Mark 4:35-41 “That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" 41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Have you ever felt like Jesus was asleep in the boat? Have you ever been traveling through a stormy portion of your life and found yourself asking the same question that the disciples asked of the Lord; “don’t you care?” This story has many lessons in it but one of the most poignant is this question that has touched the minds of most people who have ever followed Jesus. One of the consistent patterns that God demonstrates throughout the pages of scripture is His tendency to allow His children to walk through seasons and events when they cannot see the Lord’s hand in their crisis.
Joseph spent over 13 years languishing in slavery and imprisonment before the fulfillment of his calling. Abraham walks to the mount of sacrifice and it is only at the last moment as the knife is raised that the Lord intervenes after he has passed the test of faith. David serves King Saul faithfully and with great personal success only to find himself on the run, hiding from a jealous king for years of his life before he is vindicated and placed on Israel’s throne. And then there is Moses who dwells in the desert place for 40 years prior to the visitation of God that restores his sense of personal calling. He left Egypt in disgrace and found peace in the wilderness, but the calling of God found him there once again, forty years later.
For the disciples, this day on the boat was a small taste of the classroom of faith. The fact that their lesson was much shorter than David’s years in hiding or Moses years in the desert is compensated for by the intensity of the wilderness. Their very lives are in danger and the Lord is quickly able to get to the heart of the lesson through this pressure filled event as the disciples cry out “don’t you care?”
Jesus has been sleeping in the boat, but He is not ignorant of their need. He allows the disciples to reach the breaking point. He allows their faith to be stretched to the point where now they have lost their composure and in desperation they come almost with an accusing spirit saying “Don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus allows the circumstances to press them to the point where their fear overcomes their faith. He allows them to reach the place where their peace is gone and their need is exposed. They have reached the boiling point. Have you!
Once the disciples have begun to boil in their emotions and their inner void is exposed for what it is Jesus quickly rises to put an end to the exercise. He calmly rebukes the storm and the waves are stilled and then the training begins. As the waves die down the disciples have their attention drawn to a new crisis. Their faith had once been in the power of the storm but now there is a new power present and they are truly afraid. Jesus confronts the disciples with the power of God in a whole new way. Jesus responds to their fear of the storm by asking ironically “why are you so afraid…” as He references their fear of the storm. He asks this fully aware that their fear of the storm has been replaced by a terror of Him! What a powerful transference faith has taken place. The disciples have forgotten about the storm completely and now are intensely focused on the question “who is this person sitting in the boat with us!?” This is the point of God’s lesson. He is working to take your eyes off of the storm and seeking to bring you into a startling revelation of who He is! Get your eyes off of your circumstances and look to the Lord! He is at work to build true faith in the core of who you are!
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