(Matthew 8:21.) But before we boarded the boat, one of My disciples also came to Me and asked Me to allow him, before our departure, to bury his father, who, he said, had died suddenly during the previous night. But I said to him, ‘Just follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead.’ And the disciple immediately abandoned his request and followed Me onto the boat; for he understood that it was better to care for life than for death—a vain care which truly suits the dead best. For all who set store by funeral pomp are more or less dead, since they show honor to death and themselves set great store by the honor of death.
The true death of a person is selfishness, and its spirit is pride, which covets honor above all else. And thus a pompous funeral for someone who has died is nothing but the last display of pride of a person who has long been spiritually dead.
When the disciple thus perceived within himself the full depth of the truth of what I had said to him, he followed Me onto the boat without any further hesitation, as already mentioned. And we set off swiftly with a favorable wind (Matthew 8:23), thus escaping the people’s ever-growing press.
Some did board the small vessels and follow us for a short distance; but when the wind began to blow ever more powerfully, they quickly turned back and had difficulty reaching the safe shore again before the storm broke.
But we were already on the open sea when the previously favorable wind had changed into a mighty storm. Yet I had already been somewhat tired in body when boarding the boat, since I had kept watch all night, and therefore said to Peter on the boat, ‘Prepare Me a bed; for I shall rest a little during the crossing, since, as you know, I had no rest all night.’
Peter immediately brought Me several mats, made a good bed from them and placed a pillow on top under My head, whereupon I promptly fell quite truly asleep in body, although I knew well that the wind would soon turn into a very violent storm and that the high waves would threaten the boat.
When we were about a couple of hours from the shore, the storm too had reached the culmination of its fury (Matthew 8:24), and the waves began to break over the boat’s deck. Then even My most proven disciples became afraid, for they saw that the boat was beginning to take in water as the waves broke over it ever more strongly, especially over the middle part, which, according to the way boats were built at that time, was also the lowest. When the storm would not cease, but only set the sea into high-surging motion with ever greater power, the disciples came to Me—that is, to the highest place on the boat, where Peter had previously prepared Me a bed and where the waves had not yet penetrated—and begin to shake Me (Matthew 8:25), so that I awoke, and then cried out full of fear, ‘Lord, help us, otherwise we shall all perish!’
Then I rose from the bed and said, ‘O you of little faith! (Matthew 8:26.) How can you be afraid when I am with you? Which is greater: the storm, or He who is also a Lord over all storms!?’
But since the disciples, as well as several others who were in the boat, have become almost entirely speechless with fear, and even Peter could only stammer, I quickly threatened the storm and the sea. And behold, everything suddenly became still: the storm was as though cut off, and the sea at once became as smooth as a mirror; only where the rowers disturbed its equilibrium could one notice the tiny movement of the water. But the rather numerous people who did not yet know Me more closely, since they have only joined us this morning and were making this crossing more for their business than for My sake, began to marvel beyond all measure and spoke to the disciples, asking them (Matthew 8:27), ‘What kind of man is this, for Jehovah’s sake, that winds and the sea obey him!?’
But I signaled to the disciples not to betray Me. Peter, however, said, ‘Just do not ask many questions; instead, all of you quickly set about bailing out the water that has poured into the boat. Otherwise, if another storm should follow—as often happens when one breaks off suddenly, as now—we are lost!’ Then the strangers asked no more, but took hold of the water buckets and nimbly bailed the water out of the boat. This kept them fully occupied until we reached the long stretch of the opposite shore.