Sermon – 5th Sunday after Pentecost – "When The Waves Come Over Your Head" – Mark 4:35-41
July 23rd, 2006Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
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A. The Stormy Sea “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat.” The disciples had undoubtedly had enough for one day. But Jesus wanted to get to the other side. As if He knew He needed to be on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As if He knew that there was a demon possessed man who needed His help.
He’s the Rabbi. They’re the disciples. He says, “let’s go to the other side.” And they say, “Hop in, we’ll row.” And besides, every experienced sailor knows that evenings are the calmest time to sail.
“And a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.” Maybe it wasn’t the storm of the century, but when the waves start breaking into YOUR boat, it might as well be. When the waves are breaking into YOUR boat, it really doesn’t matter that there have been worse storms on record. I never have understood why people think its comforting when they tell someone whose faced with a crisis, “well, it could be worse.” I think that’s our way of saying, “that’s a real shame buddy, but I have no intention of getting in YOUR boat and helping you bail.”
It’s perfectly fair to allegorize this text – because the Scriptures do. When David is delivered from the hand of Saul, he prays, “for the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction terrified me.” (2 Samuel 22:5). You may not have ever been in a sinking ship but you know what it means to have the waves come crashing over you.
B. Awaking God. “But He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Whenever the ancient pagans faced a crisis, they always figured it was because the gods were sleeping. The gods are in control of the natural elements but when they took a nap, nature got out of control. Kind of like a two year old when you’re not watching. Nothing good happens. So an awful lot of pagan religion was all about – how do you wake a sleeping god? You do a rain dance to wake the rain god and a war dance to wake the war god, engage a prostitute to wake the god of fertility. The louder and more outlandish, the more chance of waking the gods.
We have our own ways of trying to get a sleeping God to respond. Prayer is good but prayer chains are better because surely God responds to the polls. Like governors and presidents, get enough people asking for the same thing and holding the same placards and that’ll get His attention.
Individually, we try to rouse God to action by provoking His pride. We question His ability to be the God we’ve created Him to be. “Don’t you care that I’m unhappy?” “Don’t you care that I’m unsuccessful?” Don’t you care that I’m being treated unfairly? Don’t you care that I’m in pain.” This is all meant to rouse a sleeping God to rise up and defend His honor, prove Himself to us and be rewarded with our thanks and praise.
And if that doesn’t get the action we’re looking for, we can take our cue from the disciples and go right for the bottom line. Right to where He Himself promises to come through. “Don’t you care that we’re perishing.”
And this God loves to be provoked by us in this way. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Psalm 50:15).
C. Jesus Calms The Sea We know what happens next. Jesus sits up, rubs his eyes, surveys the situation and says, “Peace, be still.” Like you’d tell a do to sit and quit barking. “And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”
So the Psalmist was praying to Jesus when he prayed, “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” (Ps.89:9). He was talking about Jesus when he said, “He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” (Ps.107:29).
D. Their Faith Questioned “He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves for misbehaving. And then He rebukes His disciples for mistrusting. And before we go wagging our finger at them and saying, “oh, how could you?” Let us be reminded that these same waves are breaking into OUR boat as well. How often have we accused the Lord of sleeping and not caring if we perish?
“Oh, how could we?” We who have seen how much He cares by what He refuses to command. Even as the waves of divine judgment for our sin come crashing over His head and even while He is drown in the sea of our sin – He refuses to say “Peace, be still.” For He must perish that we may not. He must be the Jonah thrown into the storm sea that we would not perish. He must sleep and for three days, that we would not be swept away by the storm of God’s wrath.
“Don’t you care if we perish?” And here is God’s final answer. “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish…” (John 3:16). “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
E. The Disciples Terrified And now the sea is calm but an even more fearful storm breaks over the hearts and minds of these experienced sailors.
It was the psychologist Sigmund Freud who said that man invented God to help explain the unexplainable. When things move beyond our control happen, Freud said, we need some way to account for the unaccountable and so we invent God. The unexplainable and the unaccountable are too scary for us to deal with and so we invent God for our comfort and sense of security.
So let’s test Freud’s theory. These experienced sailors are up against a raging sea that is beyond their control. And Jesus says, “Peace, be still” and the seas obey and there is a great calm. And the disciples rightly conclude that they are in the boat with God. How do they react? We read, “And they were filled with GREAT FEAR!” meg fobos is the way it reads. They’re more afraid now than they were during the storm. The terror of the raging sea was nothing compared to the terror they now felt. “And they said to one another, who then is this that even wind and sea obey him?”
God the Lord of all the universe, maker of heaven and earth was in THEIR boat. And they realized it. And we might think that this would be just what these men were hoping for. Their troubles were over, their fears were gone. God was with them and everything would be okay. Break out the champagne. Let’s party. But instead, they’re filled with GREAT FEAR.
What’s going on here? No need to psychoanalyze these men. We may simply listen to the diagnosis that Jesus pronounces. “Have you still no faith?” “Do you still wonder if I care about you?“ “Do you still think that I would let you perish?” “Here, let me show you how much I care about you and how capable I am to preserve your life.” And He shows them their “no faith” with a demonstration of His power to take care of them. That is, He works on their “no faith” that they would have “no doubt.” He does just what they ask Him to do. And for some reason, this terrifies the disciples. Why?
Because they never really believed He really could. Because they never really believed He really would. Oh, they believed that everything He said was good. And they believed that everything He taught was right. They may have even enjoyed His sermons and liked His illustrations.
But they never really believed that He intended to get into THEIR boat and actually do it to them. And when He did, it terrified them because they realized that this Jesus is who He says He is. That in Him, all the deity of the Godhead dwells in bodily form and that the deity incarnate had gotten right into THEIR boat to do His deity to THEM.
Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and was using that authority to save them. And He was willing to let them sail right into a storm to prove it – that their “no faith” might become a “living faith” and a “great faith.”
It is much safer and less threatening to keep God at a distance. We can go through all the motions – come to church, read our bible, memorize our favorite verses, yet never believe He intends to actually do His deity to US. It’s a nice idea that that Jesus forgives sin. It’s at least a bit scary when Jesus speaks to us saying, “I forgive YOU all YOUR sins.” It’s not very threatening to hear it said that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. But it shouldn’t be too surprising if we were to fall to our knees in fear when we hear Him say, “take and drink. This is my blood shed for YOU.” But that is just what He has done.
Through Holy Baptism, God has gotten into YOUR boat, into YOUR life, into YOUR body – because He cares for you and because He intends to save you from perishing. As the waves of baptism washed over your head, you drown in that sea. And no, God was not sleeping. He was active and at work through the water – drowning you into the death of Christ and raising you up from the dead even as Christ was raised that we too may walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4).
This does not mean that no storms will come upon us. They most certainly will. And at times, it will seem to us as if Christ our Lord is asleep doesn’t care if we perish. Were He to ward off every storm before it breaks over us, we would never know that He is trustworthy and true. In fact, we would probably think that our calm and peaceful life was due to our excellent living.
But to walk in “newness of life” is to live by faith. Trusting with heart and mind that the Lord of all has gotten into MY boat; into MY life; into MY flesh. And that all the storms and trouble that this world can bring into MY life – are all subject to His authority and obedient to His command and by these storms He will turn our “no faith” into a “living faith.”
It is in the storm that we learn that He is Lord over all and speaks to the raging sea saying, “Thus far you shall come and no further. Here your proud waves shall halt.” And to our raging fears saying, “Peace. Be still.”
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