In Luke 8.22-25 (also Matthew 8.23-27 and Mark 4.35-41), Jesus and his disciples get into a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee.  A nasty storm arises, the boat is filling with water, and the disciples are scared.  Jesus, tired after teaching and healing for days, sleeps.

The disciples wake up Jesus in a panic, saying “Master, we are perishing!”  Jesus wakes up, looks around, and “rebukes the wind and the raging waves, and they cease, and there was a calm.”  His comment to the disciples is another rebuke, “Where is your faith?”  The passage does not tell us, but I am guessing Jesus goes back to sleep; his teaching was done for the moment.

For the disciples, many of whom were hardened fishermen, it was one thing to be afraid for your life in a raging sea.  But another kind of fear and awe emerged – “they were afraid, and they marveled” – when they witnessed the power and authority of the one who is sovereign over the wind, the waves, and all of nature.

The disciples did not know it yet – Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as Christ is not until chapter 9 and the crucifixion and resurrection are at the end of the book – but this man who saved them from drowning would also be saving them from their sins.  The same God, same Jesus, same sovereign over nature is still inspiring fear and awe, working the great miracle of saving believers from their sins.