Sometimes the Lord calms the storm.

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- February 26, 2006

Sometimes the Lord calms the storm.Sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms his child.

I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath--these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely--these are my native air. A John Hopkins University doctor says, "We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact." But I, who am simple of mind, think I know; We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not for fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.

Dr. E. Stanley Jones.

5-year old Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn't want to go in alone. "It's dark in there and I'm scared." She asked again, and he persisted. Finally she said, "It's OK--Jesus will be in there with you." Johnny walked hesitantly to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when all at once an idea came, and he said: "Jesus, if you're in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?"

Charles Allen, Victory in the Valleys.

Our text for today is found in Mark 4:35-41 and contains this question: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

How might we categorize this question? I think we can rightly say that this is a question of great fear and awe. Literally, the text says that they “feared a great fear.”

What is the reason for this fear?

These disciples had been “with him” as he taught the crowds of people who flocked to see Jesus. Mark makes it clear that at the end of the day of teaching the crowds and speaking to them in parables, Jesus told his disciples to take the boat to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is obviously tired from a long day of ministry. And Mark tells us that they took Jesus “just as he was” in the boat. They did not make any special preparations for the trip across the Sea. It was evening and you can imagine a calm, beautiful evening on the water as they left.

It appears that almost immediately, they encounter the storm. It comes up quite quickly and Mark tells us that it was a furious storm. Picture the turbulent, crashing waves driven by the wind. Among the disciples were some veteran, experienced fishermen and sailors. They knew how to handle themselves out on the Sea of Galilee. And they are almost overwhelmed by this storm. It is so bad that they begin to fear for their lives.

These men are at their wit’s end. They are disturbed, fearful and perturbed. This storm has them frightened.

And Jesus is asleep at the back of the boat. Mark tells us that Jesus is sleeping with his head on the pillow. It not “a” pillow, but it is the only pillow. He is sound asleep in the middle of this furious storm.

His disciples finally go back to him and find him asleep. They are agitated and afraid and he is sleeping. The storm does not awaken him. But when the disciples come to him and speak to him and touch him to wake him, he is instantly awake.

The moment they touched him, they asked: “Teacher, don’t you care if we perish?” What they are asking is: “Have you no concern for us?”

All of you mothers understand what is happening here quite well. A mother can sleep through almost anything. But just let a baby in the cradle or in the crib let out a sigh or a small cry and mother is awake. Let a teenager come home late at night and the slamming of the car door is enough to tell a mother that her child is home and all will soon be well.

Instantly, Jesus is awake. He rebukes the wind. In the Greek the word “rebuke” used here is a strong word. One translator once rendered it: “He menaced the wind.” A rebuke is an expression of anger. Interesting isn’t it. He rebuked the wind. And he said to the sea: “Be muzzled.”

And the wind ceased to blow and the sea became calm instantly. Think about that. Water is a fluid that had been beaten into waves so turbulent that these men feared for their lives. Fluids that are set into motion making waves take time to settle down once the force, like the wind here, setting them into motion is removed. But in this case the motion of the waves in the sea cease immediately. Mark tells us that it was: “beaten back into levelness.”

And Jesus asked them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”

Suddenly the fear they have been experiencing generated by the storm is forgotten and a new, greater fear replaces it. They are experiencing an exceedingly greater fear. Whatever fear they may have had because of the storm is lost, as this greater fear and consternation takes possession of them. This greater fear is not caused by the storm, but by the calm following Jesus’ causing the wind and the waves to cease.

Here are their words again: “Who is this then, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Here was Jesus. He had been asleep. He was tired and so tired in fact that he was able to sleep through the storm. And he stills the storm.

It might be noted here that Jesus used the same method to still the storm that he did when he was dealing with demons. Remember the first Sabbath day in Capernaum. He was teaching and a demon began to interrupt him and disturb his teaching. “What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus listened to these words and the rebuked the demon with exactly the same words.

This is suggestive of something we should consider. It seems that this storm was similar to the storms that came into the life of Job, which were caused by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the kingdom of darkness. If this is true, it may well explain the fact that Jesus rebuked the wind and muzzled the sea. The rebuke suggests anger as I mentioned earlier.

And while their hearts are filled with wonder, and fear, they heard Him reproving them: Why are you afraid? Don’t you yet have faith?

They saw Jesus, a man so tremendous in power that the wind that had tossed the sea into such fury ceased and the fury of the sea was immediately calm. No wonder they asked “Who then is this?”

What can we see in this?

We see the Mighty One, Jesus who can hush the storm to rest, confronting the human soul, saying, “Why are you fearful?” The story suggests that the real problem that confronted God out on the Sea of Galilee that night was not that of stilling the wind and the waves, but that stilling of the storm in the human soul. And that is a harder work for God than the wind and the waves.

If you question that, consider the fact that it took only a word to still the wind and the waves and Jesus must ask these men, “Why are you afraid? Don’t you yet have faith?” The act of Jesus to bring calmness to the wind and the sea brings no peace to these men. No, it only brings them a greater fear.

Let’s look at these men for a few minutes.

They have been with Jesus and have taken in his teaching and have enjoyed his presence. At his request, they put out to sea. Immediately the storm hits. In the storm they have forgotten everything they have seen and learned from Jesus. In the presence of the storm, they are reduced to hopelessness. The waves churned up by the wind threaten to engulf them; it must have seemed that nothing could save them. They were going down. They were going to perish. There was no help or hope for them. And then they awakened Jesus.

And as they awaken Jesus, they remonstrated him in protest. They did not expect Him to do anything. I think we are inclined to interpret this whole story by saying that they woke Jesus up in order that he might still the storm. But they are surprised, awed and fearful when he acts to calm the wind and the waves. When they ask Jesus, “Don’t you care that We are going to perish they are not concerned that they were going to perish. They were protesting against his apparent lack of concern that all in the boat were going to perish. And the “we” included Jesus.

What does that mean? It means that they saw the end of it all. His mission and theirs as well was going to end. All the possibilities of the Kingdom were going to be at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee by morning. They are protesting against his apparent indifference to it all.

And then he awoke and rebuked the wind and calmed the sea.

And when he spoke, he rebuked them. There is not a word of comfort here at all. He rebuked them and they are startled. And they are so startled that they “feared with a great fear”. It was not the storm that caused the fear, but the calm and what he said to them.

If he rebuked them, which he did, then it shows that they had no right to awaken him. He was justified in sleeping during the storm. If this were not true, there would have been no rebuke from Jesus.

Their response becomes translated into something like this: Who is this man? We need to get nearer to him, to know him better. We must find out more about him. And it becomes an impetus to a more intensive discipleship.

There is one more thing we need to see in this experience on the Sea: Earlier in the day they had challenged him regarding the teaching in parables. It is out there on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of the storm that he gives them a parable with the intention of explaining and correcting an attitude in their own lives. Because to this point seeing they did not see, and hearing Jesus they did not hear.

The chief lesson of the stilling of the storm was not in the stilling of the storm. No, the chief value of their experience that day was the fact that they did not need to wake him. They should have understood the reason for his unconcern about the storm, the meaning of his sleeping and why it was unnecessary for them to awaken him. He was safe until his work was done. And so were they even in the stormiest storm.

We should understand that too! No storm can wreck the plan of God. Though all hell break loose, and all of our lives becomes a storm and threatens to wreck the boat where Christ sleeps, it is useless. If He is there, all is well.

Can I smile at the storm with Jesus Christ in the vessel? I am not sure that I always will, but I ought to and I want to. There should never be panic in the heart of the man or woman who knows Christ. We may be sure that Christ is at the heart of every storm. He often appears to sleep in the hour of our greatest anxiety. We are in danger of being swamped. Everything is going wrong.

But the Lord is in the heart of the storm and we may rest in him and smile at the storm. If we would see the better things we had best not awaken him. It is great if he stills the storm. But the greater thing is to watch Jesus in the midst of the storm. That is what he wanted these men to do. In proportion as we believe this, we ought to have no panic.

“We are far safer in the middle of a storm with God, than anywhere else without him.” Jeremy Taylor

--Dennis Gleason