Luke 8:22-25
Where Is Your Faith? Jesus Is Not a Tame Lion – Luke 8:22-25
Luke 8:22-25 (NIVUK)
22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let us go over to the other side of the lake.' So they got into a boat and set out. 23 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. 24 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. 25 '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.'
Commentary
Revd. Mark Fletcher: But what happens next is that he growls at the disciples. Verse 25, he says to them, “Where is your faith?” Do you remember the lovely line about Aslan in the Narnia books? They say of Aslan, “He’s not a tame lion.” And Jesus isn’t a tame lion. He might just be being grumpy because they woke him up from his nap. But you get this picture of Jesus: he wouldn’t have calmed the storm unless he had to. His expectation was that their resilience, their faith, would be able to face up to the harsh realities of the world. Our prayer probably shouldn’t be, “Lord, get me out of this situation.” It should be, “Help me to sail this ship better.” In fact, I was remembering an old Sunday school song that said, with Jesus in the boat, you can smile at the storm. Anyone remember that one? Or was that just me? And I don’t know about smiling at the storm, but it does mean that with Christ, we can face almost anything. To grow in faith and character and resilience means facing up to the storms of life, of facing up to apparent peril. What does that look like? Well, I think we need to be willing to just slightly let go of our desire to be in control of everything. We need to be willing to go places where we’ve never been before to experience new things. The future is unknown. But God is faithful and trustworthy. And these sort of adventures of faith help us to realise that all too often our view of God is too small. The disciples, in fear and amazement, asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” Jesus is wonderful, but he is not a tame lion. He was there at creation, and he hasn’t finished that work. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith, and he is still at work in us. His expectation is that we are growing in faith and maturity, and character and service.