Jesus Asleep in the Storm

In Sunday’s prayer tip, we read this same account from the book of Matthew. Mark tells us the same story from the perspective of a different writer. Jesus had spent the day teaching from a boat, and by evening he was worn out enough to fall asleep on a cushion while a storm filled the boat with water around him. These were experienced fishermen. They knew the difference between rough water and a storm that kills, and this one told them they were going to die. So, they woke him, not gently, and their question had an edge of accusation in it. “Don’t you care?” He got up, spoke two words to the wind and the sea, and the whole lake went still.

The disciples asked two different questions that night. Before the storm ended, their question was about Jesus’ character. “Don’t you care?” After the storm ended, their question was about his identity. “Who then is this?” N.T. Wright, writing on this passage, pointed out that the Psalms had already described a God who could “rule the raging of the sea,” calming what no human power could touch.* They disciples were watching someone speak with the same authority the Psalms had reserved for God alone. Jesus, asleep in the boat, was not a sign he had stopped caring. It was a sign of how tired an ordinary human body gets. But also, Jesus shows us who he is, a few seconds later, silencing a storm with just two words.

Most of us have had our own version of that question. Something falls apart, we pray, and nothing seems to change, so we start to wonder, quietly or out loud, “Doesn’t God care?” The disciples’ story doesn’t promise that God will never experience storms. It shows a promise upon which we can rely. Jesus is in the boat with you before the wind ever changes. He might not calm your storm the moment you want him to, but he is there with you all the same.

• Think of a time you were afraid something in your life was falling apart, and God felt silent or distant. Looking back now, can you see any way Jesus was present in that storm even before things changed? What made it hard to trust that at the time?
• The disciples’ fear turned to awe once they saw who Jesus really was. What is one storm in your life right now where you’re stuck on “does he care” instead of asking “who is this”? What would it look like this week to bring that question to Jesus directly instead of carrying it alone?