Sunday, June 21, 2015 | After Pentecost
Proper 7
Year B
Job 38:1–11
Psalm 107:1–3, 23–32
2 Corinthians 6:1–13
Mark 4:35–41[2]
Prior to our Gospel from today, Jesus and His disciples spend the day at the seaside. When you hear that, did you think, wow, what a nice day at the beach? A mini vacation spent at the seaside, tent erected, laying on the beach, sunning themselves and taking an occasional dip in the sea to cool down. Sounds like a fun relaxing day for Jesus and the disciples.
I don’t think it is like that at all. Jesus is teaching all that are gathered; a very large crowed is gathered at the seaside. He begins teaching them what the kingdom of heaven is like. As we know from other stories, many do not understand His stories, His parables, which He is telling. In fact, the twelve did not understand the parables, so when alone with the twelve, Jesus explains the meaning of the parables. The twelve are given the secret of the kingdom of heaven, in the explanation of the parables.
It has been a long and exhausting day of Jesus teaching the crowd that is gathered and then also explaining all the meanings of the parables to the twelve. It is time to get some rest and go to the other side of the sea. Jesus is so popular that he needs to get away, just to get some rest. Even as he attempts to get rest, he cannot.
Jesus is fast asleep on a cushion, in the stern of the boat. Exhausted from a day of teaching, He just needs to get some sleep. After all, not only is Jesus the Emmanuel, He is also human. A human needs food, water and sleep. Jesus is sound asleep with those that have listened to His parables and who have been explained the meaning of them. All is well, all is good……for the moment that is.
A windstorm, not just any windstorm but one of great violent gusts of winds from multiple directions, all around the boat, start to toss the boat about. The wind is so violent that the waves rear up and crash upon the boat and spilling into the boat. The boat is being swamped with water from the sea. Being swamped is not a delightful feeling. Being swamped is the prelude to sinking, sinking in the sea with the violent water to swallow you up as you are pushed down because of the winds and waves.
Back to Jesus, He is sound asleep in the stern of the boat. While all this terror, at least to the others in the boat, terror, Jesus is sleeping off an exhausting day of teaching at the seaside. Jesus does not wake, but is woken by the others in the boat. The waves are crashing about the boat, it is filling with water and the winds are tossing the boat around and Jesus has to be woken up!
After Jesus wakes up, of all things, He is question about His feelings towards the others. Jesus who has been with these twelve, who has been taking care of them, explaining the parables to them, giving them the wisdom about the kingdom of heaven, is woken with the question of “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38b) What a rude awaking, can you just see it now? Jesus is shaking His head; He has a frown but also is bewildered by the response of those that wake Him.
Instead of responding to the twelve, who are apparently showing how little faith and understanding they have, Jesus yells at the wind, giving threats to the wind in His rebuke of Peace! Be still! All is calm, not just calm but a dead calm. The winds stop, the water becomes still and glassy. All is calm but is all, calm or is it only the natural elements, which Jesus has taken charge of, that is calm?
Put yourself in the place of one of those upon the boat. Can you imagine the terror running through your heart? Can you feel it right now? Your heart is pounding; your adrenaline is pumping through your body. The hair on your skin is standing on end. Then suddenly, Jesus yells at the wind to be calm and the wind and the water respond, in a dead calm. Dead calm, from one extreme to the other and I suspect you are not calm yet.
Now it is Jesus’s turn to ask you a question. You have woken Jesus, out of a sound sleep and you have questioned Him about his faithfulness towards you. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38b) Jesus now says to you, in a calm, quieting and peaceful voice, “Why are you afraid?” (Mark 4:40a) But before you can even form a response, He follows up with the question that stings at your very being. The question cuts through you like a knife. Jesus says very calmly and with concern upon his face and upon His very own breath with a bit of exhaustion, “Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:40b)
You have been in what you see as a perilous time of your life. Things could not have seemed worse. Darkness and danger surrounded you and you called upon Jesus, not because you asked for comfort and guidance but because you questioned Jesus’ resolve towards you. It is then, in the moment of coming out of your perceived peril and experiencing the power of Jesus the Christ, who has the power of God because He is God, that you begin to really wonder, really begin to question and start to see who Jesus really is.
Jesus is the One who calms the sea. Jesus is the God of hope, love and grace. Jesus is the Son of the Almighty, who created all that is seen and unseen. The Word incarnate of God who created the heavens and the earth, not out of chaos but out of nothingness. God, who creates not from something but from nothing, is God above all other gods. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us who is in command of all, because God created all.
Do you trust in the promises of God? Have faith, God has command of all and gives us a promise that cannot be broken because God is a god of truth who keeps God’s promise in the covenant of the body and blood of the Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, shall have eternal life and is not condemned. (John 3:17-18) “For God so loved the world that [God] gave [God’s] only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
[1] Revised Common Lectionary (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009).
[2] Revised Common Lectionary (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009).