The Heart of Jesus in the Storm

Mark 4:38 “And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?”

asleep on a pillow- Sometimes we forget the human side of Jesus. If you look back at Mark 4:1 “And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.” Jesus has been ministering all day long and by the time we get to our current story it is now evening. He is tired and just like He experienced hunger Jesus experienced being tired. But why?

Why does Jesus sleep? Why does He hunger? Why did Jesus have to go through life as a human being? Hebrews chapter two gives us a few reasons why Jesus became a human:

for the suffering of death Hebrews 2:9 “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

so He could experience and conquer death Hebrews 2:14 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;”

so He could deliver us from death Hebrews 2:15 “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

so He could be a merciful high priest and make reconciliation for our sins Hebrews 2:17 “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” Emphasize these points if there are lost people in the service

so He could help us when we face trials and temptations Hebrews 2:18 “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” This is the point that I want to make in relation to our story: Jesus experienced exhaustion, hunger, and wept because in being relatable, He can help us in our storms. Jesus didn’t have to go through any storms in life. The waters should have known the Master is on board and they should have remained calm. But Jesus in His wisdom allowed Himself to go through this storm.

I imagine the disciples were probably pretty exhausted as well. They were ministering right alongside Jesus the entire day and now they were sailing the ship across the sea. When we are tired, it is difficult to go through storms isn’t it. Things tend to get blown out of proportion when we are tired. We can kinda see this in the response of the disciples, “Master don’t you care that we are dying?” Now I don’t mean to diminish the storm that they were going through and I am sure that they thought they were dying, but they forgot who was in the boat.

But Jesus had chosen something that was needed in his life: sleep. You can’t keep plowing on forever without any rest and without rest, we will not be prepared to go through the storm. Jesus slept to show us that sometimes we need sleep. And when you refuse to allow yourself rest, you will not be prepared to go through the storms.

But there is another side to this story: Not only do we see the humanity of Jesus in his sleep; we also see His divinity. Jesus knows all things. He knew the storm was coming and yet He could rest completely at peace in the back of the boat. Jesus was not worried that they were going to sink. The second thing we see about Jesus in this power is His power.

II. The Power of Jesus

Mark 4:39 “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”

rebuked the wind- to warn harshly or to scold

Peace- silence

be still- muzzled

The mental picture that comes to my mind when I read this scene is that of a dog that has been yapping at the door and Jesus scolds the dog and tells it to sit down and shut up. Muzzled is a good word here because the world is constantly clamoring for our attention and wants to get our attention off of Jesus. Its hard to think sometimes when you are in constant pain.

My wife is a member of a group on facebook for people with RA and if you spend any time reading those posts there is one thing you will come away with. Some people live in so much pain they can’t think about anything else. Every move that they make send shooting pain through their joints. Some of them have fingers that have curled up so they can no longer use them properly and the pain is extreme. Just focusing on anything but the pain seems impossible.

Mother’s you can relate to this. How easy is it to walk with the Lord, have peace and respond correctly when all day long all you hear is:

Mom when is lunch

Mom Chloe won’t let me in her room

Mom, Levi is making a mess in the bathroom

Mom, can we watch on TV.

Mom, Bella is being mean.

Mom, can we have a snack.

Mom, I’m still hungry

Mom, can we go do something

and on and on it goes.

The storm was like a yapping dog drowning out their peace and silencing the voice in their head that told them to trust in Christ. But Jesus, stood up and told the winds and the sea to sit down and shut up and you know what happened? They did.

In Jewish culture this would have been a significant event because according to 2 Maccabees, a Jewish historical book from the time between the Old and New testaments, there arose a pagan king named Antiochus Epiphanes who entered into the temple and desecrated it and actively persecuted the Jewish faith. In 9:8, it tells the story about how he tried to calm a sea and failed and when he died it was a judgement of God because He had tried to act like God in calming the sea.

The ocean has immense and uncontrollable power. You cannot make the waves stop. We cannot control the winds. Just look at the recent tornadoes that we had in Seminole county. Only God has that kind of power and Jesus here is manifesting that He is God.

Only Jesus can cut through the clamour of the trials in your life. Sometimes we look to retreats, going on a date night, getting away from the kids to calm the trials and those things have a place; but ultimately Jesus is the solution to our problems. When Jesus calmed the storm, the text says there was a great calm a mega calm. The picture is that the sea became placid and completely still. Even in the impossible circumstances of life, Jesus has the power to create calm and peace.

III. The Heart of Jesus

I want to circles back to vs 38 Mark 4:38 “And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?”

What had Jesus told them before they got into the boat? In Mark 4:35 “And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.” Jesus had told them the reason they were getting into the boat: to pass over to the other side. He had already revealed God’s will for their life. They would reach the other side of the sea, but as we saw in the previous point, the waves and the winds were like a yapping dog distracting them from what they already new.

The disciples were afraid because of the storm. In Mark 4:40 “And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” when Jesus confronts them about their fear, he uses a word that actually means cowardly. Why are you being so cowardly? But when Jesus stands up and stills the winds and the seas Mark 4:41 literally says that they feared a great fear. Fear of God is not an inappropriate response to the power that He holds. These disciples were fearing the wrong thing. When I think of God like this my mind goes to a story from CS Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy.

The story traces the life of a boy named Shasta who though of noble birth had been lost at sea and raised as a slave beaten every day. The boy runs away trying to find his way back to his homeland and along the way meets a princess who is running away from a forced marriage. They come to a river region along there journey when they are attacked by what they think is a set of lions. The princess at one point is scratched by one of the lions and injured. Later in the story, the boy sits alone in some scary catacombs having been separated from the rest of his party and in his loneliness and sorrow a cat comes up to him and snuggles and comforts him. Later that night some jackals approach and he hears a lion in the distance chasing away the jackals.

Now why am I telling this story: if you know anything about Narnia, the lion was Aslan which was supposed to be how God manifested Himself in the world of Narnia. On meeting Aslan, the boy questions why he would have been so nice to Him but He hurt the princess back in the woods. Aslan does not tell the boy why she had to go through what she did, but he had a plan for it. God does not always give us answers for why we go through the pain that we go through; rather he asks us to trust in Him.

Jesus never tells the disciples why He allowed them to face this storm, but he does rebuke them for their lack of faith. How is it that ye have no faith? It is sad that Jesus felt the need to use the words “no faith.” We see them having little faith, faith as the grain of a mustard seed at times, but here at this moment; they had no faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. They had literally heard the words of God from the mouth of Jesus say they would reach the other-side, but they forgot.

There is a lesson here that I want us to get. When the disciples were in a boat filling with water and they looked back and saw Jesus asleep in the back, they jumped to a conclusion: God doesn’t care. Sometimes when we are in pain, we confuse the hand of Jesus with the heart of Jesus and we forget things.

They made an assumption about how He felt about them. They assumed that because they went through storms that God did not care about them. How often do we say in our hearts (Oh, we may not say it out loud):

God doesn’t love me because he took my child away.

If God really loved me, he wouldn’t let me struggle so much just to make ends meet and pay the bills.

A God of love would never let His children go through suffering like this.

Jesus being asleep in the boat was not a sign of his lack of care, but of His confidence in his ultimate power to calm the storm. The disciples did not have that confidence because they lacked faith and they did not see the heart of Christ in the middle of their storm. Let us beware of forgetting all the promises of God and doubting the heart of Jesus.

Conclusion:

In many of the stories of the gospels, we often stand in judgement of the disciples lack of faith as we look back 2000 years later. But can’t we understand where they are emotionally here? The storms were raging, the boat was probably filling with water. These were experienced fishermen. They knew how bad this storm was and their only hope seemed to be asleep in the back of the boat.

But like the disciples we often confuse what we are going through with the heart of God. We think God hates us because we are struggling or in pain. If we are going to find peace in the middle of our storms, we are going to have to have faith in the heart of God. We must believe that God is for us and not against us and He has power over the storm.

As we close, I would like us to sing accapela the words to “It is Well.” The first verse to this song uses imagery to liken sorrows to a sea billow rolling over me. Even then, it can be “It is well” with my soul, if I am leaning on the unchanging heart of Jesus Christ.