Mark
4:35-41 (NRSV)
Jesus
Stills a Storm
35 On
that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the
other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just
as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves
beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the
stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher,
do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind,
and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a
dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled
with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind
and the sea obey him?’
The lake of Galilee was notorious for storms – especially
those that came out of the blue. It seems strange that the disciples panicked
on this occasion, so it was probably a storm that was unusually fierce. Jesus
was situated in the boat in the place reserved for an honoured guest – in the
stern where a carpet and cushion were arranged for his comfort. Behind him
would have been the helmsman.
Barclay points out that the words Jesus used were the same
as the ones he used when he addressed the demon-possessed man (Mark 1:15 ). This could have been Mark,
putting his interpretation into his retelling of the account because it was
commonly believed, at the time, that because of the destructive nature of
storms, ‘… the evil power of the demons was at work in the realm of nature …’
This could well be the case, but this does not alter the fact, for me, that
there was an incident when Jesus stilled a storm (as some of our liberal
colleagues might suggest!) As Barclay comments:
“We do this story far less than
justice if we merely take it in a literalistic sense …’ because if we do so, it
remains just a lovely story, something about which we just read and enjoy,
something that could have happened in the past, but never again. But our
experience is different: all of us know that Jesus has calmed storms in our own
lives. And it is something that still happens because “… in the presence of Jesus
we can have peace even in the wildest storms of life.”
Barclay gives us three examples to reflect on:
(i) Jesus gives us peace in the storms of SORROW: Sorrow
comes to all of us, but when it does, he tells us that this life is not all
there is. Jesus tells us of the love of God which accepts us and blesses us and
those we love. Jesus tells us that those whom we love and who have left this
life have gone to be with God “… and gives us the certainty that we shall meet
again those whom we have loved and lost awhile …”
(ii) Jesus gives us peace in the storms of LIFE’S PROBLEMS:
There are times when we do not know what to do, when we have doubts and
uncertainties. When we ask: “Lord, what would you have me do?” eventually the
way will be clear and plain. Barclay claims: “The real tragedy is not that we
do not know what to do; it is that so often we do not humbly submit to His
guidance.” When we submit to the will of God, we know His peace.
(iii) Jesus gives us peace in the storms of ANXIETY: The
enemy of peace is worry – for ourselves, for the future, for those we love.
Barclay concludes:
“But Jesus speaks to us of a
Father whose hand will never cause His child a needless tear and of a love
beyond which neither we nor those we love can ever drift. In the storm of
anxiety He brings us to the peace of the love of God.”
Lake Galilee was (and still is) prone to violent storms, but
for Jesus, he completely trusted in the divine power to ‘make him dwell in
safety’, while the disciples were those who – as they often did – proved to be
of little faith. They mistook Jesus’ profound faith as indifference and woke
him with a rebuke.
Denis Nineham reminds us that in stilling the storm, Jesus
performed a divine act. This resulted in the disciples being filled with a
different type of fear, realising that Jesus was therefore divine. The early
church saw this as clear evidence that Jesus was no ordinary person and that,
if he was not God Himself, then he was at least His ‘… eschatological agent …
entrusted with the plenitude of divine power for the protecting and saving of
his church …’
As we journey through life, it sometimes seems as though
Christ is asleep while we are being buffeted in great storms. But we are
reassured here that He is not indifferent to our plight. But often the calming
is not in the way we expect – often the storm remains – but we are filled with
a deep inner sense of calm.
The richness of this simple passage is evident when one
reads comments on it from a variety of different perspectives. So far we have
seen the devotional reflection of William Barclay, and some thoughts from the
scholarly approach of Denis Nineham and now I go back into the middle of the 19th
Century – 1857 in fact - and see some of the thoughts expressed by J C Ryle who
was then a parish priest and who was later to become Bishop of Liverpool.
This was an interesting time. Industrialisation was
happening, people were moving into the towns, there were wars and conflicts;
the Empire was expanding and much of what life was like was captured in the
writings of Charles Dickens. Into this context, there was a revival of Christianity
and societies were transformed by the Gospel. People found a dignity and worth
for themselves – even in the midst of difficulty – because in finding Christ,
they found meaning and purpose for their lives. Ryle was convinced of the
importance of having a living relationship with Jesus Christ, not just an
historical understanding of some particular character of history.
Firstly, we are reminded that Christ’s service does not
exempt His servants from storms. The disciples were model followers, they were
obedient to Jesus, daily spending time with Him and listening to His word and
they testified to the world ‘… yet here we see these men in trouble, tossed up
and down by a tempest, and in danger of being drowned …’
We ought not to expect everything to be smooth in our
journey to heaven. It is to be expected that we will experience sickness,
losses, bereavements and disappointments – just like any other person. Jesus
never promised us that we would not have afflictions. By these afflictions
Jesus teaches us many precious lessons which we would otherwise never learn.
Ryle writes:
“By affliction he shows us our
emptiness and weakness, draws us to the throne of grace, purifies our
affections, weans us from the world, makes us long for heaven. In the
resurrection morning we shall say, ‘… it is good for me that I was afflicted …’
We shall thank God for every storm.”
Secondly, we learn that our Lord Jesus Christ was truly man.
He had a body like ours – a body that could hunger, and thirst, and feel pain,
and be weary and need rest. Jesus was exhausted because of the drain of his
ministry on his own body. Ryle writes: “He knows the trials of man, for he has
experienced them.” He identified precisely with everything that bring to him as
we cry out to him in the midst of our afflictions (cf Hebrews 4:15 )
Thirdly, Jesus has almighty power. In these verses we read
of Jesus doing what was humanly impossible – the winds and waves obey him – ‘…
he turns a raging storm into a calm with a few words …’ These are the words God
used at Creation. So, for our Lord Jesus, nothing is impossible. Ryle gives the
following examples: stormy passions, temper, disquieted conscience, despair,
temptations and concludes:
“No [person] ever need despair,
if he will only bow down his pride, and come as a humbled sinner to Christ.
Christ can do miracles upon his heart. … It is all or nothing, if Christ is on
our side, and we are in the ship with Him. greater is He that is for us, than
all they that are against us.”
Lastly, our Lord Jesus Christ is exceedingly patient and
pitiful in dealing with His own people. On this occasion, the faith of the
disciples was very weak. They forgot their Master’s miracles and His care for
them. They thought of nothing but the present peril. Yet we see Jesus dealing
with them most tenderly and gently; he does not prove them, but simply asks the
question: ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ Jesus does not deal
with us according to our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities. He
loves us. Ryle concludes: “When He sees a heart right, it is His glory to pass
over many a short-coming.”
The most important aspect comes at the end of Ryle’s
exposition. Here he reminds his readers that all this remains true TODAY,
because Jesus has not changed. What was true for the disciples then, remains
true for us even today, because we are in a relationship with the same Jesus.
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