Step back this morning and look at the whole scene in Matthew 8:23-27. Matthew tells it in a way that would remind every Jewish reader of another man asleep in a boat during a storm. The LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea; the sailors were terrified; Jonah was fast...
Jesus stands and rebukes the wind and the sea. “Rebuke” is a strange word for weather. You rebuke a person, a disobedient servant, a rebellious child. In the Gospels it is the same word Jesus uses when he casts out demons. He speaks to the storm as though it had...
Here is something easy to miss: Jesus does not calm the storm first. The wind is still howling and the waves are still crashing when he turns to the disciples and asks them a question. He deals with them before he deals with the weather. That is how much he is in...
In Greek the disciples’ cry is compressed into just a few words: Lord, save, we are perishing. This is not a prayer composed in advance. It is the prayer you scream. They do not even specify what they want to be saved from. The verb “perishing” is in the present...
With the boat filling and seasoned fishermen panicking, Matthew gives us four startling words: “but he was asleep.” The first reason is simple. Jesus was exhausted. Matthew 8 has walked us through one of the longest days of his ministry: the leper, the centurion’s...
