Faith in the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)

People can fall asleep in some pretty strange places. For example, when I was at university, sometimes I dozed through my lectures. In more recent years, after becoming a dad, I reckon can fall asleep just about anywhere. I’ve also seen people sleeping on public transport, in movies, or even during a sermon on more than one occasion!

But could you imagine falling asleep in an open boat during a storm?

Years ago I went on a day cruise to the Great barrier Reef from Townsville. It was overcast and a wind was blowing so the sea was a pretty rocky. I’m not naturally a sea-going person at the best of times, so I spent most of the day being sick over the side of the boat. It felt like a very long day and I could not get back to shore quick enough!

I can’t imagine falling asleep in the boat that day on the Great Barrier Reef, so I have no idea how Jesus slept in the back of the boat during the storm in the story we read in Mark 4:35-41. Maybe he was really tired after a long day of preaching and teaching. Some commentators suggest that Jesus had a supernatural peace as the Son of God so he could enjoy some rest even though the waves were crashing into the boat, the wind was howling, the lightning was flashing and the sound of thunder was rolling across the lake.

The disciples thought that Jesus’ sleeping in the storm meant he didn’t care about them or their situation. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?’ (v38 NLT). They were worried that the boat would be overwhelmed by the wind and the waves, and they would descend to a watery grave. They literally though this was their end!

To be honest, I find Jesus’ response puzzling. After calming the storm, he asks them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ (v40 NLT). I think their fear is completely understandable. I found a rocky day on the Great Barrier Reef hard enough to cope with, so I can’t imagine the terror the disciples must have experienced when they thought that they were all going to drown. However, Jesus asks where their faith was. He wanted them to trust him while the storm raged around them and threatened their lives.

But what does the kind of faith Jesus was asking for look like? What would the disciples have done in the middle of the storm if they had trusted Jesus the way he wanted them to? Would faith have looked like finding a pillow, lying down and going to sleep like Jesus? Or would trusting Jesus have meant trimming the sails, battening down the hatches, lowering the boom, pulling out the oars, and doing their best to get to shore? Or would faith in Jesus during the storm mean waiting it out and hoping for the best? Does faith in the storm mean doing nothing, working harder, or something different?

This is an important question because Jesus asking the disciples about their faith becomes one of the key aspects of this story. I’m always struck by Jesus’ question, ‘Do you still have no faith?’, and what that faith might look like in the storms of our lives.

Seas and darkness are images used throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation to represent chaos and evil. In Genesis 1 we read that in the beginning, ‘the earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters’ (1:2 NLT). For ancient peoples, darkness and large bodies of water were scary and uncontrollable, metaphors for everything in our lives that want to harm us and take our lives, which we can’t do anything about. That is why, in Revelation 21:1, there is no more sea. The absence of the sea in John’s picture of the new heavens and new earth means that the forces of darkness, chaos and evil are vanquished once and for all so people can live forever in safety, peace and joy.

When the early Christians listened to the story of Jesus calming the storm, they would have identified with all the forces of darkness and chaos which threatened them and their lives, over which they had absolutely no control. In the same way, we all face storms in our lives. They are the dark times during which we might not be able to see any good or a way through them to get to a better place. They are the times when we have no control over what’s happening in our lives, as we get knocked around and carried in directions that are scary or threatening, or which seem to swamp us or overwhelm us. These might be the global storms of war, terrorism, or pandemics. They might be the threats we feel from a digital world and the rapid technological changes going on around us. Or they might be personal storms, such as illness, grief, financial stress, relationship breakdowns, or any of the uncertainties we face.

In the middle of these storms, Jesus asks us to put our faith in him as he sails with us through our storms and as we learn to trust him. This means trusting that he is with us, just like he was with the disciples in their literal storm. Sometimes it might seem to us that Jesus is asleep, he isn’t responding, or he doesn’t care, just like the disciples, but Jesus’ promise to be with us tells that he does care about what happens to us, even if he doesn’t answer us straight away. Jesus also asks us to have faith that he has authority over the storms in our lives. Just like he told the wind and waves to be silent and still (v39), he will at some point speak silence and stillness into the storms that buffet and threaten us. We can have faith that the person who showed his authority over darkness and chaos by defeating death and rising to new life will exercise his divine authority in our lives by calming the storms around us. I can’t tell you when or how he will do that. But, because ‘faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, (and the) assurance about things we cannot see’ (Hebrews 11:1 NLT), we can trust that, at some time and in some way, Jesus, who is with us in our storms, will command them to be silent and still in the same authority with which he spoke at the beginning of creation.

Until then, I still wonder what the faith Jesus wanted in his disciples looks like. Does it mean curling and finding rest with him? Does it mean rolling up our sleeves and getting to work by grabbing the paddles and heading for shore? Does trusting Jesus look like just hanging on and enjoying the ride? Maybe it’s all of those things at different times, or maybe it’s something different. What’s important is that Jesus is with us in the storms of life as the Immanuel, God-With-Us (Matthew 1:23), and trusting that ‘even the wind and the waves obey him’ (v41 NLT). Because one day he will silence and still our storms as well.

More to think about or discuss:

• Where is the strangest place either you have fallen asleep, or seen someone else fall asleep?
• What do you think having faith in Jesus would have looked like for the disciples in their storm? Would it have meant doing nothing, getting busy, or something else…?
• What storms are you facing in your life? How might trusting Jesus help you through your storms?