Despite Our Fear

Based on Mark 4:35-41

Jesus must have been exhausted. Let’s look back at all he had been doing since he returned to his hometown. Back at his house, people had crammed inside to try to get close to him, to get healed or to hear a word of teaching. There were so many people and so much need that Jesus couldn’t even sit down for a bite to eat. During all that, he had to face down those pesky scribes from Jerusalem and then deal with his mother and brothers who were worried about him. Eventually Jesus and his disciples left the house and went back to the sea, still being followed by a crowd, and then more joined so that it was a great multitude of people, so many that Jesus got on a boat and pushed back from the shore just to free up some space along the beach for the huge crowd. From there he taught the rest of the day. 

Finally, the time seemed right for Jesus and the disciples to head back out across the sea. The sun was setting. Evening was getting on. Still standing in the boat, having finished all the teaching he wanted to give that crowd, he looked at his disciples and said, “Let’s go over to the other side.” So, they pushed off, raised the sail, and off they went. Jesus, for his part, went to the front of the ship, lay down on the mat, and promptly went to sleep. Finally, Jesus could get some rest as they made their way across.

Alas, Jesus did not get as long a rest as he was hoping for. A great windstorm arises, scaring the disciples, even the seasoned fishermen among them who had surely seen their fair share of storms. You know it had to have been bad. Not only was the wind tossing the boat around, but the crashing waves were pummeling the hull and spilling over into the boat filling it with water. And all of this is happening in the darkness of night. They were certainly at risk of sinking. I think we can understand why they were afraid.

When we are afraid, this has a serious impact on us. Think of a time when you were truly frightened. In that swirl of emotion, you may lose things. You can’t find your keys. You can’t find your wallet or your phone. You can’t think straight. You may not know where to go or who to turn to for help in that moment of panic. You may not even know where you are. What we often lose when we are gripped with fear is perspective, faith, and hope.

What the disciples say to Jesus is very revealing. Of all they could have said, they chose to accuse Jesus of not caring. When this story is told in Matthew and Luke the disciples say, “Master, save us! We are perishing!” But in Mark the disciples say, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” They accuse of not caring the same person who has been spending the last several days doing nothing but care for everyone else. One of the main reasons they were on the boat in the first place was so that Jesus could have some down time away from the crowds so that he could get some rest. Yet, they accuse Jesus of not caring. But that’s what fear can do to someone. We lose perspective. We become irrational. We lose sight of what we know to be true about someone and instead get things twisted.

The disciples also lost their faith and hope. Maybe they didn’t yet have their full faith in Jesus at this point. But they trusted him enough to go wherever he wanted to go. They had seen all the healings he had performed. They knew he was no ordinary person but had clearly been filled with divine power. Jesus said to them, “Let us go to the other side.” If they had faith in Jesus, would they not have expected that they would have made it across to the other side no matter what? If Jesus was sleeping through the storm, clearly, he wasn’t concerned. Why could the disciples not have that same level of trust? But that’s what fear does. It can reveal the strength of faith. When confronted with this storm and what clearly looked to be imminent perishing in the storm, the faith the disciples had in Jesus evaporated along with their hope of survival. Gripped with fear they became convinced that they were all going down with the ship and that this same Jesus who had the power to cast out demons and teach with such great authority, who clearly was filled with divine power, was going to die with them that night. Their faith in Jesus and their hope for whatever great future was in store for them evaporated as they were gripped with fear.

Before we get too hard on these disciples, however, let’s acknowledge that there is no shame in being fearful. In fact, it is often perfectly reasonable. Fear is a good thing to have in that it can protect us from doing something dangerous. Fear can be a powerful motivation for doing the right thing and avoid painful consequences. Fear is a natural response to dangerous situations. If we were on a sinking ship in the midst of a storm in the middle of the night, it would make perfect sense to be filled with fear. In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, we were all afraid. We feared what might happen next. Any little thing was prompting buildings to be evacuated. As part of that distorted perspective, many people of Arab descent or men who practiced the Sikh religion found themselves the targets of fearful people wondering if they were terrorists too. In Mark the gospel writer’s context, he belonged to a church that had its moments of fear. Could persecution be visited upon them, so much that the church like a ship taking on water be destroyed and all of them perish? In those early days, the Christians of Mark’s church could not always be confident that things would work out. Their existence was touch and go. In situations of great danger or when the future is unclear or even uncertain, fear is an understandable response.

But the disciples were overcome with fear. They were controlled by fear. They feared for their lives as the boat took on water and was battered and buffeted by the winds and waves. And then, when Jesus stops the storm and there was a dead calm, the literal Greek text says that the disciples were fearful of a great fear. In other words, they were more afraid after Jesus stopped the storm! Overwhelmed with fear, the disciples just could not get it clear in their heads who Jesus was. Despite all the healings, the teachings, how Jesus had explained everything to the disciples, in this moment of fear they looked at each other and said among themselves, “Who is this?” They did not look at Jesus and ask, “who are you.” It was almost like Jesus had become to them an object of wonder. If their heads were clear, they would not be asking each other who Jesus is. They knew their Bible. They knew that only God has the power to still the winds and the waves. This divine power is talked about in several of the Psalms and even in a few of the prophets, including Isaiah. If Jesus did what only God could do, then they have their answer about who Jesus is. But their fear clogged their brains. They simply could not name what they knew must be true in their hearts. They knew who Jesus was, but their fear blocked them from claiming it. Fear created a barrier between them and Jesus. In that moment, Jesus was not the teacher they were following, the one who had claimed them as his brother. He was an object of awe in which the disciples looked at each other and asked, “Who is this?”

Nevertheless, Jesus sticks with his disciples. In this situation Jesus could have responded in several ways. The disciples did not ask Jesus to do anything when they woke him up from his well-deserved nap. But Jesus rebuked the winds and waves anyway, just to remove that scary situation they found themselves in. Jesus responded out of compassion, giving the disciples what they needed in that moment, an end of the windstorm. Jesus cared about his disciples enough to challenge them by asking, “Have you still no faith?” He wasn’t going to just let this go. He named the situation for these disciples. Their fear revealed their lack of faith in Jesus, and he was going to name that for them in a way that forced them to reflect on just how much they trusted Jesus. He wasn’t going to say to them, “Wow, that was a scary situation, wasn’t it? Sorry you had to endure that.” No. Jesus wanted to push them, challenge them to get real about just how much they were willing to trust him. Jesus could have looked at the disciples and said, “You know what? I’m out. See you guys later.” And Jesus could have stepped out of the boat and walked across the sea to the other side and left the disciples to fend for themselves in that sinking boat. But Jesus didn’t do that. He stayed with them in that sinking boat. Despite them letting fear get the best of them, despite accusing Jesus of not caring about them, Jesus stuck with them in the boat. Whatever fear Jesus may have had in that raging storm did not block Jesus from responding with compassion and loving commitment to his brothers. No matter how frustrated he may have been with his disciples, no matter how tired he may have been, Jesus didn’t abandon ship.

Let this be an encouragement for us when we find ourselves in the middle of a storm and fear is getting the best of us. Sometimes we find ourselves in scary situations. And in those scary times we do lose our perspective. Our thinking gets twisted. We do sometimes have a lapse in faith. We can lose our nerve. We can even feel hopeless about our future in fearful times, amid a storm. We might even accuse God of not caring what happens to us. Nevertheless, God sticks with us. No matter what, God will never abandon us. Throughout any storm, God will never abandon ship. We may not always see it or be able to acknowledge it, but I am here to tell you that in whatever storm we find ourselves, God will be with us as we move through those storms. We can trust and believe that with God we will get to the other side.