Lord, Save Us!

St. Matthew 8:23-27

            In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.

            St. Matthew 8:25-26  Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  But He said to them, “Why are you still fearful, O you of little faith?”  Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

            Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  Many of you know the words to Psalm 121.  It is one of my favorites, and I believe it is for many of you.  And if it is not one of your favorites, read it out loud for a week, and it will soon make your Top Ten.  I will often pray this psalm with those who are ill, hospitalized, shut-in, facing surgery, or facing some other worrisome event in their lives.

Psalm 121 begins with these words: “I lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from?  My help comes from Yahweh, the Maker of heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot slip; He who keeps you will not slumber.  Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”  Those are words of great comfort. Those are words that strengthen us in the rock-solid truth that God and God alone is the source of all our help, and that, because He is God, we can trust Him and place every confidence in Him to keep His Word.

So, what about these words which we read in today’s Gospel: “Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him.  And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves.  But He [Jesus] was asleep.”

If the Lord who keeps you “will not slumber,” if He shall “neither slumber nor sleep,” why, then, is our Blessed Lord Jesus – God in the flesh – asleep in the boat?  Is this some classic example of the Bible contradicting itself?  Is God contradicting Himself?  Certainly not, for God’s Word is sure and certain, and it does not contradict itself.  And God is not messing with us in this seeming contradiction, for it is only a contradiction in our feeble human understanding.

Well then, what exactly is going on here?  Is God using the depiction of Jesus sleeping in the boat to teach us that sometimes we just have to suck it up, act grown up, and work through our own problems?  Is He urging us to have some self-confidence in light of His seeming absence?  Is He telling us that the true faith that He bestows actually gives us the ability and strength to deal with life’s hardships, handle our difficulties, and endure our problems all on our own?  Of course not; and if your sinful minds believe any of that, you need to repent.

To be sure, at first glance the picture of a sleeping Jesus might seem a bit cruel.   Jesus is God in the flesh.  God is omniscient; He knows all things.  Therefore, Our Lord Jesus knows all things, and He certainly knew that the storm was coming; He certainly knew that a tempest would arise; He certainly knew that the boat would be tossed about like a toy in a bathtub and be covered with waves.  And He most certainly knew that all of this would scare and upset the disciples.

And this same Lord Jesus also knows that you face many afflictions.  This same Lord Jesus knows that the devil continually takes away your joy.  This same Lord Jesus knows that life rarely goes smoothly in the family, in the parish, with your health, or on the job.  And your Lord Jesus knows how many times you yourselves fear for your life; He knows the many times you just cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel; He knows the many times that life seems just too hard to bear; He knows the many times you just feel so stuck that you end up paralyzed and unable not just to think but also to do anything.  And yet, when those things happen, it seems to our human and sinful minds that Jesus is no help at all, that He is nowhere to be found, that He is asleep on the job.

So what exactly does your Lord want you to learn by being so distant, by hiding His help?  What good does it do when you cannot feel Jesus near to you?  What good does it do when you have become sure that He has left you alone, therefore making you deal with whatever is dragging you down and sucking the life out of you?  To be sure, you may take comfort in the fact that, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (I Cor 10:13), “God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able.”  But when Jesus is sleeping, where is this “way of escape” that He promises?  When Jesus is sleeping, how can you bear whatever it is you are going through?

Well, for the disciples, the “way of escape” was sitting right there in the boat, wasn’t He?  After they had tried and tried to bring the boat under control, after they had tried and failed to battle the waves, after they had worried and fretted themselves into a tizzy, and after they had thought of every possible option – after ALL THAT they finally woke up Jesus.  “Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”

After reading this part of the story and understanding that Jesus was right there to help these men, we have to ask in wonderment, why didn’t they come to Him sooner?  It seems so obvious! 

But before we pick on the disciples too much, why is Jesus always the last resort you try AFTER you have tried everything else?  Do you think He is too busy?  Do you not want to bother Him?  Do you honestly believe that you are first supposed to give it a go on your own and then turn to Jesus only when you have failed?  Do you believe you are to go to Jesus only when you have run out of strength or options or smart ideas?

The disciples’ terrified prayer, “Lord, save us!”, in Mark’s version “Teacher, do You not care that we perish?” (Mk 4:38), and in Luke, “Master, we are perishing!” (Lk 8:24) – this prayer is a picture of our sinful nature that is absolutely terrified at the thought of saving ourselves from any and all dangers.  Do we not trust our Lord and Master in all things?  Where is the First Commandment in our lives?  Do we not “fear, love, and trust in God above all things?”  No, we do not. 

Dear friends, this scene and what it teaches us must first bring us to repentance for not seeking the Lord as we ought, and for throwing up our hands in despair.  How weak we are!   In fact, as Jesus had referred to the disciples earlier as those of “little faith,” we are in the same boat, pun intended.

We know that our Lord says to us (Ps 50:15), “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you.”  We know that He says to us (Heb 13:5), “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  We know that He says to us (Mt 28:20), “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  But too often we say, “But, Lord, I’m not in trouble yet; I’ll let You know when I am, and then I’ll count on You to help me and bail me out of the mess I can’t deal with or get through.  Don’t worry, Jesus, I’ll get to You sooner or later.”

And then, here comes Jesus, awaking from His sleep, and coming to your rescue.  But first He says something to you that you do not expect to hear; He says words that you may find to be a bit harsh and sarcastic: “Why are you fearful?  Why do you have such little faith?  Why do you wait until the last minute?  Why do you wait until you have run out of options?  Why do you wait until the disaster is already accomplished?  Do you not trust Me enough to call on Me even when life is smooth?  And do you not know yourself well enough to see that you are always in trouble, that your whole life is lived in a precarious boat that is constantly assaulted by the devil, the world, and your own flesh?  Do you honestly believe the nonsense that I only help those who help themselves, and that I am the Jesus you can count on only when I am not busy or tired enough, or when you are really desperate, or when your prayer is sincere and heartfelt and pitiable enough?  Is that it?  What are you afraid of?  And what do you really love?  And who do you really believe and trust in and rely on and pin your hopes to?”

Dear fellow redeemed, take heart, and be of good courage.  For even after such a rebuke, and even after such stinging words – words that sting precisely because they tell the cold, harsh truth and boy, are they hard to hear – even after this, what does Jesus do?  Does He crawl under the covers and hide Himself and go back to sleep?  Does He grumble and complain and rant and rave like someone who was rudely awakened from a satisfying nap?

Listen to what your Jesus does: he arises and rebukes the winds and the sea.  And there is great and instant calm.  And in this dramatic scene, we are reminded – again – that Jesus has complete control over ALL of His creation.

What does your Jesus do?  He comes through.  In spite of your little faith, in spite of your inherent weakness, in spite of your refusal to come to Him first, in spite of your fear that your prayer will not work, in spite of your desperation, in spite of you, and yet, at the same time, because of you, your Lord Jesus does exactly what He promises.  He is the Savior you expect Him to be.  He is faithful to His Word even when we are faithless.  He remembers His promises even when we forget them all the time.

Our Lord’s rising from His sleep in the boat takes us directly to His rising from the dead.  And, by the way, what were the disciples fearing while He was being wrongly accused, crucified, and put in the tomb?  They were fearing for their own lives.  They were navel-gazing, focusing way too much on their circumstances, that they forgot the Lord’s promises.  They had forgotten His words when He told them He would rise.  They were so caught up in the cloudiness of their grief and fear, and they were so distracted by the vagueness and confusion of their own circumstances – circumstances that they absolutely believed were out of control – that they had a hard time believing it was actually Jesus when He showed up.

But boy, did He ever show up!  After taking all the hellishness of His beatings, His rejection, His crucifixion, and His death – all for you and in your place to pay for your sins and the sins of all mankind – He showed up; He rose from the dead!  He stared down the devil and all of his minions and showed them His divine power by overcoming even death and every lesser threat for all of His people.  And because of your Lord’s victory over your last enemy which is death, not even death can take you away from His love and grace and help and blessing.

As St. Paul boldly declared (Rom 8:37-39), “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Nothing separates us from God’s love in Christ.  Why? Because Christ is God and He has complete control over everything we experience in this life.  He knows how you feel, He knows your fears and weaknesses, and He has overcome them.  And with His help, so can you.

And Jesus does not hold grudges.  He is not nice only to those who vote His way.  He does not favor only those who toe the line and straighten up their life.  Jesus comes through no matter what you have done.  Jesus comes through no matter how you have lived.  Jesus comes through no matter how you have treated others.  Jesus comes through no matter how much or how little you trust in Him.  No matter how little your faith or how great your fear, Jesus comes through.

Jesus is more than a good friend – He is your Savior.  He is the Lord whose help and rescue and salvation far exceeds your sin and turmoil.  Jesus never lets you down, even when it looks like He is sleeping.  He hears and answers the prayer of the faithful when they cry out, “Lord, save us!”

This is the Jesus you get to believe in.  This is the Jesus who gives you His real body and blood in His Supper to forgive and sustain you.  This is the Jesus who strengthens you with His promises in your Baptism which includes rescuing you from death and the devil.  This is the Jesus who absolves you of your sins through your pastor speaking Christ’s words to you.  This Jesus is constant.  He is consistent.  He is always there.  He is never too busy.  He is always ready to jump in… because He has already given His life for you on the cross when He suffered cruelly for your sins and died the death you deserved.

That is true love – love for the sinner who cannot ever help himself or save himself or do anything to please God on his own.  That is true and everlasting love which always acts on your behalf.

This is the Jesus who, when His people call out, “Lord, save us!” reminds you that He has.

In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.