Trinity and Humanity

There’s a famous story in which Jesus calms a storm while he and the disciples are in a boat, on the lake, being battered by the wind and waves (Matt. 8:23-27.) If you’re like me you have the idea that it would be nice if Jesus calmed every storm in your life. Since he doesn’t, we believers have come up with a famous saying about the calming of storms. We sometimes say “Jesus may not calm the storm but he will calm the sailors in the midst of the storm.” That’s true and often very encouraging.

But what if Jesus neither calms the storm nor calms the sailors? What happens when the boat is swamped by the waves, sinks to the bottom, and all the sailors die screaming in terror? That happens too, you know.

In fact, it happened to Jesus. The authorities arrested him, beat him, and nailed him to the cross. They even commented on it as they did it. “He saved others,” they said “but he cannot save himself.” (Matt. 27:42) In fact, the Bible confirms that those religious leaders were right – Jesus didn’t save himself. He died. The “boat” of his body was swamped by the wave, overwhelmed by the storm, and sank into the deep darkness of the abyss. He who calmed the storm, and calmed the sailors, was drowned in a tide of violence.

Ah, but then something happened on the third day, didn’t it? We are now in the season of Easter and we know the rest of the story. Jesus was raised from the dead!

Did you notice how I phrased that, though? I didn’t say “Jesus raised himself from the dead” I said “he was raised.” Even in death Jesus did not save himself. The Bible tells us that God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 3:15, Rom. 4:24.) It was the Father, through the Holy Spirit, who raised his Son up and saved him from death (Psalm 40:2, Rom. 8:11.) So, in a sense, the teachers of the law were right – he couldn’t save himself, but his Father loves him and saved him through the Holy Spirit. He saved him through death, but not from death.

There is a profound lesson in that for all of us. There will be times when Jesus will calm storms for us. There will be times when he will calm us in the midst of the storm. But there will also be times when we will not be saved from the storm but we will be saved, in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, through death because of the storm.

None of us are getting out of this world alive. For every one of us there will eventually come a storm that will, like Jesus’ cross, overwhelm our bodies and send us sinking into the depths of death. Even though we will all eventually sink and all eventually drown we will also all eventually be made alive in Christ (1 Cor. 15:22.) Notice how I phrased that. I didn’t say we will all eventually make ourselves alive by our faith or belief. I said that, just like our brother Jesus, we will be made alive. We can’t save ourselves but our Father who loves us will save us – even from death itself – in the resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ through the power of his Holy Spirit.

~ Jonathan Stepp