Jamin Bradley

In the Genesis creation story, before the world had any structure at all, it was nothing more than a chaotic sea of water. He did not do away with this chaos entirely, but he gave it boundaries and raised up land as order in the midst of it.

One had to be careful when approaching the remaining sea, because chaos could quickly take over. For ancient people, it was a dangerous place full of intense waves, strange creatures, and even demonic, god-like dragons. If a storm hit while you were sailing the chaotic waters, your life might be taken at a moment’s notice.

And it’s there on those chaotic waters that we find Jesus sleeping in a small boat. He’s so tired that he sleeps through the waves that swamp his boat. He sleeps through the storm that terrifies his fishermen-disciples to death. He sleeps through everything except the pokes of his fearful disciples. He then rises up and rebukes the storm (a word typically related to demonic activity), and the storm stops. Perhaps he then went back to bed.

When God comes to us in the flesh of Jesus, he does a lot of weird things with the chaotic waters. He stops storms from nearly killing him. He stops the wind from slowing down his boat. He possibly teleports a boat straight to shore. He walks on the waves like one would walk on solid ground. He casts demons into the chaotic sea. He controls the sea creatures. He even gives himself over to Jonah’s legendary sea dragon—a representation of death itself—and then conquers it through resurrection.

Jesus has peace where we do not. Jesus knows how to face the storms that we are afraid of. Jesus walks on the face of chaos and has already overcome the gods that reign there. And one day when he puts all things right, he will drain the sea so that chaos has no more place in the cosmos.

Whatever chaos you are going through, Jesus can handle it.