Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?

Rembrandt van Rijn. Christ In The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee. 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.  Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.  And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.  But He was asleep.  Then his disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"  But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"

- Matthew 8:18-27

In yesterday's reading, we that when Jesus had come down from the mountain (where He gave the Sermon on the Mount) great multitudes followed Him.  And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed."  Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."  Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented."  And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."  The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."  When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!  And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness.  There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And his servant was healed that same hour.  Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with fever.  So He touched her hand, and the fever left her.  And she arose and served them.  When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed.  And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:  "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."

 And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side.  Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go."  And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  My study bible says that the term Son of Man refers to the Messiah (Daniel 7:13), and it expresses both Christ's humanity and divinity.  Here Christ uses it to reflect His human condition.  By contrast, in 25:31-33, it describes His divine authority.

Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."  But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."  My study bible comments that Jesus does not negate the command to honor parents, but rather teaches us to put the things of the Kingdom as our highest priority.  To ignore this priority is to be spiritually dead.

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.  And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.  But He was asleep.  Then his disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us!  We are perishing!"  But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"   Christ's mastery over creation fits with His capacity for healing, and is another sign that He is the Messiah, and also divine.  My study bible says that commands to the sea and waves can only be issued by God (Job 38:8-11; Psalms 66:5-6, 107:29).  Jesus also shows His humanity in that He needed rest and so was asleep.   So this passage in today's reading is a profound expression of both His humanity and His divinity.  My study bible says that in His Incarnation, He assumed all the natural actions of the flesh -- which includes sleep.  This image of Jesus and His disciples in a boat is a traditional illustration of the Church.  My study bible comments that God both permits storms and delivers us through them, so that we can more clearly see God's protection.  Jesus' rebuke of the storm also expresses His help and aid to calm the internal storms within our souls.

In our reading for Thursday, Jesus taught (as part of His final teachings in the Sermon on the Mount), ""Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:  and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."  In that reading, Jesus assured us that, indeed, rain will descend, and floods come, and winds blow and beat on the houses of our lives.  These are potentially literally true events, but clearly Jesus' words are metaphorical.  We don't exactly know what form the winds, rain, and floods will take.  In Thursday's reading, He doesn't teach that as disciples we will be spared such events; rather, as good disciples, we will be on solid ground to withstand them intact.  In today's reading, we are given an illustration that being a disciple does not spare us from such challenges.  In fact, the disciples -- many of whom are seasoned fishermen who've worked this sea all their lives -- are led across the Sea of Galilee and into this storm by Jesus.  It's important, too, that Jesus has just been approached by others who wish to follow Him, and that this resulted, first, in a warning that He Himself has "nowhere to lay His head," even though foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests.   Moreover, another wishes a kind of reprieve first, seeking to go bury his father.  But even that Jesus does not grant, commanding instead to "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."  While it's entirely possible that this case of one who seeks to bury his father is entirely individual (in the sense of it being a distraction from discipleship or faith), we are nevertheless given to understand that nothing comes before discipleship, and that -- at least in this case -- Christ issues a clear command not to do so but to follow Him instead.   That tells us about sacrifice even of things that are nominally "good" in social context will be asked of us in discipleship.  This potential disciple must risk looking "bad" at least in the eyes of his family and possibly the society in general.  Then Christ directs the disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee, where they promptly happen upon a storm that seems to them to threaten their lives altogether.  My study bible comments that Christ both leads us into storms and through them.  But I think our real insight has to be that discipleship will demand enormous things of us.  It will ask us to stretch, and to come to terms with whatever is inside of us.  It will challenge us.  Most of all, we will certainly come up against challenges to our faith, which are meant to test and expand that faith through confrontation with our own assumptions, habits, and familiarity.  Even the fishermen in the boat are shaken with fear in this scene -- while Jesus sleeps.  He asks of them not only to follow into places which test their capacity to go outside their norms, but to learn to have complete confidence in Him.  Faith, we recall, means "trust" at its root in the Greek.  And that is precisely what He asks them for.  He asks us for our trust in Him.  We will be challenged, the Gospels tell us, every step of the way.  We'll be challenged regarding our assumptions of what is good and what takes priority even over what we think is good.  We will be challenged on what is "safe" in many senses of the word.  Above all, we will be taken on a journey meant to challenge our own barriers and expand our faith.  This seems to be assured, if nothing else, through the Gospels.  How is our discipleship -- the solid ground upon which Christ has asked us to build our house -- at once challenging and also built upon a rock?  In which direction do we go when Christ calls us forward to new and even risky things?  Where are we going in the life of faith?  How are we called upon to move forward, and "let the dead bury their own dead?"  These are all important questions which will shake up our assumptions regarding just what "solid ground" really is.  Let us remember the question He asks the disciples:  "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?"