Matthew 8:27

Matthew 8:27. The men marvelled. Probably all who were in the boat. The parallel passages oblige us to include the disciples as well as the boat's crew. The former (‘of little faith') also wondered.

What manner of man is this. An expression of astonishment. It neither means, What country does he come from; nor, Is he more than man? The latter idea is suggested to those now reading the passage.

Even the wind and the sea, or, ‘the winds and the sea too.' The latter sense suggests that His power over other things had been witnessed; the former intimates that this was the highest display of power. Such a miracle, wrought before those to whom the terrors of the lake were the highest natural danger, was best adapted to convince them of His power to save the soul. By it He also taught a lesson of faith and warned against unbelief, as well as attested to the mere lookers-on His Divine power. All His miracles are displays not only of power, but of love to lost men. Alford: ‘The symbolic application of this occurrence is too striking to have escaped general notice. The Saviour, with the company of His disciples in the ship tossed on the waves, seemed a typical reproduction of the Ark bearing mankind on the flood, and a foreshadowing of the Church tossed by the tempests of this world, but having Him with her always. And the personal application is one of comfort and strengthening of faith in danger and doubt.'