5th Sunday after Pentecost
July 13, 2003
Mark 4:35-41

  ^4:35On 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 windstorm 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?" (NRS).

A Faith to Sleep By.

  Jesus sleeps; the disciples panic. What would you have done had you been in that boat filling with water? I'm pretty sure that I would have joined the disciples and wakened Jesus. So I too would have had to face his stinging question, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" "Well I'm afraid because the boat is about to sink and I'll probably drown! Faith? Yes, but I guess I don't think that God will save me should we sink." That is a rather terrible admission, but exactly the one the disciples had to make. If the truth be told, it is probably the same confession that we would have to make most of the time we face crises in life.

  Why are we afraid? Because we lack a certain trust in God? If so, Jesus wants to change that. He calmed the storm and left the disciples speechless. They did not yet know what to think of Jesus. Slowly they were learning what we already know, that he is the Son of God who has all authority in heaven and on earth. We can trust him, always. That is the goal of this lesson, that we have an unconditional trust in Christ no matter what our earthly circumstances, that we have a faith to sleep by.

  Now some would call this unconditional trust 'blind faith'. But 'blind faith' is a pejorative term that implies that the person who has such trust is being stupid or naïve. 'Blind faith' supposes that there is no factual reason for that trust. Yet that is not the case here. The miracle gives us a reason for an unconditional faith. Jesus calmed the storm with a mere command. That is something that a Jew would expect only from God. Therefore, we are to see in Jesus a being so great that we can put our trust in him.

  Here is an example of what I mean. A pastor in Louisiana relates the following experience.

Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation.

Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said to me, "There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again." At that moment, God seemed to be saying to me, "Remember this. As you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right." That lesson has been proven true in my ministry many times over the years.¹

  Isn't that what Jesus did to his disciples in that storm? Like the flying instructor, he let the disciples squirm, really squirm, to teach them something very important. Jesus would not let them die! He was there and able to help them at any point. But they needed to have their own faith. Jesus trusted his father unconditionally. That is why he could sleep while the disciples panicked. The disciples needed to learn that they could have that same trust in God and in Jesus himself. They were in the same position as that pastor in Louisiana learning to fly. And so are we! We too need an unconditional trust in God and in his Christ.

  What then hinders us from having such faith? Look at the disciples and you will see. "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" When we are in a crisis such as great personal danger or when a loved one is seriously ill or dying, do we not have similar thoughts? Do we not think or even say, "Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? Lord don't you care about me?" Do we really think that God doesn't care or maybe doesn't know? Or are we more worried that we are being punished for something and that we don't deserve his help? The truth may be that God is doing like that flight instructor, calmly standing by ready to save us but waiting to the last minute so that we will learn both what we can do and that he is there to save us. That is kind of scary and we may not really want God to do that, but if he thinks that is what we need, like Job, how can we argue?

  If we fail to see that God does care, we may fall into that all too common belief that God doesn't have much to do with people so you had better watch out for yourself. In the village where we lived in Africa, they had a proverb that said, "Just because God made you, don't neglect yourself!" In other words, God made you but will not now do everything for you. You must look after yourself. In this way, we learn to trust ourselves rather than God.

  Jesus' reaction to the disciples' despair was, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" I have to admit that this question often gives me an uneasy feeling inside as do other things Jesus said. For example, after the Transfiguration, Jesus, Peter, James and John come down the mountain and find a crowd. A man brought his demon possessed son to the disciples so they could drive out the demon. But they had been unable, so Jesus had to do it. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." (NRS Mt 17:19-20). Are there extraordinary things, even miracles, that we could or should be doing in Jesus' name but that we don't do because we have so little faith? Sometimes Jesus' word in Luke 18:8 haunts me, And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Have we come to depend so much on technology and science that we have little trust in God for protection or whatever?

  The corrective to our dilemma is the disciples' last word. And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this since even the wind and the sea obey him?" They seem to be more afraid of Jesus now than they were of the storm! Several of these men were experienced Galilean fishermen. They knew about the lake, boats and storms. This miracle was not a matter of timing and natural causes, but of authority and obedience. Nor was it a matter of great skill, like that of the flight instructor, who could get the plane out of any situation. The elements obeyed Jesus' authority. There is no man besides Jesus who ever commanded the elements. Yes, Moses parted the Red Sea, Elijah called down fire from heaven, and the sun once stood still for Joshua for about a whole day. Yet none of those men commanded these events. Either God commanded them to do so, or they called upon God who answered their prayer. Jesus, however, simply woke up and gave his command. The wind ceased and there was a great calm. If he can do that, can he not do anything?

  "Who then is this since even the wind and the sea obey him?" Before this storm, the disciples had seen Jesus heal people of various diseases, cast out demons and forgive sins. But this was a new dimension. He was no ordinary or even extraordinary prophet! He was the Son of God. He really was this heavenly Son of Man come down to earth to inaugurate the Kingdom of God! Moreover, he was going to die and rise from the dead in order to reconcile us to God and make us part of the Kingdom of God. Were they ready to deal with all of that? Are we? Are we ready to think outside the box as they say? Many people would have us look to Jesus for some general moral principles. But they would have us regard his resurrection and the forgiveness of sins as allegories or simply new perspectives on life. Few would tell us to trust him unconditionally because he really did command the elements, really did rise from the dead, and really will return to raise the dead and judge all people. Yet that is who he really is! That is why we can trust him unconditionally!

  Listen to this. "A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing, impossible as that sounds. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, "Left!" and "Right!" As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers' word. It was either complete trust or catastrophe."

  I don't mean to suggest that you can drive home today with your eyes closed and expect to hear a voice telling you to turn right or left and to brake or accelerate. But God is telling us to trust him unconditionally as those blind skiers trusted their sighted partners. We are spiritually blind without Christ. We do need him to tell us to go right or left. He does just that though his word and his Spirit. When his word dwells in us, we have the mind of Christ and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah prophesied saying, Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (NRS Isaiah 30:20-21).

  God does care for us. He gave his Son for us. This Jesus is able to handle anything we will encounter in life. So trust him unconditionally. Don't panic when the storms hit. Rather pull up your pillow in the stern of the boat and sleep with Jesus.