“Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  

Jesus now showed His authority over nature in the fifth miracle.

8:23

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.

Jesus and His twelve disciples got into the boat on the western side of Lake Galilee to sail to the eastern side, to a city called Gergasha.

8:24

And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.

Lake Galilee was notorious for sudden storms. The group experienced one of these to such a degree that waves covered the boat. However, Jesus slept through the storm. The Greek says that Jesus “was (continually) sleeping” through the storm.

8:25

Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

The disciples thought they were going to die by drowning. They awoke the humanity of Jesus, knowing that His deity (His deity does not sleep) could rescue them from drowning.

8:26

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”

The word “fearful” is very strong in the Greek: scared, terrified. Jesus expected trust in Him regardless of how bad the circumstance was.

Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Jesus got up and rebuked the winds and sea. Immediately there was a “great calm.”

8:27

So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

It was one thing to deem Jesus as a healer but it was another to observe His sovereign power over nature. This shattered their paradigm.

PRINCIPLE:

The One who calls us preserves us.

APPLICATION:

Implicit in the call to follow Jesus is His commitment to preserve us through many reversals. We can trust His power through anything we face.

I can do all things through Christ [literally, the One] who strengthens me. Php 4:13

All of us have bouts of “little faith.” The challenge is to face our fears by trusting the Lord through it all. We need to learn about our helplessness. The true place of safety is in the boat during a storm with Christ. There is true danger on dry land without Christ.