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Matthew 8:27  | 1715
8:20 o  Da  7:13;
Mt  12:8, ​32, ​40; 16:13,
27, ​28; 17:9; 19:28;
Mk 2:10; 8:31
8:22 p  Mt  4:19
8:26 q  Mt  6:30
r  Ps 65:7; 89:9;
107:29
20 ­Jesus re­plied, “Foxes have ­dens and ­birds have ­nests, but the Son of Man  o has no
place to lay his h
­ ead.”
21 An­other dis­ci­ple said to him, “Lord, ­first let me go and bury my ­fa­ther.”
22 But ­Jesus told him, “Fol­low me,  p and let the dead bury ­their own d
­ ead.”
Jesus Calms the Storm
8:23-27pp —​ Mk 4:36-41; Lk 8:22-25
8:23-27Ref —​ Mt 14:22-33
23 Then he got into the boat and his dis­ci­ples fol­lowed him. 24  Sud­denly a fu­ri­ous ­storm
came up on the lake, so that the ­waves ­swept over the boat. But ­Jesus was sleep­ing. 25 The
dis­ci­ples went and woke him, say­ing, “Lord, save us! ­We’re go­ing to ­drown!”
26 He re­plied, “You of lit­tle ­faith,  q why are you so ­afraid?” Then he got up and re­buked
the ­winds and the ­waves, and it was com­pletely ­calm.  r
27 The men were a
­ mazed and a
­ sked, “What kind of man is this? Even the ­winds and the
waves obey ­him!”
8:20 the Son of Man. A key title ­Jesus uses
for himself. Throughout Ezekiel, God uses
the term to address the prophet as a mere
mortal. But in Dan 7:13 – 14, “one like a son
of man” (i.e., a human being) is ushered into
God’s presence on the clouds of heaven and
given universal and eternal authority over the
kingdoms of the earth. Some of ­Jesus’ “Son
of Man” sayings, like this one, emphasize his
role as a humble, earthly figure, especially in
his passion and death, but many reflect his
exalted, Messianic role. has no place to lay
his head. Does not mean ­Jesus no longer has
a home or friends who will take him in, but
reflects the arduous nature of his itinerant
ministry without a regular residence.
8:21  let me go and bury my father. Could
mean staying around for up to a year when
the coffin was exhumed and the bones rebur-
ied in a much smaller ossuary.
8:22 let the dead bury their own dead. Prob-
ably means letting the spiritually dead bury
the physically dead. The point is the urgency
of discipleship, not literal disrespect for one’s
parents or for a culture’s burial practices. Con-
trast 1 Kgs 19:20 – 21.
8:23 — 9:8  The second triad of miracles in
chs. 8 – 9 demonstrates ­Jesus’ authority over
disaster, demons, and disease.
8:23 – 27  This passage does not promise that
Northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee where ­Jesus spent much of his ministry.
© Eve81/Shutterstock
J ­ esus will calm all the “storms” of life; often
he does not. Rather, it highlights his authority
over nature (v. 27).
8:26  rebuked. The same verb is sometimes
used in the Gospels when ­Jesus casts out
demons (e.g., 17:18) and may suggest that
Matthew sees a demonic influence behind
what we would call a natural event. Bibli-
cally, discord between humans and “nature”
ultimately stems from sin entering the world
(Gen 3:17 – 19) and is thus unnatural.
8:27  What kind of man is this? This is the
question this miracle should raise for every-
one who hears of it. In Ps 89:9 God alone rules
“over the surging sea” and stills it “when its