Life, Faith, Fear                                      Mark 4:35-41

This week we had another mass shooting and loss of life in our country. This can most definitely cause us to wonder about what is going on in this life. It can cause us to doubt and wonder about our faith. And it can certainly cause fear to enter our life.

I go through all of this just like you might and this got me looking through scripture to find scenes that might help me with these feelings. It didn’t take me long to find this story of Jesus, his disciples and a storm. We know this account isn’t just about a boat ride and some bad weather. This is a story about life, about faith and about fear.

Verse 36, “Leaving the crowd behind…” Jesus and his disciples were enveloped by a crowd. Jesus was teaching, talking to the people probably most of the day. As with other crowds he was probably healing their illnesses and deformities. The twelve were probably working in crowd control, talking to people and triaging as it were those who were desperate and needed to get close to Jesus sooner rather than later. So we can see that after an incredibly long and tiring day Jesus asks the disciples to perform another task; take him across the lake.

First point; if you are doing God’s work, if you’re working in Christ’s name, don’t think that it may be one little thing and you’re done. God wants us to work for him all the time. I’m sure the disciples were tired and hungry and yet it doesn’t say they complained; verse 36, “…they took him along, just as he was, in the boat.”

Point two; Jesus asked them to do something and they just did it. It can be hard sometimes for to do the same. I may hear God tell me to intercede with someone and my reaction can be, “This is pointless; I can’t help them until they give up drinking, until they accept Jesus, until they stop being so obnoxious, until any one of a hundred excuses.

Verse 37, “A furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat, so it was nearly swamped.” These men were fishermen. They knew how to read the sky and the wind. They could see a storm on the horizon; prepare the boat and themselves to ride it out. Yet this storm seemed to take them by surprise.

This is life. We may be able to predict certain things in our life by learning from observing others. I know I can’t do all the things I could when I was twenty but I can see what needs doing and prepare for the task even if it means getting someone to help me. I know my roof is getting older; I can plan on having it replaced. But like this storm, things happen that I don’t see coming. Financial problems, health issues and a multitude of other things can cause a storm in our life.

The disciples took Jesus with them, he is physically in that boat and the storm still arises. We have Jesus with us, living in here. I’ve heard some ministers say “you must have done something wrong; God must be punishing you; maybe you really don’t believe enough.” The fact of our existence is that we will have storms in our lives even when we are faithfully following our Lord, they are the result of living in a fallen world.

So what does our scripture say the disciples; these men who made their living on the lake do about the storm? They didn’t change course, didn’t head for the shore. They didn’t lower the sail; it doesn’t say they did anything. My mistake, it does say they did something; Verse 38,  “The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’” What did these men do in the face of the storm; they panicked and they quickly placed the blame on Jesus. They let fear rule the event.

We all can do this. Things seem to get out of our control and we start to fear what is happening, fear we won’t be able to correct the issue. A friend of ours suffered terribly from circulatory problems. He had several surgeries ending with the amputation of his leg. During this time he asked me where is God? He was afraid of his condition, he was afraid of the next operation. Like the disciples he didn’t see a solution to what was happening.

The disciples in that boat are being tossed around, and when they look in the back of the boat there is Jesus fast asleep. Jesus is right there in the same boat, blown around by the same wind, tossed by the same waves; but his response is totally the opposite of theirs.

To the twelve Jesus is asleep at the switch. These men want action; what they see is silence. This scene is revealing to us that the real storm, the real threat is not in the circumstances we find ourselves in. It’s in each of us and how our faith reacts to the storm.

These disciples have seen Jesus do amazing things. They’ve seen him cast out demons, heal Peter’s mother-in-law, cleanse a leper, restore a withered hand. And now when they need their faith they seem to toss it overboard.

Verse 39, “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet, be still.’” In the physical Jesus changed the weather; in the spiritual Jesus is inviting the disciples to change what’s inside, the storm that rocks our faith.

Sounds good so far, trust Jesus and the fear goes away. Verse 40, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples show us that even with Jesus in our lives we can still be pulled under by fear.

So how do we bring these two opposite points, fear and trust together? We start by looking at Gethsemane. Jesus was anguished over his impending crucifixion. He is God; he had no reason to be fearful or unsure. He allowed himself to experience these emotions to show us he understands everything we feel because he felt them too. Hebrews 4: 15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are…”

“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” I don’t think Jesus is reprimanding his disciples so much as he is asking them to look inside themselves, to seek out their faith and understand that no matter what is going on around us or in our lives God is still in control. He is showing us 2000 years later this truth; that when we express the very human part of ourselves, when we question or doubt God, we are not abandoned. Believe in your heart that our Lord Jesus will not walk away from you because you feel the very same things he did.

I want to tell you again that I love going through scriptures, I always seem to see something else. As I was working on this passage I saw something I don’t think I ever noticed before. Verse 36, “There were also other boats with him.”

There were other boats with other people there too.  They must have been at the point of sinking in the storm like the disciples were. The disciples crying to Jesus to save them caused Jesus to calm the storm thereby saving the others as well. I tell you never question the power of your prayers. Never underestimate how your faith in the storm impacts others around you. Pastor Benjamin Hill wrote it this way, “O listen sweet Christian…the world is watching.”

Today we have six sentences about Jesus and his disciples in a boat during a storm, but what these sentences are actually talking about is life and fear and faith.

Matthew 5:45, “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” This shows us that even sinners may be given gifts from God, but we can infer the flip side of this coin, that even those who accept and follow Christ can have difficult and painful times in their lives. We live in a fallen world and hardship is a part of life.

We see that even those who are closest to God can let uncertainty enter their heart when faced with life’s storms. We can all question God’s purpose and his place in our lives. Even trusting Jesus we can live in fear. And when Jesus quiets the storm even as he questions his disciples we can see a savior who understands our fear, a savior who understands everything we go through, a savior who knows and understands every doubt. We can see a savior who doesn’t turn away but who lifts up our faith.

And last, I know we all go through hard times, I am no stranger to them; but know how you live your faith, how you turn to God in those storms demonstrates more to the people around you than any sermon I can come up with.

God bless you

Amen.