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Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea,
so that the boat was being swamped by waves;
but he was asleep.
They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.
The men were amazed and said, “What sort of man is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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It’s easy to imagine the storm the disciples find themselves in. The waves are rising, cresting, then crashing upon them. It’s the middle of the night, they’re slipping, falling, soaked, and Jesus is fast asleep.
Peter awakens the Lord, crying out, “Save us! We are perishing!”
A sleepy Jesus rolls over, stands up, then calms the wind and sea. Exhausted, the disciples wonder, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?”
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A surface level reading of today’s Gospel passage might lead us to conclude, “When the storms of life are raging, cry out to Jesus. Awaken him. Stop him from sleeping.”
As if the Lord is unaware of the storm we’re in.
Perhaps the deeper invitation is to learn how to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. It seems like an oxymoron, but when the storms of life are raging, God calls us to rest.
Why, you wonder? Look at the disciples.
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It isn’t that Jesus is unaware of the water. He’s just as soaked as they are. If the ship goes down, then they all do!
But Jesus is able to rest because he has absolute confidence in his Father, who will never abandon him. As the Psalmist proclaims, “the floods of water may reach high, but you they shall not overcome.”
The Lord sees the bigger picture; the disciples got into the boat in the first place to get to the other side. Once they land, there is work for them to do.
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So, what might this mean for us?
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Storms do not mean we’re headed in the wrong direction or that God has abandoned us. Rather, in those moments, Jesus is inviting us to rest. We will not be overcome.
Save your energy for the other side, which God is calling you to. When the storm is over, the real work begins.
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Image credits: (1) The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt (2) Calming the Storm, Eugene Delacroix (3) Cloudy River and Boat, Samiran Dakar
Dear Father Kevin, thank you for mentioning Delacroix! It is strange though that the photo you chose does not show a key feature of this painting: the golden aura of Jesus. It looks as though it has been “canceled.” There are several copies of this painting and the original one shows a very bright golden aura around Jesus’s head, a focal point of the scene. Here is the “real” (original) copy I am referring to, kept at the Met: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436176
It is a different copy to the one you are showing, not just because of the aura but you will see that other features are different, too: “spot the differences…” (characters etc.)
I saw this painting at a Delacroix exhibition at the National Gallery in London in 2015 and went back three or four times.