Help For The Helpless

Though The Tempests Rage, God is Trustworthy

6.27.21 [Mark 4:35-41] River of Life (5th Sunday after Pentecost)

Officially, the season runs from June 15th to Oct. 1st. But last year’s monsoon season was a dud by most measures. In fact, according to experts who study these things, last year was our driest monsoon season on record, with an average of 1.5 inches of rainfall across the state. For that reason, many dubbed last year, the non-soon season.

But just because it didn’t storm much last year, doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t this year. Those of us who have been here for a few monsoon seasons know that these storms can be very powerful and even quite destructive. Three years ago, Rainbow Valley and Estrella Mountain Ranch were hit particularly hard. And if you remember that storm, you likely remember how quickly it popped up. Sometimes we get an extended warning. Sometimes, like with that storm, we don’t. But it’s incredible how the mountains can funnel and feed these powerful storms.

Like our Valley area, the Sea of Galilee is surrounded by higher terrain, with mountain ranges in the distance. The Sea of Galilee is about eight miles wide and 12 miles long, but its elevation is what makes it a powder keg for powerful storms. The Sea of Galilee is nearly 700 feet below sea level and in some places as deep as 200 feet. Mount Hermon, thirty miles to the north, reaches over 9,000 feet above sea level. The hills around Galilee come in at 1,400 feet above sea level. The mountains of the Golan Heights, where Jesus and his disciples are headed, come in at over 2,500 feet above sea level.

Why are these measurements significant? When winds pick up the warm moist air from the Sea of Galilee and it mixes with the colder air in the surrounding hills and mountains, you have the perfect recipe for a storm. And being in a kind of topographical bowl encourages those storms to stick around this Sea for a while. And that’s exactly what happens in our text.

Jesus and his disciples board a fishing boat and quickly find themselves in the middle of a furious squall. We know that this storm is particularly nasty because of how the disciples react to it. Fishing vessels in that day were long and narrow, 20 plus feet by 8 feet. Wide enough for two men to sit side by side for when they needed to row. But the sides were very shallow, which makes sense. The goal was to fill your nets with fish and pull them up into the boat. The higher the sides were for the boats, the more muscle it would take to pull them on board. But that deliberate design, became problematic in a moment like this when (Mark 4:37) a furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. We can sense the panic in the disciples as they cry out to Jesus (Mark 4:38) Don’t you care if we drown? Don’t forget that these men were experienced fishermen. Professionals. They had been through a few storms before, but this time was different. This was by their standards a mega-storm of wind and waves. It came up out of nowhere. And now there was nowhere for the disciples to run to or hide. They were convinced this was it.

Like these disciples we face mega-storms in life. Sometimes, they are very tangible. Waves of chronic physical pain that feel like they will take us down the very depths of the grave. Sometimes, we experience waves of pain because we are ill and our bodies feel like they are being torn apart. Sometimes, we experience waves of pain because we are old and our bodies feel like they are falling apart. Sometimes, the pain we feel is inexplicable. The doctors cannot explain it. The tests they run leave you spinning in circles and drowning in fear and despair. Sometimes, the furious squalls of suffering and pain seem to pop up out of nowhere & don’t stop.

But not all the storms we face are physical, like that. There are financial storms. Seasons when our income can’t seem to keep pace with our expenses or even inflation. Times when the bottom drops out on all we thought was safe and secure. Suddenly what felt like a solid investment lets us down. We find ourselves breathlessly bailing, doing everything within our power to avoid going underwater.

There are emotional storms, as well. Nights where our own minds are flooded with anxious thoughts. Days when we are so discouraged, so sad, so lonely that we feel like we’re being tossed to and fro by gale force winds. Even being near someone who is going through those struggles feels like we’re trekking through a tempest of thunder and lightning. With each crash and bang and flash, we wonder if we’re going to make it in one piece.

And of course, there are relational storms, too. These might be the most devastating of all. Workplaces where the whims of upper-management can throw you overboard into the fierce waters to fend for yourself. Marriages that feel like they’re constantly taking on water. Parents who watch helplessly as their grown children make wretched choices for them and for their grandchildren.

There are time in our lives that it isn’t that the winds or the waves in any one area of life are nearly swamping our boat, but the cumulative effect of a number of different things. Points where it feels like we can’t catch a break. Moments where we feel like we are walking proof of Murphy’s law—that what can go wrong will go wrong.

In all these situations, we may find some familiar words on our lips. God, don’t you care? Don’t you care that I’m suffering physically or emotionally? God, don’t you care that I don’t know how we’re going to make it through the end of this month? God, don’t you care that my marriage is falling apart? God, don’t you care that my children are drifting away from you? God, don’t you care about me?

Then we look to the back of the boat and it goes from bad to worse. There God is. Asleep. How can he care, when he’s snoozing through my struggles? How can he care when he’s asleep as I suffer through these storms? To be fair, it’s hard to see that God cares when he is asleep in the back of the boat. It’s hard to see. But (2 Cor. 5:7) we live by faith, and not by sight, right? But it shouldn’t be hard to trust. Because God has given us abundant proof that he cares about us more than we can ever really know or understand. And that is why we have confidence, even in moments of crisis. We have a God who has proven we can trust in him, even as the tempest around us rages.

To see that, we must go back to the beginning of this text. To the very moment it all went wrong according to our eyes. Do you remember why the disciples made this difficult journey in the first place? It was Jesus’ idea. As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples: (Mk. 4:35) Let us go over to the other side. This words seem totally unremarkable, at first glance. But remember who spoke these words. Jesus, the powerful Son of God. The King of kings and Lord of lords. The same God who divided the waters of the Red Sea so that his chosen people could cross on dry ground. That’s a memorable miracle. But do you remember how and when God parted the seas? Yes, (Ex. 14:21) Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, but Scriptures also tell us all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. And we should not be surprised that God could do this. (Ps. 33:7) By the word of the Lord, the waters of the sea were gathered into storehouses and (Gen. 1:9) dry ground appeared. When the God who made dry ground appear, and parted the Red Sea so that his people could safely pass through it says (Mk. 4:35) Let us go to the other side, he’s not announcing his intentions, he’s proclaiming his plan. He’s making a promise. We are going to make it to the other side. Together.

Now maybe that seems unfair to say the disciples should have heard a powerful promise in Jesus’ words. They had never seen him do anything like this before. While this isn’t the only time Jesus stilled a storm, it was the first time.

But it wasn’t the first time they had seen him do a miracle. They had seen Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons, and even cure Peter’s mother-in-law of a potentially fatal fever. More than that, they had also heard Jesus teach. He did not teach like the rest of the rabbis. He spoke with authority. He had commissioned the twelve of them with that same authority and they had preached about the kingdom of heaven and driven out demons in his name. That very day they had heard Jesus speak extensively about the kingdom of heaven in parables. Then in private he explained all the deep things of God to them personally so that they could understand them. They were growing in their knowledge of God. But faith is more than bare knowledge—as we see in this storm. They were afraid of the storm and did not trust in Jesus more than what they were experiencing. They weren’t sure that he cared. They definitely didn’t think he had the power to still this storm as he did. But their lack of faith didn’t not constrain their Christ.

But Jesus cared and Jesus has the power to create calm where there is chaos and foster faith where fear seems to reign supreme. Look at how he does this. He creates calm with his word. He fosters faith in the same way. One commentator compares Jesus’ rebuking of this storm to a kindergarten teacher clapping her hands twice to silence her noisy classroom. To the untrained eye, this is an amazing feat. But those kindergartners know her voice. They know her power. They know that she is in charge. Should it really be any different when our Lord rebukes the wind and the waves?

But look at how the disciples respond to this. They were afraid of the storm. Now they are sore afraid. (Mk. 4:41) Terrified, they ask each other: ‘Who is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” The Scriptures ask and answer this very question for the disciples in Psalm 89:8-9 Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule over the surging sea. When its waves mount up, you still them. But the disciples knew that this was the answer. That is why they were sore afraid. They knew the one they had not listened to so closely was the Christ. They knew the one they had questioned if he cared, was the one who fashioned and made them—knitting them together in their mothers’ wombs. They knew that to disobey him—even once—was to rebel against the Maker and Preserver of all things. He was far more than just a Teacher. He is the Lord God Almighty.

And he had come to earth to do more than save these men from this storm. He had come to save the world from drowning in its wickedness. (Rom. 5:6) You see, at the just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus put himself under the waves of God’s righteous wrath against all our unrighteousness and sin, so that we might be spared, so that we might be saved, so that we might be brought over to the other side—from death to life. He recognized that we were dead in our transgressions and sins. He saw a furious Satan rise up against us with all kinds of lies and accusations. He saw us drowning in the debt of our sins. And do you know what he did? He rebuked Satan as he did those winds and those waves. (Ps. 103:4) He redeemed our lives from the pit and crowns us with his love and compassion. What greater care could be shown for us than Christ crucified? Christ has kept his promise. He has stayed by our side through the storms and seen us through to the other side.

But let us not make the same mistake the disciples did at the end of this story. We know who this is and so we need not be sore afraid. It is good and right to fear, love, and trust in the Lord to be sure, but the Scriptures provide a better response that what we see in these fishermen. (Ps. 107:23-32) Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep. For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and he guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.

This week, I invite you to do just that. Survey some of the storms you’ve already been through. Recall how the wind and the waves left you feeling swamped and fearing it would all be over. Did you cry out to the Lord? Christians can and should. Do you see, now, how he responded? His word brings calm amid the chaos. His word fosters faith when fear is fomenting deep within us. He cares and he can be trusted. And you know this through experience. Your own experience and the evidence of the Holy Scriptures. God has guided us through storms time and again. Let us give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and all his wonderful deeds. Let us exalt him among the people of our community and praise him among our family and our friends. Even in the midst of the tempest, we can and should trust our God. Because time and again, he has shown he cares for us. Amen.