PENTECOST 3, B – June 21, 2009

SCRIPTURES – Job 38:1-11; 2 Cor. 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41 

 I’ve always loved this story of Jesus and His disciples in the boat during the storm. Such incredible power is shown by Him in calming the storm with a word! But, this is not what draws me to this story. What draws me is not our Lord’s authority over the wind and waves, but the fact that He is sleeping in the back of the boat while the waves are tossing it and crashing into the boat. How can He sleep while this is going on?

 “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” His disciples cried out in fear. Rightly do they call Him teacher, for they have so much they need to learn from Him. We have so much to learn from Him. One of the biggest things we have to learn is that our Lord does His best teaching through the storms that arise and threaten us.

 

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” We need to learn, to always believe and never doubt, that God cares. His disciples should have had no doubts about this. After all, even though this is early in His three year ministry, they had been with Jesus for a while now. They had seen Him perform great miracles of healing, including even raising a man from the dead. They had been with Him when He reached out to, forgave, and welcomed the outcasts of society – such as His disciple Matthew, who had been a hated tax collector until Jesus called him. It was obvious that He cared, for He was willing to have others think ill of Him and call Him a sinner for welcoming such people. He shared in not only the sicknesses but even the sins of others to save them! And, that very day of the storm they had seen ample evidence of His concern for the people. Why was Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat? How could He sleep while the boat was being tossed and the waves were filling it? Jesus was sleeping because He was exhausted. He had been up late the night before as crowds of people with various illnesses and afflictions had come to Him for healing. Then, He had spent that day with the crowds, teaching them in parables. The sick and injured had come to Him and pressed around Him throughout the day, and He had continued to help and heal all who were in need. Jesus had spent Himself for the people, until He collapsed in the boat and passed out from exhaustion. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Of course He cared! How could His disciples question this?

How can we question this? For, we are not unlike Christ’s disciples, of far greater faith than them. We are like them. We all have times when we question whether God cares about us. It might be a threat to your life that brings this question to your mind, as was the case with the disciples. It might be a threat to your happiness or prosperity. So often that’s the case for us, as the prosperity and ease we’re used to today trains us to think that we’re supposed to be happy and prosperous. If we’re not, if our plans are not succeeding and we are facing difficulty and hardship, then we conclude that God is not showing His care and concern. How self-centered and selfish we are!

             “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” said Jesus to His disciples after He awoke and silenced the storm. It was a gentle rebuke, but it was a rebuke that they deserved. How could they doubt Him? How could they think that their lives were in mortal danger while they were with Him? After all they had seen and experienced with Him, how could they wonder if He cared? Now, they did believe in Him. If they did not they would not have gone to Him and cried out for His help. They did believe, and so did the right thing: they woke Him up and cried out for His help. But, they had so much to learn.

 And, so do we. It’s easy to believe in Jesus when things are going your way, when it seems that He is blessing your work and fulfilling your desires. Easy, un-challenged faith is not what your Lord wants for you, however. He wants you to have a faith like Job, who, even though he lost everything – his wealth, his possessions, his children, and finally his health – still trusted in God and in response to these devastating losses did not question Him but said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” When his wife became angry with God, he taught her, and us, saying, “Shall we accept only good from God, and not also adversity?” God is to be trusted and praised, in any and every circumstance, because He always cares. He always loves. He always wants, and strives to bring about, what is best for us. The storms of life may make it seem as if this is not so. Do not focus upon them, however. Fix your eyes on your Savior who spent His life for you. And, let Him be your Teacher by trusting that He does His best teaching through adversity.

 God does have a goal in mind for your life. Actually, He has two goals. His first goal is for you to be with Him, living in His presence in righteousness and purity forever in heaven. To bring you to this goal He must turn you away from your own desires, even from your own self. He must, because, as we see with the disciples, our most basic desires are for ourselves. Through the storms of life which make us helpless He teaches us to cry out to Him and rely on Him alone. He also teaches us to not set our desires ultimately on this life, for it will pass away. We must look to Jesus, who spent Himself for us, even to the point of taking our sins upon Himself and dying to save us from their eternal condemnation. Look upon the Son of God on the cross for you and you will never doubt His love! God would use life’s storms to turn us to Jesus, and so fix our eyes on the life with Him that will never end.

 God’s other goal is that you witness to Him in this life. “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” said the disciples with awe after Jesus silenced the storm by commanding it, “Peace! Be still!” “Who is this Jesus?” is a question that many ask to this day. We who know Him can tell them. By the storms that threaten us in our lives, we are often given the opportunity to tell.

 Sudden storms on the Sea of Galilee, such as the one that threatened Jesus and His disciples, were nothing new. For, surrounding the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a large lake, are high hills which form a deep trough in which the lake sits. The hills constrict and funnel weather systems, so that the lake is subject to sudden tempests which at times develop terrific and furious winds as they roar down the hills. Storms can quickly appear, and just as quickly disappear. Because of this some might have said that the disciples were saved, not by a miraculous intervention, but because the storm naturally dissipated. Christ’s disciples, however, could proclaim something else. They could now point people to Jesus as their God and Savior among them.

 We are to do the same today. Most times in our day we are directed to natural causes and scientific explanations for events that might seem miraculous. We know that, even when there is a rational explanation for events, God is the Creator who stands behind them. God is not simply a Creator who made everything and then stepped aside to let the world run itself. He remains involved, a Creator who governs this world out of concern for His children. We must never doubt this, no matter how things appear and what storms arise. In Jesus we see that God is with us, and in Jesus’ death for us we see that God loves us eternally.

 This is what our Creator would above all else have us keep in our minds and hearts, and proclaim to others: Jesus is with us. While being tossed by the storms of life He may seem to be asleep, but do not fear. He is with you in the midst of every storm, so you are safe. He will arise as your Savior, and you will be blessed forever!