When I was in high school, my best friend and I took our small speed boat out onto the lake with some friends, even though we knew a storm was coming. We were hoping to have some fun skiing and tubing before the rain came.
As it started to drizzle, we decided it was a good time to head into shore. But it was too late! The winds became vicious, the waves big, we made it back to the dock – soaked and scared.
Storms are part of our life on Earth. It’s nothing personal, just part of how the ecosystem works. With some accumulated wisdom, preparation, and cooperation, we can survive most storms.
But as we know, there are storms that swamp us unexpected. And not just windstorms, but also soul-storms, hearts breaking open with tears of sorrow, hopes battered by rains of disappointment. What then?
This was the kind of stormy political and personal place the disciples of Jesus were in as they crossed the furious Sea of Galilee with him one evening. As people of Israel, their souls ached for God to return the nation to their former days of glory when a son of David reigned as king, ruling with justice, mercy, and humility.
Instead, they struggled to survive under the violent thumb of the Roman Empire – prior to that it was enduring the turbulent rule of the Greek Empire, and before that putting up with the powerful Persian Empire, which had inherited Israel from the Babylonian Empire. Imagine trying to survive amidst those political terrors.
The gospel that Jesus was preaching centered on the announcement that God had indeed returned to Israel to reestablish the throne of David – the kingdom of God was coming, so be prepared. It was difficult for the people of Israel to believe that Jesus was the king come to save them. Slowly Jesus would reveal who he really was, usually in decisive moments, often times in the midst of personal, political, and powerful storms.
For the disciples in the boat with him, they were terrified that they were going to die. The furious squall stirred up fear, and it swamped their faith. That’s what storms can do. Interestingly, even with Jesus in the boat, they still had no faith in him.
Sometimes we think that if we could only see Jesus, it’d be easier to believe in him. But that wasn’t the case with the disciples or the people of Israel. Seeing is not always believing.
Jesus asks his disciples, “Why are you so afraid?” Why are you so afraid of death? Why are you so afraid of chaos? Why are you so afraid…? To his disciples who had been with him, he spoke straight: “Do you still have no faith?”
Storms not only reveal our fears, and our lack of faith, but also the faithfulness of Jesus to us. Some storms he will calm. But he can’t and won’t still all the storms of our life. Storms are part of life, and through them we can see our fears and become open to the faithfulness and presence of Jesus.
Jesus is present to people in this stormy world by his Spirit and by his people who are faithful to him. When we have storms, we must receive the people God sends to be with us.
But when others are swamped by their storms, will we let God send us to be with them, to bring the presence of Christ to them amidst their fears and drowning faith?
Whether the storms are personal, political, or powerful natural phenomena – may Jesus’s faithfulness calm our fears when we barely believe, may our surviving make us braver, that we may extend the presence of Christ together in bigger storms to come.
