lubbers like the passengers on the S.S. Minnow and the three hour tour was about to come to an end. So where is the Lord? Where is the master? He's taking a nap in the rear hold during a severe thunderstorm and a small craft warning. He's asleep.

Just waiting for the fall out,  Jesus is taking a nap. Time to get him up!

Give him some credit for grace under fire, I know people who can't go to sleep unless everything is just so, and Jesus is asleep in the back of a boat on a heap of ropes, nets, and ballast. Takes guts, or rather, it takes confidence. More than that, it takes faith.

So what do the disciples say to Jesus, "Lord, Save us! We're perishing!" God love the writers of the gospels, I would have been yelling bloody murder at any one with ears to hear. The words Jesus would have heard from me would have made the sailors on the crew blush. What do we get, "We're perishing!"

So Jesus rebukes the sea. He scolds the sea into behaving! What does he say, "stop it?" Whether what he said was wonderfully understated or ominously bold, it must have been impressive.

Then the men who were so recently riding the storm out ask “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” What kind of man can control the elements. Well, the answer for us is easy, the man who can do this is God who walks the earth and rides the boat. What it says to us is that Jesus is God who cares when the world is crashing around our ears. If he can control the elements, imagine what God does to take care of our concerns.