Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant when he says to his disciples “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”

He says this a few times but the one that is on my mind this week is when the disciples are in a boat, in a great storm, and they come to Jesus because they are perishing and need his help. 

Matthew 8:23-27 “And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’ and he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

A few years ago I asked Jesus why he said this to the disciples. He responded that he wanted them to have the faith to calm the storm themselves.

What?!

A couple of days ago I read it again, remembering what Jesus shared with me a few years ago and it struck me again as strange. I couldn’t quite get my head around why Jesus would expect them to calm the storm. I asked him, again, to explain more. 

Then this morning as I woke up, thinking about a number of circumstances in life right now, I felt God nudging me to read about Elisha. He is so much fun! Without even batting an eyelash he does absolutely outrageous things. One of my favorite stories is 2 Kings 4:38-44 about the stew that was deadly and Elisha throws some flour in it and makes it non-poisonous. It’s a pretty funny story since flour really has nothing to do with removing poison from stew. My guess is it was simply something tangible Elisha could do to show his faith and give the people eating the stew some confidence that the stew had been changed.

As I read chapter 4 this morning, God reminded me, again, of the amazing miraculous things he did through Elisha. Then, I noticed in 2 Kings 4:42-44 how Elisha multiplied bread to feed 100 men.

Hmmm, I think God is answering my question from a few days ago!

2 Kings 4:42-44 “A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, ‘Give to the men that they may eat.’ But his servant said ‘How can I set this before a hundred men?’ So he repeated, ‘Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ So he set it before them. And thy ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.”

I am sure I have read this before but it registered with me in a completely different way this morning. Elisha multiplied bread, just like Jesus multiplied bread for the multitudes in Matthew 14:13-21. It dawned on me that Jesus actually expected the disciples to do this miracle. 

Matthew 14:15-18 “Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said ‘This is a desolate place, and the day is now over, send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ But Jesus said ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘We have only five loaves here and two fish.’ And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.'”

The disciples would have known the story of Elisha so they already knew it was possible to multiply food. The story of Jesus feeding 5000 lines up a lot like the story of Elisha – a few loaves of bread, a lot of people to feed. Even the way it plays out where Elisha asks his assistant to pass out the bread, it sounds a lot like Jesus asking the disciples to hand out the bread and fish. 

But how does this tie back to calming the storm? A few chapters earlier in 1 Kings 17:1 Elijah predicts a drought and says there will be no dew or rain except by his word. Then, in 1 Kings 18:41-46 Elijah calls for rain and shows incredible faith because he prays 7 times in a row and then when there is a tiny cloud in the sky he knows the prayer has been answered and a great rain is about to come….and he acts upon this faith! In this story Elijah takes charge of the weather.

The disciples would have known this story also. 

When Jesus says “O you of little faith” he is not asking them to imagine something completely out of their knowledge base. They have seen prophets work with the weather and multiply food. Instead, I think Jesus is inviting the disciples into the miraculous. 

Wow!

So…maybe when we hear Jesus say to us “O you of little faith”, rather than taking it as admonishment, I wonder if we could receive it as an invitation. 

Copyright © 2024 Sherri Cowhig All Rights Reserved

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