<p>4:41 <i>And they feared exceedingly, and said to each other: Who then is this?- &quot;</i>What manner of man is this&quot; (Mt. 8:27); what&nbsp;<i>sort</i>&nbsp;of man is this (Gk.&nbsp;<i>potapos</i>), they asked themselves. They felt very much their own humanity (hence they are called &quot;the men&quot; at this time), and their awe was because they sensed that Jesus too was a man. Accepting the humanity of the Lord Jesus is relatively easy on one level, as a matter of theology, exposition or logic. But then comes the far harder part- the awe at the fact that One who was like me could actually do so much and be so much. And this can lead to our feeling a kind of gap between Him and us, although we know He shared the same nature, this in a sense means that we feel the spiritual distance between Him and us very keenly. In later spiritual maturity, Peter seems to have reflected upon this gap and realized that it was bridgeable- for he uses a similar word in saying that because of God's grace, &quot;what manner of persons(<i>potapous</i>) ought we to be...&quot;. Just as Jesus was human and yet different from unbelieving men, so that same element of difference can be seen in us. The whole consideration is an essay in His humanity and representation of us as humans.</p><p>&quot;What manner of&nbsp;<i>man</i>&nbsp;is this?&quot; was maybe said on perceiving that His actions were in fulfilment of the prophecy that&nbsp;<i>Yahweh&nbsp;</i>would still the waves of the sea. And in the context of stilling another storm, He comments: &quot;Fear not, it is I&quot; - not 'it's&nbsp;<i>me</i>'. He was surely suggesting they connect Him with the essence of the Yahweh Name, I am that I am. But the connection was only for those who would truly meditate and connect things together. As our Moslem friends have correctly pointed out many times, Jesus Himself never in so many words claimed to be Messiah. When others said this about Him, He replies by describing Himself as the &quot;son of man&quot;. Indeed, this was His preferred self-image. He was intensely conscious of His humanity, His solidarity with us, and it was as if He directed us who later have believed to image Him first and foremost as a&nbsp;<i>man of our nature</i>. Of course, He was and is so much more than that. But because we are human, we have to image ourselves around a perfect human- Jesus, the real and full humanity as God intended. Here those who believe Jesus was God Himself place themselves at a distinct disadvantage- our understanding that Jesus did indeed come &quot;in the flesh&quot; ought to be a tremendous inspiration to us to be like Him. The power and compulsion of His life and example are surely diminished by relating to Him as God Himself.</p><p>Jesus does not&nbsp;proclaim Himself, and yet He expects us to base our lives around Him. This is yet another paradox. Clearly we are intended to reconstruct Him from our repeated and sensitive readings of the Gospels. We in our day must read the Gospel records, portraying Him as they do from four different angles, and seek to reconstruct Him in our own minds as a person. His actions spoke loudly and in this He is a pattern to us in our witness. When He stilled the storm, the disciples marvelled: &quot;What manner of man is this?&quot;, knowing full well that His actions were in fulfilment of the prophecy that <i>Yahweh </i>would still the waves of the sea. And in the context of stilling another storm, He comments: &quot;Fear not, it is I&quot; - not 'it's <i>me</i>'. He was surely suggesting they connect Him with the essence of the Yahweh Name, I am that I am. But the connection was only for those who would truly meditate and connect things together. As our Moslem friends have correctly pointed out many times, Jesus Himself never in so many words claimed to be Messiah. When others said this about Him, He replies by describing Himself as the &quot;son of man&quot;. Indeed, this was His preferred self-image. He was intensely conscious of His humanity, His solidarity with us, and it was as if He directed us who later have believed to image Him first and foremost as a <i>man of our nature</i>. Of course, He was and is so much much more than that. But because we are human, we have to image ourselves around a perfect human- Jesus, the real and full humanity as God intended. Here those who believe Jesus was God Himself place themselves at a distinct disadvantage- our understanding that Jesus did indeed come &quot;in the flesh&quot; ought to be a tremendous inspiration to us to be like Him. The power and compulsion of His life and example are surely diminished by relating to Him as God Himself.</p><p><i>Even the wind and the sea obey him- </i>The disciples spoke of the wind and sea as if they were conscious entities, able to be obedient to the word of Jesus. The same word is used to describe the marvel of the people that &quot;even the unclean spirits... obey Him&quot; (Mk. 1:27). Just as wind and sea are not actually living entities, so unclean spirits likewise don't actually exist. But the disciples clearly had the idea in their head. Yet the scale of the Lord's power over such entities in fact showed their effective non-existence in practice.</p>