Mark 4:38-41 (NIV): Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
When the storm first arose on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples, especially those who had made their living for years in fishing boats on that Sea, just tried to push through it. Very soon all of them were rowing, or bailing, doing what they could to keep the boat afloat. But it soon became obvious that they were losing the fight.
When they woke Jesus, it was not because they expected Him to do a miracle – they just thought that He should help in the desperate struggle to keep the boat from going down. They had seen Jesus heal all kinds of sickness. They had seen Him cast out demons. They had even heard as He had proclaimed that the sins of a paralytic were forgiven. But this was a Galilee storm, a kind of fierce wind and rain storm that several of them were familiar with, and afraid of. It never occurred to them that Jesus could actually do something about the storm itself.
But when they had woken Him, Jesus stood, faced Himself directly into the wind and rain, and shouted, “Quiet! Be still!” And instantly, so suddenly, in fact, that the disciples nearly stumbled on the now level deck, the storm just stopped. The wind became calm, and the sea grew flat and serene. The disciples were stunned at this sudden reversal. Whatever they were expecting from Jesus, this wasn’t it! They weren’t even sure how to react. Jesus turned to them and calmly said, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Then He went back to His place, lay back down, and seemed to fall asleep at once.
The disciples were completely freaked out. It was amazing to see Jesus heal someone, or send an unclean spirit running for cover. But to see Him shout a command to the wind and waves and have them obey, that was bizarre! They wondered aloud, “Who is this guy?” The possible answers terrified them even more than the storm had. The words of Psalm 107:23-32, especially verses 28-29 probably flashed through their minds: Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. (NIV) They knew that Jesus was an amazing man, a great prophet, maybe even the Messiah Himself. But now they seriously wondered if He was even more than that!
Father, I think it is human nature to trust You most easily for those things that we can handle on our own, or at least those things that we can see how they can be handled. When we face an insurmountable task, a life-threatening situation in which we are powerless and overwhelmed, it is all too easy for us to turn to You, not in faith and trust, but in anger and accusation that You don’t care, or that You aren’t doing Your part in our plan to get us out the situation. How much better it would be if, instead of railing, “Don’t You care?!” we simply lay our requests before you and wait in expectation (Psalm 5:3 NIV). Amen.