When Jesus Sleeps - Luke 8:22-25
[24th April 2012]
Some of you will know that I set this as a text for a Hermeneutics exam at the end of last term. As I prepared to mark the exam I was personally challenged by it. In the wider scheme of the Gospel of Luke it is part of the progressive revelation that Jesus is the Christ, culminating in Peter’s confession in Lk 9:18 “… he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”
But for us this morning there is something else perhaps.
What do we do when Jesus sleeps? I am sure there are theological or metaphysical debates about who was upholding the universe while Jesus was walking the earth. What happened to Jesus during those 3 days between his death and resurrection? What happened when Jesus slept, what did he dream about? We are asking questions the Bible does not answer, but even if it did we would probably not understand the answers anyway. There are of course allusions here to the story of Jonah asleep in the storm, but more of that on another day.
There are times when Jesus appears to us to be asleep. We are in a boat which is storm-tossed. Life is not going well. We feel we need to hear from God while at an unexpected junction in our life - often looking for an excuse to avoid something difficult!
The context of this story is interesting. Just before Jesus had just been discussing who his mothers and brothers were. This might seem strange – but Jesus said: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Then in the next section Jesus said to his disciples: “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” Jesus then settles down to sleep. Later a storm comes and the disciples fear they were about to drown and they wake him: “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?”
This story is not about keeping calm in a storm. Sadly plenty of pious God-fearing Christians may have drowned in terrible storms down the centuries with earnest prayers on their lips, thinking of these very Bible verses. But Jesus chides them for their lack of faith, which frankly I can well understand. Some of the disciples were professional fishermen and were used to storms on the Sea of Galilee, so this one must have been very unexpected or severe to so frighten them. I understand that the spiritual awakening of John Wesley began during a terrible storm on his way home to England from his failed mission to native Americans in Georgia. Wesley, who had no assurance of salvation and may not have been born again yet, was scared out of his wits, but Wesley noted the calm of the Moravian missionaries travelling with him back to England. Safely back in England Wesley began to actively seek out Moravian Christians who pointed him in the right direction for true salvation.
In the context in Luke chapter 9, Jesus had a clear intent to go to the other side of the lake for a specific purpose – namely to cast the demons out of a severely possessed man named Legion, which he ultimately did. Jesus was not going to fail. This story of the storm is surely as much about Jesus’ words and purposes being fulfilled as about his power. He was not going to be deflected. He was free to sleep until they got to the other side - he knew he would get there. We may speculate that the storm was a satanic attempt to kill Jesus – we don’t know. The disciples’ lack of faith was not so much their failure to pray over the storm, but to doubt that they would get to the other side.
What is the lesson for us? It is that when Jesus does not appear to be engaged with us – he might seem to be, as it were, asleep – but he is still with us in the boat. In fact he is still upholding the universe … and upholding you – even though it doesn’t feel like it. You will get to the other side. He has says, “Give up your work!” or “Go to Eastwest College!” He has says, “Go to work in Congo!” You are convinced he has spoken into your life about something and you do it. But sometime after you have obeyed Jesus by taking the course he has set for you, problems arise. Jesus just does not seem to be around. Does this mean that we cry out in terror? Does this mean we should just throw in the towel and say there’s a storm coming? Does this mean I should go back to my old job? No! We carry on. We will get there. We will get to the other side. Jesus does not come down and give us wonderful spiritual experiences every morning to reassure us we are on the right path. I am sure that you know that. I was clearly led to my missionary training college in England in 1983, though some days I wondered what I was doing there.
I found my 6½ years in Africa very hard and many times I wanted to go home. When the time came to go as civil war engulfed us at the end of 6½ years, we had a supernatural peace and the most amazing prayer meeting I have ever attended and a set of very clear guidance. It was time to get out of that boat. We had reached the other side.
We are to obey the word of God and see it through. “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
Jesus says to his disciples “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” His word was the word of God. It will come to pass. Because at the end of the story: “They were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” The unspoken answer is that this is the Christ in the boat with us. His words are the word of God … and as a result we fall down in worship and glorify Jesus for his faithfulness, in shame for our unbelief, far more than if we had had God showing signs and wonders to us every morning.
As Jesus concludes his Great Commission, “… and I will be with you always even to the end of the age.”