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God has given us the New Testament to bring us to faith in Christ, and then to teach Christ’s disciples about life in His Kingdom. We are Christ’s disciples because we have been baptized into His Kingdom, and we remain His disciples throughout our lives by continuing to hear Christ’s Word and receive His sacraments for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith in Him. As His disciples, we have received the gracious promise from Jesus, “Behold, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), so we can confess, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (Psalm 46:13). Come what may, we have nothing to fear. But as sinners, we do fear the changes and challenges of life, and we lose hope, just as the earliest disciples did in Matthew 8:23-27.
Since we are Christ’s disciples, we should place ourselves right alongside those first disciples in the boat on the Sea of Galilee on that stormy day so many years ago. The Christian Church is a boat of sorts. When we perform the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, we pray that the one being baptized may be “kept safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church.” So through Baptism and faith, we find ourselves in the boat with our Lord Jesus, along with all His other disciples. And just as it happened in our Gospel reading, so often it seems today that Jesus is asleep. While we are being tossed to and fro by the tempestuous waters of life, our Lord seems to be asleep, unaware or apathetic that we are sinking under a multitude of struggles: heartbreak, sickness, chronic pain, abuse, death, grief, poverty, guilt, shame; fill in the blank with your own tribulations, since we all have them. We know the Lord is almighty, so He could remove any of these troubles from our lives with just a word, but still He seems to sleep on while we suffer, so we sinners begin to think that He has abandoned us and left us to perish, and we grow afraid, much like those disciples in the boat. But in the midst of troubles, we must never forget the Lord’s assurance that the Father gave His Son over to suffering and death for our sin so “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Even if our troubles tell us that we are perishing, we are never really perishing. In Christ, it may seem that we are dying, but as St. Paul tells us, “behold, we live”; if we are “punished,” yet we are “not killed” when we are …“having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:9-10). The appearances and the reality don’t match up; in fact, they are opposites. When our bodies die, it certainly seems that we have lost everything. But our Baptism into Christ promises, “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Your eternal life in Christ is not something visible to the naked eye, but it is perceptible only to the eye of faith.
With such great promises from God, there should be no room in our hearts for despairing fear, but instead we should boldly confess with St. Paul, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Yet because sin and misbelief still dwell in the hearts of Christ’s disciples, they do sometimes fall into despairing fear, as the disciples on that boat did, but at least at that point of fear they realized that there was only One who could help them, so they went to Jesus and cried out, “Save us, Lord, we are perishing!” Jesus responds with grace to their desperate prayer, “Peace! Be still!” to the winds and the waves, and they obey.
Just before Jesus hushed the winds and calmed the waters, He says to His disciples, “Why are you afraid, O ye of little faith?” There is a hidden promise contained in the rebuke, “O ye of little faith,” since the Lord is not calling His disciples unbelievers, but rather is telling us that even the smallest faith is still faith, and even a bit of faith takes hold of the Savior Jesus and receives all the blessing of salvation that He has to give. Yet He also wants to invite us to greater and more robust faith in Him, because He says to His disciples, “By my perfect life, sufferings, death, and resurrection, I have given you so many reasons to believe in Me and trust Me for everything. I have told you not to doubt that when your body dies, yet you will live, because I live. I am with you always, forever, to guide and protect you. And I control the wind, the waves, and all the tribulations you experience in this world, so when you begin to sink under your troubles, do not doubt, but call out to Me, and I will deliver you.” Amen.
