People of Faith, thoughts on Jesus rebuking the wind at sea.Matt;8 and Luke 8

by jam 1 Replies latest jw experiences

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  jam

  OK Folks, we have men who knew the sea and the danger, so

  it,s safe to say the storm in Matt; 8;23-27 was not A small one.

  The boat was in danger of sinking, water pouring in and where

  was Jesus, asleep. How did Jesus manages to stay asleep.

  Some said he slept deliberately in order to test the faith of

  the apostles. OK, if that is the case, then they failed, because

  they were so scared that they woke Jesus up to find out

  whether he cared if they all drowned.

  Then Jesus proceeds to end the storm and restore the sea

  to calm- but why? Calming the storm doesn,t appear to have

  been absolutely necessary because he rebuke the others for

  not having faith. Presumably, they should have trusted that

  nothing would happen to them while he was around.

  So ostensibly, had he not stopped the storm they would

  have made it across just fine.

  So my question, was his purpose then simply to create

  A display of naked power in order to impress the Apostles?

  If so, he succeeded because they appear to be just afraid

  of him now, as they were moments ago of the storm.

  It,s strange, though that they don,t understand who

  he is, why did they even wake him if they didn,t think

  he might be able to do something?
• 

  binadub

  It,s strange, though that they don,t understand who he is, why did they even wake him if they didn,t think he might be able to do something?

  It is a misconception that the bible and gospels represent Jesus as being known as the Christ of God's heavenly kingdom throughout his ministry. The apostles probably believed they were following a rabbi who was carrying on the ministry of John the Baptist.

  It would be presumptuous to pretend to know exactly what the apostles were thinking in the storm. It could only be speculation without scriptural support. But the fact is, according to scripture, the apostles did not yet realize who Jesus was. He was known as a rabbi in the Galilee who performed miracles and healed the sick, but there were others reputed to do the same. As a descendent of the line of King David, and the time being what was believed by many to be the prophetic time when a messiah king was to restore the throne of David and liberate the Israelites from pagan rule, they believed (hoped) Jesus was that promised messiah, "King of the Jews."

  Through most of his ministry, Jesus did not claim to be either the Christ (messiah) nor King of the Jews, as it was sedition and a capital crime against Caesar and Roman rule to claim to be King. It was fairly well known that Herod was seeking him because he believed Jesus might be a resurrected John the Baptist. (That's one reason they were crossing the sea to the Greek pagan country on the other side--to elude Herod. Incidently it is also a myth that Jesus did not minister to nonJews as in the case of two trips to the other side of the Sea of Galilee where he banished demons from a man into a herd of swine (Jews did not have herds of swine), and later fed thousands.) It was not until his last journey to Jerusalem, in the final couple of weeks or so of his ministry, that he revealed who he was by allowing Peter to confess his faith when they were on the pagen site of the Greco-Roman God Pan at Caesarea-Phillipi (Banias). The site on which Jesus asked Peter, "who do you say I am?" was on a place (rock) that was considered the pagan seat of the underworld (hell). When Peter replied to Jesus' question that some people thought he was the resurrected Elijah, or Jeremiah, or as Herod feared, the resurrected John the Baptist, or other prophets, Jesus responded, "But who do you say I am?" Peter confessed that he believed Jesus was the Son of God, the Christ. Jesus replied that it was God who had revealed that to him. Jesus never made the actual claim, and Jesus warned Peter and the rest of them not to be telling people that he was the Christ (Matt. 16:20; Lk. 9:21). Realize, this was in the last days of his ministry. The full revelation of who he was and his kingdom being heavenly rather than the restoration of David's earthly throne, this was not clear until 50 days after Jesus' death, at Pentecost.

  ~Binadub