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When the Bible speaks of the world, it often uses the metaphor of a surging sea. The world is like a sea of rough, choppy water. Trying to sail in the world can be a very scary thing. For example, the world order that we have enjoyed since the fall of communism may be falling apart with the rise of an aggressive Russia and China. Things may become very difficult and challenging for our nation. How are we to deal with it?
The problems of the world are so big and so out of our control that it is easy to let anxiety control us or just to bury our head in the sand like the ostrich does and not want to deal with it. How do we maintain our sanity in the midst of it and still move forward in service? The passage that we are looking at provides an answer. It is faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Triune God, as Lord over all things.
We will see this as we look at the two stories. The first is of the storm. The second is of the demon army.
The Storm
Much of Jesus’ ministry takes place around the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a beautiful lake in the northern part of Israel. It is a source of life and blessing to the surrounding region. Several of Jesus’ disciples had made their livelihood from this sea in the form of fishing. They had access to boats and knew how to navigate the lake.
As they were on the sea, there was a great storm. These storms are common there. The Sea of Galilee is like the bottom of a bowl, and the storms sweep down from the surrounding hills. Our text tells us, “A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger” (Luke 8:23). These experienced fishermen were afraid.
We need to remember that Jesus is great, and He also took upon Himself the weaknesses of humanity. In this story, He went to sleep in the boat as they went across. As a side note, this is the only time the Gospels ever mention that Jesus slept! The disciples were in a panic as the storm came on, and they saw that Jesus was still sleeping. “Master, Master, we are going to drown!” (Luke 8:24). They said.
At this point, Jesus “got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm” (Luke 8:24). Then, He rebuked them. “Where is your faith?” He asked them.
Now, this is an interesting question. We might wonder why Jesus would bring up faith here. After all, were they promised deliverance from the storm? How did they know that they would survive it?