NOTES for Mat 8:27

Against the background of the disasters that beset humanity, these words both rebuke and bring hope. Can the terrible calamities that befall the world really be explained by something so simple? Are people's death and suffering the result of God's anger at our lack of faith? And why does the Lord say this, merely to frighten us?

And if we were not of little faith, then what? Christ's words about our fearfulness imply that the causes of disasters depend little on us, otherwise why would we be afraid? The Lord therefore is not saying that calamities are sent as retribution. Nevertheless, we are called to such faith that we can take responsibility for the world in which we have been placed and resist the forces of disintegration. Our lack of faith is, in essence, a refusal of this calling.

It is no less important that the Lord is speaking not so much about things that have already happened as “for the future.” In practice, this means for us that faith, that is, trust in God, can make us invulnerable to these causeless, “entropic” calamities. We have the means to resist them: trust, prayer, and love for people. This gives hope because these means are truly available to us.

What, then, actually happened during that crossing of the Sea of Galilee? A miracle? God’s supernatural intervention in the events of our untransformed world? One can probably view the situation that way too. And yet all the miracles performed by Jesus during His earthly ministry are signs of the Kingdom. Could this demonstration of authority over the elements also be regarded as such a sign? What does it prove? The strength and authority of the Saviour Himself? Probably so. But only that? To answer the question, we must try to understand what power calmed the storm. The power of God? The power of Jesus Himself, who bears within Himself all the fullness of God? Or something else? And most importantly: did the storm actually subside? At first sight, the question may seem strange. But what, in fact, is a miracle? Is it simply a change in the laws of nature that occurs at a particular place and time? Such a change would instantly destroy our world, because the world exists only because the laws on which it is founded operate in it invariably and everywhere. Yet this world was created by God together with the laws on which it rests. Does God, then, contradict Himself? Hardly. It is more reasonable to suppose that, in this case, other laws belonging to another world come into play because that world has suddenly touched ours. But the Kingdom is precisely such a world! It lives by other laws, different from those of the untransformed world, and it touched our untransformed world through Jesus, who brought it to us. The world around Him lives by the laws of the Kingdom, not by the laws of the untransformed world. And there are no storms in the Kingdom; its nature is wholly subject to the spirit. While Jesus sleeps, the Kingdom does not manifest itself at all, because His will takes no part in what is happening. But the moment He wakes, the world around Him becomes the Kingdom. And the storm subsides, because there is no place for it in the Kingdom.

When the disciples wake Christ, who is sleeping during the storm, and ask for rescue, He rebukes them for fearfulness and little faith - but only for those. Believing people should not have been afraid, but they certainly should have turned to God, which in this case meant waking Christ. This is an important detail: of course the disciples should have awakened Him; what else were they to do? What they should not have done was fear and panic, rushing about in anxiety.

We often think that trust is expressed by curling up beside the Teacher on the same cushion in the boat and also trying to fall asleep, pretending that nothing is happening. No, that is not the disciples' task. We are called to conquer fear in our hearts and not give in to falling apart. Only in this way can we present our life to God, so that He may work His miracles and save us.

The disciples were ready to follow Christ wherever He went. They got into the boat after Him in order to accompany Him. But even while following Christ, the disciples for too long did not understand Him. It is noteworthy that, describing the disciples' reaction to Jesus calming the storm, the evangelist writes: "And the men marveled, saying..." For at the moment when the disciples do not understand the Teacher, they cannot be called disciples.

Christ's sleep in the middle of the stormy sea is striking not only because He preserves astonishing self-control amid the raging elements, while all the disciples are alarmed. Another meaning can also be seen in this image: it recalls God's rest after the completion of creation, when the world was already developing according to the course appointed for it. Even while at rest, the Lord remained the Creator and Lord of the moving universe. And here one can also discern His coming Resurrection, when, rising from the repose of the tomb, He will again bring the bewildered apostles to their senses.

Today's reading brings us back once more to the main theme of all four Gospels: the theme of the Kingdom. Before us are two stories: the stilling of the storm (vv. 23-27) and the healing of the possessed, the demon-possessed (vv. 28-34). The events appear very different, since in one case Jesus is dealing with a force of nature, and in the other with people and dark powers. But in essence, in both cases the point is how the Kingdom of God, which Jesus bears in Himself, transforms the world around Him.

To those around Him it appears that He possesses some superhuman abilities or some special powers given Him by God, and that for this reason He can work miracles that no one else can work (v. 27). But in fact the issue is not powers or abilities. The world around Him is being transformed; that is why the storm grows calm and the demons cannot endure it and run away (v. 32). No power, not even the power of God, affects the world in this way: it can, of course, change many things in it, but in this case the point is no longer simply change, but complete transformation, so that the very laws of creation change. According to the laws of the untransformed world, a storm cannot grow calm without a cause. Strictly speaking, in that world it does not grow calm, but in the Kingdom there is no storm; and then everything depends on which reality the person in the midst of the storm becomes a participant in: the reality of the fallen world or the reality of the Kingdom. And here everything is determined only by faith, by trust in the One who brought this Kingdom into the world (v. 26).

But if there is no faith, even manifestations of the Kingdom by themselves will not replace it. This was the case with the Gergesene demoniacs: the manifestation of the Kingdom was plain, and the demons, naturally unable to endure it, felt this very quickly (v. 29). But with the people everything turned out to be less simple. It was hard not to believe the eyewitnesses' story (v. 33), but this story clearly made a paradoxical impression on the local residents: they asked Jesus to leave them in peace (v. 34). And the point was hardly that they felt sorry about the lost herd.

Of course, the inhabitants of those places were pagans and hardly thought much about the Messiah or the Kingdom. But they did understand one thing: Someone had entered their life and had brought in Something with which living as before would become impossible. If He remained among them, their whole life would change radically. And this, evidently, they did not want.

Here Jesus encountered the chief obstacle on His path: people's unwillingness to receive the Kingdom that He offers them. And then He leaves. For if a person refuses the Kingdom, the Savior has nothing more to give him.