They couldn’t check the weather channel

By Dean Collins

It started like this. Jesus hopped into a boat with his disciples and told them, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” If there had been a hint of bad weather, I think the fellas would have said so. Peter was usually eager to share his thoughts, but no one did. As far as they could tell, it would just be a routine excursion. And it certainly started like one. Things were calm enough that the gentle rocking of the boat on the water had Jesus asleep in minutes.

Even with the convenience we have with weather channels, weather apps, and weather radios, we still find that the weather doesn’t always cooperate with the forecast. Sometimes storms seem to disappear more quickly than predicted, and sometimes they are far worse than expected. On this day, the disciples were hit hard with a windstorm.

Luke described the situation: “and they were filling with water and were in danger.” Over the years, I have read this many times and preached on it a few times. But I never noticed that last line in the verse above, “and were in danger.”

The more I think about it, the more I think this phrase is not just for me but for us. This may sound crazy or bold, but I suspect we are in danger every day. I am not in a boat in a storm as I write this today. And you are probably not at sea about to capsize. But we are well aware that there are strong winds of resistance to the gospel all around us. According to Jesus: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

God has a plan

That day in the storm, the disciples’ boat could have turned over. The disciples could have drowned. This might sound startling, but Jesus could have drowned. He was human, and he did die later on a cross just like every human before him who had been crucified. But the day the disciples were in danger in a storm was not the day that they or Jesus would see death. God had another plan, a better one. And we are the recipients of God’s divine plan which also came with danger and great suffering, even death for Jesus.

Jesus rose victorious over both the danger he faced and over death itself. Just hours before his death, Jesus told his disciples that he would go and prepare a place for them. We often think that Jesus meant he would go and get a room or, better, a mansion fixed up and ready for us when we arrive in heaven. We will have a place with Jesus in heaven, but Jesus meant something different or more than that when he spoke those words.

Jesus went to prepare a place for us by dying on the cross. Ahead of the time that we will live with Jesus in eternity, we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus here and now. Right after Jesus said he would prepare a place for us, he indicated that he would send us a helper, the Spirit of truth who would abide in us. The clear expectation of Jesus is that, filled with the Holy Spirit, we would each remain here in our place. Even as we face the dangers of this world, we would be the evidence of the transformative power of the death, burial, and resurrection to a lost and dying world.

When the disciples panicked that day in the storm, they woke up Jesus and said, “Master, master, we are perishing!” Jesus calmed the storm and then asked them, “Where is your faith?” They were shocked and amazed that he could calm the winds and the water.

When Jesus sent us his Spirit, he was promising that he would always be with us in every dangerous moment. Jesus will go through every storm with us. And Jesus can calm us down in the middle of every situation we face. We may not be able to explain every difficulty we face. However, we can be sure that when we trust Jesus fully, he will not only bring us through each storm, but he will also use us to show the world that He is fully alive and active as he uses us to reveal Christ to others through our faithfulness.

Lord, thank you for your promise to never abandon us when we face difficulties and danger. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to live in us revealing your power even in and through our weaknesses. Today, we will trust you to use us to reveal Christ to someone in need. In Jesus name, Amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
Luke 8:22-25; John 14:10, 16-18 ESV

Photo: Ernst Georg Bartsch, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
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