Text: Matt 8:18-34
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
Early in our reading, our Lord’s disciples are afraid that they will drown. At the end of the reading, the demons enter into a herd of pigs who drown. And this is a lesson on faith.
The disciples are in a boat, and when “there arose a great storm,” our Lord slept calmly through the turmoil. The disciples “woke Him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.’” Our Lord calms the storm, puts everything aright, and asks the disciples, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” The disciples are still trying to figure out who Jesus is: “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey Him?” They still lack real knowledge of who Jesus is.
But the demons have no such deficit of knowledge of Jesus. They know that He is there to “torment” them, knowing that the “time” of their destruction is coming. Our Lord casts them out into a herd of pigs, and the pigs drown themselves. Our Lord does not tell the demons that they have little faith. For faith is not knowledge. The demons have knowledge, but the disciples do not. And yes, the disciples, in their fear, demonstrate a deficit of faith. But the demons have no faith at all. For faith is not merely believing in God, or even believing in Jesus. Faith is believing the Word and promise of Jesus, that it applies to you. That promise is forgiveness, reconciliation, communion with God, and everlasting life.
As James says, the demons believe – in the sense that they recognize Jesus – but they “shudder.” To believe in the sense of faith means to not only know the facts, but to take them to heart, to “fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” To have faith – the faith that saves – is to confess the truth of who Jesus is, and also to believe what He does! And this faith often struggles against our senses and our reason – even as storms, literal and figurative, rage, as the world taunts, as the devil lies, and as our sinful nature betrays. Through it all, faith clings to Christ, to His cross, to His word, and to His promise.
And when the storms rage, even a little faith is by far greater than the sure knowledge and the kind of belief displayed by the demons. Unlike the people of the town, let us not pray to Jesus to “Leave [our] region,” but rather, like the disciples of little faith, let us pray to Jesus to “Save us!”
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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