Storms on Lake Galilee were not unusual. But this one was different. Jesus slept through the commotion while seasoned fishermen feared for their lives, convinced they were going to drown (v 25). Read verse 26 again. How powerfully Jesus demonstrated his supreme power and authority! All it took was a few words and, as at Creation, he commanded, and it happened (see Genesis 1:9,10). 

King Canute acknowledged God’s authority. Allegedly, in 1028 ad, he commanded the incoming tide to stop. One record states that, ‘… the king leapt backwards, saying, “Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but he whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.”’* 

But do we get it? What does this mean for us, now? Remember, the Son of God himself is in the boat with us! When we acknowledge that, ultimately, it’s Jesus who is in control of everything, we can be still and have the peace that only God can give (Philippians 4:7). When we cry, ‘Lord, save us!’ he always responds.
 

*The Chronicle by Henry of Huntingdon, a twelfth-century English historian.

‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you’.¹

As I write, coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the globe, causing fear and panic – a natural reaction to uncontrollable crises. This was certainly the experience of the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, struck by a violent storm (literally, a great ‘shaking’) (v 24). They cried to Jesus more out of fear than in assurance of faith (v 25). Matthew, unlike Mark and Luke, describes Jesus as chiding the disciples for their little faith before stilling the storm, not afterwards (v 26). They, and we, are challenged to have faith in the midst of crises, not only once they have passed.

The disciples’ behaviour was controlled by their fear, because they focused on the crisis at the expense of recognising God’s power and presence with them. Yet the grace of Jesus is such that he not only answers their desperate prayer, but reveals to them that power and presence in the process. Up to now, Matthew has encouraged us to see Jesus’ healings and exorcisms as evidence of his messiahship, but this demonstration of authority over the forces of nature is in a new category altogether, for the Hebrew scriptures attest repeatedly to the power of God Almighty over the winds and the sea: he ‘stilled the storm to a whisper’;² ‘[rules] over the surging sea’;³ and ‘stilled the roaring of the seas’.⁴ No wonder the disciples are amazed when Jesus does the same. 

Faced with storms, literal or metaphorical, do we recognise the authority and presence of Jesus, God with us? In the Greek, Matthew describes how after Jesus rebuked the storm there came ‘a great calm’, matching the ‘great shaking’ of the storm. The peace that Jesus brings is not merely an absence of chaos: it has its own strength and integrity. Do we seek his peace whatever our circumstances, or only so that our troubles disappear?

Thankfulness helps to displace fear. Give thanks to God often for specific things, especially if you feel fearful.

¹ Isa 43:5  ² Ps 107:29  ³ Ps 89:9  ⁴ Ps 65:7