45 What Jesus Teaches About Fear When Life Gets Hard (Matthew 8:23-27)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we'll study Matthew chapter 8, verses 23 through 27. This is the 45th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew. The lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, and you can find them by going directly to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew45. Thank you so much for joining me today. We are in a section of Matthew's Gospel where he describes a number of miracles that Jesus performed. And I have been arguing that a key theme throughout these miracles is the authority of Jesus. Jesus not only speaks with the authority of God, he has the authority of God in his actions. Jesus does things that only God can do because God has given him the authority. And we talked about how this kind of authority and these miracles require a response. The miracles are not just historical events, they're stories that call on us to respond. The miracles are evidence that God is behind what Jesus teaches, and we are called to recognize and respond to that. We also see a different kind of response in these stories, and that is faith before the miracle happens. Someone with a problem has already wrestled with the question of whether Jesus is who he says he is. They have reached the conclusion that his words are true, and so they come to him in faith and ask for a miracle. And we saw this kind of prior faith with both the leper and the Gentile centurion. So far we've seen that he has authority over disease, and now we're going to see that he has authority over nature. I'm going to read Matthew chapter eight verses twenty three through twenty seven. And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him, and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep, and they went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marvelled, saying, What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Let me give a little bit of background here. Jesus is in Capernaum, he's on the Sea of Galilee, he's surrounded by a great crowd, and he wants to get away with his disciples. He tells the disciples, Let's get in the boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Mark gives us a little bit more detail in his gospel. This is Mark chapter four verses thirty five through forty one. On that day when evening had come, he said to them, Let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Mark starts out on that day when evening came. So this event follows a long day of demanding public ministry. Jesus taught the crowds, then when he was alone the disciples asked him questions, and then he'd teach again, and this has been going on all day, presumably ten to twelve hours. So you can see why Jesus is exhausted. Putting together what we know from Mark, Jesus and his disciples set out across the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. They're leaving a region that is predominantly Jewish and going across to the Decopolis area, which is mostly Gentile. Mark tells us, leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. That phrase just as he was reminds us how tired he was and indicate why he quickly fell asleep. So they take him in the boat, there's no fuss, most likely no refreshment or little preparation, and they take him, and tired as he was, he just fell asleep. Now his exhaustion points to his humanity. This is one of the many clues in the gospels that Jesus was fully human. He taught all day and he's exhausted. He gets in the boat and he can't keep his eyes open. I think the fact that Jesus was exhausted probably adds to and increases their amazement when he quiet the storm, because they've just seen this man who's so tired he can barely keep his eyes open, and yet with a word he stops a violent storm. Now the Sea of Galilee is infamous for these kinds of storms. They arise quickly and they seem to come out of nowhere, and I'm told they still happen today. There are seasons on the Sea of Galilee when these gusts of winds blow down off the Golan Heights. The sea is in a valley between hills that form a kind of corridor for the winds, and they whip up storms unexpectedly. So this storm is not a supernatural event. It's the same type of storm that still happens on the Sea of Galilee today. It's a dangerous event, but there's nothing uncommon about it. In 825, Matthew says, They went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing. Mark says in his gospel that they said, Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? So they wake him with this cry, Don't you care that we're about to die? They're afraid and they fear Jesus is ignoring them. Now we might ask the question, are the disciples overreacting? Were they in the most extreme of conditions? Are they at their wits' end completely overcome and they have nowhere to turn? Is that what this passage is telling us? Or was this a storm like storms they had seen many times before? It was a serious storm. It was at night, which made it more dangerous, and I think the text is pretty clear the disciples are facing a treacherous set of circumstances. But remember, several of the disciples were fishermen and they had spent their lives on this lake. At least we know Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen, and this is their backyard. I find it hard to believe that this is the first time they faced a storm like this on the Sea of Galilee at night. Secondly, Jesus can sleep through it. We're not talking hurricane force winds here, or he wouldn't have been able to stay asleep. And the boat can't be that full of water yet, or it would have woken Jesus. Then when he wakes up, Jesus never appears to be worried about the storm. He wakes up, he isn't shaken, he isn't terrified, he just rebukes the storm the way you'd rebuke an overzealous puppy. He says, Quiet, stop that, calm down. One translator rendered it piped down. Jesus treated the storm as a difficult test. Yes, it's a demanding set of circumstances, but it's not as if all is about to be lost at any moment. His attitude seems to be more one of quieting down all the commotion so he can talk to his disciples. I think the response, teacher, we're perishing, don't you care if we're dying? I think that indicates a degree of panic. They could have woken Jesus up and handed him a bucket. A calm, more faithful response might have been waking him up and saying, Here's a bucket, start bailing. These storms are nothing to trifle with. We need all hands on deck. Yes, they do need to take the storm seriously, but I don't think they need to be paralyzed with fear. They didn't need to react with such overwhelming panic and anxiety. So why the panic? One possible reason is they have a deeper fear. Perhaps they fear that Jesus has stopped loving them. Here we have a sleeping savior who has performed miracles for others, and now they're in trouble and he seems unresponsive to their plight. Let me just speculate on what they might be thinking. Lord, what's the matter with you? This is too hard, and I don't really deserve to face this right now. After all, I've done everything you asked. I left my home, I left my job to follow you, I've stayed by your side through all these early days of your ministry. Look what I've done for you. Look how I've followed you. And now here I am in the middle of the night facing this storm because of you. It's not my fault, you know, I'm tired too. I didn't know the storm was coming. You're supposed to be my rabbi, my lord, my messiah. Why haven't you solved this problem for me? When are you going to bail me out of my troubles? Don't you care enough about me to get me out of this mess? Don't you care what happens to me? How can you sleep while all this calamity falls down on me? You you must not love me anymore. Don't you care if I drown? That could be what's going on, that kind of how could you let this happen to me? Don't you care about me? But I think there's another possibility, and I suspect this one is more likely, although both could be part of the reaction, and that is the disciples could fear that Jesus is not who he claims to be. They have placed their ultimate hope in him. They've left their homes, they've left their jobs to follow him, they've heard him teach, they've seen him release people suffering from the powers of demons, they've heard him tell them truths that no one had ever spoken before, they've heard him teach with the authority of God, they've seen him heal with the authority of God, and they are coming to believe that he is in fact the long awaited Messiah. But now, in their hour of need, he's asleep. They might die and he might die with them. How could the Messiah drown in a boating accident? Surely God wouldn't let that happen to his Messiah. So I think they were beginning to say to themselves, I might die here because this man is not the Messiah after all. He doesn't have the authority to save me. He doesn't even appear to be able to save himself. Maybe he's not the Messiah after all. Maybe he's not the one he claims to be, because after all, he's about to die with me. I think they were deeply shaken by the possibility that Jesus would put them in extreme circumstances and then ignore their plight, either because he didn't care what happened to them after all, or he wasn't who he claimed to be. And that's the real issue, isn't it? We panic when life gets hard, not so much because it's hard, but because we fear that God no longer loves us or he is not who he says he is, he's promised to love us and protect us, and now he seems to be sleeping when we're in need. Well that fear is evidence of an immature faith, and that's what Jesus responds to. Look at Matthew 8 26. And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. His first response after waking is, Why are you so afraid? Why did this storm terrify you? How is it that you have so little faith? You've been with me, you've heard me teach, you've seen me heal, you've seen the demons obey, you've seen lives changed and hearts opened, you've seen the blind see and the lame walk. How is it that you have no faith? Why are you so afraid? Then he quiets the storm like one might quiet a bouncy puppy, and everything is calm. This phrase he adds, Oh, you have little faith is interesting. Jesus is the only one I can find who uses this phrase, and he seems to use it in situations where his disciples have lost sight of who God is and what God can do. We first ran into this phrase in the Sermon on the Mount, in the passage about don't be anxious over the cares of the day. That's in Matthew 6, and Jesus was reminding us that God cares more about people than he does about birds and flowers. And if we stop and think about who God is and his priorities and how he demonstrates his care for creation, including things like birds and flowers, we'll know that he is a caring and trustworthy God who can be relied upon. In that context, Jesus says, Oh you of little faith, these are things that if we had a deep, mature faith, we would know, and we would not need to be reminded. We're going to run into this phrase again in a different story in Matthew 14. The disciples are in a boat again, and Jesus comes out to them walking on the water. He commands Peter to walk out on the water to him, and Peter responds, and first he walks out to Jesus and everything is fine, and then he seems to suddenly realize he's standing in the middle of the lake and he starts to sink. And Jesus says to him, Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? Peter seems to be looking only at his circumstances. All of a sudden he realizes he's outside the boat walking on the water and he panics. He's forgotten the God he's dealing with. He seems to have lost sight of who Jesus is and what Jesus just commanded him to do. Jesus seems to be saying, you know, panic may seem to be a very natural reaction to you, but you have lost sight of who God is, who I Jesus am, and who you're dealing with in this situation. God has authority over creation, he has given it to me, and I am right here with you. In these situations where we fear for our life, Jesus is saying, Remember who God is, remember who I am, who you're dealing with. We are completely trustworthy. We're going to see this phrase in another situation where Jesus is warning his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees, that's in Matthew 16. The disciples start discussing the fact that they don't have any bread, and Jesus rebukes them and says, What makes you think I'm talking about food? Don't you remember how I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread? And that other time when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves of bread, how is it you don't understand? And in this rebuke, he refers to them as you of little faith. In each of these examples, what they know and believe about Jesus has not made its way into their thinking and action. They know that these miraculous feedings have happened, but the implications of it have not sunk in yet, and they're starting to get worried about where and when they're going to eat next. And Jesus rebukes them saying, You have lost sight of who God is and who I am. Our faith metaphorically shrinks because we've lost sight of who God is. Now, faith is a journey. We hear the truth and we respond with obedience and faith, but all of us start out relatively immature. We haven't been tested yet, we haven't faced situations where we have to work out the implications of belief, and yet we live in a world that challenges our faith at every turn. We are going to face situations every day that force us to ask the question: who do I trust here? What am I counting on? Where does my hope lie? What is my goal? Where do I think life was to be found? So we have to struggle to work and make a living and keep our friendships, and then we're confronted with sickness and loss and heartbreak at every turn. When we face those challenges and hardships, it's easy to forget who God is and what he has promised. And it is in exactly those kinds of situations where we're forgetting who God is and what he's promised that we see Jesus use this phrase, oh you of little faith. And I think that's what's going on here. His disciples have lost sight of who God is and what he can do. It's not that they're unbelievers, it's not that they've given up on their faith, but the way they're looking at a particular situation shows that they have forgotten who God is and what he can do. What they know to be true about God has not penetrated their thinking and their actions. Now remember in this same chapter we saw the Gentile centurion come to Jesus and ask Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus commends him saying, Truly I have not found such great faith in Israel. And here Jesus describes the disciples as having little faith in contrast to the centurion who had such great faith. Well, what's the difference? The difference is the centurion's faith had matured to the point where it changed his actions. He believed that Jesus was sent from God and that Jesus had the authority to heal his servant. He believed Jesus didn't even need to come under his roof. All he had to do was say the word and it would be done. So the centurion had thought about what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah, to have the authority of God, and what that authority meant that Jesus could do to help him, and he acted on that belief. In contrast, when the disciples face their troubles in the boat, they seem to have forgotten who Jesus is and who they're dealing with. Now, granted, they are dealing with a more stressful emergency kind of situation than the centurion. They are definitely under more immediate pressure. I'm not judging them for that or condemning them for their reaction. I'm sure if I'd been there, I would have panicked long before they did. I'm just trying to figure out what lessons we're supposed to learn. Remember, the gospels are filled with stories, not just about Jesus, but stories about the education of the twelve. The twelve are going to have very important roles to fulfill after the resurrection. They're going to face tremendous persecution and suffering as they travel around proclaiming the truth about Jesus. And the gospels tell us in part how Jesus is preparing them for that journey. So as we study, we want to ask ourselves, what lessons are they learning? And I think Jesus is teaching them, what are you afraid of? You're afraid of the storm? Hmm, be still, done, no storm. Let me remind you who you're dealing with here. The power of God is with me. Don't forget that. There is nothing in this world that has any power over you if God does not want it to. I think he means for them to make this shocking and abrupt transition from imminent danger to miraculous deliverance, so that the reality of his God given authority penetrates their thinking and actions, and authority is where they go next. Look at Matthew 8 27. And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? It's not clear to me what the disciples were expecting Jesus to do when they woke him up, but whatever it was, calming the storm was not what they expected. They are blown away in amazement when the storm obeys him. Matthew says they were amazed. Mark puts it a little more strongly. He says in four forty one, they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? They were filled with an awe, a kind of terror. Who is this man? This is not what we expected. Now that's a good question to ask because who is this man is exactly the kind of question this miracle is intended to provoke. A moment earlier they were terrified by their physical circumstances. Now they're more terrified by the man in the boat. They saw a man who moments before had been so still. Sleepy, he couldn't keep his eyes open, and now he wakes up and banishes a storm with a word. So again, this miracle raises the question of authority. We know that only God can control the wind and the waves and the forces of nature, and yet Jesus commands the forces of nature with a word. Human experience teaches us that nature has the upper hand. Even today, with all our technology, when a forest fire breaks out or a hurricane threatens, we evacuate the area. We are helpless in the path of a tornado, a blizzard, a forest fire or a tsunami. We may think that we're going to control the planet somewhere down the line, but it hasn't happened yet. Throughout human history, we know we're at the mercy of nature. We plant crops, but we can lose them all if it doesn't rain. We go fishing on the sea, but we may catch nothing. And even worse, a storm could sink our boat. If there's an earthquake, we can only hope our precautions were strong enough. If a volcano erupts, we'd better get out of the way fast. Our safety and security depends on staying out of the way of natural disasters. Those of us who believe in God know that God is ultimately in control of all the forces of nature. Whether the storm blows or whether it stops is in God's hand. And now we see He has given that authority to Jesus. We see this same theme in Psalm 107. This is the first three verses. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble, and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Let me set the stage a little bit. I think this psalm is about the exile. God's people have been in exile and now he is gathering them back from east-west, north, and south. What follows in this psalm is four scenarios that all have the same pattern. The people are in trouble. They are in trouble by the hand of God because He's disciplining them. They cry out to Him for mercy, and God delivers them. That's the pattern. And in the last scenario we we find this. This is verses twenty three through thirty two. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters. They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep, for he commanded and raised the stormy wind which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths, their courage melted away in their evil plight, they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. I'm not saying that this psalm is a prediction that Jesus, the Messiah, would calm the storm one day, but it does give us a picture that's relevant to the story. Those who go down to the sea in ships have seen the works of the Lord, that is, God raises up a storm. God sends the wind to stir up these big waves, so the boat is lifted high up on the crest of the waves, then it goes deep down in the trough of the wave, and the sailors reel like drunken men and cry out to the Lord for mercy. This situation is beyond their control, and they are in big trouble. And notice all of this is from God. God raises up the storm, and this is part of his wondrous works. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and God acts on their behalf. He causes the waves to be stilled and the winds to cease, and they make it safely to their destination. Like all the other sections in this psalm, I think this is meant to be a metaphorical picture. Yes, storms literally happen, but in the poetry of the Psalm, I think this is meant to be a picture of being in distress, of being in a difficult situation by God's design, and in that situation we are to call out to him and he will deliver us. The story of Jesus and the disciples in the boat resonates with the Psalm. God has raised a storm on the sea, the disciples are afraid, but in this story they call out to Jesus, and Jesus causes the storm to be still and the waves to be hushed. The psalm reminds us that only God is in charge of these vast forces of creation, only God can bring the storm and only God can end the storm, and yet we see Jesus telling the wind to stop and the waves to cease, and they do. And the disciples rightly ask, Who is this guy? Because this is the kind of authority that only God has. People don't have this kind of control over creation, they can't stop the destructive forces of nature, and yet Jesus can say, Stop, and it stops. The miracles of Jesus have a message. They tell us that God is with Jesus and He has the power to do miracles. These powerful supernatural events are a testimony from God that He is with Jesus, but they are also a kind of parable in themselves. Jesus is bringing the mercy of God for healing. Jesus is bringing the mercy of God for deliverance from demons, and Jesus brings the power of God to rescue his people from the vast destructive forces of nature. Jesus displays the power of God to rescue his people from sickness, from evil, from nature, and from death. And that's a lesson we're meant to learn and turn to him in those situations where we fear and are in distress, remembering who he is and what he can do. When Ray Stedman preached on this text, he used one sentence to summarize what's being taught here. The boat won't sink and the storm won't last forever. That teaches us the gospel won't sink. It will bear all the weight you put on it. The hope of the gospel doesn't dim over time or fail under pressure. The Lord will supply all our needs for every day of this life and for eternity. But that second phrase is important too. The storm won't last forever. It's not true that being a Christian is to be assigned to suffer forever and ever. The end of the story is not more suffering. The end of the story is joy and glory, the approval of God and being made like Christ, fellowship with other people who believe and the end of evil and death. Remember who we're dealing with when we run into hard situations. Not only does Jesus have the authority of God behind him when he speaks, he has the authority of God to rescue and redeem us. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also seeks to show you how to figure that out. You can find all previous episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, and most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician, Reggie Coates. You can find Reggie's music and hear his CDs on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.