Wait until you’re the one in the boat

On that day, when evening had come, he [Jesus] said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But 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?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4:35-41 NRSV

Years ago when the kids were little, we had a 19 foot sailboat that we sailed on Lake Erie. We never went too far, and never out of sight of the shore. Once though, a storm came up seemingly out of nowhere. All of a sudden the waves got big. Really big. And the wind came up. Yes, even for sailboats there can be too much wind. To top it off, there was lightning. And there we were on the water with a big metal pole sticking up in the air. A severe thunderstorm was upon us. We had a small motor that was not capable of moving us through waves of that size. Remaining under sail was going to get us back to shore faster than the little motor. There was a small break in the clouds we could sail through to miss the worst of the rain. But we could not avoid the waves and wind. We made it back to shore safely and the storm blew over pretty quickly. But it was scary. It was a big, although brief, storm and our boat was small.

As I read this story of the disciples in the storm, I remembered the storm we sailed through. I have sympathy for the disciples fear. A swamped boat is serious. Life jackets and the Coast Guard didn’t exist in their time. They were in a dangerous situation. No wonder they woke Jesus saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ¹ They were justifiably frightened for their lives.

Jesus wakes up and calms the storm. “Peace! Be Still!” This is a divine revealing. In the ancient world the sea was a symbol of a dangerous place². Chaotic and threatening. Recall in Genesis, God brings order out of the chaos by sending his Spirit over the waters. God parts the sea for Moses and the people to pass through and escape their enslavers. The prophet Jonah enters into the chaos of the deep when he refuses God’s call. God is the one who controls the wild and dangerous seas. When Jesus calms the wind and the sea he is doing a divine action.

When Jesus wakes up and calms the sea with three words, we are supposed to join the disciples in asking, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”. This experience is to help the disciples – and us- realize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus response to the disciples for waking him is a little odd, it seems to me. “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”³Being afraid when you are about to drown in a storm seems understandable to me, reasonable even. The disciples did have enough faith to wake Jesus up so he would help them. So what is happening here? Why does Jesus say this? What sort of “faith” is he talking about?

Theologian N T Wright offers this definition of faith, ” Faith in the New Testament covers a wide area of human trust and trustworthiness, merging into love at one end of the scale and loyalty at the other. Within Jewish and Christian thinking faith in God also includes belief, accepting certain things as true about God, and what he has done in the world (e.g. bringing Israel out of Egypt; raising Jesus from the dead). For Jesus, ‘faith’ often seems to mean ‘recognizing that God is decisively at work to bring the kingdom through Jesus.’⁴

Often in the gospels, the disciples are clueless and short sighted. We might be tempted to simply read this as yet another time the disciples missed the mark. We might think to ourselves- knowing what we know about Jesus- that we wouldn’t have panicked. We might hold this up as an example of inadequate faith and claim that people who truly trust Jesus have nothing to fear and should never be panicky or fearful. But then again, even Jesus has his moments of fear and doubt.

Mark writes, “Jesus said”. What we don’t know is how Jesus said this. Was he angry? Frustrated? Was he sad about their fear? Was he perplexed? ‘Why aren’t you understanding this?’? Was he comforting? ‘I”m here, you don’t need to be afraid’ ?

I wonder if the faith that Jesus has and wants us to have, a faith filled with trust, love and loyalty, is simply beyond the experience of most of us- at least in this life. Perhaps Jesus is a bit frustrated and a bit sad that the disciples are so far away from what is possible? In other places he refers to his followers as children. Not a criticism but a description of people who need to mature, and grow. Jesus seems to be constantly trying to enlarge the disciples understanding of what is possible, normal even, in the Kingdom of God. Right before this story Jesus explained how the kingdom of God grows like a tiny seed matures into a large tree.

Despite the disciples great fear and small faith, Jesus does save them. If we didn’t know the story, his saving actions are not what we would expect. We might expect a bigger boat would have come along and picked them up. Or that he would have helped them row to shore. Or helped them bail out the boat. But that’s not what Jesus does. Jesus saves in a God like way. He saves by divine action. He also happens to save everyone else who was caught in that storm.

And yet I still have questions. And the more I think about this story, the more I have. And that’s fine. That’s the way the Bible works. It’s not a text of answers or rules. It is an invitation to ponder and enter the wild and odd, the sometimes disturbing and always mysterious ways that God is with us.

1. This story is also found in Matthew and Luke. In Matthew the disciples say,” Lord, save us! We are perishing!” ( Matt 8:25) and in Luke they say, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (Luke 8:24) ↩︎
2. Whenever the Bible says something about “sea” and especially if the sea is stormy or dangerous, we should recall that “the sea” stands as an example of chaos and destruction, which stands in contrast to God’s life giving and saving ways. Similarly, when people go into the wilderness or go up a mountain- also dangerous places- they often encounter God. Physical places can serve as “clues” to the reader, a “heads up” that something important is going to happen. ↩︎
3. In Matthew Jesus says, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?”. And in Luke, “Where is your faith?” ↩︎
4. Matthew for Everyone Part One, Tom Wright, SPCK and WestminsterJohnKnox Press, 2004, page 211. ↩︎