(Audio version; Music: "Here With Me" by: MercyMe and "Oceans" by: WorhsipMob)
Introduction
We all seem
to know that one person who appears to always be living life under clear blue
skies and perpetual sunshine. Without a care in the world or storm clouds
anywhere on the horizon, that person seems to skip through life with total ease
and without trouble. But I can guarantee you that there isn’t a single person out
there who hasn’t at one point in their life had to endure The Storms Of Life. And if they haven’t yet, they will eventually.
The question is not will we have to
endure The Storms Of Life but when will we have to endure The Storms Of Life? And what will we do
when we get pummeled by The Storms Of
Life?
The Storms Of Life look different for
all of us. For some, the storms rage in the form of infidelity and divorce. For
others the tempest of cancer or some other terminal illness pounds us into
hiding. Some are battered by the squalls of addiction and others are ravaged by
the torrent of sexual abuse or some other abuse. Some storms are so fierce that
it seems we could very easily be swept away by the grief and sorrow. The pages
of the Bible are filled with people caught in one kind of storm or another. But
it wasn’t like that in the beginning. In the beginning, Adam and Eve didn’t
have worry about storms—but sin changed all that. Once sin entered the world,
storm clouds started to gather on the horizon as God banished Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Eden. And the storm smashed into their lives when one of their
two sons murdered the other one. The
Storms Of Life rarely if ever subsided in the lives of humanity thereafter.
Disease and/or death brought the storms of suffering and grief into the life of
every single human being since Adam and Eve’s sin, interrupted only with
periods of war, slavery, captivity, banishment, oppression and persecution.
Humanity was left to face The Storms Of
Life seemingly on their own until God stepped in; God in the person of
Jesus Christ. The Storms Of Life continue
to this day but Jesus can now be our anchor our shelter during The Storms Of Life. And for some of us,
Jesus will even calm The Storms Of Life.
Subject Text
Mark 4:35-41
35That
day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other
side.” 36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he
was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37A furious
squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly
swamped. 38Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The
disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 39He
got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the
wind died down and it was completely calm. 40He said to his
disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41They
were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves
obey him!”
Context
At this
point in our Subject Text, Jesus’
earthly ministry was closer to the beginning than it was to the end. Nevertheless,
by this time in Mark’s gospel, Jesus had already performed a number of miracle
healings. In chapter one, Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. In chapter two
Jesus healed a paralyzed man. In chapter three He healed a man’s shriveled hand
on the Sabbath. The parallel accounts of our Subject Text in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke include a number of
other miraculous events performed by Jesus prior to the events of our Subject Text. The chronology of events
in this case don’t really matter except to demonstrate that Jesus should have
given the disciples enough signs for them to never question His divine power
and authority. But people often get their own sorrow, grief, and personal
desires twisted around the purpose of Jesus’ miracles and wonder why no miracle
was granted when their beloved mother-in-law got sick and died. No miracle is
available to your brother who was paralyzed in a car accident. No miracles are
offered to your child who was born with a debilitating birth defect. It can be
a hard truth to hear when I say that Jesus’ miracles were not primarily for the
purpose of alleviating the pain, sorrow and grief of the beneficiaries of those
miracles even though that may have been the result. It is always important to
remember that even though Jesus healed many people during His earthly ministry,
He didn’t heal everyone who got sick. And even those He healed from their
disability or disease, as well as those He brought back to life, eventually
died. So why heal someone or raise someone from the dead if they are just going
to get sick and die again? Because, at that point in history, the elimination
of sickness and death, grief and sorrow was not God’s objective. Instead, every
miracle performed by Jesus had as it’s goal to erect a sign that pointed to
Jesus as the answer to all our questions; a sign that points to Jesus as the
one we can trust in the wind and the rain that we are convinced will destroy
us; a sign that points to Jesus as the divine Rock we can lash our lives to
during The Storms Of Life.
Text Analysis
35That
day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other
side.” 36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he
was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.
“The other
side” in vv. 35-36 is referring to
the other side of the Sea of Galilee. We sometimes think that Jesus’ earthly
ministry reached far and wide by Jesus personally but that’s not accurate.
While the influence of Jesus’
ministry was felt beyond Galilee, Jesus stayed relatively close to the city of
Galilee and the Sea of Galilee. However, we often find Him and His disciples
conspicuously crossing over the Sea of Galilee traveling an East/West route.
Knowing why is important in understanding the universality of Jesus’ ministry
purpose. A geopolitical understanding of the region will help us understand why
Jesus traveled along this route that could often prove to be treacherous.
All of
Israel and the surrounding regions were under the rule of Rome. However, most
of the regions retained their cultural heritage even though they were ruled by
Rome. Generally, the only thing Rome wouldn’t tolerate was civil unrest of any
kind or sedition against Rome’s imperial rule. Although Caesar was the Emperor
over all of Rome’s vast empire, the provinces were governed by either legati (military representatives),
proconsuls, or prefects. The Judean province was governed by the prefect,
Pontius Pilate. Simultaneously, Israel retained its religious roots and as such
was still governed, religiously and culturally, by the Jewish religious leaders
even though Israel was no longer an independent state but a conquered province
of the Roman Empire. Geographically, the region was divided between east and
west by the Jordan River that flowed from North to South between the Sea of
Galilee in the North and the Dead Sea in the South. Situated West of the Sea Of
Galilee were the traditional cities of Israel. However, to the East of the Sea
of Galilee were the cities of the Decapolis (the “Ten Cities”) which were
conquered by the troops of Alexander the Great. While the cities West of the
Sea of Galilee were populated primarily by Jews, the cities East of the Sea of
Galilee were populated primarily by Gentiles.
We usually
associate Jesus’ earthly ministry with the work among the Jews and that was
certainly His primary focus. However, when He crossed over the Sea of Galilee
to the East, He was entering the region of the Gentiles. Why is this important?
Because even the Gentiles needed to know that Jesus was available to them to
help them navigate The Storms Of Life
as evidenced by Jesus’ interaction with the wild man in the region of the
Garasenes on the East side of the Sea of Galilee, who was possessed by the
demon known as Legion (Mk 5:1-20). When Jesus cast out Legion into a nearby
herd of pigs (evidence that this was not a region generally inhabited by Jews)
and the man returned to his senses, the man wanted to follow Jesus but Jesus
told him to go home to the cities of the Decapolis and tell everyone what Jesus
did for him. Jesus wanted everyone to know that He could be their shelter
during The Storms Of Life.
37A furious squall came up, and
the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.
Living in
land-locked Colorado, it’s hard to relate to v. 37. I can imagine a storm stirring up the waves of the ocean but
it is difficult to imagine how a storm can so adversely affect an inland sea so
let’s see if we can understand the severity of this storm and weather the
circumstances were, in fact, as dire as the text would lead us to believe or if
Mark and the other Gospel writers were just being overly dramatic.
To begin with, the Sea of Galilee
covers a little more than 64 square miles. It is 141 feet deep at its deepest
point. The Sea of Galilee sits more than 700 feet below sea level making it the lowest freshwater lake on earth. The
lake is surrounded by hills with those on the east side reaching as high as
2,000 feet in elevation where temperatures were much cooler. Prevailing winds
would push this cooler air down the slopes where they would pick up speed and
then collide with the more tropical climate surrounding the lake and the
resultant affect would be violent storms. And the fact that the lake was
relatively shallow at 141 feet meant that the waters became agitated very quickly
creating waves as high as twenty feet!
Although we
don’t have the details about the boat Jesus and the disciples were traveling
in, it likely had the ability to carry as many as fifteen fishermen. In 1986,
archaeologists unearthed the ruins of a fishing boat on the northwestern shore
of the lake dating to the time of Jesus. Reconstructing the vessel from the
fore and aft sections that were discovered, it was determined that it was
approximately 26 feet long and 7 feet wide. Certainly big enough to carry the
12-15 men in their company. However, you can now get a sense of the danger that
20 foot waves posed for them—and not just one 20 foot wave but wave after wave
after wave of 20 foot waves crashing all around them. “The disciples had not
foolishly set out in a storm. In fact, they usually didn’t encounter storms at
night and did not see this one coming. Even though several of these men were
expert fishermen and knew how to handle a boat, they had been caught without
warning by this fierce storm. Their peril was real as they battle huge waves
that nearly swamp their vessel.”[1]
38Jesus was in the stern,
sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t
you care if we drown?” 39He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the
waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
You have to
love the picture painted by vv. 38-39.
For you parents out there, do you remember when your kids were still small? Do
you remember how much work it was to care for them? If you’re like me, it was a
joy and a privilege but that didn’t make it any less exhausting. Do you
remember naps? I don’t mean naps for them, I mean naps for you? Some of you are
laughing right now, some of you are crying, and some of you are just staring
longingly out into space in a semi-comatose state too tired to wonder what a
nap would feel like. Do you remember closing your eyes for just a moment as
your young children played quietly and quickly passing into oblivion as though
you’d been shot by a horse tranquilizer, only to be awakened by a screaming
child? And do you remember how you felt when you found out that your child was
screaming because his or her sibling wouldn’t share a toy? So now rare and priceless
tranquility has been abruptly interrupted by a dispute over the use of a $.97 toy
car from Walmart—that you paid for! Let me just ask you, how short would your
fuse be at that exact moment? I’ll bet it was short enough that you solved the
problem with an ominous glare at each of the offending parties. Well now you’re
getting a feel for how Jesus might have been feeling.
Jesus was
clearly exhausted considering he slept through twenty-foot waves and what had
to be howling winds and water spraying everywhere. I have no doubt he was
exhausted but maybe he slept peacefully for another reason as well. Maybe Jesus
was able to sleep during the storm because nothing worried Him. Maybe that’s
the whole point behind our Subject Text.
Jesus knew that He, the Father and the Spirit were in control of all things so
He lived life in a constant state of peace even while The Storms Of Life swirled around Him. The disciples clearly didn’t
have that same sense of peace because they still couldn’t wrap their minds
around exactly who Jesus really was. Even with all the miracles Jesus had
already performed to that point, their trust; their faith, was just too weak so
they did what any child would do, they woke Him up and cried out for help. In
our modern vernacular, Jesus looked out at the wind and the waves and said,
‘Hey, knock it off!’ And He didn’t have to repeat Himself. When the Creator
speaks, creation listens. The text says the wind died down and it became
completely calm. The English doesn’t really give a sense of the immediacy of
the events. What happened was that the moment Jesus spoke, the wind and the
waves immediately returned to normal.
“As sudden
as the storm had come it had subsided, subdued by Jesus’ sovereign command,
‘Peace, be still.’ The question of what was involved in the muzzling of the
storm cannot be avoided. The God of Israel is the Lord of history and nature.
His sovereignty was demonstrated in the stilling of the roaring sea and the
silencing of the howling wind. He is the personal, living God who intervenes in
the experience of men with a revelation of his power and his will. He is the
God who acts, not some pale abstraction. Through the expression of his word
salvation is accomplished for men. When he chooses to reveal himself the forces
of nature must submit to his will. This was never more evident than in the
Exodus and the crossing of the Read Sea, but it was also evident in the
subduing of the wind and the sea. In the same manner the Son of God threatened
and subdued the forces which ‘spend themselves as forces of will in the
elemental fury of nature.’ [The elements have found their Master…this man is
more powerful than the forces of nature…Christ is the one who commands nature
as its Lord and King.] The cosmic overtones in the Gospel account must not be
missed. Mark has underlined them by a careful choice of terminology which
recalls Jesus’ encounter with the demons: Jesus rebuked the wind; the sea is
enjoined to obey with the command ‘Silence, be muzzled’; the wind subsides and
the sea obeys with the result that great calmness ensues. Jesus addressed the
raging storm as a ‘force’ threatening him and his disciples. The force of the
sea was muzzled as Jesus subdued it with his sovereign word of authority.”[2]
40He said to his disciples, “Why
are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41They were terrified
and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
We wag our
fingers and shake our heads at the disciples’ lack of faith in vv. 40-41 and claim that we wouldn’t
have panicked in the same circumstances. I’m willing to give you the benefit of
the doubt from the safety of your home or office. But let me ask you this: Do
you ever worry if there will be enough money to meet all your financial
obligations? Do you ever worry that your marriage may not survive? Do you ever
worry that you won’t get in or make it through college? Do you ever worry about
what will happen to your family if you die? Do you ever worry about the safety
and security of your family? Do you ever worry that the cancer might come back?
Do you ever worry about ____________________? I suspect we all worry about
something at some point in our lives because our faith isn’t perfect just like
the faith of the disciples wasn’t perfect. Nevertheless, Jesus clearly expected
more faith out of them given the things they witnessed Him do before. And maybe
they should have but it seems clear that they suffered from the same problem
all Christians suffer from when it comes to understanding God in totality. As
finite human beings, we don’t have clear concept of what it means to be
infinite. As temporal human beings, we don’t have a clear concept of what it
means to be eternal. As human beings, we don’t have a clear concept of what it
means to be divine.
Jesus is
clearly frustrated at their lack of faith but I wonder if He wasn’t also hurt
when His disciples asked Him, “Don’t you care if we drown?” I know I would have
been hurt if one of my girls had ever questioned if I cared about them in some
way. I think that question revealed more about their ignorance of who Jesus
really was given the fact that the Son of God left His heavenly throne to
become human in order to allow Himself to be put to death all because He cared.
And that’s really the point of our Subject
Text isn’t it? We can trust Jesus during The Storms Of Life because He cares about us.
“After
calming the sea, Jesus rebukes the disciples for their hysteria, ‘Why are you
so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ Faith here refers to faith in the
divine power present in Jesus’ person. The incident reveals their utter dependence
on Jesus; he is their refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble,
their comforter…Faith is clearly not something that is inborn; it can ebb and
flow, depending on circumstances, and is most likely to fizzle in situations of
danger…The fear of the disciples, however, does not alleviate after the storm
quiets down. Instead, their fear intensifies as it shifts to the person with
them in the boat, who has just shown his divine control over the sea…The
disciples’ fear stems from Jesus’ God-like control of the sea. Although they
had the greatest opportunity to see and hear Jesus and have been given the
mysteries of the kingdom, they are still haunted by doubt and fear. Now they
are eyewitnesses of his divine power that can still both the whirlwind and the
sea…The disciples’ awe before the numinous is appropriate, but they still have
only the vaguest inkling of who this man is in their midst, who wields such
power. The light may be too bright for their eyes to take it all in…The
question in Mark’s Gospel will be whether the fear of the disciples will turn
to absolute trust in this new and great deliverer.”[3]
Application
“Chippie
the parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in his
cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The
problems began when Chippie’s owner decided to clean Chippie’s cage with a
vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck
it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She’d barely said
‘hello’ when ‘sssopp!’ Chippie got sucked in.
The bird’s
owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag.
There was Chippie—still alive, but stunned.
Since the
bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom,
turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing
that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird
owner would do…she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
Poor Chippie
never knew what hit him.
A few days
after the trauma, the reporter who’d initially written about the event
contacted Chippie’s owner to see how the bird was recovering. ‘Well,’ she
replied, ‘Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore—he just sits and stares.’
It’s hard
not to see why. Sucked in, washed up, and blown over…that’s enough to steal the
song from the stoutest heart.”[4]
I know that
some of you would be laughing at the story of Chippie’s misfortune if you
weren’t grieving over your own. The Storms
Of Life are swirling around you right now and you don’t know if you will
survive. Or maybe you know someone who is right now being battered and bruised
by The Storms Of Life. In either
case, you’re scared and crying out—“Can anyone help? Does anyone care?” And the
answer is yes! Jesus can help because Jesus cares. Jesus can be your shelter
during The Storms Of Life. Jesus can
be your comforter during The Storms Of
Life. Jesus can be your anchor during The
Storms Of Life. All you have to do is reach out to Him and trust Him even
while the sorrow, grief, pain, or fear threatens to drown you and Jesus might
just shock you when He calms The Storms
Of Life.
[1] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 161.
[2] William
L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark—The New
International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), pp. 176-177.
[3] David E.
Garland, Mark—The NIV Application
Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), pp. 193-194.
[4] Max
Lucado, In The Eye Of The Storm: A day in
the life of Jesus, (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1991), p. 11.
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