Mark 4:35-41

This one time Jesus and his disciple have jumped in a boat to cross to the other side of the lake.  It’s been a full on day and Jesus lies down on a cushion in the stern of the boat to have a sleep. Whilst he is sleeping a storm begins to build, the wind blows stirring up the water into waves.  Before long the water is choppy and the boat is being bombarded by waves, the storm is incessant and the waves threaten to sink the boat.  These disciples, amongst them seasoned fishers who are use to storms on the lake, are in a panic.  They know storms like this, they are the storms that sink boats and drown their occupants.  All on board are frantically trying to stop the boat from going under, well all but one.  Amongst the chaos and the panic, amongst the howling winds and battering waves one still sleeps.

Frantic for any help that they can get, for just one more pair of hands to help with bailing out water, they grab Jesus and shake him awake.  In frustration and terror they exclaim, ‘How can you sleep, don’t you care that we are all about to die’.  And in response Jesus does not turn to panic, he doesn’t bark orders at the boats crew, he doesn’t even begin to bail out water, he just stands, calmly and with peace he turns to look at the storm that has caused so much panic and says “Stop”. That’s it, that’s all he has to say.  And everything stops.  The wind vanished, the waves return to calm, and within moments apart from the wet disciples and water in the boat it was like there was never a storm.

But I don’t think the terror left the disciples, but simply the cause of it changed.  From being a terror caused at by the threat of their imminent deaths, now it was sourced by utter bewilderment towards the man in their midst.  They turn to each other in hushed whispers and begin to ask a question they will surely ask many more times, ‘Who is this man that even the winds and the sea obey him?’

In the beginning God created through His Word. John 1 describes Jesus as the Word became flesh.  Of course the winds and the sea obeyed the word of Christ, because they heard the command of their Creator.  The same creator who had commanded them into existence was now asking them to calm down – they could do that – and they did.

Now: Read Mark 4:35-41

Then: Go Swedish (what’s this?)