But He said to them, "Where is your faith?"

 

 "No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him."

Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.  And it was told Him by some, who said, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You."  But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."

Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake."  And they launched out.  But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, master, we are perishing!"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.  And they ceased, and there was a calm.  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!"

 

- Luke 8:16–25 

 

Yesterday we read that, it came to pass that Jesus went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.  And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities -- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.  And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable:  "A sower went out to sow his seed.  And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.  Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.  But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."  When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?"  And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'  Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.  Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

 

  "No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him."  Interestingly, in this section, Christ's words are echoes of something similar He said in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:14-16).  Certainly phrases and images reflect various preaching of Christ in different places and in different times.  There in the Sermon on the Mount, this image of light was used to encourage His disciples to reflect that light into the world.  But here, Christ is continuing from His beginning of preaching in parables, and especially about the necessity of our own guarding of how we hear.  He's assuring His disciples that the mysteries He brings will be revealed, but it really does depend upon our own disposition to that light.  "For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even wheat he seems to have will be taken from him" is an assurance that what we receive also depends upon our own hearts and what we nurture, protect, and desire.

Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.  And it was told Him by some, who said, "Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You."  But He answered and said to them, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."  My study Bible comments that Christ's relatives have not yet understood His identity and mission.  He points to a spiritual family based on obedience to the will of God ("these who hear the word of God and do it").  It further explains that it was not Christ's will to deny His mother and brothers.  St. John Chrysostom, my study Bible notes, says that Jesus is correcting both them and His hearers "to the right idea concerning Himself," that the family of His Kingdom "is not by nature but by virtue."  See also Luke 11:27-28.

 

Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side of the lake."  And they launched out.  But as they sailed He fell asleep.  And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.  And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, master, we are perishing!"  Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.  And they ceased, and there was a calm.  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!"  My study Bible says that Christ deliberately permits this windstorm to arise while He's sleeping in order to perfect the disciples' faith and rebuke their weaknesses.  This is so they would eventually be unshaken by life's temptations.  Here their faith is still mixed with unbelief.  They showed faith when they came to Him, but unbelief when they said, "We are perishing."

 

There is such an incredibly paradoxical image in the scene of Christ asleep in the boat while such a windstorm is raging on the lake all around Him, to the point where the boat was filling with water.  It's important to remember that a number of Christ's disciples (and indeed, they are His inner circle of Peter, James, and John, plus Andrew Peter's brother) are known to us as fishermen.  They are those whose lives were spent upon this sea working in boats and fishing from them.   So whatever this storm is, it is apparently enough to frighten even the seasoned fishermen.   But the image of Christ asleep on the boat through this windstorm isn't simply about His humanity; today it strikes me that we see Christ as human being in a position that is deeply vulnerable.  He sleeps in the boat while it is filling with water.  So Jesus asleep doesn't just portray Him as a man among other human beings, with our own need for rest amid His no doubt tiring schedule of His public ministry, amid constant travel, preaching, and teaching.  But He takes His place with us as one entirely vulnerable to the vicissitudes and patterns of human life in this world.  We're all, to some extent, at the mercy of the elements of the world, of weather and natural disasters, and Christ shares even that with us.  He comes into the world to know and to share our condition thoroughly.  Moreover, a reading of Christ's early life will give us a number of ways in which -- directly from His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary -- His life was vulnerable and at risk.  St. Joseph had to make a decision whether or not to divorce his young wife when she told him she was pregnant.  Later when King Herod sought to kill all young male children in order to destroy this infant born a king, His life was in danger, and they fled to Egypt.  This is a vulnerable, dangerous start, right from the beginning, through the power of the state that is already against Him.  Christ's safety depended upon faithful parents responding to the call of God.  In this alone, we see the importance of Christ's statement in today's reading about our need to "take heed how we hear."  In St. Joseph's case, he followed warnings received in dreams, and so did the three wise men from the East who came to honor Christ (see Matthew 1:18-2:23).  But even from this vulnerable place, Christ teaches us that the one thing essential to us for life is the courage of our faith, the strength of our faith, the nurturing of our faith.  Christ indeed has the power to rebuke the storm, and so this is a part of the story in today's reading.  But what He teaches the disciples is not that we, as vulnerable humans, need to somehow acquire the kind of power He, the Christ, has.   Jesus' response is to chide the disciples, asking them,  "Where is your faith?"  even as the disciples marvel over His power to command the winds and water, and they obey Him.  There is a quotation from an essay by G. K. Chesterton that somewhat addresses this point.  He writes, "Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete.  Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king.  Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator.  For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point -- and does not break" (from the essay, "God the Rebel").  The courage Christ calls out of His disciples, out of us, and out of Himself when He will face the Crucifixion, is faith.  This is what faith does for us; it is that upon which civilization is born and carried through the generations.  It is that which carries us through storms and terrors.  It is where we must find our courage, and it is there that He calls us ahead, with Him, to "life, abundantly."