Matthew 8:25, And [the disciples] went and woke [Jesus], saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!”
Too many preachers and teachers allegorise this account. You hear things such as, “Just as Christ calmed the storm of the sea, so He calms your storm of stress,” and so on. Such exegesis could not be more wrong. I would not even call it exegesis, for if one truly did exegesis, they would not come to such an absurd allegory. Can Jesus calm your “storm of stress”? Absolutely, but this is not what the text is saying, neither is that why Jesus calmed the storm.
What is interesting about this account is that the disciples knew only Jesus could save them from the storm. Otherwise, they would not have said, “Save us, Lord!” Yet they act surprised when, after He had calmed the storm, they say, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey Him” (v. 27)? My reaction to this is: What do you mean, “What sort of man is this?” You knew what sort of man He was because you woke Him up from sleep and begged Him to save you!
We see in this account both a display of Jesus’ humanity and a display of His divinity. In His humanity, Jesus was tired, for He was sleeping; and He was so exhausted that He was sleeping through this storm. (I can tell you from experience that a storm on a large lake is no smooth ride!) In His divinity, Jesus calms the sea by merely speaking—rebuking the wind.
That is all we are to see in this text: Jesus’ humanity and divinity; and the final act of His humanity and divinity is on the cross. In His humanity, God the Son actually suffered and died for you and me; in His divinity, God the Son was the final atonement for the sins of the whole world. In His humanity, God the Son actually rose from the dead in His body; in His divinity, God the Son rose from the dead in perfect glory, which He now imparts to us in our Baptism (Romans 6:3-11). It is to this Jesus that we cry, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” which He has already done for you in His death and resurrection.
