Journey through Middle Earth
At our men’s fellowship on Wednesday night, we talked about how Tolkien was asked why he didn’t just have the eagles pick up Frodo and the ring and fly them to Mordor to avoid all the dangers of the quest. Tolkien said he was asked this a lot and always answers the same way, telling the questioner to “shut up.”[1]
There’s a back story to why Tolkien decided to write the kind of story he wrote in The Lord of the Rings, and a lot of it has to do with the influence of one of his best friends, C. S. Lewis. The old Norse stories, like Beowulf, that Tolkien loved shared a common plot: the hero fights against impossible odds and dies. But The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings have a much different kind of plot, largely due to Lewis’ influence on Tolkien. As Harry Lee Poe, one of Lewis’ biographers says, Tolkien’s stories are about “the struggle against all odds to the end of the world for the great prize that ends in victory and a return to home as a changed person.”[2] This kind of plot comes from a culture with a different kind of God, a God who entered into his creation as a man to battle evil and death and rise victorious. In other words, through Lewis’ prodding, Tolkien’s stories came to reflect the Christian gospel more than his favorite Norse myths.
Not only are his stories a reflection of the gospel, but they’re also a more realistic depiction of life. Rather than flying high above the fray on eagles’ wings, life is a long journey (with friends) full of twists and turns and uncertainties and enemies and dangers. The journey theme resonates with us because it maps onto our experience so well. Life is a winding road with dangers on every side, and with storms that fall on us unexpectedly.
The Lord of the Storm
The question for us today is what do we do when the storms come? How do you handle the storms that overtake you on your journey through life? Storms are part of life like oxygen is part of water. You’re either coming out of a storm, in a storm, or headed into a storm.
In our text today, Luke 8:22-25, we’re coming along with Jesus and his disciples in a part of their journey that’s familiar to many of us. We’re going into a storm with him and we’ll see what happens. The main point of this text is that Jesus is Lord of the Storm. We’ll see the storm (vv. 22-23), the rebuke (v. 24), and the questions (v. 25). In this text, we’re forced to consider how we handle the storms that come on our journey through life.
The Storm
In verses 22-23, we see the storm. Here we see several things. We see that it was Jesus’ idea to get in the boat and go across the lake, what we call the Sea of Galilee. This lake is 13 miles long, 8 miles wide, and sits 650 feet below sea level. It’s surrounded by mountains, creating valleys and ravines that easily become wind tunnels, shooting out strong gusts of cold air from the mountains onto the warmer water of the lake, creating sometimes violent storms.
This is what happens when Jesus and the disciples set off across the lake, a “fierce windstorm” (CSB), or “squall” (NIV), “came down on the lake.” It was such a violent storm that the boat was “filling with water” and they were in “great danger” (v. 23b, NIV).
As the storm is breaking out, what is Jesus doing? Sleeping! He’s like the guy who falls asleep before the plane even takes off and sleeps through all the turbulence. He’s at the back of the boat sleeping on a cushion (Mk. 4:38). Here we see the beautiful humanity of Christ. Like us, he slept when he was tired.
Storms Will Come
What do we learn from Jesus sleeping in the boat? At least two things.
First, this teaches us that God lets storms come into our lives. Storms aren’t a hiccup in God’s plan for our journey, they’re part of the plan. Paul says it this way, “Through many tribulations wee must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
Storms are going to come, you’ve been warned. When storms of affliction come, the pain of the affliction is real and intense and shouldn’t be dismissed, ignored, or minimized. No one ever gets better by pretending they aren’t hurt.
But it may be that a lot of our distress during affliction is because we’re surprised. We’re shocked by the storm. We think, “How could this happen? I’ve done nothing wrong and yet I’m getting blown over!” But Peter says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Pet. 4:12).
A lot of our distress during storms is because we’re surprised that such a thing could happen to us. Some think that following Jesus will mean no more problems in your life, but that’s a delusion. It’s a rookie mentality and naïve to think that things will go well for you because you start following Jesus because Jesus literally tells his followers, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn. 16:33). So if you’re shocked when suffering comes, the pain of the suffering is real and it hurts, but the distress caused by feeling like these things shouldn’t be happening to us is on us, is our fault, because we’ve been warned.
God Takes His Time
The second thing sleeping Jesus teaches us is that God takes his time. He’s never in a hurry and won’t ever be hurried. In the middle of the storms of life, it often feels like God is sleeping or not in charge. He doesn’t act the way we want him to act so we assume he either doesn’t care or doesn’t know.
This is why the psalmist cries out in Psalm 44, “Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!” (vv. 23-26)
When the winds are howling and waves are crashing over the boat of our lives, families, church, or nation, we wonder why God isn’t doing something. The assumption is that the storm means he isn’t doing something. But what if the storm is the something he’s doing?
In football, some of the coaches sit up in the press box with headsets on so they can talk to the coaches down on the field. Why? Because from the press box they can see the whole field while the coaches on the field can only see what’s right in front of them on ground level. The coaches on the field can’t see everything because they’re too close. But the coaches in the press box can see the whole field.
Those closest to the action have the worst perspective, but God sees the whole picture. If there’s a God who created the whole universe, then it’s logical that his schedule will seem illogical to us, that his plan won’t make sense to us. Why? Because he’s so high above us. He sees things we can’t see or even understand if we could see them.
During a terribly painful time in my life, when a girl I thought I might marry broke up with me in my first semester of seminary, I was talking with my grandfather about it and he listened patiently and then calmly and resolutely said, “God knows what he’s doing.” Turns out he was right because later I met Suzy, the second-best thing that’s ever happened to me. Do you believe that God knows what he’s doing?
Shepherds will often take their sheep and run them into vats of insecticide to wash them of insects and parasites. The sheep don’t like it, but it keeps them healthy and alive. The shepherd knows what’s best for his sheep.
So also the Lord knows what’s best for us, and if he thinks we need to be dipped in insecticide or to travel through a storm, then not only should we not be surprised, but we should trust that he knows what he’s doing.
God takes his time, he’s never in a hurry. He says that we can expect tribulation, but at the end of that verse, Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). Storms and evil will come, but Jesus says they’re a passing thing. He says he’s overcome them. As Tolkien says, there’s “light and high beauty forever beyond the reach of the Shadow.”
Followers of Jesus understand that trouble will come and that Jesus will one day overcome all trouble. If we take this into our heart, when we walk through storms, we’ll be like Jesus, calm not frantic, resolute not impatient, tender not cranky, and compassionate not controlling.
The Rebuke
Verse 24 shows us how the disciples and Jesus respond to the storm. In this verse, we see, secondly, the rebuke.
As the storm rages, the disciples run to Jesus, yelling at him to wake up because they’re dying (v. 24a). It’s significant that they panicked because several of them were veteran fishermen on this lake. They’d been through many storms, but apparently none as bad as this one.
Despite all they knew about sailing, despite being on familiar territory, they’re going down. They’re past the point that their personal know-how could carry them, past the point of thinking they’re in control.
In their despair and fear, they go to Jesus (v. 24a). They’re approaching Jesus in their need, running to him rather than abandoning ship. Are we like them? Or does our arrogance and self-assuredness keep us from the honest cry, “Master, save me, I’m drowning!”
Jesus doesn’t turn them away or rebuke them, but, rather, he responds to their need. When he realizes what’s happening, he “rebukes” the wind and waves. This is the same word used in 4:35 when Jesus “rebuked” a demon and in 4:39 when Jesus “rebuked” a fever. Jesus is revealing his power over all the evils that afflict people, revealing his authority over all inanimate forces.
This is instructive for us because, as one commentator points out, “The extent of Jesus’ authority measures the extent of his purpose. The messianic kingdom will mean a redemption and renewal of nature as well as of men.”[3] Jesus came to bring all things under his power.
The word for “rebuke” is also used in the Greek version of Psalm 106:9, where it says that Yahweh, the Lord, “rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert.” And it’s used in the Greek version of Psalm 107:29, “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.”
By using this word, “rebuked,” what does Luke want us to think of Jesus? He wants us to see that what Yahweh does, Jesus does. He wants us to see Jesus as Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the flesh. Just as Yahweh brought order out of the chaotic waters at creation and rescued his people from a watery grave in Egypt, so also Jesus has come to rescue his followers out of the storm.
In the Psalms, Yahweh is the master of the waters. Psalm 29:4, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.” Psalm 65, “O God of our salvation….who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves” (vv. 5-7). Psalm 89:9, “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.”
And why does Jesus speak to the wind and waves? Can lakes hear? Does the wind have ears? No, but they nonetheless listen to their Maker. Do you see how this miracle “manifests Jesus in his majestic power”?[4]
Jesus sleeping in the storm shows us that God is never in a hurry; Jesus rebuking the storm shows us that God is always in charge.
The Questions
Then we come to verse 25 and find two questions, one from Jesus and one from the disciples. Jesus uses his miracle as a teaching moment, asking his disciples, “Where is your faith?”
Notice that he doesn’t say they don’t have any faith. He asks them “where” their faith is. They have it but aren’t using it. Jesus wonders why their faith hadn’t come out in this circumstance.
What do we learn from Jesus’ question? We learn that faith isn’t automatic. It’s not like an AC or heater that kicks on when the room reaches a certain temperature. Rather, faith is a deliberate action. It’s applying what you know about Jesus.
The disciples have seen Jesus raise the widow’s son and heal thousands and were given the secrets of the kingdom, but their faith hadn’t proven itself in a time of testing (v. 13). This storm was their first test and they weren’t performing too well. Before we’re too hard on them, what’d we make on our test the last time a furious squall came down on our boat?
They needed to apply what they knew about Jesus, but instead they’re being controlled by the storm. Jesus is saying, “You know enough about me, you should’ve gotten it out and used it.” Faith is applying what you’re convinced of. If you’re convinced that Jesus is God in the flesh and full of truth and grace and that he’s always with his people, then you have to act on that when storms hit. It’s almost like Jesus is saying, “Does it not mean anything to you that I’m in the boat?”
Who Is This?
The last part of the verse says that the disciples were afraid and in awe and asked, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Surely they were afraid during the storm, but their fear isn’t noted until after it. This is odd. The storm is over, the danger is past. What are they still afraid of?
They’re afraid of Jesus, not the storm. Think about it. They’d just been sailing along in a small fishing boat with their leader taking a nap in the back when all of a sudden a storm landed on them that almost killed them until Jesus woke up and said a few words and it was all over. This man who was asleep moments ago just stood up and did something that only God can do.
This teaches us something important about Jesus. As one writer says, “Jesus’ ministry was characterized by love, compassion, and gentleness, but at the same time there was an inescapable element of otherness about him that left people feeling uncomfortable.”[5]
Who is this Jesus? Is he just another cult leader, religious fanatic, man-made fiction, or spiritual teacher and guru? Or is he the Creator who’s entered his creation?
Another Storm
One of the main things that pushes people away from faith in Jesus is suffering. One of my apologetics professors told us that, having talked to thousands of skeptics, he’s convinced that most people reject God because of emotional, not rational, reasons. They have pain and suffering that they can’t square with the existence of a good God.
This miracle shows us, however, that God got into the boat of our suffering with us, and that he wants us to trust him to get us through it.
But this miracle also points us forward to another storm, a storm greater than any other storm, the cross where Jesus died. On the cross, the voice of the Lord thundered and the wave of his judgment overcame Jesus and he was wiped away for you and me. The Lord of the storm perished in the storm of the Lord. And he did it for you.
In storms we find out what we really believe. And in storms, when we remember that Jesus was true to us during the storm of the cross, we can stay true to him during the storms we face.
Life is a journey full of twists and turns and dangers and storms. What do you do when the storms come? If the Lord of the Storm is in your boat, he’ll see you through.
As William Cowper wrote in the 18th century:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour:
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own Interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
[1]Tolkien explains why the Fellowship didn’t fly the Eagles to Mordor
[2]Harry Lee Poe, The Making of C. S. Lewis: From Atheist to Apologist (1918-1945) (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 167.
[3]E. Earle Ellis, The Gospel of Luke, The New Century Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 127.
[4]Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke (I-IX), The Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970), 727.
[5]R. T. France, Luke, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2013), 154.