We come today to the end of chapter four, but the story of Jesus’s ministry does not stop there. He is simply traveling from one place to another. And He does so in this story by means of a ship on the sea. It’s a simple story, but one which provided a teachable lesson for the disciples, and which should be a lesson for us as well.
It’s been a very long day of preaching and teaching and working miracles. At one point the crowds were so large that Jesus and His disciples were not able to eat. So at the seashore of Galilee He asked that a boat be brought near the beach so that He could preach without being crushed by the multitude. It’s interesting to picture Jesus sitting in a boat right off the shoreline and using it as a pulpit to speak from. Perhaps it was John and James’ fishing boat, or maybe Peter and Andrew’s boat. It was probably not a rowboat though. It was a fishing boat that was large enough for a crew, perhaps all 12 of the disciples plus Jesus, and a large catch of fish as well, which would be a pretty good sized boat.
At any point, Mark says “On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” First notice that it was evening. It was getting dark. I’m sure you have all heard this story before and we know there is a storm coming. To be at sea in the dark in an open boat, in the midst of a violent storm, would be especially terrifying. A storm always seems worse at night.
But the other thing to consider is that Jesus knows what is going to happen before it happens. He knows it is night time. He knows that a fierce storm is coming. And yet He is the one who orders the disciples to head out in their boat. What’s coming was going to be a terrifying surprise for the disciples, but it was no surprise to Jesus. In fact, you might say that He would seem to be orchestrating it. Jesus could have said, “Fellows, I want to go over to the other side, but I know there is going to be a fierce storm tonight, so we will find shelter here and leave in the morning.” But Jesus, in His divine omnipotence, does nothing like that. Instead, He says let’s go to the other side, knowing full well what is in store for them.
It’s hard for us to understand sometimes, but God often sends us tests in our lives. It’s like a good teacher that gives the students a test periodically. Contrary to what the students might think, the teacher doesn’t give them a test hoping to make the students fail. But to make the students learn. James 1:2-8 says “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, [being] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Notice James says testing produces faith that endures through trials, and enduring faith makes you complete in your faith, and in wisdom. But a lack of faith is likened to being in a boat in a storm tossed sea that drives you this way and that way, so that you are unstable, and double minded. It’s interesting that Jesus uses a stormy sea and a driving wind to test the disciple’s faith.
Vs 36 “Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.” So they left the crowd on the beach. Again and again we see Jesus escaping the crowds just when you would think that from a ministry point of view He should be capitalizing on the momentum. Instead, He leaves to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. But I want you to notice something else here. This storm that is coming is not the disciples fault. This isn’t a Jonah situation here, where God sends a storm to punish someone who has made wrong choices. The disciples are doing what Jesus told them to do. I think we are often surprised to find that when we are trying to follow the Lord, things seem to not always go the way we think they should. Instead of smooth sailing, fair winds and following seas, suddenly the winds seem to turn against us.
So Mark says the disciples took Him just as He was. I find that an odd statement. I can’t really be sure what to make of it. But in light of the context, I would have to assume it means that as He finished preaching, sitting in the boat, they just pushed off shore and set sail for the other side. They didn’t come to land and then make preparations for the journey. They left without any food, without packing a bag, just took off with Jesus sitting in the boat having just finished an exhausting day. You know, passages like this remind us that Jesus wasn’t some sort of superman in a physical sense. He got tired, He got hungry, His body was just like our bodies, and subject to the same physical limitations. He was fully man, and yet fully God.
And because of that physical body that was subject to being tired, Jesus was exhausted. We read in verse 38 that Jesus had gone to sleep in the stern, with His head on a cushion. That shows us a couple of things. One is He is supremely confident and at peace about what was about to transpire. And second, as I said previously, He was subject to exhaustion just like any person would be who had been doing what He did that day.
Vs37 “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.” In the original language Mark uses a word that is best translated as a whirlwind. A whirlwind is like a tornado, or a hurricane, with the wind going in a circular motion. From what I have read, the Sea of Galilee was ringed with mountains and the sea was 680 feet below sea level. So due to geography there is some weird atmospheric thing that happens there occasionally due to the cold air in the mountains dropping down to the heated sea below which can cause very violent storms to occur.
So the wind has come rushing down from the mountains and into this sea, kicking up tremendous waves, and the boat was being swamped. Waves were breaking over the sides and it was filling up with water. it’s ironic that this test for the disciples comes in the form of something that I’m sure they thought they were well qualified to handle. After all, they were professional fishermen who had made their livelihoods plying this sea. They had years of experience with boats and dealing with bad weather. And yet to their strength comes this extreme trial that shows them just how weak and insignificant they are. I don’t know if you have ever been in severe weather before, like a hurricane or a tornado, but when you experience that you are keenly aware of just how massively powerful nature can be, and how powerless and insignificant man is.
But these were sea faring men with years of experience dealing with storms and waves. It’s funny how God tests us in our strong areas, and not our weak ones. Satan on the other hand tempts us in our weak areas. But God tests us in our strong areas. The areas of our life we take the most pride in. The areas we think we don’t really need God’s help in. For some of us, it’s our business acumen or ability to make money. For others it’s our body, maybe our physical strength or our good looks. It can be a lot of different things.
I remember a time when I was around 40 years old. I was in the prime of my life. I was doing very well in my antique business. I had learned more about my particular antique specialty than most of my competitors which enabled me to be very successful. I remember one day answering my mother’s criticism who was comparing me to my brother who was working a job and getting a salary of about $50,000 at the time, and I said that I could make $50,000 standing on my head.
About a year later, a whirlwind came out of nowhere and completely overwhelmed my life in every respect. In that storm that seemed unrelenting and which lasted about three years, I lost my health and my business, went completely broke, and almost lost my mind in the process. But as I was just telling someone the other day, if God had not put me through that trial, then I probably would not have been where I am today in my walk with the Lord, and I doubt very much that I would be a pastor.
Well, the disciples were overwhelmed in the storm as well. They were justifiably terrified and realized that there was nothing they could do to stop the storm or keep the boat from capsizing and sinking. Amazingly though, Jesus was still asleep in the stern. Vs38 Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Luke’s account makes it clear that the men were very frightened. Fear causes men to do and sometimes say terrible things. Panic causes men to do even worse. Sometimes when a trlal causes fear in a married couple, it makes them turn on one another. I think the tendency is you don’t think your spouse is hurting as much as you are and so you want to hurt them yourself. Your spouse seems too comfortable with the situation. I think the disciples were both terrified and panicking. And in their fear, they turn on Jesus who is at such peace that He could sleep through this terrible situation.
The different gospel accounts include more things that were said, but I think Mark focuses on something here which is very important. When trials come, when things don’t turn out like you planned, when all around your soul gives way, the temptation of Satan in that moment is to say that God doesn’t care. God is uncaring, unloving, impersonal. He doesn’t care about you. He could help you if He wanted to, but the fact that He doesn’t seem to be doing anything, is evidence that He doesn’t care. You’re on your own. And so you get angry at God, you turn away from the Lord at the moment when you need Him most.
But the purpose of the trial from God’s perspective is to get you to turn to the Lord. To trust Him more. To love Him more. To commit your life to Him completely. God uses trials a lot of times to get us to move away from our independence, our self reliance, our pride, and trust completely in His sufficiency and in His plan.
So in vs39 we read, “And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.” Jesus is the One who created the wind and the sea. He created the weather. He created the elements. In John 1 it says of Jesus, “and without Him was not anything made that was made.”
It’s interesting that Jesus spoke the world into existence, and He speaks now to rebuke the wind. The wind stopped immediately, and then He speaks to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the sea instantly became dead calm. You know as someone who is a surfer, I’ve learned that the wind produces waves. Many times the storms can be hundreds of miles away and yet we are getting waves sent from that storm to our beaches. Yet Jesus immediately causes the sea to become dead calm after just stopping the wind. From a natural point of view, the waves should have continued for quite a long time afterward. But Jesus stills the wind and the waves simultaneously.
And then after speaking to the wind and the waves, Jesus speaks to the quaking hearts of the disciples. Vs. 40, “And He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ One thing I want to point out is that Jesus doesn’t rebuke the disciples for their accusation that He didn’t care about them. I think His compassion for them overrides any desire to rebuke them.
But He does want to teach them. And so He asks them two questions. The first is “why are you afraid?” Luke makes it clear in his account that the disciples were afraid during the storm, and even more afraid after Jesus stilled the storm. So Jesus says, “Why are you afraid”, not “why were you afraid.” As if to say, doesn’t this teach you that your Master is not only very powerful, but also that He cares for you and loves you? Perfect love casts out fear. Therefore shouldn’t you respond not in fear but in childlike faith?
One thing that I ended up having to deal with as a result of my trial by fire that I mentioned a moment ago was severe anxiety. I developed crippling anxiety attacks that I could not control and which took control of my life and greatly contributed to the loss of my business and so forth. I often claim that I started the whole anxiety attack thing years before it became well known. Back then no one knew what it was. But at it’s root was just fear. And to some extent I still deal with it even today. I think many of us deal with fear. The psalmist David dealt with fear. That’s one reason I am so drawn to the psalms. But fear comes when you realize something’s happening beyond your control. The answer to fear comes when you realize that God is in control and your life is in God’s hands. And you can trust Him with your life.
And then Jesus’s second question speaks to their lack of faith. “Do you still have no faith?” He says “You still have no faith” even though they had seen Him perform hundreds of miracles. Even though they had followed Him for some time now and heard His message of the gospel, had heard His claim to be the Son of God. Yet their faith had not endured in the midst of the storm.
You know, when everything works out the way we want, when God seems to answer our prayers just as we desired, when our finances and health are good, when our families are safe and sound, then we think our faith is good, don’t we? But when trouble comes, when God doesn’t seem to care, when God doesn’t split open the clouds and immediately come rushing to our help, when our prayers don’t seem to be answered, then does our faith endure? Do we lose faith when God seems to be asleep and our boat is sinking? I think Jesus orchestrated this trial to teach the disciples and to teach us, that God is in control and He is not surprised by any circumstance or situation in our life. He is not surprised or scared of any storm. He is the Master of life’s storms, and He will use them for His purposes and bring us through them to a greater knowledge of Him, and to a deeper, enduring faith, that we might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
But Mark finishes this account with the perspective of the disciples, in vs 41 "They became very much afraid and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’” They were still learning who Jesus was. It’s one thing to hear about God, but another to have a personal experience with Him. I think this storm helped them to see through the veil of flesh that covered Jesus of Nazareth so that they saw a glimpse of the glory of the Son of God. Only God can command the weather.
So the disciples ask a question that we should be asking as well, “What kind of a person is this, that even the weather obeys Him? Only God causes storms and only God stills storms. And so the answer must be that Jesus is the Son of God. That is the faith that we must have, the faith that saves us. Trust in who He is, and what He has done, and what He has promised. That is saving faith.
Hebrews 11:6 says “And without faith it is impossible to please [Him,] for he who comes to God must believe that He is and [that] He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” And without faith it is impossible to be saved. [Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
But even when we are justified by faith, it is necessary that we continue in faith, and endure in faith, that we may be perfected in faith as we walk by faith and not by sight.
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