Storms

Read Matthew 8:18-34.

As I write this, I'm sitting on the veranda at Turkey Run State Park Inn, having taken a long hike this morning and enjoyed lunch in the dining room. A storm just passed through here, which made us glad we had hiked earlier. Another storm is on the way. It's spring in Indiana; storms are part of the deal.

As are storms on the Sea of Galilee. Today's reading contains Matthew's telling of one of the most famous storms on that wind-swept sea, the time when Jesus, asleep in the bow of the boat, is awakened by his frightened disciples who, seeing the storm, are afraid they are going to drown. They don't seem to know what they want Jesus to do, but they wake him up anyway. Maybe they just want him to be afraid along with them.

I'm sure many of you have heard a lot of sermons on this passage. I've even preached a few. Usually the moral goes something like this: storms will come in your life, but remember that Jesus is in the boat with you and he will calm the storms. There's even a song from a number of years ago that I love which says, in effect, sometimes he calms the storm and sometimes he calms his child.

Those are beautiful sentiments. And they are true. But I don't think that's why Matthew includes this story...especially when you consider two things. First, this story is placed among the healing stories. That's not because of chronology. None of the Gospel writers are all that concerned about chronology. They simply aren't writing biographies like we think of them. They are writing GOSPEL, a whole new kind of literature. So Matthew and the rest tend to group stories together to get their point across, much like a preacher might do today. Matthew has intentionally put this story among the healing stories because it is a healing story. 

But second, and more telling, look at the reaction of the disciples. They are amazed. "Even the winds and the waves obey him!" He can heal more than just people or demon possession or a fever. He can heal creation! He can take any kind of brokenness and make it whole. Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Jesus did not just come to save you and me. He came to heal all of creation. Paul gets at this in the letter to the Romans: "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed" (Romans 8:19). Read on in Romans 8 as Paul artfully intermingles human salvation with the redemption of all of creation. Read it in Revelation as the whole creation is redeemed and made new. Jesus came to redeem all of creation; that's why the wind and the waves respond to him more easily than humans do. The wind and the waves know their master, their redeemer.

This is a healing story, just like the rest. All of creation longs to be redeemed. Thanks be to God that redemption is what he's all about!