Read: Matthew 8:23-26 NRSV
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, 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?’
In this short passage, Matthew provides us with a contrast between citizens of the fallen world with the King of the world to come. Just as Adam and Eve felt fear for the first time after they sinned, the disciples are still living in a world of discord, feeling the consequences of sin in God’s creation. Instead of perfect harmony, there is dissonance between human with God, human with human, and human with nature.
Jesus, as he does in many different ways throughout the gospels, shows us how things will be set right in His Kingdom, and that begins with healing the rifts that were broken by the first sin. There will be no place for fear in God’s Kingdom besides the natural and awestruck fear of God himself. Fear, like anger and depression and anxiety are the natural responses to a sinful world because we know, instinctively, that things are not as they should be. We are divided by a rush for power, cynical and mistrustful of our friends, greedy and selfish in our fears. But just as Jesus can stand up and rebuke the wind and the sea and all is made calm, He will also stand before us and say “Peace, be still.” The resurrected earth, and our resurrected bodies will be free from sin and its consequences by the words of our King.
Until that day, what can we do in response to the dissonance? We are called to be fellow workers in building the kingdom on earth. Perhaps some of us are called to soothe the winds and the sea, but certainly all of us are called to calm the equally dangerous winds of our own relationships and the waves of our tempers. Anyone who has ever successfully taught a class of seventh graders how to regulate their emotions has performed a miracle just as astonishing as Jesus silencing the storm. To forgive, to show mercy, to stand up for the weak, to pray is to work with Jesus in bringing creation back into harmony. And by those efforts, and through the grace of God, we are brought into harmony, too.
