And he says to them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then, having arisen, he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
A storm hits the lake, the disciples wake Jesus, and He speaks to their fear before He speaks to the weather. So why the correction before the rescue, what is "little faith," and who can give orders to wind and sea?
Matthew and Mark tell this event in a different order. One writer treats that difference not as a mistake to solve but as a design to read.
Matthew puts the correcting of the disciples for their unbelief before the rebuking of the winds and the sea. Mark gives the opposite order. So the question is not "Which is correct?" but "What special meaning is intended by the change?" In Matthew's gospel, faith — or the lack of it, unbelief — stands out more than in the other gospels. The reason is that Matthew presents Christ as the Messiah.
after_check: meaning kept
Their fear was not about the water. It was a judgement about the Person in the boat with them.
No doubt the tempest was great; but what harm could it do to Jesus? No doubt the ship was covered with the waves; but how could that put the Lord of all in danger? They forgot His glory in their own anxiety and selfishness. They measured Jesus by their own weakness... Little faith leaves us as fearful for ourselves as we are dim witnesses of His glory whom the most unruly elements obey.
The phrase is not "no faith." They did call on Him. The problem was the size of what they trusted Him for.
He recognised that they were not completely without faith, for they appealed to the Master for help. But it was only a very little faith. They thought they were perishing, although Jesus was with them. Faith must be feeble if it cannot trust until the cause of anxiety and alarm is gone. For them the storm was stilled so that their fears might be quieted. So their faith did not rise to the level of Paul's, who was sure of coming safely through the storm.
So where did the fear get in, and what settles it?
You see the leak where the water came in to sink their spirits: they had "little faith." What calms and comforts a soul in great trouble is not what God is in Himself. It is what we think of God at the moment. Suppose a man fears the house will fall on his head in a storm. The house may be as immovable as a rock. That will not ease his mind until he thinks it so.
Earlier in the same chapter a man with a skin disease brings Christ his misery and goes away healed, with no word of correction.
The leper in Matthew 8 is a stranger. He brings his sorrow to Christ, and gets healing at once. Disciples, in the same chapter, bring their sorrow also, their fears in the storm; but they get rebuke as well as relief... In the one case it was simply sorrow. In the other it was the soul as well as the sorrow. So His answer to the one was tenderness, pure tenderness. To the other, faithfulness must form part of the answer.
Others in Scripture have parted waters — but always with an instrument handed to them. Here there is nothing between the voice and the sea.
He spoke in His own right as Lord of the sea and the land, and He addressed both the winds and the waves. For "the sea is his, for he made it," and He "rides on the wings of the wind." He stretched out no rod of delegated authority towards the troubled elements, as Moses did at the Red Sea. He struck the waters with no mantle of the prophet's office, as Elijah did at the Jordan.
His answer did not shrink to the size of their trust.
When faith was small, He acted according to Himself. In Matthew 8:26 He answered the disciples' "little faith" with "a great calm."
One writer reads the scene forward, past this lake.
But in tender grace He simply calms the sea with a rebuke of absolute authority. The wind died down, and there was a great calm. So it will be when He speaks in power to a tumultuous world racked by the winds of the great tribulation.
- Little, not none. They prayed, so faith was there; it was small because it could not rest until the danger itself was gone.
- Little faith sees little Christ. Fear grew because they judged Him by their own weakness and forgot whose glory shared the boat.
- Little faith gets faithfulness. A stranger's sorrow met pure tenderness. The disciples got relief and correction, because Christ had their souls in view, not just their sorrow.
- Little faith meets His own measure. He did not answer their small trust with a small deliverance, but with a great calm.
- Little faith, unborrowed power. No rod, no mantle, no delegated authority — the voice that quiets one lake will one day quiet a world in uproar.
But the men were astonished, saying, What sort [of man] is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?
Jesus has just stopped a raging storm with one word. The men in the boat now stare at Him, and their question is not about the weather. It is about who He is.
Their question admits that no human label fits what they have seen. Human helplessness before wind and sea is what makes the moment so staggering.
More than a man! What man could command the wind and the sea? Man is powerless when the elements break loose in all their fury. The tornado moves on with irresistible force. Nothing can withstand it. The sea rages. No human power can curb its frightful power. These forces make man feel small! No, the disciples found themselves in the presence of the Eternal Son of God, "God manifest in the flesh."
Minutes earlier this same Person was asleep, tired out from the day. The two facts sit side by side in one Man, and moving from one to the other costs Him nothing.
There is something perfectly beautiful in the way our blessed Lord rises, without any effort, from the rest of perfect humanity into the action of essential deity. As man, worn out with His work, He slept on a pillow. As God, He rises, and His almighty voice hushes the storm and calms the sea.
The Old Testament had already named the only One who masters deep water: Jehovah, the name of God in Israel's Scriptures.
On one side we see the weariness of the Servant of Jehovah after the work of the day. On the other side we see His instant readiness to serve still more when someone calls for help. And we see a further wonder: not only was the Servant of Jehovah in the boat, but Jehovah Himself was there. He who spoke with such authority to the winds and the waves was without question God. And the One who spoke like that was the same One who slept and woke at the cry of distress. This was indeed the God of Israel. As the Psalmist said, none but Jehovah is "mightier than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty waves of the sea" (Ps. 93:4).
Matthew says "the men" marvelled. Who were they? One writer reads them as the sailors working the boat, and not only the disciples.
When they realise whom they had in the boat with them, they cry, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing." He rises and rebukes the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm. Even the sailors marvelled and said, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!" The disciples knew it in a deeper way, but the others were astonished.
Their trembling after the calm was of a different order from their panic during the storm.
Later we read that the disciples were filled with great fear when they saw what the word of Christ did to the stormy sea. This was a wise fear. They now knew what unworthy thoughts had filled them while they stood in the immediate presence of Infinite Power and Goodness. This was the fear of reverence. It had replaced the cowardice of unbelief in their hearts.
Still, amazement at God and worship of God are not the same thing.
The disciples were amazed when they saw how the Lord behaved in the storm. They said, "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" The mighty power of the Lord bewildered them, but astonishment is not the worship in spirit and in truth which the Father seeks.
Once the question is answered, the fear behind it has no ground left.
If they had known who that divine Person in the boat with them was, they might have slept as peacefully as He did. How could they perish when they had the Son of God with them in the boat? If HE could perish, they might too, but not otherwise.
This holds in our own experience too.
In every difficulty, trial, or painful circumstance where we seem to be completely overwhelmed by the power of Satan in this world, if our eye is towards Christ and we appeal to Him, we will know His power truly put forth on our behalf.
- Question. Their question admits that no human label fits Him. Wind and sea obey Him, so He is more than a man.
- Person. The same Person sleeps because He is worn out, then rises and gives orders. Perfect humanity and essential deity, with no effort in between.
- Identity. The Servant of Jehovah was in the boat, and Jehovah Himself was there. None but He is mightier than the mighty waves of the sea.
- Response. Their great fear was reverence, not cowardice. But amazement still stops short of the worship the Father seeks.
- Rest. They could only perish if the Son of God could perish. Look to Him in your own storm, and you will know His power working for you.