Matthew 8:24 - And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he [Jesus] was asleep.
I have a friend who has an innate ability to ask you probing questions you don’t want to answer. They aren’t bad questions, they’re good questions. She asks them so that you can reflect on the condition of your own soul. A few days ago, she used this gift on me. Here’s how the dialogue went:
“How’s it going?” She asked.
“It’s good”, I said. “I’ve been really busy. I said ‘yes’ to too many things and January was insane.”
Now, normally, this is where a conversation like this would end. Most of us don’t think about asking a follow-up question, or if we do, it would be for more information. Perhaps someone would ask about what sorts of things I was involved in. After all, it’s okay to be overly busy if all the things that we’re involved in are important. Being busy with important things is a badge of honor, isn’t it?
The conversation didn’t end, and she asked a follow-up question: “are you finding time to Sabbath?”
Ooof. Bomb-drop. Nothing makes a pastor feel worse than having to decide which of the Ten Commandments you want to violate. I could either lie (#9) and tell her that I have been sabbathing, or I could tell her that I’ve regularly been breaking the Sabbath (#4). I went with a half-truth: “Not as often as I should.” I felt like acknowledging that I knew I was breaking the Sabbath and that I should be resting more allowed me to save some face, as if it was somehow okay for me to violate God’s will for me as long as I knew I was doing it.
That’s what led me to this reminder in Matthew 8:24. Jesus is sleeping on a boat on the Sea of Galilee with his disciples and a massive storm whips up, the boat is taking on water, and no amount of commotion can wake him. Finally, the disciples go and shake him from his sleep. Before doing anything about the storm, or the boat, or the water, Jesus asks his own probing question: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”
Of course, Jesus goes on to calm the storm and the disciples marvel at this miracle and so we think that what Jesus was meant was, “Why didn’t you have faith in me that I could calm this storm and not let you die?” Certainly, that may have been part of what he meant. But the timing of his question points to another possibility of what he wanted his disciples to reflect on: “Why do you think I was able to sleep during the storm while you were afraid for your lives?”
The answer is that Jesus trusted his Father to take care of him–and take care of the storm–while he took the time to rest. Jesus’ faith allowed him to nap, even while there was important work to be done. And of course, it was the disciples lack of faith–and mine–that prevents resting. I’m too concerned with what will happen to the important work if I’m not doing it, forgetting that my Father is always paying attention so that once in a while, I don’t have to.
In fact, that’s the purpose of Sabbath. Do you have enough faith that God is taking care of business so you can go and rest, play, or generally just enjoy life? Or is the business that you are involved in more important than the business of Jesus?
A probing question, indeed.