“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”” Matthew 8:23-27
They are in a terrible storm, yet, Jesus rebukes their faith? In the middle of the storm, with claps of thunder, bolts of lightning lighting the sky, waves crashing over the side and filling the boat, Jesus looks at the disciples and rebukes them..”cowards! Why are you afraid?”
Why does Jesus rebuke them? Doesn’t it show their faith in Jesus that in the midst of the storm, they turn to Him? Clearly they have faith – waking Him shows they know He can do something about the storm. Of course He can. But, the rebuke is deeper than that. Jesus is saying to them, “you don’t think there could be any peace except peace from Me calming the storm right now. You don’t know that it is enough for Me to be in the boat with you – even if I do t calm the storm? Even if the thunder keeps coming, or the boat gets swamped, even if the lightning continues to flash – you don’t know that I am Who I am.”
Jesus is saying, “The only peace you think is peace is the peace of calm seas. My peace is infinitely better than that. My peace is still peace even in the middle of disasters. Whether I calm the storm or not, be at peace.”
A great example of true peace in Jesus, one of the truest examples of ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ is St. Maximillian Kolbe. He was in Auschwitz, truly Hell on earth is ever there was. He stepped up and took the place of another prisoner – taking his death. But, did he pray that Jesus would come and magically take him away? No, he sang hymns in their cell. He led the other nine sentences to starvation death in hymns. Despite this horrible death sentence, St. Maximillian Kolbe trusted Jesus IN the storm. The Nazis finally had to shut him up by injecting him with carbonic acid.
How often do we call out to Jesus to calm the storms of our life, thinking we are trusting in His power? Would it show more trust to simply ride out the storm and sing God’s praises? Maybe instead of crying out for Jesus to calm the seas and quite the thunder, we can sing praise louder and louder over that thunder. If the boat is swamped, Jesus is still right there with us.
The ultimate I trust may be not to ask Jesus to calm the storm but to know He is with us and trust that He has this.