Matthew 8:26

‘And he says to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”

Jesus awoke, unmoved by the situation, and first turned to them and rebuked them for their fears. He pointed out to them that their problem lay in that fact that they did not have sufficient faith. For if they had really recognised Him for what He was they would have recognised that no boat that carried Him would be allowed to sink. He was safe in His Father's hands. And the inference is that they should also have realised that they were safe with Him, for they were His chosen followers. This would undoubtedly later give them assurance in the future that they were in God's hands (even when one of them was martyred - Acts 12:2).

Then having initially rebuked the disciples, He rebuked the winds and the sea (compare Psalms 104:7; Psalms 106:9; Nahum 1:4). Only pedantic minds will argue here that this means that He saw the storm as a living thing. Rather it is simply vivid language which brings out the force of what happened, as the quotations demonstrate (compare Psalms 18:15 where His rebuke is compared with the blast of the breath of His nostrils). It is simply saying somewhat poetically that by the power of His word the storm was stilled. And immediately there was a great calm, indeed such a sudden calm after a storm that it was beyond the experience of even these hardened fishermen. In that moment they knew that they had seen the Master of wind and wave at work. And they were filled with awe.

For ‘O you of little faith' compare Matthew 6:30; Matthew 14:31; Matthew 16:8. It seems that He then re-emphasised the lesson about faith (Luke 8:25), which is what we would expect once the immediate ‘danger' was over. For it was an important lesson for them to learn. There is encouragement for us in this. It tells us that they had enough faith to come to Jesus when things were at the worst, and in the end that was all that was required, even though it was so small.

Mark's alternative, ‘'Do you still have no faith?' is actually asking the same question. ‘Why is your faith so small?' He knew that they had a little faith. He was simply bemoaning the lack of quality in their faith. They had no faith of the right kind (compare Matthew 17:19).

One important thing about this expression was that it brought out that Jesus was not using His miraculous powers to protect Himself. He was willing to rely on His Father. His concern was rather for the desperate men who had appealed to Him.