One miracle of Jesus of Nazareth, which is often referred to, while explaining His humanity and Divinity is the miracle of Jesus calming the sea, narrated in Mark 4: 35-41. William Barclay in his commentary called this miracle as ‘The peace of Presence’.
This miracle is different from the miracle of Jesus walking on the water to reach them, when the disciples were caught in a storm while crossing the sea (Mark6;45-52).
Both storms occurred at night; both instances of the disciples sailing in a boat to cross the sea happened on the instruction of Jesus; and on both occasions, Jesus calmed the sea. Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat in this parable when the storm caused the flooding of the boat. Let me share five thoughts for our meditation.
1.Call for crossing over
2.The boat journey
3.Disciples in turbulence
4.Jesus calmed the sea
5.Timidity and sense of wonder
1.Call for crossing over
‘Let us go to the other side’ (v35). It was the evening time and the end of day’s ‘work’. The invitation of Jesus came at a time when the disciples were getting ready to retire for the dfay. Sailing across the Galilean lake at night did involve some risks as sudden wind and storm at night were common in this sea.
What could be the larger meaning of, ‘crossing to the other side’! It could be reconciling with a friend from whom we feel estranged. It might be moving from a workaholic orientation to a restful way of working. For some of us it might be crossing over from being snappy and abrupt with our colleagues at work or in the family to an appreciative and thoughtful relational style. The crossing over might be from a casual orientation at work to a diligent level for some others. For some others it might mean crossing over from disorderly lifestyle to a structured rhythm. Whatever it might be, the invitation of Jesus does suggest a movement from the current state to another experience. It is easier to stay positioned where we are in any domain of our living as we are used to them and no further effort is needed apart from what we are used to. Also, any prosect of change from ‘where we are’ does create stress, anxiety and unsettlement. I hope I guess rightly when I say this. It was no exemption for the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.
I am reminded of the story of prophet Elijah, which we read in I kings 19. Elijah was through an intense phase in his life. This passage is immediately after Elijah stood up to the prophets of Baal in the mount Carmel, whom Elijah challenged. The prophets of Baal were given an opportunity to demonstrate the power of Baal by praying for fire to come down to consume the offering. When that did not happen, Elijah witnessed the fire coming down in response to his prayer upon his offering and consuming it. The altar built for Baal and prophets of Baal were destroyed following this, which was an extra-ordinary situation of witnessing God’s power at work. After this was over, Elijah felt threatened by Jezebel who was looking to destroy him. Exhausted and distressed, Elijah walked and came to Bersheba, where he left his companions and went further. He rested under a juniper tree and prayed, ‘It is enough Lord, take my life; I am not better than my fathers’(v4). While asleep, an angel of the Lord woke him and said, ‘arise and eat’. There was bread on a hot plate and a jar of water beside him. He ate and went back to sleep, only to woken up a second time by the angel, who wanted him to eat and drink as he had a journey ahead for forty days and forty nights. It was at the end of that journey when he reached Horeb, he heard the voice of God in the gentle breeze while he waited on the mouth of a cave(v 13). Elijah felt revived and felt called to find Elisha his successor as the prophet (v 19). This account is a moving narration of how prophet Elijah was guided to go to the ‘other side’ of his depression or despair and discover his mission as a prophet.
All of us have a journey to the ‘other side’ if we are honest with ourselves. I was unnecessarily critical of my colleague yesterday for a minor slip. It was later I realized that I need to be taken away from this habit to having a more tolerant and considerate attitude towards my colleagues.
All of us are pilgrims in the journey of faith. Some of us end up as settlers and others as sojourners. In the long run, the settlers continue their way of living without being open to face the challenge of change for personal renewal. While the sojourners are those who keep looking beyond the present state of their way of living and long for being carried across the circumstances of life to find a closer walk with God. They look for opportunities on behalf of others to bring some good in a difficult or precarious situation in to their lives.
I recall how Dr Howard Searle, a surgeon working at Achalpur Mission Hospital in Maharashtra, in the late nineteensixties, disturbed by the threatening situation of the Mission Hospitals closing down, with the ex-patriate health professionals not given extension of visa, visited some mission hospitals to look into the prospect of formation of a federation of hospitals to bring the mission hospitals under an Indian leadership. Dr Ray Windsor, international director of BMMF, stationed at New Delhi was another partner in this mission. I was a medical student at Medical College Nagpur. I remember hearing from Dr Searle, the stories of preparation for this major directional change for mission hospitals, owned by different mission bodies located overseas. It was his habit to visit me at the college, while on his way to New Delhi to meet with Dr Windsor. They both were keen to help the mission hospitals to cross over to a safer position to continue their service in the rural areas in India. It was this which led to the formation of the Emmanuel Hospital Association fifty one years ago. It was their passion which made this happen because of which about forty hospitals or projects are still active in rural India to meet the needs of many disadvantaged people.
Where are those who want to go over to the other side! God is looking for people who would desire to be taken to the other side!
2. The Boat Journey
The boat journey was at the behest of Jesus. Other boats too joined this journey to cross over to the other side(v36).
The water carries the boat; the wind moves the boat and the rowing directs the boat. That was how it was for a while till all of these changed. The water became turbulent; the wind became a gail, the rowing did not steady the boat and water entered the boat. Jesus was asleep in the stern. That is the contrast- the disciples were feeling overwhelmed and fearful and Jesus was asleep.
The disciples who were former fishermen, I suppose had some confidence in their ability to steady the boat. They knew all about boating and it was but natural for them to trust the boat and their boating skills. Is it that, they could have in that struggling hours of the night, forgotten as to who was with them in their boat at whose suggestion, they set out sailing! Was he not the Lord whom they watched perform miracles, heal who were sick and engaged the masses of people who were following Him with authority and clarity! Did they lose sight of the power of God to save them!
God’s ways for us is like what happened to prophet Elijah (I Kings 17:1-16). Only when the brook dried up and the raven did not bring bread, that the prophet was guided to go the woman at Zarephath(v 9). God’s intervention is often after we have exhausted our efforts to find our direction and move beyond the difficulty.
It is a paradox that the disciples who hearing Jesus call them, ‘Come and follow me’ set out following Him, trusting Him to lead them in the journey of life, suddenly came to a cross road ‘fearing’ for their lives, while they were caught in a storm. The storms in our lives can have a disarming effect of displacing us from our anchor of hope and faith. I remember how a professor of outstanding calibre left his position from a prestigious medical college to go overseas, because he felt compelled to raise enough money to get his two daughters married. Although his colleagues reminded him to God for his need, he did leave. Both his daughters got married without him having to bear much expense. Recalling this experience, he mentioned to a colleague in his former college that ‘he felt restless and unhappy ever since he left the college to go overseas. I was carried away by the desire to be financially secure’!
There are times when we might shift our attention and focus from God to securing our security by departing from our mission and faith perspective. I wonder whether the disciples too were in such a trap!
Let us remember that, Jesus on calling the disciples to cross over to the other side, did not describe the events that were to follow. Jesus being asleep was an evidence that the disciples were ‘safe’ and the storm had a purpose beyond what they could foresee. I wonder whether what cannot be seen or fathomed sometimes obliterate our faith perspective and make us rush to seek for our rescue measures!
3. Disciples in a turbulence
‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing’! (v 38). It seems to be a language of entitlement, despair and expectation. The external storm had created an inner storm within of fear, doubt, anxiety and a sense of loss. It is almost shocking to think that the disciples could ever sink so low so as to think of perishing!
I am reminded of how Ruth of the Old Testament in a trying circumstance of multiple losses resolved to stay steadfast in hope! It was a storm to say the least (Ruth Ch.1) She lost her husband and father-in-law Elimelech. Her sister-in-law Orpah decided to return to her household, when Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law gave her that option. Naomi insisted that Ruth too returned to her household as Naomi had decided to return from Moab to Bethlehem, from where she came. The conversation that took place between Ruth and Naomi is a testimony to the way how Ruth faced the storm in her life. Her response to Naomi when she insisted that Ruth too go back to her household like Orpah, was: ‘Do not urge me to turn back. Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people; your God my God; wherever you die, I will die and there I will be buried. Let nothing but death separate me and you’ (Ruth1: 16-18). We find Ruth firm in faith in God and affirming of her allegiance to her mother-in-law. She resolved to face the circumstances of her life in the company of Naomi, an unusual choice. In her words, there was quiet confidence about the future. Instead of thoughts of perishing, Ruth had entertained thoughts of wellness for her and her mother-in-law. There was no spirit or expression of anxiety, questioning or blaming. Ruth turned her turbulence into trustful composure.
The message which Annie Johnson Flint (1866-1932) conveyed in her oft remembered poem is the same spirit of confidence in the ever giving and caring God.
‘He giveth more grace, when burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when labours increase
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy
To multiplied trials, his multiplied peace.
His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men
For out of HIs infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.
When we have exhausted our store of endurance
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.’
No turbulence is too much for our Lord to have it brought under His control. It is this message which we receive from the prophet Isiah: ’Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save, neither is His ear so dull that it cannot hear’ (Isa 59:17).
4. Jesus Stilled the storm
When Jesus was aroused from His sleep, Jesus spoke to the sea (v.39), ‘Hush, be still’ (v39). The wind died down and the sea became calm. William Barclay, in his commentary referred to this miracle as: ‘The Peace of the Presence’. When the disciples sensed the presence of Jesus in full consciousness, they were surprised to watch the sea becoming calm. The storm was an external event and the turbulence was an internal event.
I remember an occasion when a child of seven years having suffered the loss of his father in an accident would not sleep for several weeks. His father was taken away from in an ambulance and his body was brought home in an ambulance after three weeks of hospital stay. He could not reconcile with his father’s home call. He developed difficulty to sleep. At the sight of an ambulance anywhere he would burst into crying. Even if he slept, he would get up screaming and frightened. It took a while for the mother to realize that it was a somatisation of his grief. He needed time and help to express his grief verbally. He received psychological counselling for six months to get him ready to return to his school and be ready for connecting with his friends. When this finally happened, he turned to be caring in nature different from his earlier disposition. He would be the first one to enquire about his classmates who were sick. He reached out to them by sending notes of the lecture in the class and keeping in touch with them till they returned to the class. His mother talking about this change in him, mentioned that his father had a similar temperament of caring and helping others by going out of his way. God can bring healing and peace, if we can find meaning for our experience beyond the pain we suffer. While talking with the child a few times during this painful experience he told me, that he missed his father and would find other friends who too had a similar experience. He read and narrated Psalm 23 to himself twice in a day. He helped his mother to gather all the photographs of his father and make an album. He encouraged his mother to bring two children home from the close by children’s home on some weekends.
When we have been through healing or reconciliation of our turbulence, we would experience a spirit of consolation which becomes a resource of strength for others when they go through the valley experience of some sort.
The miracle might have an instantaneous impact of change or the impact can evolve over a period of time. What is important is to believe that God at whose invitation, ‘come and follow me’ we set out in this pilgrim journey is our companion in the different phases of life.
5. Timidity and sense of wonder
‘Why are you so timid! Whys is that you have no faith! They became very much afraid and said to one another: who then is this that even the wind and sea obey Him’ (v 40, 41). Timidity is apprehension, shyness, lack of confidence and determination. And sense of wonder is surprise, admiration and high regard.
I have a suggestion that timidity and sense of wonder are concurrent experiences when we encounter God’s visitation in our lives. Who are we to have God visit us, would be the first thought, followed by a sense of acceptance and gladness within!
The visit of the angel of the Lord to Mary in Luke1.30 began with a salutation and announcement, ‘Do not be afraid, you have found favour with God’. A visitation from God creates some apprehension and suspense, making most of us feel unsettled, more so if it happened in a surprising manner. At the end of the announcement of the angel that, ‘ ..you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus’(v 31), Mary’s response was, ‘ Behold, the bond slave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word’(v38). God chooses and blesses those who feel least deserving for such a privilege. When God announced to Moses that He will send him to Pharaoh to lead people out of Egypt, Moses’s response was, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring children of Israel from Egypt’(Exod.3:10,11). Prior to this, Moses had watched a bush in fire, but not consumed by the fire at which Moses had said: ‘I must turn aside now and see this marvellous sight of bush not burned up (v.3). I suppose that certain level of timidity and sense of wonder would be normal response when something spectacular happens with God’s intervention in our lives. God chooses those whose adequacy is of God and stays with a sense of wonder at what He is doing!
A F Bruce in his book, The Training of the Twelve, while describing the Galilean crisis in the section on the storm, mentioned that this miracle revealed the humanity of Jesus, in that He was asleep in the boat, obviously tired and catching up with rest. His divinity was evident when He calmed the storm and rescued the disciples. This happened at night at an unexpected time, when the disciples felt fearful. For Jesus it was the ‘forerunner’ of the storms He would face in life. It was a lesson for the disciples to become familiar with what they too had to face when Jesus would be dragged to the cross. ‘Storms may happen at all hours of the day, but trials of faith always happen at the night. Were there no darkness there could be no trial… Worst of all, in these trials of faith, with all our rowing, we make no progress; the utmost we can effect is to hold our own, to keep off the rocky shore in the midst of the sea’ (Page 131).
God is our keeper and companion.
M.C.Mathew (text)
Images from the internet. Gratefully acknowledged.
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