6 The Great Cry Series

# 6 – The Great Cry

Jonah 1:5 – “every man cried out to his god.”

We’ve just seen how the mariners, who obviously would have been tough men and who would have weathered many a storm, were so afraid because of the tempest. Now we’re going to look at how they went beyond just experiencing the emotion of fear but see how they expressed their fear and what they did as a result.

As is wont of every human being, when we experience fear, most of us do something as a result. When difficult circumstances are under our control, we do all we can to overcome the situation as smoothly and as quickly as possible, but there are times when things are beyond our control. At that point of our lives, most humans would cry out to God, who has control over all things. As is the case today, so it was in the days of Jonah, the sailors decided to cry out, each man to his god.

When fear is experienced by an entire team, then every member of the team ensures they do something about it and they don’t just leave it to the ‘Captain,’ whoever that might be. That’s great team work actually. When an entire team is in a crisis, we can’t simply pretend all’s well and leave the decision making to the leaders, while we take a back seat, hoping things will turn out well. In such situations, each of us needs to share the responsibility and do all we can to help carry the load together.

1. Every Man

It says, “Every man,” meaning, every mariner decided to do something about the situation. They had done all they could as a team, now it was time to do all they could individually. It’s almost always true that when a team is attacked, there’ll come a time when the team no longer matters and one’s own life is all that matters. There are exceptions to this though. There are teams like the police, soldiers, sportsmen, etc., for whom being a team means sticking together no matter what.

• No other option

Remember the disciples of Jesus? When Jesus was being arrested, almost all of them dispersed and deserted Jesus at His most difficult moment. So also, at this time, suddenly, each man was taking on a responsibility to help calm the situation as a team, but perhaps also because each of their lives were at stake. Perhaps if there was a life-threatening situation on land, each man would have fled as far and as fast as he could, but since they were in the sea, with swimming against such huge waves not being a plausible option, and with nowhere else to go, they decided to stay in the ship.

• We Are One

In The Church too, it’s not often that we realise that we are actually One Family, One Kingdom, One Body, One Church, One Nation, One Building, etc. We tend to think of ourselves as individuals, who are loosely connected with The Church, or completely disconnected from one another, when the Bible teaches us otherwise. That’s why when trouble comes, it becomes so easy to distance ourselves from one another in The Church. The quicker we realise the fact of our oneness, will be begin to work towards living out this unity in the Body of Christ, and the quicker we’ll become a people the world will begin to recognise as belonging to Christ, as was Jesus prayer in John 17, where He prayed that all of us would be One, just as He and the Father were one, so that the world would know that the Father sent The Son. We need to stop living and functioning as individuals that don’t belong to The Church of God on the earth and start consciously working together, along with the Body of Christ – locally, nationally and globally. It’s only when that unity starts to play out in The Church across the globe that the world will stop, take note and stream into The Church.

2. Cried out

The words, “cried out,” has also been translated as “shouted out” in some versions. Whether it was ‘crying out’ or ‘shouting out,’ it’s not a very common thing in many a culture for a man to shout out or cry out in fear - it’s usually seen as a sign of weakness. Given the location of our story – the Middle-East, it would also suggest a similar culture where men don’t cry out or shout out in fear – unless of course, they were in intense danger. This means that the situation must have been really grim and beyond all hope that they “cried out.” They were calling on their gods for help. When one is crying out to God, one’s gender, social protocol, and any other stereotypes that might describe them are thrown to the winds and one realises that he is crying out for help to someone far bigger than himself. At that point, one’s life is more important than anything else – much less, people’s opinions and societal norms.