He Dealt With Their Hearts Before He Dealt With the Storm
Matthew 8:23–27
The disciples made their decision. They followed Jesus into the boat. And almost immediately, a violent storm arose that was so fierce that experienced fishermen who had spent their lives on this lake were certain they were going to die. The word Matthew uses is ‘seismos’ which is the language of an earthquake on the water. Understandably, the boat was being overwhelmed.
And Jesus was asleep!
That detail is Matthew’s clearest statement of Jesus’ full humanity in this passage. He had spent days healing, teaching, and travelling. He was genuinely exhausted. But His peace in the storm was just as genuine as His tiredness. He slept through a seismos because the seismos posed no threat to Him.
When the disciples woke Him in panic, what happened next is deeply instructive. If you were writing the story, Jesus would calm the storm first and then teach them afterwards. He does the exact opposite. Before He speaks to the wind, He speaks to them.
“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”
The storm was not His greatest concern. Their hearts were. Because, storms don’t ultimately shape our lives, faith does. The waves were dangerous; but, fear and unbelief were more dangerous still. Jesus was not merely rescuing them from a difficult circumstance. He was shaping them into people who would trust Him in every circumstance.
Only then does He rise, rebuke the wind and the sea, and produce an immediate, profound calm. Creation obeyed its Creator, and then the disciples asked the right question: “What kind of Man is this?”
Years later, Peter who had cried out in panic that day, would write: “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He could write that because he had learned it. Not in a classroom. In a storm.
Reflect: When you pray during a storm, are you primarily asking God to change your circumstances, or to change your heart in the middle of them?