Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 8:26

"And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm." — Matthew 8:26 (ASV)

That the disciples could cry to Jesus for help reveals that they believed, or hoped, he could do something. More than others they had witnessed his miracles and apparently believed he could rescue them. Jesus’ calling them “you of little faith” is therefore not against skepticism of his ability, nor against the fear that the disciples might drown. Rather, Jesus rebukes their failure to see that the one so obviously raised up by God to accomplish the messianic work could not possibly have died in a storm while that work remained undone. They lacked faith, not so much in his ability to save them, as in Jesus the Messiah, whose life could not be lost in a storm, as if the elements were out of control and Jesus himself the pawn of chance. Jesus’ sleep stems both from his exhaustion and from his awareness that his hour had not yet come.

The disciples expected Jesus to intervene. But just as a crowd expects a magician to do his trick, yet marvels when it is done, so the disciples are amazed when he stills the storm that there is a complete calm. What kind of man is this? Readers of this gospel know the answer—he is the virgin-born Messiah who has come to redeem his people from their sins and whose mission is to fulfill God’s redemptive purposes. But the disciples did not yet understand these things. They saw that his authority extended over nature and were thus helped in their faith. Yet they did not grasp the profundity of his rebuke. Indeed, wherever “little faith” is used in Matthew (14:31; 16:8), it signifies the failure to see beyond the mere surface of things. Thus this section is deeply Christological: themes of faith and discipleship are of secondary importance and point to the “kind of man” Jesus is.