Christ Came to Calm

The Fifth sunday after pentecost

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Mark 4:35-41

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 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?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (NIV)

It’s thought of as being one of the most deadly professions out there.  Watch an episode of the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, and you’ll know why.  Captain and crew alike risk their lives aboard fishing boats in Alaska’s Bering Sea in order to bring home a prized catch of king and snow crab.  Together with the potentially fatal hazards of just being on deck and operating the necessary equipment, the brutal weather and the treacherous conditions of the sea pose daily threats to life and limb.  The number of fatalities that occur in this line of work make it as risky as any other.  It makes for some fascinating viewing, but I don’t know that I have much of a desire to ever be aboard any of those vessels.

It appears that a number of disciples felt the same way on the Sea of Galilee on the occasion detailed in this morning’s Gospel.  They undoubtedly would have preferred to have been watching safely from shore, rather than scrambling for their lives on a boat quickly caught up in an unrelenting squall.  So furious was this sudden storm, not uncommon at all on the Sea of Galilee, that the boat was filling up fast with water “so that it was nearly swamped” (v.37).  To downplay the gravity of the situation is to ignore that there were seasoned veterans aboard the boat, men whose entire livelihoods were spent at sea as fishermen.  They’d been in sticky situations before.  They’d weathered storms.  But this was bad, so bad that they were at their wits’ end, terrified and running out of options quickly.  They were desperate for help, so desperate in fact that the fishermen turned to the carpenter for help.

And where was the carpenter to be found?  “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion” (v.38).  Now skeptics of the Bible draw one of two conclusions at this point: 1) if Jesus was able to sleep through it, then the storm could not have been all that serious, or 2) Jesus wasn’t actually asleep.  In response to that, one has to wonder if such skeptics have ever put in a hard day of work.  If so, they’d know from experience that the human body, when exhausted, has little trouble getting the sleep it needs.  It’s not hard to imagine how weary and worn out Jesus must have been after giving of himself teaching the crowds, which certainly has at least a little to do with why they got into the boat in the first place – to take a break.  Finally, if Jesus had in mind all along to use this event as an opportunity to build up his disciples, and his sleeping was a necessary part of it, then we have no problem taking Mark at face value and believing that Jesus was asleep.  Jesus was, after all, a human being, and human beings get tired.

But Jesus was more than just a man, as he was about to show, which made their question of him all the more insulting.  They didn’t just ask the Son of Man, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” (v.38), they also asked the Son of God.  The implication of that question was either that Jesus didn’t care, or that he wasn’t able to do anything about it.  What Jesus did next clearly proved the disciples wrong on both counts – he did care, and he was able to do something about it.

With a stern rebuke, Jesus brought the chaos swirling around them to an abrupt end.  He calmed the storm. The violent winds and the raging waves were stilled by his spoken words.  How many times have we witnessed footage of unrelenting natural disasters?  How many times in all that footage have you seen one person be able to do a single thing to somehow restrain nature?  Never.  The best we can do is be able to predict or warn when some natural disaster is about to happen so that we can evacuate or properly prepare.  With all our science and technology and brilliance, we cannot divert or put a stop to so much as a harmless light rain shower, even for a moment.  But Jesus demonstrated his divine power over nature by merely mouthing the words “Quiet! Be still.”

Jesus’ human nature was evident – he was tired, and so he slept in the boat.  His divine nature was evident as well - he tamed the untamable wind and waves.  When we see Jesus exert his divine power in performing miracles, it has nothing to do with him wanting to woo the crowds or wow his disciples; rather, his divine power attests to something much more significant: he has the divine power necessary to save.  Why is that divine power needed to save?  Jesus reminded us in his rebuke, not of the wind and waves, but in his rebuke of the disciples.

After he brought about a complete calm in the midst of chaos by his rebuke of the wind and waves, Jesus then rebuked his disciples: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (v.40).  Think about how tied together those two questions are.  Isn’t the one going to naturally follow the other?  The second question essentially serves as the answer to the first – you’re so afraid because you have no faith.  Isn’t that what is really at the core of being afraid?  Isn’t it a lack of faith?

Now take that a step further.  We rejoice that salvation is a gift received freely by faith.  Yet even our faith, which does nothing but receive that gift, would be completely inadequate if it were not for the divine power necessary to sustain that faith.  Faith alone saves, but even faith itself, if left up to us would falter and fizzle.  We need that divine Savior.  We need the one who controlled the storm on Galilee to control the chaos that would otherwise reign in our hearts and choke out any faith.  Man is inadequate on his own.  We need the divine.  We need Jesus.

We’re guilty of that same lack of faith, that same fear that caused the disciples to be seen by Jesus as cowards.  We are adrift at sea with our problems and troubles, and because they’re beyond our control, like the disciples, we ask, “Don’t you care, God?  Can’t you do something about my lack of income?  Can’t you fix my relationship?  Can’t you this?  Can’t you that?  Don’t you care???”

Eventually, it usually becomes clear, though it can take a while because we’re slow learners.  At some point we finally recognize that sometimes God allows the turbulence in life to happen so that we regain the proper perspective on how much God cares, ironically enough.  God does care, but he cares about something with the potential to do much more damage than mere worldly troubles or inconveniences; he cares about our sin.  He cares about our sin because that is the only thing that stands to separate us from him for eternity.  

“Don’t you care?”  What an insult to God!  How dare we ask such a question of the Creator. No one cares more.  The evidence overwhelmingly supports it – had he not cared, Jesus wouldn’t have given up holy heaven for the enticement-filled earth.  Had he not cared, the Father wouldn’t have allowed his own Son to be tempted and tormented by the devil in the desert.  Had he not cared, the Father wouldn’t have exposed his Son to the ridicule and the constant challenges from his enemies.  Had he not cared, his only Son wouldn’t have been beaten and bruised and bloodied.  Had he not cared, he would not have given up his own Son to die in our place.  Yes, God cares.  More than anyone, God cares.

He cares, and that is why Jesus came.  He came to calm, not to calm nature when it becomes unruly, but to calm hearts troubled by guilt and sin.  No one on earth knows your sin better than you do, but there is one in heaven who does.  And he knows your sin because he willingly faced it head on in order to forgive it.  Your fickle faith and your unfounded fears and even your fist-shaking at God – all of it has been forgiven.  Christ came to calm.

Now we might ask why, if Christ came to calm, were the disciples so terrified after this miracle?  Mark records, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” (v.41).  It doesn’t seem like they were very calm at all!  Indeed, having just witnessed what they did, how can there be any reaction but great fear?  How on earth could they hope to stand in the presence of one so powerful to be able to do what Jesus just did?  And, on top of it, just moments ago they had accused him with their “Don’t you care?”  How they must have regretted being so brazen with one who held so much power in even just the words from his mouth!

But how it changes things to recognize that such almighty power is not aimed at or directed against us, but is directed against the devil and against all who oppose the One who himself is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.  That is the very power that was unleashed on the devil to crush him and overturn his wicked work.  It was that power that took the sting out of death.  It is that power by which we are kept safe and secure in the one true faith.

That power exerted by Jesus on that lake on that day is the power that goes with you when you leave here.  It is power to protect you from physical harm. It is power to heal you from injury and sickness.  It is power to rescue you from physical death. And we should not look on such power lightly, for it is at our disposal each and every time we approach God in prayer.

That power is also the power to provide us with peace.  The devil tries to stir up the waters all around us, but in Christ our ship sets sail on the smooth, glassy, mirror-like waters that he has laid out for us, where nothing but tranquility and serenity abound.  So it is in our hearts.  So it is because our ship is called grace, and where there is grace, there is no fear or worry, for Christ came to calm.  Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)