Where Is Your Faith?

"Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galileee" -
Rembrandt van Rijn

Luke 8:25 But He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”

This incident of Jesus and His disciples in the storm is simple in its setting and details, but it is filled with importance.  The disciples were with Jesus in a boat crossing the Galilee at His instruction, and Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat.  A wind storm came up and the waves began to fill the boat with water.  The disciples realized that the situation was critical, awakened Jesus and said, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”  Jesus got up, rebuked the waves and the wind, and said, “Where is your faith?”

 I need to keep in mind the people involved in this event.  In the boat were at least four professional fishermen who had lived and made their livelihood on this body of water.  Most of the other disciples were from that region and would be familiar with the lake and its potential dangers.  These were not men to panic in adversity, nor would they be unskilled in handling a boat in rough weather.  When the Scripture states that they said they were in jeopardy, these men knew what they were talking about and had accurately evaluated the situation.  When they awakened Jesus and said, “We are perishing,” they fully expected the boat to sink.  This was not just an emotional response, but they gave a warning based on what seemed like a hopeless situation.

I believe that the sternness of Jesus’ rebuke for the disciples was not based on their expectation of disaster, but it was His response to the fact that when the disciples said, “we are perishing (sinking),” they included Jesus in the “we.”  The disciples might be excused because, this occurred before the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus’ walking on the water.  However, they had seen Jesus turn water to wine (John 2) and raise the dead (Luke 7), but the disciples had not yet come to accept that Jesus was the Christ, God come in flesh, regardless of all that Jesus had said and done.  Still they should have known that Jesus was the Anointed One and had power to manage every situation for the glory of God.

To the disciples warning of impending disaster, Jesus replied simply, “Where is your faith?”  I have to stop here in the narrative, because I see too many parallels to the weak faith of the church and among Christians today.  These disciples assessed their situation from their own efforts and experience and found it hopeless.  The spiritual problem was that they saw Jesus as only another victim of their hopelessness.  Now let’s pull this kind of situation forward in time to the 21^st Century.  We work hard to handle the situations and difficulties of life, we know our limitations and failures, and we may even accept responsibility for the problems we are in.  We do all we can to fix the situation with self-help studies and church programs and meeting and rebranding and deeper relationships and committees and transparency and whatever the current church fad may be.  The trouble is that we see Jesus as just another victim of our circumstances not the Creator of all things and Master of the “unchangeable.”  Too many of us have not internalize the “theology” we claim nor do we trust the Lord we say we serve.  Our 21^st Century church with all its programs contains no more faith than that old, leaky boat on the 1^st Century Galilee.  We do not have enough faith to see God eternal having a direct hand in our situation, and we do not trust Him for the outcome.

Coram deo