How to Have a Happy Hurricane
Introduction: I want to begin today by reading our text, just four verses found in Luke 8:22-25:
One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
For a brief time in the early 1970’s I lived in Hollywood, Florida, just north of Miami. At that time it had been over 20 years since a serious hurricane had hit the Gold Coast of Florida. As memories of the last one faded, an interesting custom developed among some of the younger residents. Whenever a hurricane threatened, people would lower and secure their awnings, bring all loose objects inside, take down TV antennas, and throw a hurricane party. That’s right—they would invite their friends in, bring out the snacks and beverages and wait out the threat.
Different people, I’m sure, did this for different reasons. Some, I’m convinced, were simply sublimating their fears, trying to dispel them by acting bravely. Others were living in a dream world, unwilling to face the awful reality of the destructive force of a hurricane. Others were acting out the ancient hedonistic philosophy: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.” And there were undoubtedly some who just believed it best to look at the bright side of things. Be optimistic, you know.
Christians have their hurricanes, too—trials and tragedies that at times seem to swamp us. And they aren’t fun. But the biblical approach to life’s hurricanes is not to sublimate our fears, deny reality, drown it in sensual pleasure, or just paint a happy face on it. God expects us to view these hurricanes as events that are not outside his control and as events that can be used by him to bring spiritual growth. They are events through which we can remain calm, peaceful, and even happy (at least as the Bible defines happiness).
You see, happiness in the Bible is not primarily an effervescent state of bliss; it is an inner satisfaction and peace of heart in the midst of chaos. Happiness always has the long-run in view. The Bible tells us, for example, that …
Happy is the one whom the Lord corrects. (Job 5:17)
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. (Psalm 144:15)
Happy is the one who finds wisdom. (Proverbs 3:13)
Happy is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18)
Happy is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. (Romans 14:22)
Happy are those who suffer for righteousness’ sake. (Matthew 5:10
It certainly is not my purpose to trivialize anyone’s trials with my sermon title today. What I’m talking about is the ability to survive the hurricanes of life with a spirit of triumph because we have confidence in the Captain of our boat.
I have divided my message today into background, narrative and application.
Background: Jesus, exhausted from the pressures of ministry, refuses to allow his family to dictate God’s will for him.
The background of the story of the tempest on the Sea of Galilee is found in verses 19-21.
Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.” He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
At first glance it is difficult to see any relationship between this paragraph and the one that follows, but there is an important connection. You see, the reason his mother and brothers came to see Jesus was to protect him from total exhaustion. While this is not obvious from Luke 8, it is clear from the parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark. Mark records this same incident, only he adds this additional information in 3:20-21:
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
They were so concerned about the schedule Jesus was keeping that they were considering committing him for a period of time until he could get his life back in order. Now their concern was noble, but their approach indicates a total lack of understanding of his unique position as the Son of God.
Jesus responds with a comment that on the surface seems to be a real put-down to his mother and brothers: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” It is not a put-down, but it does amount to a refusal to allow his family to dictate God’s will for him.
This is not the first time, by the way, that Jesus’ relatives attempted to exercise undue influence on him. In the second chapter of John, his mother whispered to him at the wedding feast of Cana of Galilee, “They’ve run out of wine.” Behind those words was a subtle message, “Come on, Son, these are my friends. Do your thing. Use your power to show them something they won’t forget.” And Jesus had to tell her, “My hour has not yet come.” Now Jesus did create wine out of water on that occasion, but not in order to appease his possessive mother.
Here he again rebukes his family’s efforts to control his life. Jesus had fulfilled his family obligations. He had provided for his family after the death of Joseph until he was at least 30 years old, at which time his younger brothers were able to take over. He could not allow his family to hinder the ministry he had embarked upon at his baptism, even though they seemed to be motivated by concern for his health.
There is a fine line between one’s responsibility to God and one’s responsibility to family, and it is a line all of us struggle with. We need to love our families. We need to make allowances for one another. We need to spend time together and submit ourselves one to another. If our family life is not right, our personal ministries will always suffer. On the other hand, it’s easy to allow family considerations to take precedence over our responsibilities to God.
Jesus is not telling us to abandon our families (one of his last words on the cross was a request to the apostle John to care for his mother). But we must keep the horizontal relationships subordinate to the vertical, yet in balance. Now having said all that, it is intriguing to me that Jesus goes ahead and does what they request. He leaves the multitudes, gets into a boat, and falls asleep.
Let me chase a brief rabbit trail regarding verse 21 for a moment. One often hears of the religious debate over which is the true church. Is it the Eastern Orthodox Church? Is it the Roman Catholic Church? Is it the Reformed Church? Is it the Baptist Church? Jesus answers that question for us right here: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” The true church, consisting of those whose ties to Jesus are closer than blood ties, crosses all denominational lines. It also leaves out many from all denominations. It consists of all those, and only those, who hear God’s Word and obey it.
We come then to the brief narrative of the storm on the lake.
Narrative: The key elements in this miracle story are the creation, the creator, and the creatures.
The Creation
The lake is the Lake of Genessaret, also called the Sea of Galilee. Just 8 miles wide and 13 miles long, it sits 700 feet below sea level, surrounded by deeply ravined tablelands, beyond which the mountains rise some 10,000 feet above the lake within sight of it. At certain times of the year the eastern winds cause storm clouds to gather quickly, bringing gale-force winds up to 60 miles per hour. The ravines act like funnels to draw cold winds from the mountains.
The storm is unusually fierce. Luke calls it a squall. In Matthew’s account he calls it a “furious storm,” and the Greek term he uses is seismos, from which we get our English term seismograph, an instrument which measures earthquakes. This was a seaquake.
So much for the creation. What about the Creator?
The Creator. Notice first …
His sleep. This is the only time in the Bible that we find Jesus asleep. What a startling picture! Here is the very Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, described as follows in Colossians 1:16,17:
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he’s asleep! Why? Not just because he’s exhausted, but also because he has a deep and abiding faith in God. He could sleep well because his Father in Heaven was wide awake. Notice secondly …
His concern. When the disciples speak to him about their fear, it says, “He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters.” What do we do when awakened out of a sound sleep? We men can become very grumpy. We can roll over and put an extra pillow on our heads. But Jesus responds as does a mother when one of her children makes a noise in the night. My wife is a deep sleeper and can sleep through a bad storm, but when our boys were young, she could hear them if they just tiptoed to the bathroom. Jesus responds because these are his children.
Jesus is not only concerned; he is also willing to demonstrate, thirdly, …
His power. Luke says, “The storm subsided, and all was calm.” The term for rebuking the wind in the original is the same term used in the New Testament of rebuking a fever or rebuking evil spirits. Several commentators have suggested that the powers of Satan were behind this particular storm. If this boat went down with Jesus on it, God’s whole plan of salvation could be frustrated. Furthermore, the Lord and his disciples were sailing toward the eastern shore of the lake for a ministry that Satan certainly did not want to see take place. There, the Lord would cast a legion of demons out of a man.
In Mark’s account Jesus says to the sea, “Peace, be still.” J. B. Phillips paraphrases it, “Hush now. Be still!” It’s as though he were speaking to a pack of dogs, “Back to your kennels and stay there!” Amazingly, even the waves ceased. For the past 15 years my parents have lived on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. I have seen the wind pick up very fast and subside very quickly, but I have never seen the waves stop suddenly. That just doesn’t happen. But they do when Jesus orders them to.
You know, much that is wrong on earth can be corrected: mothers dry tears; repairmen fix machines; surgeons remove diseased tissues; counselors solve family problems. But the weather? People talk about it, but only God can change it.
The fourth thing we notice about the Creator is …
His disappointment in his disciples. Having rebuked the wind, he rebukes them. “Where is your faith?” he asks. Mark puts it even more strongly: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” In other words, “After all I’ve shown you and taught you, do you still not believe?” How many times could I be asked the same question! God has rescued me from difficult situations many times in my life, yet when I get into a new storm there is always the tendency to fret and worry and occasionally even freak out.
The Creatures.
Their terror is striking. Here we have grown men, seasoned professional fishermen scared for their lives. This, friends, is proof of the fierceness of the storm. I know what it is to feel terror on a lake. Back in the 70’s I went camping for a week with my folks and my two brothers. We camped on an island in Eagle Lake in northern Ontario and never saw another soul for a week. As we were leaving the campsite the wind picked up, so we wisely let the rest of the family out of the boat at an old logging road, and my dad and I decided to return to the lodge where the car was, with the plan to drive to pick Mom and my brothers up on the logging road.
Halfway across that lake a terrible storm came up. Even with the little 10 horse motor going full blast we were going backwards. Dad was fighting to keep the boat pointed into the waves while I was bailing as fast as I could. I was scared spitless, but my dad remained calm and eventually we made it to shore and followed the shoreline to the lodge.
The mistake the disciples made was to set their nervous systems to the rhythm of the tossing boat rather than the quiet movement of the sleeping Savior’s breathing.
Their SOS is relayed differently by the three Gospels. In Luke it is a statement, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” In Mark it is a mournful question, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” And in Matthew it is a desperate imperative, “Lord, save us!” The least we can say for the disciples is that they knew where to go for help. Their faith was virtually nonexistent, but at least they knew that if any help were to come, it would have to come from Jesus.
Their amazement is seen following his answer to their SOS. They ask, “Who is this?”, a question that combines wonder and fear. The amazement comes from the stupendous nature of the miracle. The fear comes from the natural reaction to being in the presence of the omnipotent God. If he’s that powerful, what will he do to a sinner like me?
There’s something significant here in their reaction to Jesus. It often happens that those most closely associated with a great or famous person are far less enthusiastic about him than are strangers. They see him as he really is, not as his press clippings portray him. But when Jesus is the center of attention, it’s different. The closer the association, the greater the admiration and amazement.
So far we have looked at the background and the narrative itself. It’s time for …
Application: Prerequisites to a happy hurricane
The story of the storm on the lake is not quite through. We have to ask, “What does it mean to me? Where does it fit into my daily existence? What relevance does it have for the hurricanes and other tragedies that come into my life?”
I want to suggest four principles that can help us gain a more positive perspective on the hurricanes of life. The first is,
Get in the right boat.[i] The very least that can be said for the disciples is that they got in the boat where Jesus was the captain. Boats have long been used as symbolic of salvation. Someone has said, “It‘s better to be in a rocking boat with a calm Jesus than in a calm boat with an unknown captain.” If you get in the wrong boat, you have missed the boat.
Get the boat in the water. You object, “Wasn’t that the mistake the disciples made? If they had left the boat on the shore, the hurricane would never have bothered them.” True, if you don’t get in the water you can’t drown. But by the same token, you’ll never get across the lake. You can isolate yourself from many risks, but you’ll also stay a spiritual infant the rest of your life.
Too many want the Christian life and the Church to be quiet, comfortable and pleasing. “Don’t rock the boat,” is an attitude that is common. But while nobody gets hurt when that philosophy is followed, nobody gets healed either. No one grows up. Remember that God was able to send one Son to earth without sin, but not even one without suffering. The third thing we must do is to …
Keep the water out of the boat. My point here is that we must never allow ourselves to become waterlogged by circumstances. That was the disciples’ problem. They were like the ancient Israelites who focused their eyes on the giants in the land rather than the God in their midst. Too many of us have water in our boats. We resemble the seed Paul talked about last Sunday that was choked out by the cares and concerns of this world. Finally, we must …
Recognize who else is in the boat. That’s the key. Jesus could sleep well because his heavenly Father was wide awake. And if Jesus can sleep, so can you. You can rest in the knowledge that God cares. He loves you and you are immortal until your work on earth is done. If you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and are trusting him on a daily basis, there is no necessity for your life to be in total turmoil or chaos.
We used to sing a song at church back in the 50’s:
With Christ in the vessel,
I can smile at the storm.
Another went like this:
No waters can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
And one you are certainly familiar with says,
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll –
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
The ultimate question is this: “Can any boat go down if Jesus is on board?” Of course not.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I want to read a paragraph by David Gooding:
Within our earth itself, wind, wave, lightning, storm, flood, drought, avalanche, earthquake, fire, heat, cold, germ, virus, epidemic, all from time to time threaten and destroy life. Sooner or later one of them may destroy us. The story of the stilling of the storm is not, of course, meant to tell us that Christ will never allow any believer to perish by drowning, or by any other natural disaster. Many believers have so perished. It does demonstrate that he is Lord of the physical forces in the universe, that for him nothing happens by accident, and that no force in all creation can destroy his plan for our eternal salvation or separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39).[ii]
Are you going through a hurricane right now? Call upon Jesus. When he is called upon, the storm becomes a calm, if not outside, at least inside. And after a few of these storms are calmed by our Lord, we should be able to come to him in the middle of the next one, not like the disciples who panicked and said, “Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?”, but rather saying, “Dear Lord, by faith and experience I trust that you know about this storm and you will not allow it to overwhelm me. Even if I perish physically, you will not allow me to perish spiritually. Thank you, Lord.”
We come to the Lord’s Table this morning, which is a good place to come when the storms of life overwhelm us. It’s a simple place, a peaceful place, a place of solitude and prayer. It was instituted during the greatest storm of Jesus’ life, just hours before his crucifixion. It is designed to help us remember that while God seemed far away at the time, he was not only there, but he was accomplishing the greatest good possible—our salvation—through the greatest evil possible—the crucifixion of his Son.
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Trials
[i] This simple outline is not original with me, but I regret that I have lost the source of it.
[ii].David Gooding, According to Luke, 143.