The final section, as edited, of a chapter from Moody Stuart’s book, Capernaum. The previous section, last month, dealt with Jesus “asleep in the storm”.
Matthew 8:18-27. Now, when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side. . . . (See also Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25.)
Luke 9:57-62. And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto Him, Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. . . .
(1.) The calm is in answer to the earnest cry of the disciples. The mere fact that Jesus is in the ship does not prevent the tempest, but is the very cause of its rising. No doubt the disciples expected that the sea would be calm when it carried Jesus; for they had some experience of His knowledge of the deep, and His power over it, in the miraculous draught of fishes. And when the storm came, with Jesus in the ship, they certainly reckoned that it would not reach the extremity of imminent danger, else they would have awakened Him earlier. The interruption of sleep is a much greater matter in the East than with us, and it is only a serious occasion that would be counted a sufficient warrant for breaking in upon the sleep of a friend, still more of a Master. Reverence for Christ’s Person, and reluctance to disturb His repose, make them defer till the last moment. But now the ship is filling fast with water, and they are sinking in the Sea. The danger is perhaps not greater, but it has reached a far more critical point, and is much more immediate than when Jonah is awakened from his guilty slumber. After the seamen converse with him and cast lots for which of the men is to be thrown overboard, they still row hard to reach the land till they find all to be vain. But the disciples are already past such efforts. The shipmaster reasons with Jonah in awakening him, “What meanest thou, O sleeper?” But the disciples gather round Jesus with brief and urgent calls for help. “Master, master, we perish,” one of them cries; “Master, carest Thou not that we perish?” is the cry of another; and the prayer of a third is, “Lord, save us, we perish”. It is a great lesson for us to pray in the time of our need; not to assume that the mere presence of Christ is enough, but to call, “Awake, awake . . . O arm of the Lord”. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” – not the mere fact of his being a righteous man in whom Christ dwells but the earnest prayer of such a man whom Christ hears. The promise of their heavenly Father giving good things to His children is made special to them that ask. Jesus in the ship does not save it from jeopardy, till He is called upon and awakened by prayer. He seems to take no charge of it till then, not even of His own personal interest in it. So He often appears not to care even for His cause and kingdom, till called on to arise and help us. It is not because He forgets, but because He will be entreated to stretch forth His arm to save. The cry of the Apostles for themselves brings deliverance to many around them. There were “other little ships” along with them, which must all have been exposed to the same tempest. Though none of them might seem so near to sinking as the ship in which Jesus sailed, and on account of which alone the tempest was raised, still they must all have been in jeopardy in that hour, scattered from each other and driven furiously over the boiling sea. The apostles alone are near to Jesus. They cry, and for them the storm is changed into a calm; but the calm that saves the one ship rescues all from destruction and awakens many songs of praise from the Sea. We can never pray for ourselves without benefiting others; we cannot obtain spiritual help for our own souls without helping many; we never so pray that Satan is cast out of our own hearts or out of our company, without others sharing in the heavenly calm. What an argument for those that are nearest to Christ to call upon His name, for if the other ships had perished through lack of prayer on the part of the apostles, would not the blood of many have been on their heads?
(2.) Jesus stills the tempest; He awakes and silences the wind by His word. But first He stills the disciples’ troubled hearts, stills them by His example and then by His words. He sets them an example of fearless calm in the midst of danger, of “great calm” in spirit, not after the storm is over but whilst it rages. Jesus awakes, but does not at once arise. He talks with the disciples before rising from the pillow on which He rests. His composure must have strengthened them, but His delay must have tried their patience, while the ship is sinking under every wave. Jesus feared God, and was heard in that He feared, and because He was perfect in the fear of God, He never trembled before any creature or any created terror. He feared no man, no crafty fox-like Herod threatening to kill Him, no proud Pharisees thinking to overawe Him by their presence, no Jews taking up stones to stone Him, no Nazarenes dragging Him to the brink of the precipice. So now He fears no raging waves of the sea, threatening to engulf the ship. This is not because by His Godhead He can still the tempest; but because He trusts in the living God, who holds the sea in the hollow of His hand, for He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”. He does not fear death, because He cannot die till His hour is come, but if this should be death, it brings no terror to Him. In the prospect of the cross, His soul was exceeding sorrowful and sore amazed. But that was not mere death, but the cup which the Father gave Him to drink; it was the hiding of His Father’s face, and Himself made sin for sinners in dying on the accursed tree. Of simple death He has no fear, but is equally calm amidst the devouring waves and upon the quiet shore. Thus He teaches His disciples and reproves them for being so faithless and so fearful. It is not because there is no danger, which unquestionably there was at the moment; nor is it chiefly because they should hold it impossible for the ship to sink that bears the holy Jesus, though this element may enter into it. But it is mainly a lesson of trust in their heavenly Father, either for deliverance out of death, or for preservation through it unto life eternal, as may seem to Him best. Jesus said to them, and probably before this trial: The hairs of your head are all numbered, fear not them that kill the body, but fear Him who is able to cast soul and body into hell. He enjoins them to trust God for preserving every hair of their head, if that is for their good; but if they are to die in His service, to have no dread at all of the death of the body but only to fear the living God. The same lessons He teaches the disciples practically now: The hairs of your head are all numbered; the sparrow does not fall to the ground without your heavenly Father; those waves cannot hurt you without His will. O ye of little faith, wherefore do ye doubt? But if otherwise, if it be death, fear not those billows that can only kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. Why are ye so fearful when it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom? Why cry, We perish, when he that believeth on Me shall never perish but shall have everlasting life? Then Jesus rises in His own Divine majesty, rebukes the winds and stills the waves, and there is a great calm: And now the disciples fear, not the mighty waves of the sea, but the presence of Him who is more in might by far. “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the voice of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.”
What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him? It is the Man that is my Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; the Son of man, who is God manifest in flesh; therefore mighty works show forth themselves in Him.
Presence of mind in the midst of danger, as brought out in Christ’s own example, is one of the greatest of all blessings to ourselves and to others. Nothing can give it rightly but the fear of death removed through peace with God in Jesus Christ; and this peace will often give it, even to those who through fear of death had been all their lifetime subject to bondage.
This voyage to the other side is an image of many a believer’s life. In moderate quiet at first, our ship sails over placid waters; then often a mighty tempest arises, with much fear lest we shall one day perish; then the word of the Lord comes with power and creates “a great calm”, an emblem and earnest of the everlasting calm in that life above where there shall be “no more sea”. Meanwhile, in our many tumults and tempests, how effectually and how quickly does a single word of Jesus quiet the soul. How oft does He say to sin and Satan raging within us, “Peace, be still”; and how instantly there is a great calm, even the peace of God that passes understanding, keeping the heart and mind in Christ Jesus!