They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.” Mark 4:41
Out on the lake after a busy day of learning from Jesus, the disciples learned a lesson no amount of lecturing or code-messaged parables could convey. They were in a storm, and their boat was sinking. Too bad they didn’t have one of the fishing boats available to them. It would have carried them through, but this smaller, narrower boat went off course at the smallest wave. And now a furious squall had come up. What was worse, Jesus lay fast asleep, oblivious, as it appeared to the disciples, to everything going on around him.
Caught off guard, the disciples scrambled to pitch water out of the boat. But their efforts were of no use. The boat was going down. They were going with it. Drowned. Finished with the sensational work they shared with Jesus after barely getting started.
In a panic, they woke the Teacher up and scolded him for his lack of concern. “Don’t you care if we drown?” they demand of him.
With three words, Jesus brought the raging storm to complete calm. “Quiet. Be still.” The same words are used here in the original language as the words Jesus will soon speak to the evil tormenting the man in the region of the Gerasenes. Jesus muzzles, or gags, the storm. His words to the weather shut it down. All in a day’s work for a Messiah. I can imagine Jesus brushing his hands together as if to rid them of dirt and then turning to fluff up his cushion like the episode was hardly worth the exertion. Back to sleep he may have gone, if not for a band of terrified men huddled and shaking.
“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Jesus asked them. His words likely carried a greater scolding than the one they had given him.
I’m right here, Jesus says in his questions. Just because I was sleeping doesn’t mean I lost any power.
The lesson the disciples are learning is the very one of faith. Either Jesus was the Son or God as he and the prophets claimed him to be, or he wasn’t. The evidence was too strong, too obvious, for him to be anyone but the promised Savior.
And here they were, crowded into a boat with him living through the adventure of their very own relationship with Him. The scene ends unresolved. Jesus leaves the decision up to them of who He really is.
Jesus calms storms. He chokes out evil. He heals chronic disease. He raises the dead. No one is more powerful than Him.
An unforgettable lesson.
My son, Mark, is a meteorology student at Iowa State. He loves this time of year with the high dew points, unstable atmosphere, and all kinds of other conditions weathermen have official terms for. He is forever looking for a good storm. Then he can go chase it in the hopes of witnessing a sensational display of power either in thunderheads or hail, or the ultimate prize, a tornado. No better training exists for the aspiring weatherman than to be out in the storm watching it, photographing it, marveling at its power. A student of the forces of nature, he is learning lessons that will shape him as he pursues his education and someday his career as he becomes the seasoned, tried and true weatherman.
As students of Jesus, are we learning lessons that will shape us? Do we know where to look for displays of God’s power? Do we run away terrified, or do we chase after Him hoping to see more, to learn more, to become more?
God leaves the answer up to us. Either He is God, totally capable of calming our storms and healing our lives and souls, or He isn’t. We get to decide, and the choice we make defines who He is to us for all time.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I confess fear and unbelief. I want to have more faith in you, in your concern for me, and in your uncontested power. Be the Lord of my life whom I may always look to in the storm. Amen.
