Luke 8:22 Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth
The stories of Jesus in the gospels and certainly in the book of Luke reveal the nature of Jesus Christ. They are all put in the Bible for a reason. They are not just a bunch of stories randomly strung together. There is a point. God is trying to move forward some truth about the Lord Jesus. In Luke 8 there are several stories in which you generally find a character, a crisis, the Lord Jesus’ response, the people’s response to Him, and then the takeaway, the reason the story is in the Bible.
Luke 8:22 says, “Now it came to pass on a certain day, that he [Jesus] went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth.” I put a little box around his disciples. That helps me know that they are main characters in this story. The first character, of course, is Jesus, the whole reason the story is here in the first place.
Then you have the crisis. In this case Jesus took the disciples in a boat to go to the other side of the lake and there came up a great storm. So, why were these disciples in this boat in this storm? The answer is that Jesus said, “Let us go over unto the other side of the lake.” Is a boat in a storm-tossed sea a safe place to be? Not necessarily. Is being in the presence of Jesus Christ a safe place to be? There couldn’t be a safer place.
Verse 23 says, “But as they sailed he fell asleep; and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy.” You’ve often heard that a boat in the water is good, but water in the boat is not good. They had a boat filled with water, yet Jesus was asleep. What a contrast between the storm around them and Jesus with them. He was asleep, not worried or hurried.
Verse 24 says, “And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a great calm.” Jesus rebuked the ocean because He is the one who had authority. He is in charge of both man and nature. He rebuked the seas and there was a great calm. As you read about Jesus, He is never in a panic. He never seems to be hurried, yet never dragging.
You find the takeaway in verse 25, “Where is your faith?” Was their faith in Him or somewhere else? The verse continues, “And they being afraid…” The response of the disciples was fear. They were afraid and “wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.” Jesus has authority. He commanded the winds.
The takeaway for us is that the safest boat in the water is the one you are in with Jesus. That is based on the premise of Jesus saying, “Let us.” The reason they were in the boat and the storm was because Jesus said, “Let us go.” The reason they were in the predicament they were in was precisely because they obeyed the Lord Jesus. That did not take away the problem. It just put Him into the problem. They came to Him and said, “Lord, we perish.” Really? Was Jesus going to perish in a sea He had created? No. The safest boat in the sea is the one you are in with Jesus.
So, the question is not, “Am I sailing smooth seas?” The question is, “Am I sailing with Jesus?” Am I here because I am following Him? Jesus knows where He is going. When He said, “Let us go over unto the other side of the lake, He had a place in mind. He knew where He was going and He knows where He is going today even though I may not.
He knows why He is going. Verse 26 says, “And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes.” Then there is a story of how he delivered a man who had a great need. Jesus knew about this man who had been out of his mind. After Jesus helped him, he was “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.” Before, they feared the storm, and now they feared Jesus. This was a healthy fear. I need to fear the Lord Jesus. I don’t need to fear anything else. They had feared the storm until they met someone greater than the storm.
Years ago, Simon Sinek wrote Start With Why that talked about the importance of purpose to the decisions we make. It is amazing the things we can put up with if we know why. The kicker is sometimes we don’t know why because we don’t know the purpose. That is where faith comes in because I am not the creator of my universe; God is. God has gifted me and enabled me and given me situations and opportunities that are divine. My part is to simply know that He knows where He is going and why He is going. That is faith. Faith is not blind. Sight is blind. There has never been a day when you can be more easily deceived by what you’ve seen on the internet. You can’t see a mile down the road or five minutes ahead in time, but Jesus sees everything and knows everything. He is everything you need.
The Lord knows everything and I know the Lord. If I know the Lord, I am not compelled to know everything every day. If I follow Him one step at a time, I’ll be where I need to be. He knows where He is going, why He is going, and what He is doing. He rebuked the wind and there was calm. How wonderful that Jesus knows what is needed and when. He is sufficient for all of that.
I don’t know what boat you are in today or if the seas are calm or stormy, but I know that Jesus is the Master of the seas and the storm. The safest boat in the water is the one you are in with Jesus.