It had been another full and exhausting day with the Rabbi. So He and the twelve that were with Him, borrowed a boat and set off to cross the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was exhausted. Maybe He said something like, “Wake me up when we arrive. I need rest.”
“Sure thing,” one of them might have replied.
All was going well, until the waves started to slap the boat a little harder. Then the wind picked up. The small craft started tossing and listing. At least some of these men were fishermen, and accustomed to a little storm. But at some point, the storm crossed the line of being little and struck fear in the hearts of these men. Some men probably manned the oars to turn the boat into the waves, others probably started to bail water to keep from sinking, and maybe others muscled the sail, if there was one.
Someone said, “Wake the Rabbi up so He can help us!”
So they did just that. Jesus, still asleep, was riled by their calls of, “Rabbi! Rabbi! Help us! Can’t you see we’re going to die?! Don’t you care about us?!”
I suspect they anticipated that He would grab an oar and help power the boat, or grab a bucket and start bailing, or perhaps help with the sail. Maybe they expected Him to miraculously power or even bail the boat.
As He arose from His slumber, he stared them all in the eyes, and they gazed back into His. “You of little faith!” He uttered in disbelief. That statement alone must have caught them off-guard. There were probably some murmurings, “Pick up a bucket and bail”, “Faith? What is He talking about? Faith?” But He continued to look into their eyes as He spread His arms out and said, “Peace! Be still!” In an instant, the boat stopped tossing, the wind subsided, and the waves fell into a dead calm, as did the fears of the twelve. The silence was indeed deafening. As they peered at one another and the still waters around them, a quiet voice asked, “Who is He, that even the wind and waves obey Him?”
Faith. Faith indeed. The One Who without Him nothing was made, stood before them. In His mind, this simple storm was just a bump in the road. But they saw it as an event that could have killed them. His faith in the Father’s love and predestination for Him isn’t something that the 12 could or even us today can fully grasp. It was displayed for us in this event. God didn’t allow them to perish in this storm. He had plans for them. Jesus understood this fully. Jesus knew the purpose for which He had come and knew that His time had not yet come.
When we submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit and He leads us to do the will of the Father, there is nothing that can stop us. That is the faith we need to understand and fall into. When we are able to do this, His will will be done.
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