Everett Henes: Jesus and our storms

One of my favorite Gospel stories is about when Jesus goes out onto the sea with his disciples. His disciples were fishermen who were used to facing difficulties. In Luke 8:22-25 we find the disciples facing a storm so big that even they are afraid. During this time, they turn to Jesus who was sleeping. You read that right. Jesus was sleeping, taking a nap during a storm that terrified them! Though he had all the fullness of God in bodily form he was still fully human and so he was susceptible to exhaustion. But as the one who was fully God he also never slept.

There was a great deal of fear and maybe even questions about Jesus. What was his authority in such a situation? What sort of authority does he have to deal with the unexpected difficulties in our lives? Someone calls out, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” I am sure that they were only reacting out of fear. Do you ever respond the same way to God when things are going from bad to worse? “I thought you were a loving God?” “Aren’t you paying attention to what is going on?” “Don’t you care?!” Luke is very terse in Jesus’ response, “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm.” For all the trouble that has been taking place, only one thing matters: that Jesus is with them.

We see his full humanity in this passage as he succumbs to the exhaustion of ministering to the crowds and falls fast asleep. But it is not “nerves of steel” that allow him to sleep through such a storm as this — it is the fact that he is not just man. Jesus is God. And as God, he is Lord over creation. He rebukes the wind and the waves, and they obey his command. Notice that Luke uses the word ‘rebuke’ when Jesus confronts the situation.

Storms are used throughout scripture to denote different things. Storms are used to refer to rebellion. The nations that revolt against God are likened to raging seas in Psalm 89. Remember Job, who had everything removed from him in a test. He speaks these words to the Lord, “You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.”

Storms are used throughout scripture to depict not just rebellion but troublesome times — this is because there is something uncontrollable about a storm — at least uncontrollable by us. But this is not the way things always were. In Genesis 1-2 we read of a good creation, of calm waters with the spirit of God hovering over them, and of God’s ruler over them all. Adam was to rule over creation, and this would include the wind and the waves but instead he fell through disobedience. The Apostle Paul tells us in the book of Romans that creation is groaning as it waits for its redemption. Since the fall, waters and storms are used to show obstacles and threats.

The reason that Jesus must rebuke a storm here is because of sin. Not any particular sin, rather, because creation is under the curse of sin. Think of Noah and the judgment that came upon the earth through the storm and flood. Think of the Israelites as they departed Egypt, fleeing for their lives from Pharaoh. What is it that stood between them and safety? The Red Sea. They would have turned around and gone back because the sea stood in their way. Why? Because crossing the sea was too risky.

Even today, with all our technology, we cannot control the waters and their storms. Think of the devastation caused by the Tsunami in 2004 were over 350,000 people were killed. Imagine standing out there in the midst of that storm and simply saying, “Peace. Be still” and watching the waves instantly die down. This is one of the things that will make the new heavens and the new earth, created at the end of time, so spectacular is because it is said that there will be no more sea (Revelation 21:1). A symbol of all the trials and tribulations, the judgments, the rebellious nations gone. All of this biblical imagery is what makes this passage so significant. Jesus stood up to the storm and it obeyed him. This is why his presence with is people is so precious.

— Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Everett Henes: Jesus and our storms