Recent Musings:
Where?
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Where is your faith? A Jesus quote that I found very interesting. It's from the parable when Jesus and his disciples were out on the sea and a huge storm rolled in. Terrified, the disciples woke Jesus, telling him to do something or they were all going to die. And Jesus, before calming the sea with just a word, looks at the disciples and says, "Where is your faith?"
The more obvious interpretation is to read it as if the faith of the disciples was present or non-present, like the disciples' faith was suddenly m.i.a. in the presence of their fear.
Yet the interpretation that struck me was not the meaning of where as in is your faith existent or non-existent, but more of a where is your faith located, meaning what is your faith in, where does your faith lie?
For Jesus to ask where the disciples' faith was while he was with them on the boat, I think Jesus was implying, "Your faith is obviously NOT in me, because I'm standing right here! Where, then, is your faith?"
I like this interpretation because I can relate to it; I know that I have faith, but my faith is not always in Jesus and his teachings. My faith moves around from faith in myself to faith in religious traditions, from faith in people to faith in knowledge and higher learning and my faith does not always stay present with Jesus.
Therefore, when I read this text, I cried, for in my moment of confusion, I couldn't say where my faith was. If my faith had been grounded in the hope and promise Jesus offers, I may not have felt so much fear myself. But apparently it wasn't, and I and the disciples both needed to stop and think.