What strikes me about this text is the total humanity of Jesus–he was exhausted! He had crowds all day following him, he went to Peter’s house and still needed to heal someone (Peter’s mother-in-law), then when evening came the people brought out their demon-possessed. So after delivering and healing many, the crowds were still everywhere so he gave orders to cross to the other side of the Jordan. But before he left a teacher of the law pledged his undying devotion to him and Jesus’ reply was so fitting for the moment:
I’m sure he was feeling every bit of this as he could find nowhere to rest. For this reason it’s no surprise that the first thing Jesus does when he enters into the boat is to go to sleep. Then a storm came up so furiously that even these experienced, have-grown-up-on-the-lake disciples/fishermen were afraid. But Jesus? Sleeping. Exhausted. Beat. Waves crashing over the deck weren’t going to wake him up. But the disciples did.
He rebukes them for their lack of faith, rebukes the wind and waves and everything goes calm. I’m sure at this point he probably looks at his disciples tiredly and says, “I’m going back to bed.” The disciples were left befuddled and amazed. “What kind of man is this?” they ask.
Jesus wasn’t super-human. He experienced humanity just as we do. And sometimes, it can make one awfully tired. That’s why I too am heading to bed 🙂
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Memorized:
Matt 8:14-27 (Jan 5)
