Who Is Jesus? · Day 3 of 7
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Today's reading
And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
It had been a long day. Jesus had been teaching crowds from a boat on the shore, parable after parable, until the sun was low. Then he said to his disciples, "Let us pass over unto the other side" (Mark 4:35), and they set out across the Sea of Galilee. Mark tells us, with the kind of detail that only an eyewitness remembers, that they took him "even as he was", tired, still in his teaching clothes, no preparation for a voyage. And then the storm came.
The Sea of Galilee sits in a basin surrounded by hills, and storms can descend on it with terrifying speed. Several of these disciples were fishermen who had worked these waters their whole lives, they were not men who panicked easily. But Mark tells us the waves were breaking into the boat, and the boat was filling. Meanwhile, Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. They woke him with a question that still echoes across centuries of human suffering: "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38). Have you ever prayed something very close to that?
What happened next is one of the most quietly breathtaking moments in all of Scripture. Jesus "arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). He did not pray for the storm to stop. He did not ask the Father on the disciples' behalf. He spoke directly to the wind and the water as one who holds authority over them, because he does. The disciples, who had been afraid of the storm, found themselves now afraid of him, asking one another, "What manner of man is this?" That is exactly the question Mark wants us to be asking.
But do not rush past the pillow. Jesus was genuinely, humanly exhausted. He knows what it is to be worn out, to be in the boat when the waves are high, to be surrounded by frightened people. He is not a distant deity unmoved by the storms of human life. He is in the boat with you. And he has authority over whatever is threatening to swamp you today. The same voice that said "Peace, be still" to the Sea of Galilee is the voice that can speak into the chaos of your circumstances right now.
Pause & reflect
The disciples had just spent the day hearing Jesus teach with extraordinary wisdom and authority, yet when the storm came they doubted whether he cared, why do you think a crisis can so quickly make us forget what we already know about God?
"Master, carest thou not that we perish?", have you ever prayed something like this? What does it tell you about God's patience and character that Jesus did not rebuke them for asking it?
What is the storm in your life right now, the thing filling your boat with anxiety or fear, and what would it look like, in a concrete and practical way, to speak to Jesus about it today rather than just worrying about it?
A prayer for today
Lord Jesus, you are the one who speaks and the wind and sea obey, and yet you also know what it is to be weary and in the middle of the storm. I confess that I have sometimes wondered whether you care. Speak your peace into the chaos I am carrying today, and increase my faith to trust you even before the waters grow calm.