“Jesus Calms All Storms”
Mark 4:35-41
June 21, 2009
I like going out on a boat. I
don’t do it very often, but the few times that I have done it I
enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, because when I went out the seas were
calm and it was a nice sunny day. I would never have gone out in
bad weather. But the disciples of Jesus didn’t
either. The weather was nice when they started out, so nice that
Jesus even decided to lie down and take a nap. But suddenly out
of nowhere a storm arose that was so intense that it threatened to
capsize their boat. Had they been close to shore, it might have
been easy for them to just make for it and get off as soon as
possible. When you’re on an amusement park ride
that’s a little too wild for you, at least you have the comfort
of knowing that it will all be over with in just a couple of
minutes. But the disciples had no such comfort. They
didn’t know how long this storm was going to last, nor did they
have any way of escaping it. For all they knew, this was the end
for them.
And what was Jesus doing? Sleeping in the
stern! That alone would have clued them in on the fact that there
was something different, something odd about this man. Why
wasn’t He worried or bothered by the storm? Why
wasn’t He frantically working with them to jettison the water
that was quickly inundating the craft? Any ordinary man would
have been just as panic-stricken as they were. And yet, He was
sleeping away as if it didn’t bother Him at all.
They must have thought that He could do something to
help them out. After all, they didn’t gently awaken Him and
shyly ask Him if He thought He might be able to come up and assist them
in keeping the boat afloat. No, their question was urgent as well
as accusative: “Teacher, don’t you care that we are
perishing?” It was a question that was full of doubt and
disbelief. They had seen Jesus perform all kinds of miracles,
from healing many diseases to casting out many unclean spirits.
Surely, He might have been able to do something (whatever that might
be) to help keep them from drowning. But the fact that He
didn’t (choosing to sleep rather than come to their aid)
suggested to them that He didn’t care about them. Jesus had
become a disappointment. At best, His powers were limited, and so
He couldn’t help them, or at worst, He could have helped them,
but chose not to.
Now, these are the kinds of thoughts about Jesus
that we have to battle with all the time. We don’t, of
course, bother with such questions when things are going well for
us. When we have our jobs, when our bodies are in good health,
when our families are fine, when everything’s going our way and
it’s a wonderful day (as the songs go), the doubts about
Jesus’ power and His care for us never enter into our
minds. Unfortunately, neither does Jesus. He is often
forgotten when our lives are good. This may have even been the
case with the disciples. Perhaps, while the weather was nice,
they might have said something to Jesus like, “Teacher,
we’ve got everything under control up here. We don’t
need your help. In fact, you’re just in the way here.
Let us fishermen take care of the sailing. You just go down below
and take a nap or something. We’ll wake you when we get
there.” If they had really known who they were talking to,
they would have quit everything just to sit at His feet and listen to
Him speak. Instead, they didn’t think they needed Him at
this time. They had everything under control.
That’s often the case with us.
We’ll be so busy about our daily vocations that we’ll
forget about our Savior and His words, relegating both to the stern of
the boat, as it were, until we’re absolutely forced to call upon
His Name and with it pray, praise, and give thanks. In fact, if
no storms ever came up, we’d leave Jesus down there in the hull
and forget about Him altogether. But then when the storms do come
up, we get mad at Him, because it seems that He’s abandoned us
and doesn’t care about us. He’s fallen asleep and
seems to be unaware of what’s happening in our lives.
And that’s the way it was with the
disciples. They woke Jesus from His sleep and then rebuked Him
for not seeming to care about them. But Jesus showed them not
only that He cared, but that He also had the power to help them and
keep them from perishing. He didn’t say, “Don’t
bother me!” and then go back to sleep. He was aroused by
their pleas for help, went up onto the deck, and rebuked the wind and
the sea as if they were animate objects, saying, “Peace! Be
still!” and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Then, afterwards, He rebuked His disciples for their fear and
unbelief. Didn’t they know who He was? Hadn’t
He proven Himself to them through His words and deeds? Who could
do these things unless He were God? And yet, still they asked,
“Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him?”
Well, I should think it’s obvious who this
Jesus is: He’s God in the flesh! And yet, we’re
still sometimes disappointed with Him, like His disciples here
apparently were - not because He can’t calm the storms that we
face, but because many times He seems not to want to calm the
storms. Unlike the storm the disciples faced here, Jesus often
seems to insist on sleeping through our storms. He can’t
seem to be aroused nor does He rebuke the wind and the waves.
Instead, He lets us ride them out. No matter how often we cry to
Him for help, some storms never abate. And even if He did calm
all the little storms of life, the one really big storm of death
eventually takes us all down. Where is He then? Will He
care if we perish? Or will He continue to sleep?
The disciples, you know, were all “in the same
boat” as you and I are. This was not the only storm
they’d ever faced, nor would it be their last, and they too would
all die, most of them in a violent way for confessing Jesus. But
on this occasion their lives were spared and they were kept from
perishing. What was the lesson Jesus was teaching them?
What is it that He’s teaching us?
There are actually two lessons here. The first
has to do with the storm of God’s wrath and how Jesus has calmed
it for us. No matter how many other storms may threaten to take
us down, this storm will not, because Jesus suffered it Himself and now
speaks it calm with His words of peace, so that we might not perish but
have everlasting life. Jesus is the Jonah who was thrown into the
raging sea in order to drown, so that those who were in the boat might
live. For His sake the ark of the Church can ride the waters of
God’s judgment on the world and not founder. He is the One
who enables us to walk on the water as Peter did and keeps us from
drowning, provided we keep our eyes on Him. And even when we do
start to go under because we’ve gotten our eyes on the wind and
the waves, He hears us when we call to Him for help, takes us by the
hand, and lifts us up. He is the Rock upon which we have built by
faith, so that when the wind and the waves beat against it, we will not
fall but stand firm.
Jesus allowed the wind and the waves of God’s
wrath to beat against Him on the cross of Calvary. There He
perished in your place, letting that storm take Him under instead of
you, so that you might experience the great calm of God’s mercy,
forgiveness, and peace, even in the midst of the storms that now the
devil, the world, and your own flesh might raise up against you.
But if you are safe from the storm of God’s wrath, you are safe
from the wrath of the devil, even though he attacks you daily.
The boat represents the Lord’s Church, into which you have been
brought by your Baptism, where you now enjoy peace with God. But
the devil has now become your enemy, and he seeks to sink this
boat. Jesus, however, is in this boat with you, and so the devil
cannot take it down. Though the boat may temporarily be tossed
about by the storms he raises up against it, in the end the Lord will
rebuke him, his wind and his waves, and you will enjoy the great calm
of heaven forever.
Years later the disciples would have remembered
these lessons, and whenever they experienced any trials or troubles
they would know that they were not alone in them. Jesus was with
them as He promised to be, and they could call upon Him, who would hear
their cries for help and save them. And even when they had to
suffer and finally die, in those hours, too, they knew that though it
looked like they would perish, they would not, because Jesus had worked
a great calm for them through His death and resurrection. Since
He had overcome the storm of God’s wrath, the devil’s fury,
the tribulations of the world, and the temporal effects of sin could
not keep them from this calm, but just as had happened that time in the
boat, their Lord would rebuke such storms with His Word, raise them
from the dead as He had been raised, and bring them into the safe and
eternal harbor of heaven.
So you too, just like these disciples, can know that
He who redeemed you with His blood and calmed the storm of God’s
wrath will one day bring an end to all other storms, raise you from the
dead, and bring you into the same safe harbor of heaven. In the
meantime, though it may appear that the Lord is asleep when you
experience the various temporal storms of this life, you can know that
He is more than able to keep you from perishing in such storms and that
He does care for you, even when He doesn’t immediately bring such
storms to an end. He will eventually rebuke all winds and seas
that assail you. But until then, you have the peace that passes
all understanding. It is the peace in knowing that Jesus is with
you and that He delivers the great calm He has worked for you before
God by throwing Himself into the storm of God’s wrath in your
place, so that you might have peace even in the midst of all the other
storms. Because of that finished work of His, His words
“Peace! Be still!” have been spoken over all the
storms you will ever face, including the big storm of death, so that
you might not perish, but have eternal life. So, hear these words
of peace again today, call upon your Savior who never sleeps or
slumbers, and come and feed on Him who lives with you in this boat
called the Church, so that you might not be afraid, but be refreshed
and strengthened to stand firm against all storms in Him who’s
Lord and conqueror of them all. Amen.