Matthew 8:24 “And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.”
The older ones reading this devotion may easily recall the theme song of Gilligan’s Island. It starts out “Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailin’ man, the Skipper brave and sure, five passengers set sail that day, for a three hour tour, a three hour tour. The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be lost. The Minnow would be lost.”
While we do not have a theme song written about the disciples and Jesus being caught in a terrible storm, we do have three of the four gospels telling a STORY about something very similar to the Gilligan’s Island song. Our verse for the date comes from the gospel of Matthew. Matthew is very matter-of-fact about how things started as Matt. 8:23 says, “Now when Jesus got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.” Mark will tell us that He instructed them to get into boats to go to the other side. Following Him and His instructions, the disciples got into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. One might imagine the disciples even thinking what could go wrong as they were following Jesus and His instructions. They even see Jesus lying down to take a nap. What could go wrong??
Like the sudden storm appearing out of nowhere, Matthew now blurts out, “And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep.” “Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.” NIV
Oh my. I wasn’t expecting that to be the next verse – the next thing to happen. My expectation, and I bet yours as well, is that following Jesus, especially following His instructions, should mean SMOOTH SAILING. There should not be STORMS with the SAVIOR.
Hopefully, I have your attention, and more importantly, the Savior has your attention. Sudden storms are going to be part of your story with the SAVIOR. You are not exempt from FURIOUS storms. The Bible tells of a faithful king named Hezekiah, and “after deeds of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities.” (2 Chronicles 32:1) James writes for us to count it all joy when (NOT IF) but WHEN we encounter or fall into various trials. We find in Job 14:1 that “Man, who is born of woman, is short-lived and full of turmoil.
So, what do we take away from our DATE with Matthew 8:24? I would tell you it is an UNREALISTIC EXPECTATION to think, to believe that sailing with Jesus, serving Jesus, means no STORMS. What we should expect is that even Jesus Himself will instruct us to do things that will have us experiencing storms so that He can grow our faith. (You will need to tune into the next episode for that).
While storms hit us unexpectedly, we should not expect to have no storms.
Continue Strong in storms WITH the Savior
And remember to DATE the Word