Luke 8:22-25

Jesus Is Revealed As Lord of Wind and Waves (8:22-25).

We first come to three incidents which reveal the folly of His mother and brothers. Each reveals His compassionate power as in His manhood He is revealed as Lord of Creation. In the first He stills the storm and there is a calm. In the second He removes the evil spirits that are causing a storm in the demoniac, so that he ends up seated calmly at the feet of Jesus. And in the third He quietens the storm in the father's heart over his dead daughter, by raising her from the dead, while at the same time calming the storm in the woman with heavy bleeding by healing her and removing her uncleanness. He is ‘given dominion over the works of His hands, and all things are put under His feet' (Psalms 8:6)

In this first incident Luke wants his readers to recognise that Jesus is the One Who ‘rules the power of the sea. When its waves rise You still them' (Psalms 89:9), words previously spoken of God Himself. In other words that as the God-sent Messiah (which will be made clear shortly, and to which this is leading up) He has divine power and authority, even over nature itself.

There may also be behind it the indication by a visual display that Jesus has come in order to quieten a troubled world. In Psalms 65:5 we read, ‘Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at earth's farthest bounds are afraid at your signs', which combines the ideas of a situation like this and the subjugation of the peoples of the world. The restless, uncontrollable seas are regularly seen as a picture of the nations. The same idea occurs in Daniel 7:2; Revelation 13:1. Compare also Isaiah 57:20, ‘the wicked are like the troubled sea, they find no rest'. But Jesus had come to give rest in the midst of a troubled world. When the Apostles were later out in the world surrounded by its raging, they may well have looked back to this incident and realised that they need not fear, for the Calmer of Storms and Raging Seas was still with them.

We may analyse the passage as follows:

a He entered into a boat, Himself and His disciples, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched forth. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And there came down a storm of wind on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy (Luke 8:22).

b They came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, “Master, master, we perish” (Luke 8:24).

c He awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm (Luke 8:24 b).

b And He said to them, “Where is your faith?”

a And being afraid they marvelled, saying one to another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” (Luke 8:25).

Note that in ‘a' they are in peril from the wind and the water and in the parallel He commands the winds and the water. In ‘b' His disciples plead with Him, while in the parallel He asks them where their faith is. And central is His power revealed in bringing about the calm.