Calming the Storm

Throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, He performed various miracles to demonstrate His divine power. The miracle we are discussing here was Jesus calming the storm. As we study this miracle, as with every Bible passage, it is important to understand the context. This miracle teaches us certain things about Jesus and provides an important lesson for us.

The Context

• Before this, Jesus performed another miracle in which He healed a centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13) – we saw that the centurion recognized the concept of authority and applied this to Jesus; this was an example of “great faith” (Matthew 8:10) which would be contrasted with the disciples’ “little faith” (Matthew 8:26)
• As we noticed in that lesson, this came after Jesus’ sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) – Jesus described the character of a disciple, those who would make up His kingdom
• Just before this miracle, Jesus taught further about discipleship – following Jesus is not the path to worldly success (Matthew 8:19-20); following Jesus requires us to put Him before everyone, even family (Matthew 8:21-22)
• But why did these people want to follow Jesus? – because of the miracles He performed (Matthew 8:16); fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy (Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4) which also pointed to His sacrifice (Isaiah 53:5, 7, 10); Jesus was more than just one to be obeyed; He was loving, compassionate, and willing to sacrifice

The Miracle

• Jesus left the crowd and got in a boat with the disciples to sail to the other side of the sea (Matthew 8:18) – this would have been the Sea of Galilee; the fishermen among the disciples were familiar with it
• While they were going, Jesus fell asleep (Matthew 8:24) – not necessarily unusual, but it was unusual that He remained asleep
• While He was sleeping, a great storm arose – the disciples woke Him (Matthew 8:25); “Save us, Lord; we are perishing” (Matthew 8:25); “do You not care…” (Mark 4:38), yet the context showed that He did care; Jesus rebuked them for “little faith” (Matthew 8:26); they knew enough to know they were safe with Jesus
• Jesus then rebuked the winds and the sea and it became calm (Matthew 8:26) – the disciples were amazed; “even the winds and the sea obey Him” (Matthew 8:27)

The Lesson

• “Even the winds and the sea obey Him” – why? … He had authority over them; no other explanation; Jesus was the creator (John 1:3); therefore, He is ruler over all (Colossians 1:16-18); even while asleep, He still had more power than the storm that came against them
• The lesson here is that Jesus is God – we have “little faith” if we question this; because of who He is, we must obey Him (Matthew 28:18-20); obey just as the storm did, immediately and dramatically (cf. Galatians 1:23); because of who He is, we must also be willing to give up anything to follow Him (Matthew 8:19-22; cf. Philippians 3:7-8)

Conclusion

• Only the creator of the world could stop a storm with a word – only our creator can demand/expect total obedience from us today
• Let us be people of “great faith” (Matthew 8:10) and humbly obey His word in whatever He says to do