“On the Go with Jesus”
Mark 4:35-41
A child wakes up in the middle of the night, terrified at some dream that has upset him, frightened of some monster hiding in the bedroom closet.
His mother rushes into the bedroom and scoops the little child into her arms and sits in a chair.
She wipes away sweaty locks of her child’s forehead, caresses his hair, rocks him gently, and then she whispers what a thousand mothers have whispered since the beginning of time, “Hush now, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
I want us to think about this: “Is the mother telling the whole truth to her child?
Is there really nothing to be afraid of?
(pause)
When he was about 30 and I was in my 20’s a good friend of mine said, “When I was a child I used to be afraid to go to sleep because I had nightmares.
Now, I’m afraid to wake-up because that is when the nightmare begins.”
Can any of you relate to this?
(pause)
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus has just spent the long hours of a hot and humid day teaching and taking care of the needs of another large crowd of people gathered by the seashore.
And when He finishes this work, He has another place to go.
This time He is heading to Gentile territory, to the “country of the Geresenes.”
It’s a dangerous place to go, and Jesus has invited his small band of disciples to go with Him.
“Let us go over to the other side,” Jesus says to them.
They have signed up to follow Jesus, and so they get into the boat and begin to row, but Jesus, exhausted from the long day, falls into a deep sleep.
The disciples are probably already uneasy, knowing they will not be welcomed in Gentile territory.
No Jew with any sense would ever purposely head in that direction.
Who wants to go where you are not wanted?
Who wants to go to places where people might attack you or call you names?
But this is not only a story of Jesus calming a storm, it’s also a story of discipleship, and following Jesus will lead us to some uncomfortable places.
But it turns out that danger not only lurks on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, it also lurks on the sea itself.
The wind starts blowing hard, the waves are blasting over the sides of the boat bringing in water that is threatening to sink them.
Suddenly, they aren’t worried about traveling to the other side, they are worried about staying afloat.
And where in the world is Jesus?
They find Him in the stern, where He should perhaps be steering, sleeping away on a pillow!
And so, they awake Him and shout, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
Like most of us, the disciples find the idea of Jesus sleeping through the moments of our lives when we are most in danger to be astounding!
Their cry is the ultimate cry of fear, doubt, and abandonment, which is repeated again and again in the stories of God’s people, as for example in the psalms.
Where is God in the midst of my distress?
Has God abandoned God’s people?
It’s also a cry that is repeated in so many ways in the midst of the terrors and distresses of our world today: “We’re drowning here; don’t You care?”
Do you remember the first time you awoke at 3 in the morning, gripped by worry?
During a crisis, many of us lie awake ruminating over our worst fears.
At other times, what occupies our minds when we are awake may be a list of the many things waiting for our attention.
And underneath all these worries lurks a deeper anxiety, one that might ask: “Am I good enough?
“Am I strong enough?
“Smart enough?”
These are the fears and worries we carry deep within us.
We all have them, although they are closer to the surface some times more than at others.
A year or so ago a friend confided to me that he often hears a voice in his head that says:
“You are nothing!
You are worthless!”
“You are no good!”
I was surprised especially because this friend comes across as being very confident and in control.
We all have fears, anxieties and self-doubt that we carry deep inside us.
And at the heart of all these anxious thoughts we are asking, “Can I make it through life and all that threatens me?”
The questions the disciples ask Jesus is filled perhaps with equal measures of indignation and bewilderment—and it conveys their fear: “Don’t you care that we are about to die?”
And below that is: “Jesus, aren’t we important enough for You to save us?”
“Doesn’t God care when our life is in chaos, and things are more than we can bear?”
Have you ever wondered that yourself?
In our story, Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind and says to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!”
And the wind dies down and things become “completely calm.”
An amazing peace which transcends all understanding replaces the terrifyingly chaotic and completely crazy storm.
A better way to interpret what Jesus says, in my opinion, is: “Peace! Be still!” and that is how a number of translations have it.
And what we learn to do with Jesus’ words can shape, not only our faith but also our ability to embrace life in whatever situations we find ourselves in—not to mention, being willing to “go with Jesus” even when He calls us to do something frightening.
Jesus asks His disciples, “Why are you still afraid?
Do you still have no faith?”
I don’t think Jesus is chastising them, but rather merely asking them a logical question.
We find the answer in the next sentence: “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey him!’”
At this point in the Gospel, the disciples still have no clue as to Who Jesus really is.
And they never really do start to “get it” until Pentecost, after Jesus has been raised from the dead, ascends into heaven, and then sends the Holy Spirit to teach them, guide them, direct them and comfort them.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Jesus says this in John Chapter 14 when He is promising the disciples that after He leaves them, He will send the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is the reason Paul was able to experience what he described in Philippians 4:7 as “the peace of God which transcends understanding” even while he was undergoing torment and persecution.
In our Gospel Lesson, Jesus calms the storm by the power of His presence.
And we, too, are invited to turn to the Lord of the wind and waves, the One we trust to be more powerful than both Galilean storms and the storms that rage in our lives.
It’s important to note that Jesus never says, “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
That storm was, no doubt, fearsome indeed.
And the hard truth of this life is that fearsome things are very real: isolation, pain, illness, meaninglessness, rejection, the loss of a job, money problems, failure, illness, and death.
But as we grow in faith and our walk with Jesus, we come to understand that even though such fearsome things are very real, they don’t have the last word.
They don’t have ultimate power over us, because reigning over this world of terrifying things is a God Who is mightier than they are.
Time and time again, in the Bible the word is, “Do not be afraid.”
These are, in a very real sense, the first and last words in the Gospels.
It’s what the angels say to the terrified shepherds and it’s what is said to the women who find the empty tomb: “Do not be afraid.”
If we think the story we are looking at this morning is only about Jesus’ ability to fix the chaos in our lives, then we are missing the deeper meaning of faith and a relationship of trust with God.
Jesus asks us to have faith that whatever threatens us during the day or keeps us up at night cannot overcome the power of Jesus to bring peace and strength.
God is able to transform our fear into courage.
A couple in their 30s rushed to the emergency room after getting a call that their daughter had been injured while playing on a tire swing.
The child arrived at the hospital with a critical head injury that she got when the tree holding the swing fell on her.
On his knees, her father prayed for God to heal his daughter of this crushing head injury.
He asked, “Where are you, God? Don’t you care that my daughter is about to die?”
Soon after, the doctor came in to tell them that they had done everything within their power—she was not going to survive—and now was their chance to say “good-bye.”
With faith-filled strength, they let go of their expectation that God would “fix” their daughter, that God would spare them from the heartbreaking chaos of losing a child.
Instead, they stepped into it, gathered her broken body in their arms, surrounded her with love, and spoke the words she needed to hear: “Go to Jesus. He is waiting for you. Peace. Be still.”
Going back to the story of the mother trying to soothe her son who was awakened by a bad dream…
…Instead of saying, “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” the whole truth would be for the boy’s mother to say: “Don’t be afraid because you are not alone.”
The easy part of the truth, which every child figures out sooner or later, is that some things that scare us are real, and some are not.
But the rest of the truth, the deeper truth that only faith in the God Who raised Jesus from the dead can teach, is that even though there are real and fearsome things in this life, they need not paralyze us; they need not have dominion over us; they need not own us because we are not alone in the boat.
It’s reasonable and normal to fear things that can hurt us or cause us mental anguish.
Jesus is very aware that asking us to let go of those we love, to stand strong in the face of things that threaten us, or to stave off the anxiety that consumes us, is hard.
It may seem like more than we can handle.
Nonetheless, Jesus boldly asks the disciples, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Jesus is asking them, and Jesus is asking us, to step into faith, even when we are afraid.
“Think about why you are afraid,” Jesus asks us.
“Think and choose: fear or faith in me?”
It’s not just a choice but a life-transforming—life-saving gift from God Himself.
What do you choose?
Let us pray:
Lord God,
There are so many things to fear in this world, but You are with us at all times.
You offer us the gift of faith…
…the faith that You love us more than we can imagine and will never leave or forsake us.
If we and when we find ourselves in a storm, You are with us.
It will be okay if we find ourselves at the bottom of a pit because You are there with us.
It will be okay when we die because You will be with us through the entire ordeal and you will be with us forever and ever and ever.
We pray for this faith.
We accept this gift of faith.
We choose faith in You over fear.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
