"He (Jesus) said to the disciples,
why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?'"
Mark 4:40
As part of my New Testament class through
Samford online, we are studying the 4 gospels. Mark is immediately my favorite
because he portrays Jesus as He was, a servant.
Mark also uses parables and stories more than the other gospels. So,
when I was studying the book of Mark, I came across this lesson and had to
share.
The crises of life have often been
compared to stormy seas. They come upon us whether we like it or not. They
terrify us. They knock us around and threaten to destroy all our stability and
security. We don’t know whether we can survive them. And we don’t know how long
they will last. At least, that’s how a storm at sea would be for most of us.
For Jesus, it was just a chance to grab 40 winks.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us
go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just
as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall
came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.
Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said
to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to
the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely
calm.
He said to his disciples, “Why are you so
afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other,
“Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
As Mark tells the story, the disciples
were terrified that the boat was going to break up and everyone would die. But
Jesus was asleep (on a cushion no less, Mark notes, adding to the contrast
between Jesus’ tranquility and the disciples’ panic), apparently oblivious to
their pending doom. They roust him and cry, “Teacher, don’t you care if we
drown?” (v. 38). Of course, Jesus quiets the storm with a word, but then he
chides the disciples: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (v.
40).
Some of the lessons in the story are
obvious. Jesus has power over the storms of life, experiences them alongside
us, loves us, saves us from them and wants us to trust him more than we do.
Let’s look at a lesson that might not be
so obvious. Storms don’t worry Jesus. He’s right there with us during them, but
he’s perfectly calm about them. He isn’t terrified; he isn’t impatient; he
isn’t worried. In fact, he’s so calm, he’s asleep. To us, he seems to be asleep
at the switch. We wonder why on earth he doesn’t get up and do something. We
start to wonder whether he even knows the trouble we’re in. Whether he cares.
Whether he even can do anything about it. Whether he’s really all he’s cracked
up to be.
Like the disciples, we believe he’s
there. In the disciples’ case, they could actually see him lying there asleep.
We don’t have that luxury. We believe he’s there, but most of the time he seems
just as asleep as he was during the storm that day on the Sea of Galilee. The
psalmist had the same lament in Psalm 44:23-24: “Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget
our misery and oppression?”
Maybe that’s why Mark included this
story. The not-so-obvious lesson is that Jesus was just as much in control, and
the disciples were just as safe in his hands, while he was asleep as while he
was awake. Most of the time, life seems like a relentless voyage from one storm
to the next. At least it does for me, and I expect it’s the same for you. One
thing I’ve learned about myself is that during storms I’m usually a scared
rabbit just like Jesus’ disciples were.
But I’m also learning that I can take
heart in knowing that Jesus isn’t scared, and he isn’t depressed. He might be
asleep, or he might not be, but either way, like the song says, “He’s got the
whole world in his hands.” Even if he doesn’t wake up and quiet the storm, I’m
safe with him. And if he does wake up and quiet the storm, he’s probably going
to say: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
And I can live with that. Amen.
Author: J. Michael Feazell
Grace Communion International
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