Mark 4:35-41: We Stand in Awe of You

Presented to Tisdale Corps on March 30, 2008
and Nipawin Corps on April 6, 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay

When we were in College back in Winnipeg, on Friday nights I used to help out with the street outreach at the Weetamah corps. We would walk around the streets at night to see who we could offer a warm meal, a hot chocolate or a place to stay down at the shelter (the Booth Centre) for the night. We then tell them about Jesus.

Now these nights usually go quite late -until 1 or 2 in the morning sometimes – and so at the end of a long week at the college, I am just exhausted and really quite look forward to my one day of sleeping in – Saturday morning.

Well this one Saturday about 6am or so – four or less hours after I crawl into bed – Rebecca (who was then only 4) and Sarah-Grace (who was 3 at the time) come bounding into our bedroom.

“Daddy, what’s a trout?” Rebecca, as a four year-old, asks me as she and her sister climb on my bed. “What’s a trout?”

(aside: You know what it is like when you try to respond to someone but you really don’t want to wake up – that is what it is like)

“What’s a trout?”
“A fish, why do you ask”
“A fish?”
“Yes a fish”
“Oh”
“Like Nemo…”
“Short of, I think Nemo is a Clown fish”
“Oh.”
“Daddy,” asks Sarah-Grace, who has been standing there the whole time, “what’s a trout?”
“A fish”
“Like Nemo”
“No”
“Daddy”
“Yes, Sarah-Grace”
“What’s a trout?”
“A chipmunk. A Chipmunk!” I snap back with all the composure of one who has not had enough sleep.

The girls run out of the room laughing, none the worse for wear. I put my pillow over my head and just try to get back to sleep wondering just what that was all about and why I was woken up for a question that no one seemed to want the answer to anyway.

At this point, in comes Susan. Slowly and today with the calm demeanour of the caring mother and wife. I know I have spoken a little harshly to my daughters, so I listen intently as she lifts the pillow from my head and gently asks me, “Michael, What’s a trout?”

Looking back at the story of Jesus calming the storm recorded in Mark 4:35-41, I imagine that it must have been about the same feeling for Jesus as he was awakened from his sleep. The disciples are waking up Jesus with a simple request for him but they (unlike my daughters) are panicked. The storm had come up. They wake Jesus and ask –verse 38 – “Teacher, don't you care if we drown?”

How could they ask that? Really. Not only because they should know he does care but also because this is later in the same day as he has healed a man with leprosy (Matthew 8:1-3), taught about the Kingdom of Heaven and even told and explained many parables directly to his disciples.[1] He has just finished also, as Matthew 8 tells us, healing the Centurion’s servant, healing Peter’s mother-in-law and healing many others.

Here’s the thing. The disciples believe he can save them – or they would not have asked –verse 38 - "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" What they don’t know, however, is how or even if he wants to – as verse 41 makes clear in their astonishment in the fact that even the waves obey Him. The disciples don’t know how or even believe that Jesus will save them. They are panicked. Jesus notes, Verse 40, that the disciples don’t have faith[2]. They don’t have faith.

Today, do we have faith? Real faith? Not just a belief that Jesus can do things but a faith that Jesus will do what is best for us viz. a viz. His Kingdom. In our world today, we are faced with many storms as indeed other boats on that same see with the disciples that day faced that same storm: People nowadays face debt, families face deep personal divides and struggles, divorce, adultery, custody fights; we face all kinds of things.[3] Sometimes we face new experiences that aren’t unexpected. Sometimes we are totally surprised. We know that God can save us. Sometimes, isn’t it true though that we don’t have faith that He will save us? Sometimes we do seem to treat God as if he can’t; Jesus, as if he is sleeping and in need of a good waking up before he even bother to help us, if he can.

Sometimes do we feel like he doesn’t know that the storm we are in is really serious? Sometimes does it seem that He won’t care if we drown in our struggles? Sometimes, in our personal struggles, do we try to wake him with – like it says in verse 38, “don't you care if we drown?” Sometimes, do we in a panic, barge in on the Lord. -“God please do something quick. I’m going to be fired or my marriage is falling apart or my family hates me or I don’t have any money to pay the bills: Do something…if you care…if you can!

There was a time in my life when I was certainly tempted to try to wake the Lord in this way. I owned many businesses before I became an Officer in The Salvation Army. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun but in the early days, there were times that I really did not know if we would make it. Money was tight. Sometimes I didn’t know if we would be able to keep my promises to my staff and my customers. Sometimes I would send my salespeople out as more like bill collectors and if they didn’t come back with the funds we needed I would not speak kindly to them and then tell them to go home for the day. And then when I am alone, my fervent attempts to wake up God could begin… ‘Help, I’m drowning,” I would cry. Save me…if you care…if you can!

Now I should make it clear that neither I nor the text here is saying that we shouldn’t go to the Lord when we are in this trouble. It is saying that we should go to the Lord but that we should go to the Lord in faith believing that He actually can and will save us. Mark spends a lot of time talking about the interaction between God’s miracles and our faith. When we approach the Lord we must do so in faith. We must believe in and trust the Lord. In our requests and storms we must, like James 1:6-7 says, believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That [person] should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. We must go to the Lord with faith.[4]

Jesus did save the disciples from the storm, it says (Aside voice:) This is significant, as Williamson notes: "in the original text, Jesus speaks only two words at this point..."Be quiet! Be still. The simplicity and brevity of his command express the assurance of one who is in control."[5] Just as Jesus has always saved me from my crises (aside voice:) though not always the way that I think He will, He will always come through and always continue to save us.

A prime example of this sort of thing is the story of another person caught in a boat in a storm in the Bible – Jonah[6]. You remember the story of Jonah. Jonah has faith. Jonah knows what God wants him to do and Jonah knows that God will do what He says. The only problem is that Jonah doesn’t want Him to. You see, God told Jonah to preach to the people in Nivevah so that they will not be destroyed BUT Jonah wants them to be destroyed. Jonah doesn’t like the Ninivites: they are the paramount superpower of his day and they will eventually destroy his homeland. But in this, he has faith. When the storm comes up, He knows God will calm the storm. He has so much faith that he EVEN suggests that the crew, in this storm, throw him overboard and they do…and of course Jonah and everyone else survives. Jonah grumbled a lot precisely because he does have faith. He knew God would calm the storm. It is very likely that the author here, Mark, has this in mind when he is retelling the story of how Jesus calms the storm.[7]

The disciples, like Jonah, can and should have this same faith in God because, ultimately, somehow, whether we understand it or not, God’s will will be done. He can save us and He does want what’s best for us in His kingdom.

Here, the disciples do eventually realize that, praise the Lord. They are terrified (!) as verse 41 says. The Greek nuances of this word, ‘terrified’, actually refer to a “reverent awe.”[8] They are in awe of Him. They are in complete terrible awe of Jesus – and this is good.

Notice this: Jesus is right in the storm with the disciples. They are not alone. They know, from what that have seen already that He can save them and now as they see Him do it they are in a full “reverent awe.” They can have faith in Jesus as they face life’s storms. They don’t need to panic. They can be calm because Jesus has calmed the storm and because Jesus can calm any storm.

And Jesus can still calm any storm; so today we can still have faith as we face life’s storms. I know some of us here are going through some particularly serious family problems: Jesus is God. God is in control. And unlike when my kids wake me up with the same question over and over again, (slow down and emphasize:) God can always be patient and forgiving. WAVES MAGAZINE, one particularly stressful business I owned, always went to print. I never lost my house or office or anything except maybe my self-composure over it. My staff, in this business AND my other businesses always got their paycheques and more. The Lord provides even and especially where we cannot. We can have faith. And as with the disciples and just like with Jonah, where God saved him and the Ninivites, it is not always as we anticipate that He will but we can have faith.

We don’t need to panic: He has provided. He is providing. I have faith. I am in reverent awe (M.C.). We don’t need to panic; somehow, someway, our storms too will all be calmed. We can stand in awe and have faith in Jesus.

You know that you can have that peace, that reverent awe as well. When the waves of life’s storms are crashing over our bow, we don’t need to panic. When we approach the Lord, we can stand in awe of Him and have faith that he will save us.

I know that many of us in this room are going through some significant struggles with family and friends, marriage breakdowns and custody struggles. The storms at times seem overwhelming but Jesus can calm the storms. Any who are caught in the midst of the storms right now, I encourage you to come up to the mercy seat and pray in faith.

Amen.

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[1]The parable of the Sower, the lamp under a bushel, and the parable of the growing seed (Mark 4:1-20, 21-25, 26-35) He explained all these in private to the twelve.
[2] (cf. 7:18; 8:17-18, 21, 32-33; 9:19 for other similar rebukes)
[3] CBC News. “1 in 5 Canadians don't plan to retire: StatsCan” n.p. [cited 05 06 06] On-line: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/27/womenretirement060327.html employment opportunities change or diminish as indeed do people’s savings gambled away on the stock exchange
[4] Like is recorded in James 1:6-8: when [one] asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That [person] should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”
[5] Lamar Williamson Jr., Mark. (Interpretation: Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1983), 101
[6] Jonah is a prophet in ancient Israel around 740 –750 BC during the time that Assyria is the area’s superpower. God tells Jonah to preach salvation to the people living in their capital city, Nineveh. Jonah does not want to do this. He knows that the Ninevites will repent and be saved. He doesn’t want him to – he doesn’t like the Ninivites, after all they are the paramount superpower of his day and committing all the violent acts that superpowers tend to commit in foreign lands - and shortly after their salvation, in 722, God will actually use them to destroy Israel, the northern kingdom. But Jonah has faith that the Ninevites will be saved - he never doubts - he just doesn’t want any part of it, so he boards a ship and runs away in the opposite direction.
[7] Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1-8:26. (WBC 34A: Dallas Texas: Word Books, 1989), 266
[8] Ibid.