“God, Do You Care?”
June 23, 2024
Mark 4:35-41
Season After Pentecost
In Jesus calming the storm the temptation is present to focus on Jesus calming the wind and waves. Cosmic power resides in Mary’s boy who was present when the universe was a formless void. What a sight that must have been. Jesus asleep at the back of the boat, waking and springing into action. The disciples are saved.
Here’s the thing: Jesus was not concerned with the storm. It was not the wind and the waves that woke Jesus from his slumber. Jesus’s concern lies in the cry from his disciples, those he invited into to the boat. Their cry is what wakes Jesus. It was the cry of the disciples that caused Jesus to calm the storm. Their cry, “Do you not care that we are about to perish?” is what compelled Jesus to act.
Jesus cares. Jesus not only cares but acts and saves.
You may have picked up on this – the story of Jesus calming the sea began with fear and the cry of the disciples, “Teacher, don’t you care if we perish?” But as the story began in fear; the story ends in terror. Rev. Will Willimon wrote, “The calming of the wind and the waves anything but calmed those in the boat. They shook in terror, asking one another, ‘Who is this? Look! Even the wind and the waves obey him’”
Robert Capon, the late Episcopal priest, wrote, “(Jesus) comes to us in the brokenness of our health, in the shipwreck of our family lives, in the loss of all possible peace of mind, even in the very thick of our sins. He saves us in our disasters, not from them. He emphatically does not promise to meet only the odd winner of the self-improvement lottery. He meets us all in our endless and inescapable losing.”
