Epiphany 4
Mt
8:23-27
2/30/22
When
launched in the 1958, the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest Great Lakes
freighter. She was 729 feet long – the
equivalent of two and a third football fields. She was able to carry a massive
load of iron ore from the west to steel mills in the east as she plied the
Great Lakes. The impressive ship was a favorite sight of those who lived in
that region.
However,
despite her size, a storm on Lake Superior proved to be too much for her. In November 1975 the Edmund Fitzgerald
encountered a storm with extreme winds and waves that were up to thirty five
feet. In one of the last messages sent
by the captain he said: “I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking
heavy seas over the deck. One of the
worst seas I’ve ever been in.” The
Edmund Fitzgerald sank in the storm, and the entire crew of twenty nine men was
lost. Their bodies were never recovered.
If the conditions
turn against you, bodies of water can be a threat to any sized ship. That is true is you are in a massive
freighter on Lake Superior. It is also
true if you are in a small boat on the Sea of Galilee. In our Gospel lesson this morning, we learn about
how the disciples of Jesus encountered a storm that threatened to sink their
boat. They react in fear instead of faith.
And Jesus demonstrates that he is the incarnate Son of God who has come
to bring God’s reign to a fallen world.
The Gospels
depict Jesus’ ministry as one in which he was constantly busy preaching and
healing. Just before our text, Jesus has
healed Peter’s mother in law from a fever. Then we are told, “That evening they
brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the
spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill
what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our
diseases.’”
Our Lord based his ministry at
Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, and frequently travelled on the water as he
went from place to place. It was only
natural. First, it was easier than walking.
And second, he had among his disciples men who had been professional
fishermen. They knew all about sailing
and could take Jesus wherever he needed to go.
Our Gospel lesson begins with the
words, “And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And
behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being
swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.”
Jesus and the disciples set out on the Sea of Galilee, and as they were
traveling on the water two things happened. First, Jesus fell asleep in the
boat. And second, a great storm arose on the sea.
Jesus was asleep in the boat. Our Lord was obviously tired from his work of
ministry, and so he fell asleep. In
fact, he was sleeping so soundly that he had not even been aroused by the storm
that was now threatening the boat.
Jesus was tired and slept. In this simple fact we receive an important
reminder about who Jesus is. During
Christmas we celebrated the incarnation – the fact that the Son of God entered
into our world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin
Mary. Jesus is God in the flesh – he is
true God and true man. We tend to focus on the fact that Jesus is true God,
because of course, that’s what makes him unique and our Savior.
But it is equally important to realize that Jesus is truly human
in all ways that we are, apart from sin. The Son of God took on a human nature
in the incarnation in order to redeem and restore our humanity to what God
intended it to be. Our Lord Jesus lived
as one of us in the world, and he knows every human experience – not just
because he is the omniscient Son of God – but also because he lived them as one
of us in this world.
Our text tells us that a great storm arose, one that was causing
the boat to be swamped by the waves. The disciples – even those who had spent
their lives on the Sea of Galilee – were fearful. So they went to Jesus and
woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”
Now on the one hand, this seems like it was the appropriate
thing to do. The disciples faced danger,
and so they went to Jesus. But our Lord’s response soon tells us that this was
not the act of faith. Instead, it was
one that was driven by fear. He said to
them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” In the midst of the storm that appeared to
threaten the sinking of the ship, Jesus asked, “Why are you afraid?” Now from a worldly perspective the answer was
obvious: There as a great storm and the boat was being swamped by the
waves! But Jesus question points to a
deeper truth. Jesus was in the boat
with them and so there was no need for fear.
And that leads next to Jesus’ assessment of the disciples: they
were of little faith. Their action of waking
Jesus in the midst of the storm showed that they did not fully trust and
believe in him. But note also that our
Lord says that they are of little faith.
This was still faith in Jesus.
Even if it was not yet would it could be – what it should be – their
waking the Lord and calling out to him for help did show faith.
Like the disciples, we are people who at times do fear. We do have doubts. We do fail at those moments when we should
speak and act in ways that are produced by faith in Jesus Christ. We need to confess these for what they are –
a lack of faith. They are sin – the old
Adam at work in us.
But at the same time, if we are willing to confess them as sin,
then that is the voice of faith.
Admittedly, these failures demonstrate little faith. It is a faith that needs to grow and mature –
and we’ll talk more about that later – but it is still faith.
After Jesus described the disciples as of little faith, he then
demonstrated why he should be the object of great faith. Matthew tells us, “Then he rose
and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” Our Lord rebuked the winds and the sea – he
ordered them to cease. Next week we will
celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. After Jesus and the disciples had come back
down from the mountain where this had taken place, he encountered a man who son
was possessed by a demon. There too we
hear the same word: “And
Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the
boy was healed instantly.”
Both of
these actions – rebuking the winds and sea, and rebuking the demon – show us
who Jesus Christ is and what he has come to do.
He is the Son of God in the flesh.
And he has come to bring God’s reign – his saving action to reverse all
that Satan and sin have caused in this world.
Jesus and
the disciples encounter a storm on the Sea of Galilee. Rather than calm, they
are met by disorder. Rather than something that is good, they are met by
something that is not good. In the storm
we see what the apostle Paul describes in the epistle lesson today: “For the creation waits
with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him
who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free
from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the
children of God.”
The Fall and the entrance of sin have warped and twisted not
only us, but creation itself. The Son of
God entered into our world in order to reverse all that Satan and sin have
caused. He came to renew us and creation
itself. He came to make things very good
once again. We see this when Jesus performs miracles of healing. We see it when
he casts out demons. And we see it in our text when Jesus rebukes the storm and
brings calm to the Sea of Galilee.
After Jesus had stilled the storm, we hear in our text, “And the
men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and
sea obey him?’” We know the answer. He is the Lord. He is the Son of God. He is the Creator of the cosmos.
In our text, Jesus displays this incredible power. And yet the means by which the Lord carried
out his mission to bring God’s reign culminated in an action which is the
opposite of power in every possible way.
The Son of God became man in order to defeat sin and death by suffering
and dying on the cross. He came to be
the sacrifice for sin in our place. He
came to receive God’s judgment against sin that we deserve. The Son of God became man, without ceasing to
be God, in order to die.
That death redeemed us from sin – it freed us from the damnation
we deserve. And on third day, God carried out his act of new creation when he
raised Jesus from the dead. He began the resurrection of the Last Day when He
raised Jesus with a body that can never die again. Because this has happened to
Jesus, the risen and exalted Lord will return on the Last Day to do it to us as
well. And his saving actin will not be
limited to us. It will include the renewal of creation itself that has been
damaged by sin.
Jesus Christ is the Lord who died on the cross to give us
forgiveness. He rose from the dead to defeat death and give us the guarantee of
resurrection and eternal life. These are
the reasons that we can have great faith in Christ. This great faith
holds on to Jesus no matter what is happening.
In our Gospel lesson Jesus stills the storm and rescues the
disciples from danger. But before doing
that, his response to them was, “Why are you afraid, O you of little
faith?” Jesus’ point was that since the
Lord was with them, there was no need to fear. The same thing is true for us,
no matter what the outcome may be.
The Edmund Fitzgerald sank.
The most famous ship sinking in history, the Titanic, was not caused by
the waves of a storm but instead by ice, as more than fifteen hundred people
died. No doubt in these and in the
thousands of other ship sinkings that have resulted in death, many who have
died have believed in Jesus Christ.
Our Gospel lesson does not teach us that Jesus is going to
deliver us from every storm of life.
Until Christ returns it is a fallen world, and we are sinners who will
die. Some of these experiences and
deaths will be tragedies that leave us numb.
What our text teaches us is the need for faith in Jesus Christ –
a strong and mature faith. There is no
need for fear because Jesus Christ, the risen and exalted Lord is with you
no matter what happens. You live a life
that Paul described as being “in Christ.”
You live a life that has been linked to the Lord because you have
received Christ’s Spirit in baptism. You have been baptized into Jesus’ death,
and so you will share in his resurrection.
The risen Lord said, “And behold, I
am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We do not
want to be people of little faith. We
need to be people of mature and strong faith.
In seeking this goal we need to be involved actively in reading and
studying God’s Word, for it is through the word that Christ’s Spirit causes us
to grow in faith. We need to be taking
God’s Word into ourselves as we learn it by heart. When was the last time that you memorized a
Bible verse – that you took it into your mind and made it part of you? That Word of God is there for the Spirit to
use as we encounter different circumstances.
And of
course, we need to live a life that is rooted in weekly attendance at the
Divine Service. We need to be hearing God’s word preached and receiving the
body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament. This regular pattern of being in
God’s house gives us spiritual nourishment that we need if we are to be strong in faith.
Yet there is another side to this as well. The old Adam in us fights against the things
I have just mentioned. He his content to keep us with as little faith as
possible. And so God at times allows
things in our lives that force us to turn towards him. Like the coach who must push his players so
that they improve, God also uses time of difficulty and challenge to cause us
to grow and mature in faith.
In our Gospel lesson, the disciples found themselves in
circumstances that did just this. Jesus
describes them as “O you of little faith,” but this was just one experience
that was part the process by which they came to understand who Jesus was. They did not achieve a full understanding
until after Jesus rose from the dead. And then? They were willing to suffer and
die in order to tell others about Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord. Because we know the same Lord, we are able to
trust and believe in him and his care, as he sustains us in faith through his
Means of Grace.
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