Apprenticing under the Master
Mark 4:35-41 September 11, 2005
Jesus and the Storm
When you were trained for your job, did your trainer ever give you a task that was too big for you to see how you did? This is what Jesus does here with his disciples
Jesus Calms the Storm
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 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!"
Those of you at camp last week would have heard me share that as we’ve been dealing with my sister’s illness and then death this spring and summer, Psalm 57 has really held me up – especially over the last few weeks.
Verse 1: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings
until this violent storm is past.”
Many of us have felt like we have had a stormy summer – through death or illness of loved ones, now this news of Richard’s cancer can make us fell like we are being battered by the waves. Obviously, for the people of New Orleans and other places raked by Katrina the storms of life are not metaphorical!
It’s good that we have come to this passage in Mark this week. It can give us comfort and wisdom as we are weathering the storms of life.
Jesus has been teaching by the shore of Galilee, the crowds were so big that he had to take a small boat and push off from shore and teach from there so that everyone could see and hear him. After teaching the crowds he and some of the disciples set off for the other shore in a small boat, and some other boats came as well.
Jesus is resting in the stern when a storm kicks up. Galilee was known for its sudden storms – it was surrounded by hills and the whether could change faster than you could respond to it. This was a big storm – even the seasoned fishermen of the disciples were afraid for their lives! But Jesus slept on.
The disciples wake him and say “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
Have you ever wanted to say this when you are in the middle of the storm? “God don’t you care that I’m drowning here?!”
When Pam & I heard about Richard, we asked the selfish question, “What is God doing?” – we aren’t over Faith’s illness and death and our good friend is diagnosed with cancer!
Up in Thunder Bay, one of their elders’ wife has just been diagnosed with very serious lung cancer. You wonder why they don’t get a break.
The disciples weren’t the first to accuse God of letting them drown – and you aren’t either.
The psalmist in Psalm 42 says, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
all Your waves and breakers have swept over me…
I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?”
- Psalm 42:7&9
Job says “The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.” - Job 6:4
These guys are not just saying that God doesn’t care about their troubles, but that he sent them! These are pretty bold statements.
But as the storm is raging, or we are in pain we are liable to lash out at who ever is available. Sometimes the only one who is available to blame is God. The good thing is that he’s got big shoulders and he can take our complaint.
When you are angry with someone, the first person you should talk to about it is that person – it is the same with God.
The disciples wake Jesus and accuse him of not caring because he is not panicking like they are.
One time in grade 13 chemistry, some one put a hot spoon in the box of sulfur and the whole box caught on fire. I was the first to notice it. I’m not one to panic in emergencies, so I simply called out in a calm voice, “Sir, the sulfur is on fire over here.” At that point the whole class panicked! The teach put the fire out with the extinguisher and then came after me – since I was the only one in the class not panicking, I must be to blame!
Just because God is not panicking in your storm does not mean that he doesn’t care. God knows the end from the beginning – he knows how the story ends, so he doesn’t need to panic! Jesus doesn’t sleep through the storm because he doesn’t care – he sleep through the storm because he knows the one who made the storm.
The exact opposite is true – “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” - 1 Peter 5:7
In the middle of the storm, when all the noise is roaring around us, it can feel as if God has abandoned us. The reality is that we have allowed the wind and waves to drown out his gentle whisper telling us that we are his child, and he cares for us. Like Peter who tries to walk on the stormy water – we need to keep our eyes on Christ and not on the waves – that is where safety lies.
God’s Purpose In Storms
Graham Cooke loves to tell this story in terms of how God teaches us about peace. God doesn’t teach us about peace in the peaceful times – he teaches us about peace in the storm!
Graham points out that Jesus is God, and most likely knows that this storm is coming, and he imaging Jesus thinking to himself. “I want to teach them about peace… a BIG storm is coming… right… lets go for a boat ride!” – its funny as long as you’re not in the boat.
It’s one of those difficult points of theology that asks if God sends the storms in our life, or does he allow them, or does he merely use them when they come.
There isn’t an easy answer that works every time, except that whether he sends the storms or not, he uses them for our good.
Romans 8:28 says “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” If you want to know what God means when he says “for the good of those who love him” you only have to look at the next verse that says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” – the good that he talks about is being conformed to the image of Jesus, becoming Christ-like.
Romans 5 helps us understand why we go through suffering, and what God is doing in us as we go through the storm.
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
We go through the storms so that God can shape our character and so that we can have hope! Graham teaches that if God wants to teach us about power, he answers our prayers for deliverance immediately, but if he wants to teach us about process (Or develop our character) he walks through the storm with us.
Often times when people are going through storms they ask me “What did I do that God thinks I deserve this!” The reality is that the storms in our life are not about what we have done – in God’s mind they are about who we are becoming. He is shaping us through the storms, not punishing us.
Crying Out In The Storm
Jesus rebukes the disciples, not for waking him up when he was having such a good sleep, but for their panic. The bible is full of people crying out to God in their distress. Some of the best prayers of the Bible come when people are distressed. They were not wrong to call on Jesus, but their lack of trust in his ability to do anything was wrong. One of the things that the storms teach us about is our total dependence on God for deliverance.
It is good to know that the prognosis for Richard is good, but we are in trouble if we think that we only need modern medicine to heal him and not God. In all things we are completely dependant on God.
The storm was too big for the disciples to deal with – they needed to cry out to Jesus!
You might wonder how to cry out to God in your storm – is God teaching me about power, or building my character? Do I pray for deliverance or perseverance? – in the end the answer is that we cry out in the best way that we know how, knowing that he is our Father and he will do what is best. Romans 8 – another “stormy” passage reminds us that “The (Holy)Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” – Romans 8:26-27
The Power of God
Jesus gets us and rebukes the wind and says to the waves “quiet, be still” and… it was completely calm.
If the disciples were afraid of the storm, they were terrified of the guy that just stopped it. Jesus is the creator of the universe! He can tell the storm to be quiet and it does – I can’t even get my kids to be quiet in the van. The reality is that God created Richard and he could heal him quicker that I can ask. God has the power to do far more that we could ask or imagine.
The question is, “will He?” Will he heal Richard? Will he rescue you from your present storm right now?
There are some people who teach that it is always God’s will to heal. I don’t find that in the Bible. I actually think that God is far more ready to heal than we often think, and he is always able to heal. But I can’t find where it teaches that it always his will to heal. What it does teach is that he works in all things to bring about Christ’s character, His likeness, in us.
Jesus calms the Storm – and he can calm your storm, he can also use your storm for your good – to make you more like him. Will you let him?
