Matthew 8:26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
Right now my wife could imagine any one of a number of scenarios and pretty much know how I would respond, how I am going to act and what I am going to say. Our responses to the things that happen reveal our nature, character, and that we are pretty predictable most of the time. All of us feel things and have emotions. What I mean by “feel” is that we feel things like fatigue, hunger, thirst, and so on. When I say we have “emotions,” I am talking about anger, joy, and so on.
The main thing about reading the stories about Jesus is that He is God in the flesh, God incarnate, God the Son. As God, He is infinite. As God the Son, He felt things. He had emotions like anger and compassion. He was tested of the devil. He knew hunger, joy, and thirst. What is the one emotion that you never find Jesus exhibiting? It is fear. Now Jesus was troubled. The gospel of John records Jesus once saying, “Now is my soul troubled.” Later He told the disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Jesus was troubled in the ultimate way so that you and I need not be. When it comes to fear, though, you do not find that in Jesus.
Matthew 8:23-24 says, “And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him, and, behold, there arose a great tempest… that the ship was covered with waves.” But, Jesus was asleep. Now, He was asleep for two reasons. He was asleep because He was a man. He had fatigue. But He was asleep in the middle of a storm because He is God, God the Son.
It was a big storm. The next verse says, “And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.” What emotion is that? Verse 26 says, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm in Him and from Him. “But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” That is the bottom line of all the stories in this chapter.
The one emotion that Jesus does not exhibit is fear. The reason for that is Jesus is bigger than your storm. It is hard to even imagine God incarnate, but, reverently, what if you were Jesus; would you fear? Would you be panicked? Well, you are not Jesus, but you have Him in your boat with you. That is as good as you could wish.
Notice the question that Jesus asks, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” The question wasn’t for them; it was for us. Ask yourself that question, and let the answer be that which turns you to, not a thing, but a person, Jesus Christ.
Notice the rebuke. He rebuked the winds and the sea. Those are specific elements of what is called the “great tempest.” He rebuked it. He is in control. So, it does not matter what your storm is; Jesus is bigger than your storm. There are a lot of things that we feel that Jesus felt, but fear is not one of them. The reason is because He is the One Who made the winds and waves, and He has the right to quell them. You are not Jesus, but you are a child of God by faith in Jesus. Jesus is in your boat.