Matthew 8:26, “He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.”
Some years ago, there was a documentary called, “Into Great Silence.” In this documentary, Philip Groening, the Director, contacted a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps to enquire about making a documentary on their monastery. Sixteen years after his request, the monks decided that they would let Philip live among them for six months to capture footage for his documentary. The resulting film is an interesting experience for a viewer, because the monastery is almost entirely silent. Consequently, much of the documentary only has the sounds of feet shuffling, doors opening or closing, pages turning, etc.
Watching this documentary is a sharp contrast to our modern living. Indeed, our daily existence can be filled with stresses, conflicts, storms, noise, uncertainties, demands, disasters, questions, interruptions, violence, etc.
In my daily Bible reading time, I recently read Matthew 8. The content for this chapter includes Jesus walking away from His Sermon on the Mount and healing a leper along with Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus also heals the servant of a centurion, kicks out demons from two violent men, heals a lot of people in the town of Capernaum and tells some potential disciples that following Him looks different than what they expect, requiring their sacrifice and making Jesus their essential priority.
To be sure, Matthew 8 is a very busy chapter. In the thick of this chapter, Jesus decides to cross the Sea of Galilee with His disciples and he falls asleep in the boat. While He’s sleeping, a huge storm stirs up such that the waves of Galilee began to swamp His boat. The disciples, including several fishermen well acquainted with the Sea of Galilee, get freaked out and wake up Jesus. “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” they say in Matthew 8:25.
Maybe sometimes, we feel like the disciples in the boat getting swamped by the waves and winds of life: pressures that threaten to capsize us, questions that could blow our faith into oblivion, disasters that loom to drown us or uncertainties that flood our stability.
When you find yourself in the storms of life, no matter how big nor how small, it’s helpful to keep Jesus in your sights. He can be our life jacket, life preserver and even our lifeguard. No doubt storms in our lives can be loud and frightening. We could go through horrific experiences along with disasters that we didn’t anticipate and for which we had no preparation. Jesus can speak to the storms in our life and can help us experience great calm, peace and even shalom.
There is a peace available with Jesus that can exceed any experience and provide internal calm regardless of the external conditions around us. Let’s keep in mind what Paul says in Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
We can live in Great Calm.
