Faith In Christ: When In Storms (Mark 4:35-41)
Introduction
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
38 But he 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?”
39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
An Eye-Witness Account
This story was told to Mark by an eyewitness. The whole scene is filled with vivid details, the kind only a participant would recall.
- It all happened in the evening (35).
- Jesus used the same boat he’d been preaching from earlier (just as he was, 36).
- Other boats were with him out on the waters (36).
- Jesus slept on the cushion rowers would sit on (38).
Because Peter was likely Mark’s source, and since Peter was a boat owner and fisherman, it would not be a stretch to think of him recounting this episode to Mark. I think this whole beautiful moment made a powerful impression on Peter and the rest of the disciples.
An Identity Account
This episode is an identity account — one where the disciples come to terms with Jesus’ identity. In this story, they gain a massive clue he is the God of Glory, the Holy One, the Creator and Sustainer of all flesh. They will walk away, amazed by Jesus.
And I hope the same majesty of Christ will jump off the page and into your heart tonight (and this whole weekend). Jesus is more powerful and glorious than we often dream, and his work on the lake that day was meant to open all his followers’ eyes to his transcendence.
But there are dangers to this understanding of Jesus from this text. One is familiarity; this is a well-known and sometimes well-worn passage from Jesus’ life. A second is the abuse of the text; this is a story many pastors and preachers use to make people think more about themselves and their storms, rather than more about Christ. In these messages, God in Christ becomes the slave who is there to “calm our troubled waters.” And, though there is a grain of truth in that teaching, the passage before us is meant for more. This is not a man-centered, you-centered, anthropocentric passage, but a God-centered, Christ-exalting, Christocentric passage.
Don’t be saddened by my premise, however. The truth is that seeing the Christ-exalting nature of this passage will do more for your soul than a trite or superficial feeling that Jesus can calm your storms, but without any understanding of how, or when, or why, or even why not. Instead, this passage can put steel in your spine because it will help you understand that if Jesus the God-man and Creator God is with you, in your boat, so to speak, you can endure anything.
And this is a version of masculinity that is needed in the church. We need men who have become strong, responsible, and sacrificial — not because they have been cajoled into it, have lots of testosterone, or are like actors playing the part of a man, but because they have seen Christ. They know who Jesus is and have been emboldened, bolstered, and strengthened by their relationship with him.
Three Questions
Now, there are many interesting elements to this story, but I want to spend our time looking at three specific questions in the passage. Each question developed the scene, and each says something about Jesus.
1. Don’t You Care? — Jesus’ disciples wondered if he cared about their situation.
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
The Scene
Here we see the setting of this miracle. It was on the same day Jesus was busy preaching parables to the crowds (4:1-34). When Jesus invited his disciples to go across to the other side, he was likely inviting them to a bit of escape from the multitudes for a moment (35). He was bringing them out onto the waters for a short men’s retreat.
Now, the Sea of Galilee sits almost 700 feet below sea level in a basin surrounded by hills and mountains on either side. To the northeast, Mount Hermon rises to 9,200 feet above sea level. This topography sometimes lends to a violent interchange of warm and cold air ascending and descending, dancing over the waters of Galilee. These tempests or squalls, though infrequent, are forceful when they occur, especially for the small boats of Jesus’ day.
And one such great windstorm arose that night as Jesus and the disciples attempted to cross Galilee (37). Waves were breaking into the boat (37). The boat was filling with water (37).
Trials
The story shows us how, even though Jesus had invited his disciples to go across the Sea of Galilee, they were not immune from storms. In a sense, it was as if Jesus invited them into this windstorm when he invited them to cross the waters.
We know this to be true. We are not immune from trials.
Someday, when in glory, we will live trial-free lives. But, if we’re honest, for life on earth we need trials. During trials, we are driven to God. They serve as a chance for us to walk by faith. They reorder our priorities. They refine and shape us. And they wake people up to their need for God. Trials make us complete (James 1:2-4). Trials produce perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3-4). Trials purify us (1 Peter 1:6-8). Sometimes the trial of being marginalized or insulted for our Christianity is God’s way of judging his church, making us better and purer as a result. As Peter said:
1 Peter 4:16–17 (ESV) — 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God…
During trials, we learn about ourselves and about God. And this is what the disciples were in as the boat filled with water — a trial.
38 But he 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?”
Their Question
It appears the disciples felt helpless in the face of the windstorm. Many of them were experienced fishermen. They were familiar with that lake and this boat but knew they were outmatched. They believed they were going to die. So they went to wake Jesus, saying, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” (38).
What made them ask this question? What made them accuse Jesus of apathy towards their situation? Well, he was asleep. On the cushion. In the stern, the back of the boat (38).
Now, Jesus’ slumber didn’t mean he didn’t care. It was a sign he was exhausted, but not a sign of indifference. He’d been serving the masses all day, and for a long season before that day, and sleep had been hard to come by. God had become flesh and dwelt among us, and, in his humanity, Jesus was painfully tired. So much so, a raging storm could not wake him.
Now, it’s hard to say what they wanted Jesus to do when he awoke. The story shows us they didn’t expect him to calm the storm. They were shocked when he did, shocked that he could. They didn’t know it was in his repertoire of miracles. But Matthew tells us at least some of them said, “Save us, Lord!” (Matthew 8:25). So they wanted him to do something. And to do something, he had to be awake!
Our Feeling
But isn’t this so often the feeling we have when during trials? We know much more than they did. We know about the cross. We know Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. We know he lives with us by his Spirit. Yet we still often react the way they did. Lord, don’t you care? Don’t you see what we’re going through? I’m PERISHING. You’re SLEEPING.
Now, we know Jesus cared. Immensely. In fact, his mere presence in the boat that day was evidence of his care. God loved humanity enough to send his Son (John 3:16). That Jesus incarnated in the first place, taking on a body and experiencing fatigue, something he’d never felt in his divinity, is evidence of his care. But this was their fear talking.
And this happens. It wasn’t their best moment. When we behave similarly, it’s not our best moment. But this happens. We have times we wonder if he cares. We sometimes accuse him of a lack of care.
In our house, there are certain family sayings that have special meaning because of past events. One event occurred when my girls were very little. My two oldest were sharing a bedroom at the time, and one night they stayed up past their bedtime playing together with their most favorite dolls. As part of their discipline, we took their dolls and “put them to bed” outside their room at the end of the hallway. Normally both dolls had their own special beds and covers, but not that night.
My middle child is a fact-based person. She knew her Rainbow Brite doll was not a living being. So she just went to sleep — no big deal. But my oldest daughter is a romantic. To her, a living, breathing, loved one had just been relegated to a night of abject poverty, neglect, and homelessness. And, as I stood at the doorway listening to them talk after I’d left the room, she tried to reason with her sister. She wanted her younger sister to be as distraught as she was. The injustice of it all! And, finally, with tears, she said to her more composed and fact-based sister, “And the worst part is, you don’t even care!”
We often think this way about God — The worst part is, you don’t even care! But he cares. Consider:
1 Peter 5:6–7 (ESV) — 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
A Raw Response
And, sometimes, the process of casting our anxieties on him is an ugly affair. It’s not all neat and tidy. Oh benevolent Father, today I bring you an anxiety I have recently uncovered in my daily meditation upon your glorious grace. No! Sometimes it’s an ugly cry. Sometimes it’s a plea of desperation. Sometimes it’s a long sigh of grief.
But some believers act allergic to any fear or sorrow or worry or stress or anger. When those feelings arise, they stuff them, considering them to be contrary to the joy of the Lord. Rather than process them with God, as the entire book of Psalms would encourage us to do, they pretend those feelings do not exist. They feel shame for being so weak.
But he does care for us, so we have got to take those cares and cast them upon our Lord.
The Embarrassing Reality
Look, as a pastor, I try to live out every sermon and truth I preach. But I am embarrassed to say I have lived out this portion of this sermon more times than I can count.
I often have times when I feel the waves fill my little Nate Holdridge boat. I begin despairing. And certainly the last couple of years of ministry have only compounded the storms. In my weakest moments, I throw little pity parties for myself. And sometimes not-so-little pity parties. Big ones — streamers, balloons, the works. Big time pity parties.
And, wrestling with this text, I see myself so clearly. They asked, Do you not care that we are perishing? Such an accusatory and sarcastic question. Ugly. Embarrassing. It’s one of the reasons I trust the Bible. In their desire to tell the truth, the authors make themselves look like morons sometimes. And, through their transparency, I realized I was asking the same lame question.
Through it all, I sense the Lord. I do care. I see the situation. Trust me.
2. Why Are You So Afraid? — Jesus wanted his disciples to trust him.
39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
The Miracle
Jesus awoke immediately calmed the seas. In the same way, he rebuked demons, he rebuked the wind. He told the sea to be still (39). Great calm came upon the waters (39). Amazing. The Prince of Peace had done his thing.
He had just told a bunch of parables about the power of his word — and now they had a living example of that power. What he commanded would come to pass — right down to the ceasing of the wind and the stilling of the seas. If he willed something, it occurred.
The Questions
Jesus then questioned his men. He had been teaching them privately, telling them the meaning of his parables and letting them in on the secret of the kingdom (4:11-12, 34). But they still didn’t have the faith they needed. They were still afraid. Clearly, they didn’t yet know who they were dealing with in Jesus.
And it was important for these men to have their fears allayed and their faith strengthened by Jesus’ presence and identity. They would eventually take the gospel to the nations. They would be opposed by their fellow countrymen in Israel, by pagan worship systems, and by the might of the Roman government. They would be arrested, beaten, and martyred for the gospel. For this to occur, they needed a big view — the right view — of Jesus. They need to trust him.
So Jesus asked them: Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
It was a teachable moment. He loved them. He was parenting them. This wasn’t a harsh rebuke, but a gentle one designed to get them to realize who he was, and who they were when with him.
They Made It Across
Remember, Jesus invited them to go across to the other side (35). Matthew and Luke (John doesn’t include this story) both also include this detail. Jesus invited his disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee, to go to the other side.
Now, notice the first verse of Mark 5:
“They came to the other side of the sea…” (Mark 5:1, ESV)
In other words, Jesus invited them to go across to the other side. And go across they went. He didn’t invite them to drown or to die out there on the lake’s waters. No, Jesus’ life was firmly aimed at the atonement he would accomplish through his death on the cross. And the cross was the foreordained way Jesus would die; it had even been predicted in the Old Testament. So Jesus could not die on those waters. He was invincible until his appointed hour on Mount Calvary.
And they would also be invincible as they carried out God’s will for their lives. After Jesus rose from the dead, he left these men. By his Spirit, as I already mentioned, they were strengthened to face far worse than a storm on the sea.
We’ll Make It Across
But this word — across to the other side — has been a comfort to me as a man and pastor thousands of times.
I became the senior pastor of Calvary Monterey in 2008. Two factors combined to make it a tumultuous transition. First, the previous pastor was in his sixties while I was still in my twenties. Second, I became pastor right before the financial downturn that rocked our nation at that time. And, as each individual sheep in our flock had to determine if they heard the Shepherd’s voice through me as Jesus’ under-shepherd, our church population shifted (which is a nice way of saying we shrunk for a while). And so did our finances. But we just kept loving God, proclaiming Jesus, and studying his word. And God got us through. He got us across then. And he is doing the same today! Not just financially, either. That’s not my point. He is getting us across to greater fruit, stronger impact, and better forms of ministry. He is that good.
As a church family, over the decades, we have endured all types of seasons with God. Right now, we have a building to call our own, but have also borrowed movie theaters and other church buildings. We’ve had larger pastoral teams, and also smaller ones. We’ve had times of robust provision, but also seasons of meager finances. We’ve had seasons we’ve numerically increased, and seasons we’ve decreased. We’ve had times of great fruitfulness unto God, and also times of pruning by God.
And, through it all, though we are far from perfect, we have remained orthodox in the faith, honored God, and loved the gospel, all while continuing to affirm the importance and inspiration of Scripture by reading and studying it during our gatherings. And God has always gotten us “across to the other side” of whatever trial or situation has come up.
But God’s ability to take us to the other side has also comforted me as a man. Like all of you, I have pressures and responsibilities that can sometimes weigh me down. It seems there is a constant stream of financial, relational, marital, parental, and physical issues that could cause me to fear. But Jesus gets us across. Time and time again, he has gotten us across. He is faithful.
You’ll Make It Across
Look, we have no guarantees regarding how long each of us will live, but God has a purpose for each of our lives. He will not take you home to himself before your appointed hour. You are invincible until he calls you home. If he has work for you to do, you will live. Once your work is done, he’ll bring you home into his presence.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6, ESV)
Let’s trust Jesus. Let’s consider his searching and challenging questions: Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Tonight and tomorrow, let’s ask him to decrease our fear by increasing our faith. That’s what he wanted. He didn’t want to see their fears evaporate for any other reason than that they understood his identity. He doesn’t want us to be bold for lesser reasons. I’m a man, I’m not afraid! The man who shouts is loudest is likely the most afraid. We aren’t to become bold by the means of false bravado, talking ourselves out of our fears, or human intellect and power. We are to have our fears washed away by the understanding of who Jesus is and the position we have before him.
3. Who Is This? — Jesus’ disciples learned of his identity.
41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Not Any Miracle
Remember, this isn’t the first time the disciples have witnessed Jesus perform a miracle. They’ve watched him cast out demons, heal everything from fevers to paralysis, and cleanse leprosy. At this point, they were well accustomed to the miraculous power of Christ. We should not imagine they’d forgotten all these previous supernatural events. They had no amnesia regarding Jesus’ power.
But this miracle did shock them. Why?
An Act Of God
In their view, this miracle was in an altogether different category than anything else he’d done. They were Jewish men, steeped in Old Testament traditions and scriptures. When they scanned the Old Testament, it was God himself who split the Red Sea, held back the waters of the Jordan River, and calmed the Mediterranean once Jonah was cast overboard. This was God stuff. In Genesis 1, on the six days of creation, God took chaos and made order, and Jesus did the same on the lake that night.
It shocked them. So they said, “Who is then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (41). His miracle was a revelation. They were starting to see the divinity of Christ. The sleeper in the stern was God in the flesh! Notice the strong parallel between Jesus’ work here and the work of God in Psalm 107.
Psalm 107:23–32 (ESV)—23 Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; 24 they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep. 25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. 26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; 27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. 30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
The disciples, just like the people of Psalm 107, had seen the deeds of the LORD (Psalm 107:24). They had cried to the LORD while in their trouble (Psalm 127:28). And they need to thank the LORD for his steadfast love, his covenant commitment to his people (Psalm 127:31).
And, just as the people of Psalm 107 and the disciples of Mark 4 needed to extol and praise the Lord, we should do the same. He cares for us. He is trustworthy. And he is the glorious Creator God who will one day calm every storm and make all things new.
