My Bible study is honestly one of the best ones that I have been a part of in my life. We get on tangents a lot, but I feel like there is a lot to be said of sitting down and really addressing what we think about the scriptures rather than taking everyone else’s word for it. So as we’re going through Luke, we got to the point where Jesus calms the storm and ended up having a really great discussion about how we are judging of the disciples in this instance.

For reference:

Jesus Calms the Storm

22One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. 23As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

24The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25"Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.
In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

So I know that I’m always quick to look at this passage and say come on! How can the disciples still not get this stuff, I mean, this early in Luke Jesus has already performed a number of miracles and has been teaching his disciples as well, you would think that they wouldn’t have to ask who this Jesus character is and that they wouldn’t have to freak out about the storm because they should get that God is in control? Now of course these guys were fishermen so they probably encountered storms all of the time and this had to have been a rough one for them to be so alarmed, but still, this Jesus guy they've been following around has got to be something special for them to be following him around.

To the group, this is a prime example of the disciples being the “B-team,” being pretty substandard. Well we all had to laugh after discussing this because how often are we the ones saying “This is too hard” or “This storm in my life can’t be calmed, OMG we’re all gonna die!” How many times do we freak out and panic when it is unnecessary… our answer was that we freak out far more than we should. So we determined that though the disciples may be the “B-team” in quite a few cases, but we’re likely to be the JV “B-team” or not even that but the “Z-team” brought in under no circumstances. Thankfully this will serve as a reminder to me of how to react to rough situations. There are certainly days where I lack faith and feel like my world is crumbling around me, hopefully this will serve as a reminder to remember that my call in life is to be faithful to Christ and his mission.

Next up on the agenda blog-wise? My thoughts on the first section of Brian McLaren’s new book, The Secret Message of Jesus, which I managed to get my hands on. Sweet!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 4:30 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.