13th Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 30th June 2020 — Gospel: Mt 8,23-27
Saved by little faith
The storm story can be looked at from the perspective of contrasts. The storm is contrasted with the calm after the miracle. The disciples’ fear and panic is contrasted with Jesus’ sleeping on the boat. Number of these experienced fishermen, who had been on the lake before when there were storms, are now terribly afraid. This indicates that their experience cannot give foreknowledge about nature. But Jesus has control over it, even though he didn’t depend on this lake for his livelihood. In the midst of this unexpected and life-threatening storm, Jesus says the disciples had little faith. They woke up Jesus saying, “Lord, save us”. In their experience this was a simple and urgent request for physical deliverance. In spite of gaining confidence in accompanying Jesus in various moments of healing, the disciples expressed fear. Jesus is annoyed with their shortage of faith, but not of their request. The disciples were right to ask Jesus to save them, and their request shows that they had faith that could save them. But it was their fear that betrayed the weakness of their faith. They were in a panic when they came to Him, not in confidence. However, Jesus doesn’t need great faith from the disciples to be able to save them. He just saves them to augment their faith. He calmed the storm to calm their fears. He had not rebuked their weak faith simply to point out their weakness. He had rebuked their faith in order to show that He could resolve everyone’s weakness.
