Matthew 8:26-27

Matthew 8:26-27

[26] And  he saith  unto them,  Why  fearful,  O ye of little faith?  Then  he arose,  and rebuked  the winds  and  the sea;  and  there was  a great  calm.  [27] But  the men  marvelled,  saying,  What manner of man  this,  that  even  the winds  and  the sea  obey  him! 

What does Matthew 8:26-27 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Jesus did not rebuke His disciples for disturbing Him but for failing to trust Him as they should have. He said they had "little faith" (Gr. oligopistos). Wherever Matthew used this word in His Gospel it always reflects a failure to see below the surface of things. [1] Faith in Messiah and fear are mutually exclusive. Therefore the disciples should not have been "timid" (NASB) or "afraid" (NIV). Even though the disciples believed Jesus could help them, they did not grasp that He was the Messiah who would die a sacrificial death for their sins. How could the divine Messiah whom God had sent die in a storm before He had finished His messianic work? It was impossible.
"The life of discipleship is susceptible to bouts of little faith. Such little faith is not to be condoned. Nevertheless, Jesus does not abandon his disciples at such times but stands ever ready with his saving power to sustain them so they can in fact discharge the mission he has entrusted to them." [2]
The disciples expected help, but they were unprepared for the kind of deliverance Jesus provided. It was a much greater salvation than they hoped for. The sea became perfectly calm.
"His disciples who were seasoned fishermen had been through storms on this sea that had suddenly ceased. But after the wind would pass, the waves would continue to chop for a while." [3]
Jesus" ability to calm the wind and water with a word made it clear that He had greater powers than these disciples had witnessed previously. This is the first nature miracle that Matthew recorded Jesus doing. Who was He? The reader of Matthew"s Gospel knows better than the disciples did. He is the virgin-born Messiah, God with us, come to provide salvation and to set up His kingdom. While the disciples were "men" ( Matthew 8:27), Jesus was a different type of Prayer of Manasseh , the God-man. [4] Psalm 65:5-6; Psalm 89:8-9; Psalm 104:7; and Psalm 107:23-30 attribute the stilling of seas to God (cf. Jonah 1-2). Psalm 89:25 predicted that the ideal king would be able to do this.
The Israelites viewed the sea as an enemy they could not control. Throughout the Old Testament it epitomizes what is wild, hostile, and foreboding. It stood for their foes in some of their literature. Jesus" miracle also taught this secondary lesson. Here was a man exercising dominion over the sea, which God had appointed to man before the Fall ( Genesis 1:28). Jesus must be the Second Adam (cf. Romans 5:12-17).
"The incident is related, not primarily for the sake of recording a miracle, but as an instance of the subduing of the power of evil, which was one of the signs of the nearness of the Kingdom; see xii28." [5]
In this incident Matthew again presented Jesus as man and God. As Prayer of Manasseh , He slept in the boat. As God, he calmed the sea (cf. Matthew 4:1-4; Matthew 12:22-32). As Prayer of Manasseh , He suffers; but as God, He rules. The pericope indicates Jesus" power to fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah 30:23-24; Isaiah 35:1-7; Isaiah 41:17-18; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 55:13; Joel 3:18; Ezekiel 36:29-38; and Zechariah 10:1. He has all power over nature.