Jesus
said “Road
trip”;
except back then that meant getting into a boat and crossing over to the other side. The disciples didn’t know why. Didn’t ask.
They were faithfully, dutifully just doing what Jesus asked. Then, like an episode from that psychic
show back in the early 2000’s called Crossing over with John Edwards where people
talked to the dead, things got weird.
It’s quite placid at the end
of the day on the lake. Jesus takes
advantage of the opportunity and falls asleep on a pillow in the stern and – spoiler alert! – this is when the disciples discover that they
are more or less on their own in the middle of a big lake with a Jesus who’s checked out. And wouldn’t you know it – wouldn’t you know it – it’s right then that a great windstorm comes up
causing monstrous waves to break over into the boat and it begins to fill.
Though
it’s
the wind at play here, it’s not the Holy Spirit. The way Mark tells the story we are supposed
to think that Creation, or at least the chaotic unknown elements of Creation,
the wind and the sea, have personally decided to come after the disciples with
the intent to destroy them. The wind and
the sea and storms often showed up back then in a particular genre of writing
known as apocalyptic of which the Book of Revelation is one. They represent the unknown and its
destructive powers sort of like what we mean when saying things come flying at
us out of left field. What will the
disciples do in this massively overwhelmed with fear moment? What can they do? – and Jesus is sleeping.
Now,
I said Mark is telling the story here in such a way as to make it sound like
the wind and the sea are coming after them, like the Creation itself has got it
in for them. I say that because Mark
says that when Jesus finally did do something he rebuked the wind. He did not just command it. He rebuked it, scolded it as we would someone
who has done something terribly shameful.
Now, we’ve all had days where it seems the world is out
to get us. But this is a bit
different. Here it seems the creation is
out to get the fledgling church. The
same creation that Paul says in Romans 8 is groaning in labour pains and
eagerly waiting the day when the children of God will be revealed and it will
be set free from the futility of death.
We see here just how deep sin, our sin, affects the whole universe. Sin affects everything to the extent that the
creation itself would try to destroy the children of God who signal its
liberation from the futility of decay to which it has been subjected because of
sin, our sin.
Moving
on, the disciples believe they are going to die. They are utterly powerless before these
chaotic, uncontrollable elements of creation.
No technology is going to save them.
They are utterly powerless. They
are perishing. So they go to the
sleeping Jesus with the complaint, “Teacher, we are perishing and you don’t seem to care.”
I
think life gets that way at times.
Things can come out of left field and the next thing we know life is
careening in a half-million different directions and none of them look safe and
we are powerless before it. And then,
where is our Lord in the midst of it…asleep on a pillow? That’s early church code for enthroned way far off
in glory. We, like the Twelve complain, “Jesus, we’re perishing. Don’t you care?” I think
that is a legitimate complaint.
Well,
as a matter of fact he does care and this is what he does and I have to warn
you that the next couple of verses (actually the whole vignette) are full of
code words and phrases that the early church used to describe its situation and
its beliefs. Jesus comes wide-awake,
rebukes the wind, and calms the sea and it is a great calm not a ripple on the
water.
“Great calm” is early church code referring us to the day
Jesus finally returns and puts things to right and also to the fact that he
does now for us in his time and in his way put things right in our lives in a
way that gives us a new start when things otherwise seem to have ended, a way
that causes or learns us to lean on him in faith, a way that creates in us a
deeper trust in him and his steadfast love and faithfulness.
Then
he turns to the disciples saying not, “Why are you so afraid?” But rather, “Why are you so cowardly? Do you not yet have faith?” Cowardly, Jesus calls them cowardly. The Greek word there isn't the word for
afraid. It is the word for cowardly, deilos. A word was used in the early church for
Christians who renounced faith in Jesus Christ in order to escape persecution,
for turning away from Jesus in the midst of those struggles that test our
faith, for turning away from Jesus rather than going to him when he seems so
obviously asleep on the pillow. I think
what Jesus was expecting from them was their standing firm in the face of the
storm because they knew Jesus was in the boat with them; indeed, high
expectations for so early in their relationship. They did the next best thing and confronted
the sleeping Jesus, something I'm quite prone to do.
After
this rebuke to disciples Mark says that the disciples were filled with great
fear or as the Greek says afraid with great fearful awe. Fearful awe is also early church code for
worship, worship that arises when we find ourselves utterly depending on Jesus
for life come what may. Before they were
looking at the storm but after seeing Jesus and experiencing the calm they
worship. This experience taught them to
worship in the face of fear.
True
worship arises in us when in the midst of the storms we realize that Jesus
really is with us and our lives really are in his caring hands. The hymn How Great Thou Art attempts
to capture this fearful awe. That
worship is the stilled waters of what once were howling winds and a raging sea.
Worship
begins with this question the disciples asked, “Who then is this that the wind and the sea obey
him?” Who is this Jesus who can take the most
messed up of circumstances and turn them to good for us. Who is this Jesus? The point to this road trip that Jesus took
his disciples out on a stormy sea to learn is that Jesus is himself God. The Jesus we meet by the working of the Holy
Spirit is God and as I like to say there is no other God hidden behind Jesus who
is other than Jesus in the way he is towards us, steadfastly loving and
faithful. God may have to tell us we’re being cowardly at times
but even that is meant to move us to worship, to calm, to peace, to restful
assurance of the loving care with which God regards us, as we are his beloved
children. So, friends, stand firm. Whatever may come Jesus is still in the
boat. Life quite often feels like all
Hell is breaking loose around us and Jesus, if he’s there, he must be asleep on a pillow
somewhere in the back of the boat. But
he’s
still in the boat and he is God and he absolutely will not let anything
separate us from the great love he has for us.
Stand firm and remember who he is and stand waiting in fearful awe for
what he is going to do for you in his great love for you.
