NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER EIGHT

Part IV

Verses 23-25: Jesus then got into a boat, and His followers got in with Him. Sometime after the boat left the shore, suddenly a furious squall developed over the lake. The waves lashed over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The followers ran to Him and woke Him up. “Lord, save us!” they cried, “we are going to drown!”

According to those familiar with this area of Galilee, such storms are frequent during certain times of the year. Dr. Donald B. DeYoung of the Creation Research Society tells us these storms result from differences in temperatures between the seacoast and the mountains beyond. The Sea of Galilee lies 680 feet below sea level. It is bounded by hills, especially on the east side where the peaks reach 2000 feet high. These heights are a source of cool, dry air. The Sea of Galilee is small, and these winds at times descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can quickly arise and without warning. Small boats caught out on the sea are in immediate danger. The Sea of Galilee is relatively shallow, just 200 feet at its greatest depth. A shallow lake is “whipped up” by wind more rapidly than deep water, where energy is more readily absorbed.

Chrysostom sees a lesson being taught here by Jesus to His disciples. He writes: “Jesus sends the multitudes away, but He took the disciples with Him: for the others mention this too. And He took them with Him, not for nothing, nor to face a hazard, but in order to make them spectators of the miracle that was to take place. For like a most excellent trainer, He was anointing them with a view for two objectives; to remain undismayed in dangers and modest in honors. Thus, that they might not be high-minded, because after having sent away the rest, He retained them, He permits them to be tossed with the tempest; at once bringing calm, and disciplining them to bear trials nobly. For great indeed were the former miracles too, but this contained also in it a unique kind of discipline of exceptional importance, and was a sign akin to that of old (When Moses parted the Red Sea). For this cause He takes the disciples only with Himself. For as, when there was a display of miracles, He permits the people also to be present; so when trial and terrors were rising up against Him, then He takes with Him none but the champions of the whole world, whom He was to discipline.”¹

This observation by Chrysostom gives us a reason to examine all the miracles Jesus did in public, and those He did only in the presence of His disciples. What was Jesus trying to teach the people who saw Him heal the sick, and what lessons did He want His disciples to learn when they saw Him manipulate the power of nature? It also highlights the fact that Jesus did not perform wonders just for the sake of displaying His power. He had a reason for each miracle. Our task is to read about those events and see what it may teach us about Him as a person, as the Messiah, and as the Son of God.

We know Scripture tells us that Jesus wept, but here it informs us that Jesus slept. Not because He was ignorant of the climate or well-known tendencies for such storms, but because He was physically exhausted and also not afraid of the conditions, even if they worsened. This story of Christ falling asleep has caused some in the Jewish community in the past to question how this could be. In the previously mentioned Jewish polemic literature we read where the writer asks: “How is it possible for the son to be like the Father and the Holy Spirit when he ate and slept and grew tired and was afraid? He grew tired, as it is written in their Bible, ‘And he came to Jacob’s well and was tired, and he asked the Samaritan woman for water.² He was afraid, as it is written, ‘My Lord, my Lord, why have you forsaken me’?³ He slept, as it is written in a passage which I have already discussed, ‘The wind came across the sea, yet Jesus was asleep. His disciples came and woke him up’.⁴ If you argue that the three are considered one because of the Holy Spirit that was in the flesh, then the same should be said of every prophet who had the Holy Spirit.”⁵ While this controversial approach to what happened here with Jesus falling asleep may seem open for questioning, the writer did not address our Lord’s ultimate calming of the winds and the waves. Like many skeptics today, they have no answer for that, and often dismiss it since it requires faith.

I like what a very famous preacher named Peter Chrysologus (AD 406-450), goes on to say about what happened here. He says: “The sea offered its heaving back for Christ to walk upon. Now it leveled its crests to a plain, checked its swelling and bound up its billows. It provided rock-like firmness, so He could walk across the waterway. Why did the seas heave so, and toss and pitch, even as if threatening its Creator? And why did Christ Himself, who knows all the future, seem so unaware of the present that He gave no thought to the onrushing storm, the moment of its height and the time of its peril? While all the rest were awake, He alone was fast asleep even with utter doom threatening both Himself and His dear ones. Why? It is not a calm sky, beloved, but the storm which tests a pilot’s skill. When the breeze is mild even the poorest sailor can manage the ship. But in the crosswinds of a tempest, we want the best pilot with all His skill.”⁶ What a beautiful, poetic way to describe the fact that the storm did not catch our Savior unawares, it simply served as a way for Him to teach the disciples that even in the time of storm He will be our pilot, and help us make it safely to the other shore.

In another sermon, Chrysologus makes this same point: “Christ gets into the vessel of His church, always ready to calm the waves of the world. He leads those who believe in Him through safe sailing to the heavenly homeland and makes those whom He made to share in His humanity citizens of His land. Christ does not need the vessel, therefore, but the vessel needs Christ. Without the heavenly helmsman the vessel of the church is unable to sail over the sea of the world and, against critical odds, arrive at the heavenly harbor.”⁷ I don’t know about you, but I would love to have been there to hear this gifted messenger preach these sermons.

Verses 26-27: Jesus answered, “Why are you afraid? Don’t you have enough faith?” Then He stood up and gave a command to the wind and the water. The wind stopped, and the lake became very calm. The men were amazed. They said, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the water obey Him!”

Now Matthew gets back to his story of Jesus wanting to take this same powerful ministry to other areas. Looking at the geography it would require a boat to reach their destination. I could easily be convinced that Jesus knew about the storm and wanted to go by boat on purpose. However, such storms were not unusual, so maybe there was another force behind this storm. We know that something similar happened to Jonah along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea: “The Lord brought a great storm on the sea. The wind made the sea very rough. The storm was very strong, and the boat was ready to break apart.”¹ But rather than being caught by surprise, Jesus was in control from the beginning.

For Chrysostom, Jesus is here instructing the disciples concerning how human fear emerges out of weakness of mind, not out of the actual approach of threatening trials. He writes: “Their awakening Him was a sign of their lack of a right understanding of who He was. They knew His power to rebuke when He was awake, but His power to rebuke when asleep they had not yet grasped. Even after so many other miracles their impressions of Him were still confused. This is why He remarked that they were still without understanding.”⁹ Even today we might ask, no matter how many times God answers prayer and performs miracles, why do His people have to collect themselves and with great effort call up enough faith to believe He can do it again?

But His disciples were still not that advanced in their faith. Finding Jesus asleep was much like what the Old Testament Korah family described: “Lord, wake up! Why are You sleeping? Get up! Don’t ignore us forever!”¹⁰ When the disciples went to wake our Lord, they could have used the words of Isaiah, “Wake up! Wake up! Arm of the Lord, clothe Yourself with strength. Show Your power the way You did long ago, as You have from ancient times.”¹¹ As odd as it may sound, the captain of the ship found Jonah asleep as well.¹² Jesus was quick to admonish His followers for having so little faith. Just as God had a message for Israel,¹³ Jesus had a message for His disciples. It’s one thing to tell people not to be afraid, but it’s another to show them why they shouldn’t be afraid. All of us have done this at one time or another with our children.

Cyril of Alexandria makes a valid point here to the credit of the disciples. He says that by their exclamation “Save us!” it showed some faith. Had they cried out “We are going to die!” it would have shown a real lack of faith for those who were in deep distress. So by calling out to be saved they put their hope in Christ who was sailing with them. Cyril says: “They were not totally faithless but were at the point ‘of little faith,’ since in their danger they did not take courage from the fact of Christ’s being with them.”¹⁴ So Jesus was not accusing His frightened disciples of having no faith, only that their faith was not enough to help them make it through the storm, so they needed a miracle to get them safely to shore. We can learn from this, that when we are caught in a sudden storm of persecution or adverse circumstances that may keep us from doing His will, just remember, He’s always with us. Day and night He is in us and around us through the Holy Spirit.

But what Jesus did next was spectacular. It left His disciples astounded by His control and power over nature. It was reminiscent of what God did to remind Job of His divine power, “Who closed the flood gates as the sea gushed from the womb? Who covered it with clouds and wrapped it in darkness? I set the limits for the sea and put it behind locked gates. I said to the sea, ‘You can come this far, but no farther. This is where your proud waves will stop.’”¹⁵ This also led David to exclaim, “You can calm the roughest seas.”¹⁶ Ethan the Ezrahite agreed, “You rule the stormy sea. You can calm its angry waves.”¹⁷ And one Psalmist said with confidence, “The crashing waves of the sea are loud and powerful, but the Lord above is even more powerful.”¹⁸ The Psalmist put it clearly, “He stopped the storm and calmed the waves.”¹⁹

But for His disciples none of this came to mind at that moment. Even the prophet Isaiah had to remind the Israelites about the command God gave Moses over the Red Sea, “He was by Moses’ side and led him with His wonderful hand. He divided the water, so that the people could walk through the sea. He made His name famous by doing those great things.”²⁰ But they were about to experience a wonder such as they had never seen, and it was done by the same power of the same God.

Christ’s rebuke of the disciples here is very interesting and a bit more severe than it appears. He has two descriptions for these men who followed Him; one was a poke at their fear, and the other a jab at their faith. In the first instance He calls them cowards. The American Standard Version is kind by using the phrase “fearful.” The Amplified Bible renders it as “timid and afraid.” The Greek word used here is employed has the root meaning of “dread”: and by implication – faithlessness. It is used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe those who through cowardice give way under persecutions and apostatize.²¹

Chrysostom adds the note that the disciples already knew Jesus was a man. They could see Him sleeping in the back of the boat. But their perplexity was over “What manner of man is this?” There was enough man in Him to make Him sleepy, but now it seems He had enough God in Him to calm the winds and the waves. This might be something we can all ponder as it relates to our own composition as believers. When the world looks at us, do they see enough human traits in us to know that we are fellow human beings here on earth, but do they ever see enough spiritual traits in us to believe that we are also part of God’s divine world, His kingdom of heaven? Have we ever prayed and they saw something happened that could not be explained in human terms? It doesn’t have to be a spectacular miracle or healing, even though those do count very highly, but it can be our attitude and behavior during times of trial and tribulation.

These disciples were experienced men of the sea. Why should a natural weather occurrence, even though it was more tempestuous than usual, scare them and make them look like cowards? Had they come to rely on the power of the Master too much to stand their own ground when tested? Were they becoming conditioned to remain physically aloof from the problems facing them? Is it possible that by now they thought of themselves as VIP’s who should be spared such emergencies? We can only surmise, but Jesus clearly points them out as having become timid with fear.

Secondly, Jesus accuses them of having too little faith. Not their faith in the sturdiness of the boat; not their faith that the storm would soon blow over; not their faith that they would be miraculously saved; but their faith in feeling safe because of Christ being with them. He was, after all, on board with them. His remaining calm during the storm should have inspired their faith that all was well. But instead, they interpreted His relaxed attitude as being unconcerned. How often today are we likewise guilty of being timid in our faith and thereby making what faith we do have of little use?