Jesus is asleep in a boat. Being tired, he seized the opportunity to take a nap as they made their way across the Sea of Galilee — a very natural thing for a man to do given the day we can assume he’s had. He must have been exhausted, for when a violent wind came up, causing the boat to be swamped, he didn't stir. The others were clearly afraid and exasperated at his lack of awareness of the peril. They shake him, urging him to wake. Why? Perhaps they thought he could join in the effort of bailing out the boat. Perhaps they wanted to give him the chance to swim for it should the boat capsize. Either of these reasons could account for their urgency. But even if they were expecting him to do something extraordinary (he had done so many extraordinary things already!) what he ends up doing is completely unexpected. He commands the winds and the waves — and they obey!
The disciples are amazed, even terrified, by what they have witnessed. “What manner of man is this?” they wonder. But we know. We’ve been given the back story. At the beginning of Luke’s gospel we were told that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin and pronounced the Son of God. It shouldn't surprise us that he had the power to speak with Genesis 1 authority over earthly matter. He is the divine Word by whom all things were made who became flesh.
In one person, therefore, two natures reside: one fully divine, the other fully human. The mystery of his unique existence is crucially important for the church to embrace. While it’s not easily explained, it can, and must, be affirmed. The church, early on, established boundaries concerning the humanity and divinity of Jesus that are not to be crossed. They set them because what is at stake is the authority of Scripture and the hope set before us in the gospel.
The rescue Jesus effected on the Sea of Galilee was a type of the eternal rescue that he accomplished by his atoning death. It serves to remind us that all who call upon him, who know they are perishing, will be saved. This we confidently confess because the Bible reveals a Savior who alone was suited to the task: “a true and perfectly righteous man,” for “the man who is himself a sinner cannot pay for others;” and “true God,” so “that by the power of his divinity he might bear as a man the burden of God’s wrath.” This is our "Lord Jesus Christ, who is freely given to us for complete redemption and righteousness” (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 6).
