24 June 2012
Mark 4:35-41 (Jesus becomes "the man who stills the waters.")
What amazes me most about this gospel story is not that Jesus was able to still the storm. So the wind and the sea obey him—that’s still not the most amazing thing about the story. The most amazing thing to me is that while the little fishing boat was battered by waves and taking on water, Jesus slept in the stern. That is one sound sleeper. He must have been exhausted! And one doesn’t think of Jesus, the Son of God as being capable of being that tired! What’s more, even sound asleep, I can’t imagine Jesus being totally unaware of what was happening around him.
Jesus shows superhuman calm in the face of what drives others out of their minds with worry. “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” said the men in the same boat.
“Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work?” Said Martha of Bethany about her sister, Mary. (In the gospel of Luke. It's the only other time anyone accuses Jesus of apathy.)
“Have you no faith?” (Jesus asked the disciples.)
“You are worried by so many things.” (Jesus said to Martha.)
It’s not that Jesus was Mr. Joe Cool. In fact, sometimes Jesus was angry at things that never seemed to bother anyone else. Like when he closed the market in the temple courtyard. He made a whip of chords and overturned the tables and shouted at people. Nobody else was bothered that the house of prayer had become “a den of thieves.”
Jesus wasn’t always serene. He was serene when others were panicking, and he was angry when others were resigned. Jesus challenges our priorities.
Panic is easy. It is the instinct of prey animals, to run at the sound of rustling in the bushes. Panic arises from the fight or flight response. When we can neither fight nor flee, like in a boat on a stormy sea—we panic, we go mad. We forget who and whose we are. We forget that we belong to God.
Who is this that even the wind and sea obey him? This is your God, whose Spirit is wind, who commands the sea, who heals the sick, who makes the wounded whole, who holds you in the palm of the holy hand.
Do not worry about your life, for God is at your side, on your side.
Do not worry about your life, panic is a waste of energy.
Do not worry about your life, live it. Spend your energy on love and faithfulness.
God who brought us into this world and receives us in the end will be with us always.
“Peace! Be still.” The disciples thought Jesus was talking to the sea, but maybe he was talking to them. Maybe Jesus is speaking to us, “Peace, be still.”
