Introduction
As we move along in our study of Mark, we would do well to review the purpose and theme of the gospel. Mark and the other gospel writers had an agenda, which was to tell the “good news” about Jesus Christ. They were not writing biographies to give insight into the man Jesus. Though what they wrote was historically accurate, they were writing propaganda in the true sense of the word – material intended to demonstrate and persuade that Jesus of Nazareth was Jesus the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God. The good news was that the Christ had brought salvation. The events of Jesus’ life and his teachings were selected and put together to present him as the Messiah, the Savior, who was crucified for the salvation of his people and who is now the risen Lord.
The theme of Mark’s gospel is stated in the first verse: The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark is saying, “I am about to lay before you such wondrous words and actions of this man Jesus, that you will see that he was and is no mere man but the actual Son of God.” Throughout his gospel, he begs the question, “See, do you get it now who he is?” He has been doing this in the chapters we’ve already read. Some examples are:
And this was [John the Baptist’s] message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (1:7,8).
Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (1:23,24).
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (2:5,6)
Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God” (3:11).
The manner in which Jesus heals and exorcises demons presents him as one with authority over the created order. He is proclaimed Lord of the Sabbath. Mark shows how the religious leaders regarded him as leagued with the devil and how his family regarded him as mad; the unspoken challenge for us was to make our own decision. The theme of the parables was a challenge for the readers to possess ears that really hear, i.e. to truly understand the truth about Jesus.
Our present passage closes with this question: [The disciples] were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this?” (4:41). Let’s turn to our passage now and pray for the ears to hear what is being taught.
Setting
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.
Jesus, if we understand Mark right, has spent the day teaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. From the description in 3:7,8 we understand that a large crowd would have gathered around and he likely had taught from a boat. The evening has come, and, as he had stated early in his ministry, he has to keep traveling in order to preach to as many people as possible. Mark tosses in the otherwise unknown element that there were other boats that accompanied the boat he and his disciples were in.
The Storm
Next, we are told that 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Here the action begins. A big windstorm has come up, which is not unusual for that lake. It is mostly surrounded by high hills and is itself more than 600 feet below sea level. In a couple of places there are gaps between the hills that create a funnel for winds and intensify their strength. These winds can come suddenly, as in this case, and catch boaters off guard.
This is a serious situation. The boat – and it is a boat, not a ship – is not merely being rocked by the waves. They are breaking over the boat, filling it with water, so that it will soon sink if the waves do not stop. The disciples realize that drowning is a very real probability. Remember, at least four of them are experienced fishermen of that lake. They would have taken what measures they could to save the boat, and they know the real danger. Death is before them.
And so it is not difficult for us to imagine their emotion when they look at their master sleeping peacefully in the back of the boat. Now, no doubt Jesus had had a tiring day. We have all experienced such tiredness that caused us to sleep through noise and activity. But really! To sleep in a small boat that is being tossed by waves that are crashing into the boat! There is also the roaring sound of wind and waves, and no doubt, the voices of the men shouting to one another. That must have been one comfortable cushion!
38 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?” They must have shaken him to get him up. Their words are certainly intended to be a rebuke. One commentator noted that such rebukes by the disciples indicate that Jesus’ status as the divine Son of God was still veiled. Otherwise they would not have spoken so rudely. I’ve no doubt that is true, and you will hear more about it, but, goodness, what else would you expect? “Uh, excuse us, Teacher. Sorry to bother you. If you don’t mind, we’ve got a little problem we thought you might could help us out with.” These men are not anticipating danger. It has fallen on them. They are struggling to keep from being swept into the lake. And Jesus is sleeping! Sure they are going to fuss at him, “Don’t you care?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
In Matthew’s telling of the story, Jesus speaks to the disciples first, then calms the storm. The image I have is he wakes up a bit annoyed, starts to speak to the disciples, “Why are you…,” when a wave breaks over the boat. He looks out over the lake and yells, “Cut it out!” Then everything goes quiet. If I were making an animated film, I’d give the wind and waves angry faces that turn sheepish when Jesus speaks.
Jesus is like a dog owner whose large dog goes berserk whenever the doorbell rings. You, the visitor, look through the window and see a vicious dog standing against the door and barking furiously. The owner comes out of a room rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He’s fumbling at the lock on the door, all the while the dog is feverishly trying to get through it to you. You start to tell the owner you’ll come back another time when he sharply commands the dog to be quiet. The dog hangs his hand and sheepishly walks away. So Jesus commanded the wind and the waves to be quiet.
The Rebuke
Now that he has some peace, not to mention the full attention of the disciples, he speaks to them: 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
I look at this remark, and honestly, I want to ask Jesus, “Are you serious?” Come on! It is not a matter of a storm brewing; the storm has come. The boat is filling with water. It is a case in which the next wave could mean the end of the boat. And Jesus is sleeping! He’s not awake; he is not biding his time like a commander watching the enemy approach nearer and nearer ready to give the command at just the right time. Their muscles are strained to the limit, and he wants to know why they are afraid.
He fixes on their faith, or rather their lack of faith. Again, what does he expect? Were they supposed to just sit in the boat patiently and wait to see what happens? How long? Till the water in the boat covers their feet? Their knees? Till it has sunk the boat so low that another cup will submerge it? Should they not have awaken Jesus?
Or maybe the problem is they did not exercise faith early on. Maybe they should have awaken Jesus when the winds first came and asked him to handle the situation. Perhaps he is upset with them for trying to save themselves and letting things get out of hand.
Or was the problem with their sharp speech? They don’t ask to be saved; maybe that’s the problem; they lack faith to believe he can save. Matthew says, though, that they did ask to be saved and still received the same rebuke.
I would have been nicer. After I calmed the storm, I would have turned to my disciples and said something like, “You okay? Guess that shook you up a bit. Everything’s all right now.” Why is Jesus so hard on them?
Keep that thought. The response of the disciples is intriguing and may help us out. 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” I would have expected a couple of other responses. One would be excitement. “Yea! Way to go, Teacher. That is amazing. Even the wind and the waves obey you.” Or a contrite response. “Sorry, Teacher. We should have known all along that you wouldn’t let us drown.”
But instead of being either grateful or sorry, they are terrified. Of what? The storm is over. Their beloved Teacher is in the boat with them and has shown that he will protect them, even if he is a little upset with them. Why should they be afraid? And note, they don’t even speak to him. They talk to each other. Indeed, they seem to be ignoring what he is telling them. He has rebuked them for being afraid and lacking faith, but they ignore the subject altogether. What is going on?
Interpretation
What’s going on is that the mystery of the incarnation is being played out. The human Jesus slept from weariness; the divine Jesus gave orders that his creation obeyed. It is that mystery – that the man Jesus was more than a man – that struck through their bones into their souls, and it scared them. They thought they knew him, certainly better than anyone else. They thought they had a handle on him, and they had as much faith as anyone in what the man Jesus could do. But what he had just done was not the act of a mere man. Who is this?
We are back to that question I said Mark would raise throughout his gospel. That is where he is taking us the reader. Who is this one called Jesus? The moral we normally take from this story is that we should trust God and Jesus to take care of us when the storms of life come our way. And we do struggle with that. Aren’t we always saying we need more faith? We are always down on ourselves for letting the troubles of life get to us. “I wouldn’t be worried if I just had more faith.” “I know I would be victorious if I just trusted God more.”
But the problem with the disciples is not that they didn’t have enough faith to trust Jesus in the storm. The problem is that their faith was not directed at the real Jesus. Their understanding of Jesus was incomplete. That’s what Jesus meant when he rebuked them for having no faith and why he was so tough with them. They lacked faith in what he could do because they lacked knowledge in who he really was. That’s why he said, Do you still have no faith? He was saying, “Do you still not get it after being with me who I am?”
The disciples’ response indicates this is the problem. They don’t say, “Wow, I didn’t know he had that much power!” The power is not what they are terrified of. The issue is not about how much Jesus is capable of doing. They exclaim, Who is this? Who is this person whom we’ve known to be a special man of God, for sure, but still nothing more than a man? Even the wind and the waves obey him! These are Jewish disciples, remember, not New Age devotees who think you just need to have right perspective to account for miracles. They know who alone nature obeys – its Creator.
I said that the moral we normally draw from this story is about our need to trust God and Jesus more to help us through the storms of life. We should do that – trust God, show faith in him when times are tough. But the solution is not to try and manufacture more faith, as though we need to increase the intensity or the quantity of faith we now have. “If I would just trust more, believe more, have more faith.” It is natural to think this way, but I cannot find a similar expression in the Bible. What I find is that we are to trust, to believe, to have faith. Indeed, Jesus states that we merely need to have the faith of a mustard seed to do great works.
If we don’t need more faith, then what do we need? More knowledgeable faith. If the disciples had truly known who Jesus was, they would have known what to do. Indeed, if they had truly understood what his mission as Messiah was about, they would have avoided a lot of “poor faith” problems. They often despaired because they could not quite figure out themselves who Jesus was and what he had come to do. They were close, closer than everyone else, but still they could not fully grasp it all.
And I submit to you that that is our problem today. You see it in the popular approach to preaching. What should characterize modern preaching? Practicality. Churches advertise that. Come to X church where worship is lively and preaching is practical. I was listening to a book on tape about a very successful preacher who was known for showing how God cares about and is involved in everyday life. Church growth experts tell us that people come wanting answers and help for common experiences – parenting, relationships, the workplace, and so on. They want to know how to have more faith, how to be better Christians, how to be better at evangelizing, praying, and overcoming sin.
Those things are important. God does care about how well you do on a math test or work at your job. But listen, what truly matters in life is knowing God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what matters. The problem with us Christians is that we think that is Christianity 101 stuff, which we mastered early on. Now we want to get on with the deeper issues of living as good Christians. We realize, of course, that God is complex, but that’s for theologians to get into, not the common Christian.
But it is for us! I don’t mean we all have to learn esoteric words or the precise logic of theologians, but we should never have enough of exploring the greatness of God, which includes exploring the greatness of God the Son. We should never regard the gospel as chapter one in the book of Christianity or as fully covered in a booklet. The gospel is simple and it can be summarized in a brief manner. I’ll give it to you now: Jesus Christ has come to save sinners from sin. But the very simplicity of the gospel points us to truths that take us to heights of wonder and to maturity.
The shelves of Christian bookstores are filled with books on how to improve just about anything in your life. But as I go through the experiences of life, I’ve come to believe that the best way to improve my behavior is to study as best I can the character and nature of God and the profound truths of the gospel of grace. And that is what I strive to pass on to you. Yes, I want you to know that God is interested and involved in how you live your lives. But more than that, I want to raise your eyes to the God who is the wonder above all wonders and to the gospel that is more profound than any mystery man may explore. For as your vision rises higher and your wisdom digs more deeply, so then your life truly matures and your joy grows more abundant. The way to abundant life is not a set of principles to master or exercises to perform to get more faith. It is found in knowing God himself and the gospel that Christ has brought. You don’t need more faith; you just need to know the God in whom to place your faith and the truths of the gospel to believe in. You need to know who and what Jesus is truly about.
