Luke 8:22-25
One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they put out, and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. They went to him and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”
There is a sense that in this chapter we are seeing the full array of Jesus’ capability and power. He teaches both in parables and through wisdom sayings. In the next scenes he will cast out a demon, heal someone who is sick, and restore a young girl to life. In this scene, Jesus demonstrates his authority even over nature itself, rebuking a storm and calming the seas.
And the reaction of his disciples? Terror.
That is one of the curious things about our relationship with God. We want God to be powerful, but we also want that power deployed in way we can understand, in a way that seems safe, in a way, perhaps, that we can control, or at least doesn’t leave us feeling out of control.
But to be in relationship with God is to be out of control. God isn’t a part of our life in this world, God is life in this world. God isn’t just another being in the universe. God is being. And there’s no controlling life itself, being itself.
So in this moment the disciples sense, perhaps for the very first time, just what it means to be in the presence of God’s messiah, Jesus the Son of God. And it makes them nervous, even afraid, because they know that whatever decisions or choices they may have made that have led them this far, yet they are absolutely not in control of what is to come.
Of course the great illusion of our lives is that we are ever in control. We may arrange certain aspects of our life, exercise influence over certain situations, but at any moment we may be struck down by illness or calamity or renewed by unexpected fortune. We are not in control.
Therefore the choice isn’t between being in control of our own self-made lives or surrendering control to God. The choice is between living with the illusion of control or entrusting ourselves to the One who orders the universe.
There’s a scene in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe that captures a this sense. When the children discover that the great Aslan – whom everyone is expecting will come to restore Narnia – is a lion, they are naturally afraid. Susan exclaims, “Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.” To which Mr. Beaver replies, “Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”
So also with Jesus – he is not a safe messiah, not a domesticated savior, that we can manipulate or control, and that is frightening. But through his actions so far, and as we’ll see as the story progresses, while he may not be tame, he is good. Very good.Prayer: Dear God, we are so eager to be in control of our lives that we miss the fact that so much of life, so much of what matters, is beyond our control or influence. Help us, therefore, to entrust ourselves to your wild, uncontrollable, but oh so good mercy and grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image: Laura James, “Jesus Calms the Storm,” 1995.
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