What if Jesus isn’t just a teacher who calms your fears—but a cosmic warrior who silences Chaos itself, as he did in the all-too-familiar but vastly misunderstood "calming of the storm" account?
In this mythic episode of What the Bible Actually Says, Dr Tyson Putthoff takes us deep into the Sea of Galilee—and even deeper into the ancient worldview where the sea wasn’t just water, but a living force of disorder and death.
Drawing from Matthew 8, Ugaritic and Babylonian myth, and the Psalms, this episode reframes the familiar storm story as a Chaoskampf—a chaos battle—where Jesus isn’t reacting to a storm. He’s confronting the Sea, the same ancient enemy faced by Marduk, Baal, and Yahweh himself.
Jesus is not afraid, and he's not being passive. He’s asleep—because he’s the sleeping storm god, resting before battle. And when Chaos strikes, Jesus rises, speaks, and the storm obeys. But the disciples miss it. They ask, “What kind of being is this?”—a question that will hang in the air until the Sea rises again.
If you’ve ever felt like Jesus is sleeping through your storm, or wondered what kind of power he really holds—this is the episode for you.
• Subscribe now and enter the cosmic story behind the storm you thought you knew.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:15):
What's up everybody, welcome to the What the Bible actually says
podcast. I'm your host, Tyson put off.
And today we're diving into something that's going to feel
both familiar and totally and completely wild at the same
time. If this is your first time here,
Bao Kaba, welcome aboard. And if you're a regular
listener, Bokim Hashavim, welcome back.
I'm thrilled to have you here. Before we dive in, make sure you
(00:38):
subscribe to the show, rate US on your favorite platform, and
go check out bibleactuallysays.com.
Also, quick note, my new book, Jesus, the Strategic Life and
Mission of the Messiah and His Movement, Volume 1 drops on May
30th from Hey Call Publishing CoSet a reminder to grab your
copy, Easiest Ways through Amazon.
It's a deep dive into Jesus's life, campaign, strategy, and
(01:01):
message. And if you've been following
this podcast, it's the perfect companion because it's going to
expand on a lot of what we do here and a lot of what we can't
get to on this podcast. So check it out.
All right, let's get into it. So we're starting a new two-part
series right now, one of the most exciting and honestly
(01:21):
underappreciated stories in all the gospels.
And it's maybe one of the most powerful and life changing
stories and studies in the Gospels.
We've talked a lot in this series about Jesus as a teacher,
as a prophet and economist, temple disruptor.
But in these next two episodes, we're going to take a look at
Jesus in a way that very few ever do.
(01:43):
We're going to look at Jesus as a cosmic storm God figure.
OK, and I'll explain everything and and we'll unpack all of
this. We're going to look at Jesus as
a divine son within an ancient context who does what every
divine son in the ancient world was expected to do.
He goes to battle against the sea, He confronts chaos.
And in doing so, he proves that he alone is worthy to reign as
(02:06):
the Son of God. So I know, just hang on, hang
with me. It's going to make sense as we
unpack this. And once you see this, you won't
be able to Unsee it, I promise. So in this episode, we're
focusing on Matthew 8, where Jesus and his disciples get into
a boat and they get caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
It's a story most of us know. Jesus is asleep in the boat.
(02:29):
A sudden squaw hits. The disciples panic.
They wake Jesus up. He rebukes the wind and waves
and boom, the storm is gone. The disciples freak out.
They say what kind of being is this, that even the wind and the
sea obey him? It's all familiar stuff.
It's Sunday school territory. But here's the thing.
This isn't just about Jesus saving his friends from a scary
(02:51):
weather event. This is about Jesus taking his
place in an ancient and terrifying story.
A story that every listener in the 1st century would have
recognized and in fact, in the ancient Near East for thousands
of years would have recognized. It's the story of the sea, the
cosmic symbol of chaos and disorder, the embodiment of
chaos. And it's that very sea, that
(03:13):
entity, that monstrous entity that rises up and attacks in
Jesus, the divine Son, the appointed heir is forced to
confront it head on. But here's what's even more
interesting. In this first encounter, based
on what we find in the text of Matthew 8, the sea strikes
first. In Matthew 8, it's not just
Jesus who initiates the confrontation.
(03:33):
It's chaos that makes the first move and and that detail is
going to matter big time when weget to Part 2.
But let's set the scene historically for a minute.
This event happens in the springof 28 AD, according to the
chronology that I put together in the book and that we've been
following along in this podcast.And it matters for one key
reason. This is the season that is the
(03:54):
spring when the Sea of Galilee is most volatile.
The way the terrain is shaped, hills rising sharply on all
sides, means that in spring, cool air from the heights can
suddenly rush down and collide with the warm air rising from
the lake surface creates a sudden, violent storm.
It's a real meteorological science, which is probably why
so many commentators actually focus on this point.
(04:16):
And, and you've probably heard that before, but that natural
explanation, even though it's valid, is only part of the
picture. And here's the twist.
It might actually help us understand why the disciples
missed what Jesus was really doing here and what was truly
happening on a cosmic level. Because if you live near Galilee
and you're a fisherman and it's spring and you're out on the
(04:36):
water and a storm blows up, you expect it.
That's normal. You don't want to be caught in
it necessarily, but you expect that to happen.
So even if it's terrifying, you're not automatically
interpreting it as some kind of divine confrontation.
It may be in the back of your mind because you understand what
the sea represents and what the sea has always been believed to
embody. That is this deity of chaos,
(04:59):
this primal force that seeks to undo everything that is arranged
and ordered. But at the moment, you're just
trying not to drown. And maybe that's why after Jesus
calms a storm, the disciples arestill scratching their heads and
they're asking literally what type of being?
What sort of being is this? Not just what type of man is
this, but what sort of being is this?
(05:19):
Not in awe, not in worship, but in fear and confusion.
They don't get it yet. They've just witnessed A cosmic
battle and they think it's just a really lucky weather miracle.
They've been attacked by the sea, by chaos itself, and they
think Jesus just happened to be powerful enough to hit the
emergency brake on nature. But Jesus is playing a much
bigger game. And this is where we need to
(05:41):
start thinking like ancient people again.
When we read the Bible, in the ancient Near East, and even in
parts of the Greco Roman world, the sea was not just water.
It was a living force. It was a hostile one, too.
It was the domain of chaos, the place of monsters, of death, of
darkness. It was where order went to die.
So when Yahweh splits the sea inPsalm 74, what's happening is
(06:04):
not just a storm story, it's a chaos story.
It's a cosmic war. And every time it's same basic
plot. The gods or God must establish
order by defeating the sea or chaos, because until chaos is
subdued, the world can't function, life can't flourish,
creation can't stand. And in every version of the
story, the sun figure, the heir to the divine throne, has to
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earn his place by facing the seahead on.
That's what makes him worthy. That's how he proves he can
rule. So here's what I think is
happening in Matthew 8. Jesus and the disciples are out
on the water. They've been following him
around Galilee, watching him heal.
People cast out demons, preach about this Malkuta de Aloha, the
Kingdom of God, the empire of God.
(06:48):
They know he's special, but theyhaven't put all the pieces
together yet. They understand that he's this
Messiah or messianic figure, butin their world, Messiah and Son
of God weren't the same thing. And he's about to show them.
And it's going to take a couple of lessons to do so that as the
Messiah, he is also the Son of God.
And he's going to explain and demonstrate what that truly
(07:10):
means. And it's a message that we often
miss. And I think that these texts in
the podcast episode that we're doing today and in the next
episode are going to be critically important for helping
us to understand who Jesus is and was on a much more cosmic
and eternal level than we've ever imagined.
So they're in the boat on the water, a storm hits, the sea
(07:31):
rises up, chaos attacks. And what do you find Jesus
doing? Sleeping.
So let's look at Matthew 8. I've given you kind of a preface
to all of this, but let's reallyslow down and set the stage.
If you've ever flipped through the Old Testament or any ancient
myth from ancient Babylon or Canaan or Egypt, one thing
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becomes really clear. Gods didn't just sit on clouds
and toss blessings. They fought battles.
And at the center of those battles was one primary enemy,
Chaos. Now, when I say chaos, I don't
mean your toddler's room or a high school hallway.
I mean something cosmic, something ancient, something
terrifying. In ancient mythologies, Chaos
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was literally the anti creation.It was the formless raging force
that threatened to undo everything the gods and the
kings had built. And guess who had to defeat
Chaos to prove they deserved their crown?
The sun in the ancient Near Eastern world being the Son of
God wasn't just a nice theological title.
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It wasn't just a status symbol. It was a job description.
It meant inheriting the divine throne, but only if you were
worthy. And worthiness wasn't just about
birthright. It was about battle.
You had to prove yourself by taking on chaos itself.
That's how you establish your right to rule.
Look at Marduk. In Babylonian mythology, Marduk
is the son of AA, one of the chief gods.
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But Marduk doesn't become the ruler of the gods just because
he's born into the family. He has to earn it.
How? By defeating Tiamat, the
formidable and horrifying sea dragon, undefeated, the
personification of primeval chaos.
So when the gods are under threat, they call on Marduk,
who's at this time an underdog. And he answers, and he comes
(09:16):
out. He's armed with a net and some
winds and a storm chariot, and he slays the dragon, and he
really destroys her violently. He slices her up, and he uses
your remains to create the heavens and the earth.
That's how the cosmos gets ordered.
He brings order from disorder. That's also how Marduk, as the
son of the High God, becomes appointed as king.
(09:40):
Then there's Baal or Baal. You're familiar with him from
all of the references to him in the Old Testament or Hebrew
Bible. He was famous in the land of
Canaan before and during Israel's presence and emergence
there. So in a work put together by the
Canaanites, we call the Baal cycle or the Baal cycle.
Baal, the storm God, is the son of AL, the head deity of the
(10:00):
Canaanite. And like Marduk, Baal proves his
divine status by taking on a chaos monster.
In this case, it's Yom, the God of the sea.
Yom is the Canaanite word for sea.
It's also the Hebrew word for sea.
Well, Baal or Baal, he doesn't just calm the sea, he wages a
war against it. And with the help of these
(10:20):
magical weapons, these clubs forged by his fellow Craftsman
God Kotharwahasis, Baal defeats Yom and becomes the ruler of the
cosmos. He basically earns his father
Ailes approval. And the sea is tamed.
And in the sea being tamed and defeated, order is restored back
to the cosmos. So does that sound familiar?
(10:42):
This whole pattern, this, this divine sonship, cosmic threat,
stormy battle, triumphant rule, son declared king.
This pattern is what scholars would call chaos Comp, a German
word that literally means chaos.Struggle is the ancient
blueprint for how the world was saved and sustained by divine
sons who went out and defeated the forces of chaos or disorder,
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and in so doing brought order from chaos.
So why does all of this matter for Jesus, in particularly
Matthew 8 and Matthew 14? It matters because when Matthew
tells us that Jesus calms the storm, he's not just giving us a
weather report. He's placing Jesus squarely in
this ancient tradition. He's saying, you want to know
(11:27):
who this is. You want to know what kind of
sun he is. Watch him go toe to toe with the
sea and you'll find out. But let's not jump too far ahead
yet. Let's keep laying the
groundwork. In these myths, the sea isn't
just water. It's a symbol.
It's chaos, personified or Incarnate.
It's the thing that keeps threatening to undo everything.
In Babylon, it's Tiamat, the roiling dragon of saltwater
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chaos. In Canaan, its Yam, the unruly
ocean that never stays in its lane.
In Egypt, it's Op EP, the serpent of the underworld who
tries to swallow the sun every night as raw sails through the
darkness. And in Israel, Scriptures, the
Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, Same exact deal.
In Psalm 74, the poet says Yahweh split the sea by his
(12:11):
power and broke the heads of thesea.
Monsters, chaos, battle, language.
And it echoes what Marduk did toTiamat the sea monster when he
literally smashed her head with his Mace.
In Psalm 89, Yahweh is praised because he rules the raging sea
and stills its surging waves. In Job 9, we're told that God
(12:32):
treads on the waves of the sea, literally walks atop the chaos.
In Psalm one, O 4, seven and nine, the waters flee at God's
rebuke. He sets boundaries for them so
they never again cover the earth.
In Psalm 1815, God's nostrils flare, he gets angry, and the
valleys of the sea are exposed. The earth shakes as he asserts
control. In Psalm 7716 to 20, the waters
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see God and tremble. The depths writhe in fear as he
makes a path through the sea forhis people at the Exodus in
Isaiah 5110. Yahweh is the one who cuts Rahab
to pieces and dries up the sea so the redeemed people can pass
that name. Rahab or Rahab, is another
nickname for the sea as a mythicmonster.
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In Job 38, God asks Job who shutin the sea with doors when it
burst out from the womb. He clothes it in clouds and
wraps it in darkness like a newborn, then sets its
boundaries and says, This far you may come and no farther.
That's not a weather report. That's Yahweh laying down the
law on chaos itself and putting boundaries on it, shackling it,
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bringing it into submission. Even Genesis 1 gives us this
imagery, the creation account, the deep over which the spirit
hovers. That's called tejom, the deep
chaotic waters, a sort of a Hebrew echo of the Babylonian
tiamat. The word tahom in Hebrew sounds
similar to the Babylonian word tiamat.
(14:01):
So in this case, creation doesn't happen in a vacuum.
It happens as an act of divine conquest over chaos.
God at the moment of creation isbringing order out of disorder
by subduing chaos, subduing Tahom.
So the ancient world saw the seaas wild.
It was untamable, it was alive, and it was dangerous.
(14:23):
You know, if you're a Galilean fisherman, you used the sea and
you tried to have a good relationship with it because the
sea fed you, right? It gave you fish, and it
provided passage from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the
other. So it was a source of commerce.
But at any moment the sea could lose its temper and swallow you
whole, never to return you to the surface.
(14:46):
So you had to be careful with the sea.
It was again, It was wild, it was untamable, it was alive, and
it was dangerous. But the ancients also believed
that the true Son of God, the rightful heir, the one worthy of
the throne, was also the one whocould take on the sea, survive
it, silence it, send it packing.So Jesus is asleep on the
(15:06):
cushion, and his sleep is sort of the calm before the storm, or
more accurately, the calm in thestorm before the chaos meets its
match in the person, in the presence and the power of Jesus.
And when he wakes up, when he speaks, he stills the sea.
So this isn't just a miracle. This isn't just as so many of us
(15:27):
have preached and taught and learned in Sunday school and in
sermons. This isn't just Jesus showing
that he has power over creation.This is a mythic, A cosmic, A
celestial claim, a divine flex. This is Jesus stepping into the
role of the Son who doesn't justinherit the world, but saves it
by defeating its oldest, wildestyet to be defeated enemy in
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chaos. And the disciples, they don't
miss it entirely, but they stilldon't really get it.
All they can say is what kind ofman is this?
That even the winds in the sea obey him.
They're still trying to figure it out.
And again, this is only a year into Jesus public campaign.
So he hasn't demonstrated all ofhis power and all of his might
just yet. But he also hasn't just come out
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and said, hey, I'm the son of God.
He's trying to show them who he is rather than simply come out
and say, this is who I am, believe me.
And Matthew picks up on all of this.
And as he's recording this and communicating it to his
audience, he knows exactly what kind of man Jesus is.
But let's go back to the scene. Jesus and his disciples are
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crossing the sea. A great storm suddenly rises up.
It's violent, chaotic, terrifying.
Matthew's Greek actually calls it a seismos, which is a term
usually used for earthquakes. So this isn't just rough waves.
This is something terrifying anddramatic and extraordinary.
It's a mythic disruption, as if the very forces of nature, or
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more specifically of chaos itself, have risen up to
challenge Jesus and his crew. In the language that we actually
find in the Gospel accounts is that the sea has woken up and
it's doing something that we read in other ancient accounts
of chaos Dragons to have done. They wake up and they attack
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their prey and they seek to bring disorder to an otherwise
ordered world. And what's Jesus doing?
He's asleep. So let's talk about Jesus
falling asleep during the storm in Matthew 824.
It's not just a detail tossed into add realism.
We think of this in in differentways.
We think of this as Jesus is tired and I think he was in
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terms of his human nature. They also, I've heard this
taught as hey, look at how calm Jesus is under pressure, be like
Jesus. I don't think that's the lesson
we need to teach or preach out of this.
In the ancient world, especiallyin mythological and biblical
traditions, sleep, and especially divine sleep, was
never just sleep. It often symbolized the calm
(18:00):
before action, the withholding of power before explosive
intervention. And if you know your Hebrew
Bible or your Old Testament or the mythic world Jesus lived in
and his audience lived in, you'drecognize this motif, this idea,
immediately. But we in our modern day and in
our own interpretive framework, we tend to miss this because in
(18:21):
the ancient imagination, when the gods slept, something was
about to happen. In Psalm 44, Israel cries out to
God, awake. Why do you sleep?
O Lord, rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever.
They weren't saying God was lazy.
They weren't saying that they truly believe that God was
asleep. They were saying we know what
happens when you wake up, so wake up now and come and rescue
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us. In Canaanite myth, Baal, or Baal
lies dormant in the underworld before his return to battle.
In Egyptian tradition, the sun God RA must awaken each morning
to once again defeat APEP the chaos serpent, and bring back
the light. Sleep always preceded action in
the ancient world. So Jesus asleep is not passive.
It's divine readiness. It's the posture of a God about
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to act, and the disciples don't get it.
They panic, they scream, they shake him awake with the
desperate question that we are all familiar with.
Lord save us, we're perishing. And in this moment we should
hear echoes of Israel crying outin the psalms, of frightened
sailors in Jonah's boat yelling at the prophet to wake up and
help. Except this time, the one
they're waking up is more than aprophet.
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So Jesus wakes up and he doesn'tappear flustered, but he does
seem disappointed. This question is pretty pointed.
Why are you afraid, O you of little faith, or literally you?
Little faith errs. It's a gentle rebuke, but it's
layered with emotion and sadness.
You almost hear it as you still don't see who I am, do you?
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And then, without any theatrics or without any ritual, without
calling on a higher power, Jesusstands and he rebukes the wind
and the sea, and immediately there's a great calm.
So the Greek here shifts in Matthew's account from mega
seismos great storm to mega likeGalena great calm.
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Matthew's being deliberate and kind of poetic in the way he's
explaining what's happening here.
He's basically saying this went from a massive, enormous storm
to a massive and enormous peacefulness, from quake to
quiet, from chaos to cosmos, from mythic terror to divine
peace. The sea, which had erupted in
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symbolic rebellion, now bows in total submission.
And the disciples, they're stunned.
They don't applaud, they don't cheer.
They ask, what kind of being is this that even the winds in the
sea obey him? And here Matthew gives us one of
the most subtle but powerful moments in the gospel, because
that question isn't rhetorical. It's sort of a real time
(20:51):
theological awakening. They've seen the prophets calm
troubled hearts. They've seen rabbis teach
wisdom. They've never seen someone
subdue the sea because in their scriptures only one being does
that. Yahweh.
Psalm 89.9 You rule the raging sea.
When its waves rise, you still them.
Psalm 1O47 At your rebuke the waters fled.
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Job 98. He alone stretches out the
heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
These were things only Yahweh did.
So when Jesus rebukes the storm,he's not just performing a
miracle. He's stepping into the role of
the God of Israel. He's revealing in an
unmistakable way that he's not just the Son of God in metaphor.
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He is the one who carries Yahweh's authority.
He is the sleeping storm God whorises and defeats chaos with a
single word. And the disciples, they're not
ready for that yet. So Jesus sort of lets the moment
hang. He doesn't follow it up with a
theological lecture. He doesn't break it down.
He sort of lets the storm say itall.
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And here's what makes this even more fascinating.
This isn't the last time he'll meet the sea.
Because just a few chapters later in Matthew 14, Jesus will
take the fight back to the waters.
But this time, he won't wait forthe sea to challenge him.
This time, he'll initiate the battle.
We've got to save that for the next episode.
So when Jesus rebukes the sea inMatthew 826, this is a
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fascinating line. Matthew 826 says, Then he got up
and rebuked the winds in the seaand there was a great calm.
That word, Matthew's Greek epitome Mason, he rebuked.
It's a really powerful word. It's not a casual, hey, stop
that. It's the word used elsewhere
when Jesus actually confronts demons.
It's a word that implies authority over a living, chaotic
(22:40):
force. In Mark's version of the story,
we're given the exact words Jesus spoke.
Peace. Be still in Greek.
Literally be silent. Be muzzled.
This isn't gentle, calm, passive, peaceful, whispering
language. And the storm stops.
This is divine combat language. Jesus doesn't pray to God to
calm the storm. He doesn't call down angels to
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do it for him. He does it himself with his own
voice, with his own authority. He stands.
He rebukes the sea, and the sea obeys.
It doesn't have any choice. This moment is unlike anything
else in the Gospels, really. Not because Jesus performs a
miracle that happens a lot of times, but because of what this
miracle means. And as we've mentioned, this
shows the disciples who Jesus truly is, even though they don't
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yet get it. And again, this is not just a
weather miracle. This isn't just Jesus showing
that he has control over nature.This is Jesus showing that like
Yahweh in primal times before the heavens and the earth were
brought into order, this is Jesus showing he's on that
level. And in the minds of the
disciples, especially those withdeep Jewish roots who knew the
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Psalms and the Exodus story, in the tales of Yahweh splitting
the seed, rescue his people and the story of Job, this would
have been jaw driving. And Matthew makes that clear.
And it's interesting because at this moment the disciples appear
to be more afraid of Jesus than they were of the storm.
Matthew 827 And the men marvelled, saying, what sort of
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man is this, that even the windsand the sea obey him?
They're asking a question. I think we're meant to ask not
just how Jesus did it, but who he really is.
Here's sort of the twist. Up to this point, they've seen
Jesus as a healer, a teacher, even a prophet.
But this is something else. This is Yahweh stuff.
This is Exodus stuff. This is creation stuff.
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This is combat on a cosmic and divine level.
This is the kind of thing only the God of Israel can do.
And here's Jesus awakening in the middle of waves, crashing
over the boat, in the middle of a raging storm in which he and
his disciples are attacked by the sea head on, doing this like
it's nothing. No ritual, no divine invocation
location, no storm God weapon, just a word, just silence.
(24:52):
Be muzzled and the sea obeys andyou can almost imagine the
disciples sitting in silence, stunned, still, gripping the
edges of the boat, and the only sound is the slosh of the water
in the hole. Storm is gone, clouds are gone,
Moon pokes through stars in the sky.
No one moves, no one speaks. Because this man, the man they
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thought they knew and we're starting to know as this
revolutionary messianic figure, he's clearly more than a man.
The sea has always been untamable chaos in the ancient
imagination, and in this moment it bows to him when Jesus
doesn't just calm it, he conquers it.
And in doing so, he reveals a glimpse of who he really is.
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He's not just a Messiah in the way the ancients understood the
Messiah to be. He's not just the Son of David.
He is the Son of the Most High God, the divine Son who commands
the chaotic waters of the cosmos.
And this is the first battle. Disciples don't get it yet.
They marvel, they question, but they clearly don't get it.
Not yet. They won't call him Son of God
(25:56):
just yet. Things change in Matthew 14, as
we'll look at in the next episode.
But I think the question now is what are we supposed to do with
this moment? What's the take away here?
Yes, Jesus, quote, UN quote calms the storm.
I don't like to call it that, but that's what he does.
That's what we know it to be. But he doesn't just hush a
furious storm. He rebukes the sea itself, the
(26:17):
embodiment of chaos that haunts the margins of creation.
And the sea obeys. But the sea doesn't end with a
party. There's no parade or group hug,
no Hallelujah chorus. Instead, there's confusion.
The disciples sit. The disciples sit in stunned
silence and whisper the most important question in the entire
episode. What sort of being is this that
even the wind in the sea obey him?
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And that's the brilliance of it.That's the tension.
They don't get it, at least not yet.
They've seen Jesus heal. They've seen him cast out
demons. They've heard him preach with
authority. But this, this is something
else. This is next level.
This isn't a prophet waving his arms at a thunderstorm.
This is a man of some sort speaking with divine authority
to the primal forces of the cosmos.
(26:59):
And they listen, and Jesus doesn't give him any
explanation. He doesn't say, you're right,
I'm more than a teacher. I'm the divine warrior, the son
of God. I've come to tame chaos.
No, he doesn't say anything. He lets the question hang.
He questions why they had any doubt in him to begin with.
He lets their questions hang. And maybe he does that because
(27:20):
the disciples aren't quite readyto hear the answer.
And maybe sometimes we aren't either.
Maybe for some of us, this storyfeels uncomfortably familiar.
You're in a boat. Storm is raging, the waves are
crashing, and Jesus is asleep. At least it feels that way.
Chaos is completely disrupting and dismantling your entire life
(27:42):
and your entire body and your entire family and your job and
your career and your bank account, and Jesus is asleep.
This chaos monster snarls at youand is shredding your life and
you look around and Jesus is asleep and you prayed and you've
shouted and you've shaken him bythe shoulders and your heart and
still nothing. Silence.
(28:03):
But I want you to hear me now. In the ancient world, when a
divine being slept, it wasn't because they were indifferent.
It wasn't because they didn't care.
It wasn't because they were justtired and would rather take a
nap than go to battle for their people.
It was because they were preparing to act.
This is true in Canaanite stories, this is true in
Egyptian myths, and it's true inthe Hebrew Psalms.
(28:24):
Awake, O Lord, wasn't a theological accusation.
It was a plea for God to rise upand show what He was already
getting ready to do. Jesus is not sleeping because
he's abandoning his disciples. Jesus is stepping into the
ancient posture of divine readiness.
And that means for you, if you're in a season where Jesus
seems absent, silent, asleep, he's not ignoring you.
(28:47):
He's just resting because he's about to rise.
And maybe what feels like his delay is actually your
deliverance just waiting to breakthrough.
And here's where it gets even more wild.
Historically speaking, this moment, this sea stilling scene
takes place in the spring of 28.That's important.
It's storm season at the Sea of Galilee, so this was expected.
(29:08):
And I think maybe that's partly why the disciples wrote this off
afterward. Maybe they told themselves,
yeah, it was terrifying, but hey, this happens every year.
Maybe they rationalized it. Maybe they chalked it up to good
timing or adrenaline or luck that it calmed down.
Maybe the miracle was too big for their categories and Jesus
let them sit with it. He didn't clarify, he didn't
(29:30):
correct. He just let the question echo.
What kind of being is this? And for months between Matthew 8
and Matthew 14, I imagine they whispered about it around the
fire on the road, while fishing,while lying awake at night.
Maybe Peter asked John, do you see the way the sea just stopped
man? Thomas, bro, did he literally
just speak to the wind and the sea?
(29:51):
And it stopped? And I think they talked about
it. I think they ruminated about it
and I think they wondered about it.
And Jesus just lets them. And if you're in a storm right
now and you're sitting around and you're talking and you're
asking, and you've seen Jesus dothings for other people.
You've seen him shatter and defeat the storms of other
people. And you're saying Jesus awake,
(30:12):
come to my rescue as well. Maybe you feel that Jesus is
asleep. Maybe that you feel that he's
absent. Maybe you feel that he's just
along for the ride in the boat because he can save himself,
even though he knows. And you and I know that we can't
save ourselves. If you're in that type of a
storm right now, and if Jesus feels absent, I want you to hear
this, that He sees you and He hasn't forgotten you.
(30:33):
He's not sleeping. He's getting ready to go to
battle on your behalf because your chaos doesn't get the final
word. Not when the Son of God is in
the boat with you. We're going to continue to
unpack this, so I hope that you'll join us for the next
episode because we're not done yet.
The Storm has a sequel that was part A Part B gets just as
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crazy, and the next time Jesus isn't sleeping through it.
In fact, as I'll show, the stormdoesn't attack Jesus and the
disciples and catch them by surprise.
This time, he's going to call down the storm by himself.
He's going to start and he's going to meet it head on.
He's going to meet it face to face.
You don't want to miss it. And if this has stirred
something in you, brought to mind something or a person who
(31:16):
needs to hear a new and fuller interpretation of this account
of Jesus and the sea. Someone who's still asking, who
is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Or why is Jesus sleeping when chaos is raging all around me?
Share it with them. This is the Jesus who rides the
storm, who calms the chaos and who never stops moving toward
us. And I think he's worth
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following. As we say Lake Omad, go and
learn and I'll see you next timeon the Bible actually says.
What's up everybody, welcome to the What the Bible actually says
podcast. I'm your host, Tyson put off.
And today we're diving into something that's going to feel
both familiar and totally and completely wild at the same
time. If this is your first time here,
Bao Kaba, welcome aboard. And if you're a regular
listener, Bokim Hashavim, welcome back.
I'm thrilled to have you here. Before we dive in, make sure you
(00:38):
subscribe to the show, rate US on your favorite platform, and
go check out bibleactuallysays.com.
Also, quick note, my new book, Jesus, the Strategic Life and
Mission of the Messiah and His Movement, Volume 1 drops on May
30th from Hey Call Publishing CoSet a reminder to grab your
copy, Easiest Ways through Amazon.
It's a deep dive into Jesus's life, campaign, strategy, and
(01:01):
message. And if you've been following
this podcast, it's the perfect companion because it's going to
expand on a lot of what we do here and a lot of what we can't
get to on this podcast. So check it out.
All right, let's get into it. So we're starting a new two-part
series right now, one of the most exciting and honestly
(01:21):
underappreciated stories in all the gospels.
And it's maybe one of the most powerful and life changing
stories and studies in the Gospels.
We've talked a lot in this series about Jesus as a teacher,
as a prophet and economist, temple disruptor.
But in these next two episodes, we're going to take a look at
Jesus in a way that very few ever do.
(01:43):
We're going to look at Jesus as a cosmic storm God figure.
OK, and I'll explain everything and and we'll unpack all of
this. We're going to look at Jesus as
a divine son within an ancient context who does what every
divine son in the ancient world was expected to do.
He goes to battle against the sea, He confronts chaos.
And in doing so, he proves that he alone is worthy to reign as
(02:06):
the Son of God. So I know, just hang on, hang
with me. It's going to make sense as we
unpack this. And once you see this, you won't
be able to Unsee it, I promise. So in this episode, we're
focusing on Matthew 8, where Jesus and his disciples get into
a boat and they get caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
It's a story most of us know. Jesus is asleep in the boat.
(02:29):
A sudden squaw hits. The disciples panic.
They wake Jesus up. He rebukes the wind and waves
and boom, the storm is gone. The disciples freak out.
They say what kind of being is this, that even the wind and the
sea obey him? It's all familiar stuff.
It's Sunday school territory. But here's the thing.
This isn't just about Jesus saving his friends from a scary
(02:51):
weather event. This is about Jesus taking his
place in an ancient and terrifying story.
A story that every listener in the 1st century would have
recognized and in fact, in the ancient Near East for thousands
of years would have recognized. It's the story of the sea, the
cosmic symbol of chaos and disorder, the embodiment of
chaos. And it's that very sea, that
(03:13):
entity, that monstrous entity that rises up and attacks in
Jesus, the divine Son, the appointed heir is forced to
confront it head on. But here's what's even more
interesting. In this first encounter, based
on what we find in the text of Matthew 8, the sea strikes
first. In Matthew 8, it's not just
Jesus who initiates the confrontation.
(03:33):
It's chaos that makes the first move and and that detail is
going to matter big time when weget to Part 2.
But let's set the scene historically for a minute.
This event happens in the springof 28 AD, according to the
chronology that I put together in the book and that we've been
following along in this podcast.And it matters for one key
reason. This is the season that is the
(03:54):
spring when the Sea of Galilee is most volatile.
The way the terrain is shaped, hills rising sharply on all
sides, means that in spring, cool air from the heights can
suddenly rush down and collide with the warm air rising from
the lake surface creates a sudden, violent storm.
It's a real meteorological science, which is probably why
so many commentators actually focus on this point.
(04:16):
And, and you've probably heard that before, but that natural
explanation, even though it's valid, is only part of the
picture. And here's the twist.
It might actually help us understand why the disciples
missed what Jesus was really doing here and what was truly
happening on a cosmic level. Because if you live near Galilee
and you're a fisherman and it's spring and you're out on the
(04:36):
water and a storm blows up, you expect it.
That's normal. You don't want to be caught in
it necessarily, but you expect that to happen.
So even if it's terrifying, you're not automatically
interpreting it as some kind of divine confrontation.
It may be in the back of your mind because you understand what
the sea represents and what the sea has always been believed to
embody. That is this deity of chaos,
(04:59):
this primal force that seeks to undo everything that is arranged
and ordered. But at the moment, you're just
trying not to drown. And maybe that's why after Jesus
calms a storm, the disciples arestill scratching their heads and
they're asking literally what type of being?
What sort of being is this? Not just what type of man is
this, but what sort of being is this?
(05:19):
Not in awe, not in worship, but in fear and confusion.
They don't get it yet. They've just witnessed A cosmic
battle and they think it's just a really lucky weather miracle.
They've been attacked by the sea, by chaos itself, and they
think Jesus just happened to be powerful enough to hit the
emergency brake on nature. But Jesus is playing a much
bigger game. And this is where we need to
(05:41):
start thinking like ancient people again.
When we read the Bible, in the ancient Near East, and even in
parts of the Greco Roman world, the sea was not just water.
It was a living force. It was a hostile one, too.
It was the domain of chaos, the place of monsters, of death, of
darkness. It was where order went to die.
So when Yahweh splits the sea inPsalm 74, what's happening is
(06:04):
not just a storm story, it's a chaos story.
It's a cosmic war. And every time it's same basic
plot. The gods or God must establish
order by defeating the sea or chaos, because until chaos is
subdued, the world can't function, life can't flourish,
creation can't stand. And in every version of the
story, the sun figure, the heir to the divine throne, has to
(06:27):
earn his place by facing the seahead on.
That's what makes him worthy. That's how he proves he can
rule. So here's what I think is
happening in Matthew 8. Jesus and the disciples are out
on the water. They've been following him
around Galilee, watching him heal.
People cast out demons, preach about this Malkuta de Aloha, the
Kingdom of God, the empire of God.
(06:48):
They know he's special, but theyhaven't put all the pieces
together yet. They understand that he's this
Messiah or messianic figure, butin their world, Messiah and Son
of God weren't the same thing. And he's about to show them.
And it's going to take a couple of lessons to do so that as the
Messiah, he is also the Son of God.
And he's going to explain and demonstrate what that truly
(07:10):
means. And it's a message that we often
miss. And I think that these texts in
the podcast episode that we're doing today and in the next
episode are going to be critically important for helping
us to understand who Jesus is and was on a much more cosmic
and eternal level than we've ever imagined.
So they're in the boat on the water, a storm hits, the sea
(07:31):
rises up, chaos attacks. And what do you find Jesus
doing? Sleeping.
So let's look at Matthew 8. I've given you kind of a preface
to all of this, but let's reallyslow down and set the stage.
If you've ever flipped through the Old Testament or any ancient
myth from ancient Babylon or Canaan or Egypt, one thing
(07:51):
becomes really clear. Gods didn't just sit on clouds
and toss blessings. They fought battles.
And at the center of those battles was one primary enemy,
Chaos. Now, when I say chaos, I don't
mean your toddler's room or a high school hallway.
I mean something cosmic, something ancient, something
terrifying. In ancient mythologies, Chaos
(08:12):
was literally the anti creation.It was the formless raging force
that threatened to undo everything the gods and the
kings had built. And guess who had to defeat
Chaos to prove they deserved their crown?
The sun in the ancient Near Eastern world being the Son of
God wasn't just a nice theological title.
(08:33):
It wasn't just a status symbol. It was a job description.
It meant inheriting the divine throne, but only if you were
worthy. And worthiness wasn't just about
birthright. It was about battle.
You had to prove yourself by taking on chaos itself.
That's how you establish your right to rule.
Look at Marduk. In Babylonian mythology, Marduk
is the son of AA, one of the chief gods.
(08:54):
But Marduk doesn't become the ruler of the gods just because
he's born into the family. He has to earn it.
How? By defeating Tiamat, the
formidable and horrifying sea dragon, undefeated, the
personification of primeval chaos.
So when the gods are under threat, they call on Marduk,
who's at this time an underdog. And he answers, and he comes
(09:16):
out. He's armed with a net and some
winds and a storm chariot, and he slays the dragon, and he
really destroys her violently. He slices her up, and he uses
your remains to create the heavens and the earth.
That's how the cosmos gets ordered.
He brings order from disorder. That's also how Marduk, as the
son of the High God, becomes appointed as king.
(09:40):
Then there's Baal or Baal. You're familiar with him from
all of the references to him in the Old Testament or Hebrew
Bible. He was famous in the land of
Canaan before and during Israel's presence and emergence
there. So in a work put together by the
Canaanites, we call the Baal cycle or the Baal cycle.
Baal, the storm God, is the son of AL, the head deity of the
(10:00):
Canaanite. And like Marduk, Baal proves his
divine status by taking on a chaos monster.
In this case, it's Yom, the God of the sea.
Yom is the Canaanite word for sea.
It's also the Hebrew word for sea.
Well, Baal or Baal, he doesn't just calm the sea, he wages a
war against it. And with the help of these
(10:20):
magical weapons, these clubs forged by his fellow Craftsman
God Kotharwahasis, Baal defeats Yom and becomes the ruler of the
cosmos. He basically earns his father
Ailes approval. And the sea is tamed.
And in the sea being tamed and defeated, order is restored back
to the cosmos. So does that sound familiar?
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This whole pattern, this, this divine sonship, cosmic threat,
stormy battle, triumphant rule, son declared king.
This pattern is what scholars would call chaos Comp, a German
word that literally means chaos.Struggle is the ancient
blueprint for how the world was saved and sustained by divine
sons who went out and defeated the forces of chaos or disorder,
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and in so doing brought order from chaos.
So why does all of this matter for Jesus, in particularly
Matthew 8 and Matthew 14? It matters because when Matthew
tells us that Jesus calms the storm, he's not just giving us a
weather report. He's placing Jesus squarely in
this ancient tradition. He's saying, you want to know
(11:27):
who this is. You want to know what kind of
sun he is. Watch him go toe to toe with the
sea and you'll find out. But let's not jump too far ahead
yet. Let's keep laying the
groundwork. In these myths, the sea isn't
just water. It's a symbol.
It's chaos, personified or Incarnate.
It's the thing that keeps threatening to undo everything.
In Babylon, it's Tiamat, the roiling dragon of saltwater
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chaos. In Canaan, its Yam, the unruly
ocean that never stays in its lane.
In Egypt, it's Op EP, the serpent of the underworld who
tries to swallow the sun every night as raw sails through the
darkness. And in Israel, Scriptures, the
Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, Same exact deal.
In Psalm 74, the poet says Yahweh split the sea by his
(12:11):
power and broke the heads of thesea.
Monsters, chaos, battle, language.
And it echoes what Marduk did toTiamat the sea monster when he
literally smashed her head with his Mace.
In Psalm 89, Yahweh is praised because he rules the raging sea
and stills its surging waves. In Job 9, we're told that God
(12:32):
treads on the waves of the sea, literally walks atop the chaos.
In Psalm one, O 4, seven and nine, the waters flee at God's
rebuke. He sets boundaries for them so
they never again cover the earth.
In Psalm 1815, God's nostrils flare, he gets angry, and the
valleys of the sea are exposed. The earth shakes as he asserts
control. In Psalm 7716 to 20, the waters
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see God and tremble. The depths writhe in fear as he
makes a path through the sea forhis people at the Exodus in
Isaiah 5110. Yahweh is the one who cuts Rahab
to pieces and dries up the sea so the redeemed people can pass
that name. Rahab or Rahab, is another
nickname for the sea as a mythicmonster.
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In Job 38, God asks Job who shutin the sea with doors when it
burst out from the womb. He clothes it in clouds and
wraps it in darkness like a newborn, then sets its
boundaries and says, This far you may come and no farther.
That's not a weather report. That's Yahweh laying down the
law on chaos itself and putting boundaries on it, shackling it,
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bringing it into submission. Even Genesis 1 gives us this
imagery, the creation account, the deep over which the spirit
hovers. That's called tejom, the deep
chaotic waters, a sort of a Hebrew echo of the Babylonian
tiamat. The word tahom in Hebrew sounds
similar to the Babylonian word tiamat.
(14:01):
So in this case, creation doesn't happen in a vacuum.
It happens as an act of divine conquest over chaos.
God at the moment of creation isbringing order out of disorder
by subduing chaos, subduing Tahom.
So the ancient world saw the seaas wild.
It was untamable, it was alive, and it was dangerous.
(14:23):
You know, if you're a Galilean fisherman, you used the sea and
you tried to have a good relationship with it because the
sea fed you, right? It gave you fish, and it
provided passage from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the
other. So it was a source of commerce.
But at any moment the sea could lose its temper and swallow you
whole, never to return you to the surface.
(14:46):
So you had to be careful with the sea.
It was again, It was wild, it was untamable, it was alive, and
it was dangerous. But the ancients also believed
that the true Son of God, the rightful heir, the one worthy of
the throne, was also the one whocould take on the sea, survive
it, silence it, send it packing.So Jesus is asleep on the
(15:06):
cushion, and his sleep is sort of the calm before the storm, or
more accurately, the calm in thestorm before the chaos meets its
match in the person, in the presence and the power of Jesus.
And when he wakes up, when he speaks, he stills the sea.
So this isn't just a miracle. This isn't just as so many of us
(15:27):
have preached and taught and learned in Sunday school and in
sermons. This isn't just Jesus showing
that he has power over creation.This is a mythic, A cosmic, A
celestial claim, a divine flex. This is Jesus stepping into the
role of the Son who doesn't justinherit the world, but saves it
by defeating its oldest, wildestyet to be defeated enemy in
(15:51):
chaos. And the disciples, they don't
miss it entirely, but they stilldon't really get it.
All they can say is what kind ofman is this?
That even the winds in the sea obey him.
They're still trying to figure it out.
And again, this is only a year into Jesus public campaign.
So he hasn't demonstrated all ofhis power and all of his might
just yet. But he also hasn't just come out
(16:13):
and said, hey, I'm the son of God.
He's trying to show them who he is rather than simply come out
and say, this is who I am, believe me.
And Matthew picks up on all of this.
And as he's recording this and communicating it to his
audience, he knows exactly what kind of man Jesus is.
But let's go back to the scene. Jesus and his disciples are
(16:34):
crossing the sea. A great storm suddenly rises up.
It's violent, chaotic, terrifying.
Matthew's Greek actually calls it a seismos, which is a term
usually used for earthquakes. So this isn't just rough waves.
This is something terrifying anddramatic and extraordinary.
It's a mythic disruption, as if the very forces of nature, or
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more specifically of chaos itself, have risen up to
challenge Jesus and his crew. In the language that we actually
find in the Gospel accounts is that the sea has woken up and
it's doing something that we read in other ancient accounts
of chaos Dragons to have done. They wake up and they attack
(17:19):
their prey and they seek to bring disorder to an otherwise
ordered world. And what's Jesus doing?
He's asleep. So let's talk about Jesus
falling asleep during the storm in Matthew 824.
It's not just a detail tossed into add realism.
We think of this in in differentways.
We think of this as Jesus is tired and I think he was in
(17:39):
terms of his human nature. They also, I've heard this
taught as hey, look at how calm Jesus is under pressure, be like
Jesus. I don't think that's the lesson
we need to teach or preach out of this.
In the ancient world, especiallyin mythological and biblical
traditions, sleep, and especially divine sleep, was
never just sleep. It often symbolized the calm
(18:00):
before action, the withholding of power before explosive
intervention. And if you know your Hebrew
Bible or your Old Testament or the mythic world Jesus lived in
and his audience lived in, you'drecognize this motif, this idea,
immediately. But we in our modern day and in
our own interpretive framework, we tend to miss this because in
(18:21):
the ancient imagination, when the gods slept, something was
about to happen. In Psalm 44, Israel cries out to
God, awake. Why do you sleep?
O Lord, rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever.
They weren't saying God was lazy.
They weren't saying that they truly believe that God was
asleep. They were saying we know what
happens when you wake up, so wake up now and come and rescue
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us. In Canaanite myth, Baal, or Baal
lies dormant in the underworld before his return to battle.
In Egyptian tradition, the sun God RA must awaken each morning
to once again defeat APEP the chaos serpent, and bring back
the light. Sleep always preceded action in
the ancient world. So Jesus asleep is not passive.
It's divine readiness. It's the posture of a God about
(19:08):
to act, and the disciples don't get it.
They panic, they scream, they shake him awake with the
desperate question that we are all familiar with.
Lord save us, we're perishing. And in this moment we should
hear echoes of Israel crying outin the psalms, of frightened
sailors in Jonah's boat yelling at the prophet to wake up and
help. Except this time, the one
they're waking up is more than aprophet.
(19:30):
So Jesus wakes up and he doesn'tappear flustered, but he does
seem disappointed. This question is pretty pointed.
Why are you afraid, O you of little faith, or literally you?
Little faith errs. It's a gentle rebuke, but it's
layered with emotion and sadness.
You almost hear it as you still don't see who I am, do you?
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And then, without any theatrics or without any ritual, without
calling on a higher power, Jesusstands and he rebukes the wind
and the sea, and immediately there's a great calm.
So the Greek here shifts in Matthew's account from mega
seismos great storm to mega likeGalena great calm.
(20:11):
Matthew's being deliberate and kind of poetic in the way he's
explaining what's happening here.
He's basically saying this went from a massive, enormous storm
to a massive and enormous peacefulness, from quake to
quiet, from chaos to cosmos, from mythic terror to divine
peace. The sea, which had erupted in
(20:31):
symbolic rebellion, now bows in total submission.
And the disciples, they're stunned.
They don't applaud, they don't cheer.
They ask, what kind of being is this that even the winds in the
sea obey him? And here Matthew gives us one of
the most subtle but powerful moments in the gospel, because
that question isn't rhetorical. It's sort of a real time
(20:51):
theological awakening. They've seen the prophets calm
troubled hearts. They've seen rabbis teach
wisdom. They've never seen someone
subdue the sea because in their scriptures only one being does
that. Yahweh.
Psalm 89.9 You rule the raging sea.
When its waves rise, you still them.
Psalm 1O47 At your rebuke the waters fled.
(21:14):
Job 98. He alone stretches out the
heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
These were things only Yahweh did.
So when Jesus rebukes the storm,he's not just performing a
miracle. He's stepping into the role of
the God of Israel. He's revealing in an
unmistakable way that he's not just the Son of God in metaphor.
(21:35):
He is the one who carries Yahweh's authority.
He is the sleeping storm God whorises and defeats chaos with a
single word. And the disciples, they're not
ready for that yet. So Jesus sort of lets the moment
hang. He doesn't follow it up with a
theological lecture. He doesn't break it down.
He sort of lets the storm say itall.
(21:56):
And here's what makes this even more fascinating.
This isn't the last time he'll meet the sea.
Because just a few chapters later in Matthew 14, Jesus will
take the fight back to the waters.
But this time, he won't wait forthe sea to challenge him.
This time, he'll initiate the battle.
We've got to save that for the next episode.
So when Jesus rebukes the sea inMatthew 826, this is a
(22:18):
fascinating line. Matthew 826 says, Then he got up
and rebuked the winds in the seaand there was a great calm.
That word, Matthew's Greek epitome Mason, he rebuked.
It's a really powerful word. It's not a casual, hey, stop
that. It's the word used elsewhere
when Jesus actually confronts demons.
It's a word that implies authority over a living, chaotic
(22:40):
force. In Mark's version of the story,
we're given the exact words Jesus spoke.
Peace. Be still in Greek.
Literally be silent. Be muzzled.
This isn't gentle, calm, passive, peaceful, whispering
language. And the storm stops.
This is divine combat language. Jesus doesn't pray to God to
calm the storm. He doesn't call down angels to
(23:01):
do it for him. He does it himself with his own
voice, with his own authority. He stands.
He rebukes the sea, and the sea obeys.
It doesn't have any choice. This moment is unlike anything
else in the Gospels, really. Not because Jesus performs a
miracle that happens a lot of times, but because of what this
miracle means. And as we've mentioned, this
shows the disciples who Jesus truly is, even though they don't
(23:25):
yet get it. And again, this is not just a
weather miracle. This isn't just Jesus showing
that he has control over nature.This is Jesus showing that like
Yahweh in primal times before the heavens and the earth were
brought into order, this is Jesus showing he's on that
level. And in the minds of the
disciples, especially those withdeep Jewish roots who knew the
(23:46):
Psalms and the Exodus story, in the tales of Yahweh splitting
the seed, rescue his people and the story of Job, this would
have been jaw driving. And Matthew makes that clear.
And it's interesting because at this moment the disciples appear
to be more afraid of Jesus than they were of the storm.
Matthew 827 And the men marvelled, saying, what sort of
(24:06):
man is this, that even the windsand the sea obey him?
They're asking a question. I think we're meant to ask not
just how Jesus did it, but who he really is.
Here's sort of the twist. Up to this point, they've seen
Jesus as a healer, a teacher, even a prophet.
But this is something else. This is Yahweh stuff.
This is Exodus stuff. This is creation stuff.
(24:28):
This is combat on a cosmic and divine level.
This is the kind of thing only the God of Israel can do.
And here's Jesus awakening in the middle of waves, crashing
over the boat, in the middle of a raging storm in which he and
his disciples are attacked by the sea head on, doing this like
it's nothing. No ritual, no divine invocation
location, no storm God weapon, just a word, just silence.
(24:52):
Be muzzled and the sea obeys andyou can almost imagine the
disciples sitting in silence, stunned, still, gripping the
edges of the boat, and the only sound is the slosh of the water
in the hole. Storm is gone, clouds are gone,
Moon pokes through stars in the sky.
No one moves, no one speaks. Because this man, the man they
(25:13):
thought they knew and we're starting to know as this
revolutionary messianic figure, he's clearly more than a man.
The sea has always been untamable chaos in the ancient
imagination, and in this moment it bows to him when Jesus
doesn't just calm it, he conquers it.
And in doing so, he reveals a glimpse of who he really is.
(25:34):
He's not just a Messiah in the way the ancients understood the
Messiah to be. He's not just the Son of David.
He is the Son of the Most High God, the divine Son who commands
the chaotic waters of the cosmos.
And this is the first battle. Disciples don't get it yet.
They marvel, they question, but they clearly don't get it.
Not yet. They won't call him Son of God
(25:56):
just yet. Things change in Matthew 14, as
we'll look at in the next episode.
But I think the question now is what are we supposed to do with
this moment? What's the take away here?
Yes, Jesus, quote, UN quote calms the storm.
I don't like to call it that, but that's what he does.
That's what we know it to be. But he doesn't just hush a
furious storm. He rebukes the sea itself, the
(26:17):
embodiment of chaos that haunts the margins of creation.
And the sea obeys. But the sea doesn't end with a
party. There's no parade or group hug,
no Hallelujah chorus. Instead, there's confusion.
The disciples sit. The disciples sit in stunned
silence and whisper the most important question in the entire
episode. What sort of being is this that
even the wind in the sea obey him?
(26:38):
And that's the brilliance of it.That's the tension.
They don't get it, at least not yet.
They've seen Jesus heal. They've seen him cast out
demons. They've heard him preach with
authority. But this, this is something
else. This is next level.
This isn't a prophet waving his arms at a thunderstorm.
This is a man of some sort speaking with divine authority
to the primal forces of the cosmos.
(26:59):
And they listen, and Jesus doesn't give him any
explanation. He doesn't say, you're right,
I'm more than a teacher. I'm the divine warrior, the son
of God. I've come to tame chaos.
No, he doesn't say anything. He lets the question hang.
He questions why they had any doubt in him to begin with.
He lets their questions hang. And maybe he does that because
(27:20):
the disciples aren't quite readyto hear the answer.
And maybe sometimes we aren't either.
Maybe for some of us, this storyfeels uncomfortably familiar.
You're in a boat. Storm is raging, the waves are
crashing, and Jesus is asleep. At least it feels that way.
Chaos is completely disrupting and dismantling your entire life
(27:42):
and your entire body and your entire family and your job and
your career and your bank account, and Jesus is asleep.
This chaos monster snarls at youand is shredding your life and
you look around and Jesus is asleep and you prayed and you've
shouted and you've shaken him bythe shoulders and your heart and
still nothing. Silence.
(28:03):
But I want you to hear me now. In the ancient world, when a
divine being slept, it wasn't because they were indifferent.
It wasn't because they didn't care.
It wasn't because they were justtired and would rather take a
nap than go to battle for their people.
It was because they were preparing to act.
This is true in Canaanite stories, this is true in
Egyptian myths, and it's true inthe Hebrew Psalms.
(28:24):
Awake, O Lord, wasn't a theological accusation.
It was a plea for God to rise upand show what He was already
getting ready to do. Jesus is not sleeping because
he's abandoning his disciples. Jesus is stepping into the
ancient posture of divine readiness.
And that means for you, if you're in a season where Jesus
seems absent, silent, asleep, he's not ignoring you.
(28:47):
He's just resting because he's about to rise.
And maybe what feels like his delay is actually your
deliverance just waiting to breakthrough.
And here's where it gets even more wild.
Historically speaking, this moment, this sea stilling scene
takes place in the spring of 28.That's important.
It's storm season at the Sea of Galilee, so this was expected.
(29:08):
And I think maybe that's partly why the disciples wrote this off
afterward. Maybe they told themselves,
yeah, it was terrifying, but hey, this happens every year.
Maybe they rationalized it. Maybe they chalked it up to good
timing or adrenaline or luck that it calmed down.
Maybe the miracle was too big for their categories and Jesus
let them sit with it. He didn't clarify, he didn't
(29:30):
correct. He just let the question echo.
What kind of being is this? And for months between Matthew 8
and Matthew 14, I imagine they whispered about it around the
fire on the road, while fishing,while lying awake at night.
Maybe Peter asked John, do you see the way the sea just stopped
man? Thomas, bro, did he literally
just speak to the wind and the sea?
(29:51):
And it stopped? And I think they talked about
it. I think they ruminated about it
and I think they wondered about it.
And Jesus just lets them. And if you're in a storm right
now and you're sitting around and you're talking and you're
asking, and you've seen Jesus dothings for other people.
You've seen him shatter and defeat the storms of other
people. And you're saying Jesus awake,
(30:12):
come to my rescue as well. Maybe you feel that Jesus is
asleep. Maybe that you feel that he's
absent. Maybe you feel that he's just
along for the ride in the boat because he can save himself,
even though he knows. And you and I know that we can't
save ourselves. If you're in that type of a
storm right now, and if Jesus feels absent, I want you to hear
this, that He sees you and He hasn't forgotten you.
(30:33):
He's not sleeping. He's getting ready to go to
battle on your behalf because your chaos doesn't get the final
word. Not when the Son of God is in
the boat with you. We're going to continue to
unpack this, so I hope that you'll join us for the next
episode because we're not done yet.
The Storm has a sequel that was part A Part B gets just as
(30:53):
crazy, and the next time Jesus isn't sleeping through it.
In fact, as I'll show, the stormdoesn't attack Jesus and the
disciples and catch them by surprise.
This time, he's going to call down the storm by himself.
He's going to start and he's going to meet it head on.
He's going to meet it face to face.
You don't want to miss it. And if this has stirred
something in you, brought to mind something or a person who
(31:16):
needs to hear a new and fuller interpretation of this account
of Jesus and the sea. Someone who's still asking, who
is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Or why is Jesus sleeping when chaos is raging all around me?
Share it with them. This is the Jesus who rides the
storm, who calms the chaos and who never stops moving toward
us. And I think he's worth
(31:36):
following. As we say Lake Omad, go and
learn and I'll see you next timeon the Bible actually says.
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