"Why are you afraid?" he (Jesus) asks. (Matt. 8:25)
At first blush we wonder if Jesus is serious. He may be kidding. Teasing. Pulling a quick one. Kind of like one swimmer asking another, "Why are you wet?" But Jesus doesn't smile. He's dead earnest. So are the men to whom he asks the question. A storm has turned their Galilean dinner cruise into a white-knuckled plunge....
Peter and John, seasoned sailors, struggle to keep down the sail. Matthew, confirmed landlubber, struggles to keep down his breakfast. The storm is not what the tax collector bargained for. Do you sense his surprise in the way he links his two sentences? "Jesus got into a boat and his followers went with him. A great storm arose on the lake"
Wouldn't you hope for a more chipper second sentence, a happier consequence of obedience? "Jesus got into a boat. His followers went with him, and suddenly a great rainbow arched in the sky, a flock of doves hovered in happy formation, a sea of glass mirrored their mast." Don't Christ-followers enjoy a calendar full of Caribbean cruises? No. This story sends the not-so-subtle and not-too popular reminder: getting on board with Christ can mean getting soaked with Christ. Disciples can expect rough seas and stout winds. "In the world you will [not 'might', 'may', or 'could'] have tribulation" (John 16:33, brackets Lucado's).
Christ followers contract malaria, bury children, and battle addictions, and, as a result, face fears. Its not the absence of storms that sets us apart. It's whom we discover in the storm: an unstirred Christ.
"Jesus was sleeping." (Matthews 8:24)
His snooze troubles the disciples. Matthew and Mark record their responses as three staccato Greek pronouncements and one question.
The pronouncements: "Lord! Save! Dying!" (Matthew 8:25)
The question: "Teacher; do You not care that we are perishing:" (Mark 4:38)
Fear does this. Fear corrodes our confidence in God's goodness. We begin to wonder if love lives in heaven. If God can sleep in our storms, if his eyes stay shut when our eyes grow wide, if he permits storms after we get on his boat, does he care?
Fear unleashes a swarm of doubts, anger-stirring doubts.
And it turns us into control freaks....
It also deadens our recall....
And fear feels dreadful ...
Fear may fill our world but it doesn't have to fill our hearts. It will always knock on the door. Just don't invite it in for dinner, and for heaven's sake don't offer it a bed for the night. Let's embolden our hearts with a select number of Jesus' 'do not fear' statements. The promise of Christ and the contention of this book are simple: we can fear less tomorrow than we do today.
"So don't be afraid. You are worth much more than many sparrows." Matt. 10:31 NCV
"Take courage son; your sins are forgiven." Matt. 9:2 NASB
"I tell you not to worry about everyday life - whether you have enough." Matthew 6:25 NLT
"Take courage. I am here!" Matt. 14:27
"Jesus got up and gave a command to the wind and the waves, and it became completely calm." Matthew 8:26
He handles the great quaking with a great calming. The sea becomes as still as a frozen lake, and the disciples are left wondering, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!" (Matthew 8:27)
What kind of man, indeed. Turning typhoon time into nap time. Silencing waves with one word.
"Fearless: Imagine your life without fear" by Max Lucado. Thomas Nelson : Nashville, TN, 2009 pg.6-13
2 comments:
This reminds me of something that someone said somewhere (aren't you glad I remember the specifics!) - that if you don't know what it's like to be persecuted for your faith then you're not really trying. It's in truly living the message that we experience "push-back."
Re fear: My kids and I often hang onto the phrase we heard in a sermon not long ago - "Don't tell God how big your storm is - tell the storm how big your God is."
Easy to say, but fear sure takes hold easily - especially when you're trying to think/live outside our self-created, comfortable "box"!
I loved this post. Again, your timing (God's timing) is perfect for what I am working through in life. I believe that the spirit of fear holds many of us back and causes us to live with strongholds.
I may pick up the Max Lucado book, as I'm working through "fear of man" issues.
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