Matthew 8:26  “And he said 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.”

 

Luke 8:25 “And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered…

 

I have always been troubled by this story as it is related in our English and Greek text in the two Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  In Matthew Jesus appears to rebuke his disciples by saying: “Oh ye of little faith.”  I mean what a slam.  It sounds so much like Jesus is just plain disgusted with his disciples.  They really scares me because based upon this rendering Jesus must constantly be disgusted with me for when I face the storms of life I find myself crying out: “Jesus, don’t you care?”  On top of that you have an entirely different account of the same story in Luke where Jesus simply asks, “Where is your faith.”  The two events do not seem to harmonize.

 

Actually, Jesus’s comment about faith takes place before the miracle of calming the storm in Matthew and after the miracle in Luke.  In the actual event I believe Jesus addressed the issue of faith two times, once before the miracle (oh ye of little faith) and again after the miracle (where is your faith?).  Boy, Jesus must have really been fed up with his disciples to rebuke them two times for their lack of faith.  I can just imagine Jesus up in heaven shaking his head over me saying: “Father, Father, what am I going to do with this Chaim fellow. I’ve kept him on the earth for three score and three years and still he has such little faith , Oy, where did I go wrong?”

 

As I have said many times, Jesus did not speak in Greek, He spoke in a Northern dialect of Aramaic and when I read these two accounts in my Aramaic Bible (Peshitta) I find something very amazing that makes this old Baptist want to run out to the nearest International House of Prayer (IHOP) and join in their worship. I find IHOP to be a sort of protestant version of the Carmelite  Order in the Catholic Church which practices contemplation in the sense of prayer, community and service.  Like the Trappist, they practice contemplative prayer which is often expressed in what is referred to in the Hebrew as Zamar or in the Aramaic as Damar. 

 

You see there are a number of words for song, singing and music in the Hebrew and Aramaic.  We simply render these words with the singular English word Song. Yet each word speaks of a different type of song.  There are songs of praise, songs of thanksgiving, songs of worship, songs of victory, etc.  In this case Zamar and Damar are songs of separation.  Jewish tradition shows the word Zamar  is spelled Zayin, Mem and Resh.  This indicates that this song is used as a weapon (Zayin)to purify (Mem) us and separate our desires of the flesh from the spirit (Resh) in order to release our faith.  The Jews, the Carmelites and IHOP use contemplative prayer, prayer that is repeated over and over to break through the barriers of the flesh so that their spirits may be free and open to the spirit of God without the desires of the flesh getting in the way.   You know I can pray, “Lord I want a brand new Jeep Wrangler.” But how can I be sure that is my spirit speaking and not my flesh?  Perhaps my spirit is saying, “Don’t you do it either, I want him to have a vehicle which will not distract him from your purpose and mission in his life.”   My grandfather used to like to quote the old Native American who became a Christian and said it was like two dogs fighting inside of him, one is the flesh, and the other is the spirit.   The one who wins is the one you feed the most.  It is not God who needs our contemplative prayers, but us. It is in our constant communion with God that we eventually break through the barriers of the flesh.  We feed our spirit more than the flesh and before long the spirit will win out.  However, as the Jews, the Carmelites and IHOP have found, it often takes hours of prayer and singing  to make these break throughs.

 

How does this apply to this story?  In Matthew Jesus says, “Oh ye of little faith.”   In the Greek the word used for little faith is olicopistos which means just that, little or puny faith.  However, in the Aramaic the word that is used is zeora which is really a word used for immature, or not yet developed.  Jesus was not rebuking them for having little faith, but not allow their faith to develop, to break through the flesh.  In Luke, after the miracle Jesus asked, “Where is your faith?”  Implied in the Aramaic what Jesus was saying was, “Now let me see your faith.”  The verse follows that they were afraid. The Greek word used here is phobeo which means to be terrified.  Yet, the Aramaic uses the word Damar which we have just leaned means to enter a song of contemplative prayer.  The disciples began to sing and feed their spirit and starve their flesh so their faith could shine through. They sang of Jesus and the winds and rains obeying Him.

 

This morning I am going to church. It is an Assemblies of God church where their order of worship is to start with a half hour to forty five minutes of singing songs set to music I can’t stand, and then repeating these songs over and over until you are bored to death and ready to listen to any preacher preach, anything so long as I don’t have to listen to that horrible music again.   At least they do not go on for three hours – plus like IHOP, but still a half hour to forty five minutes can get very long —- if you do not understand what is going on.  For me, I care less if the music appeals to me or not (I like Southern Gospel myself with four part harmony). For you see the style of music is unimportant, it is the opportunity to  Zamar or Damar , that is to sing from my spirit and starve my flesh to death so when the pastor does step up and recite from the Word of God my spirit will be front and center to receive the message from the Spirit of God. I and God will then listen to the cry of my spirit and not the cry of my flesh.  Those are the prayers that get a positive answer.  “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:3), but you must ask in the spirit and not the flesh. Sometimes it may take up to three hours plus – to break through the flesh so the prayer of the spirit and not the flesh can be heard.

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