Readings Job 38:1, 8-11; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17; Mark 4:35-41
Everyone in this world is anxious or fearful about something. It ties in with stress and worry. Today many people around us are facing tough economic times including loss of jobs, loss of homes and nowhere to turn. When we experience fear or anxiety in our lives, we tend underestimate God’s power and what He can do for us. We trust a great deal on ourselves and ignore God’s presence. Often, we feel the situation in which we find ourselves in is too big for God. We must remember that God created the storms and everything else in nature. No matter how doubtful we may feel he is still in complete control over everything. Understanding God means that he can calm the storms in our lives if we will only have a little faith. We may not go through the physical storm as the disciples did. But we all have been through many other storms in our own lives like sickness, loosing job, failures, personal weakness, death of loved one, accident, depression, hopelessness etc., where we feel helpless. We may think or feel like God does not care. He seems to be sleeping and is not answering our prayers. Jesus is a teacher, leader, speaker or great man. But it is when we realize his identity, we can entrust him our whole life.
During his public ministry the whole aim of Jesus was to show to his disciples and the people who he was and that he had been sent to bring them to God. When he fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, when he walked on the water, when he healed the cripple with a word or permitting the woman simply to touch him, he was showing himself to be the Lord, the one God, walking in their midst as a man. If the Apostles were slow to catch on we should be grateful for the mirror they hold up to us.
We cling to the material world whose comforting solidity directly under our feet seems far more real than the promises of the Spirit. What is the eternal measured against the here and now? What is faith in God compared to these gigantic waves breaking into the tiny boat? Are these waves the truth, or is it the sleeping Jesus in the stern? So Jesus rebukes the waves and then he rebukes his anxious disciples. Quiet now! Be calm! The command could be equally applied to his companions in the boat but Jesus speaks it to the turbulent sea. To his Apostles he asks a question which should resonate in each one of us present here today because it is actually addressed to each one of us: Why are you so frightened? Should we not be aware of the presence of Jesus close to us and he is ready to protect us.
Many Christians today demand that in such difficult confused and frightening situations where to find the presence of Jesus. It looks as if he is not close by, fast asleep or far away and does not really care of the struggle of his people. It is there the people cry out to say, Lord don’t you care? We are drowning. The storms have taken control over us and the enemy is torturing us. Jesus now comes and says I am there with you and he will calm the storm in the life of the church community. The early church in their prayers realized that Jesus was still with them, and they began to experience an inner peace. They came to realize that the storm was not in the sea but in their own fears and anxieties. The peace they would receive too was in their own hearts
When Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples were stunned by the miracle of calming the storm. By this time they personally knew who Jesus was, and were aware of his divine power as they were quite impressed by his power of controlling the elements. This miracle on the one hand revealed the humanity or concern of Jesus and on the other the divinity or his miracle of control over the storm. When Jesus was sleeping in the stern of the boat, the disciples witnessed how humanly speaking he was tired and exhausted. When Jesus spoke to the sea and calmed the storm that showed his divine nature. We all have the experiences in our life when there has been a storm and we all wondered if Jesus is sleeping, if he truly hears our prayers, if he actually cares about our welfare. This is because we think in human way as we are week and lack in faith we easily cry that the Lord has left us alone.
There is one important lesson for each one of us in today’s gospel story. Our lives are indeed a journey across the sea of time to the shore of eternity. During that crossing all who come to the use of reason encounter some storms. There is no smooth and calm crossing for anyone. This is the will of God. Jesus in his life too had to face the storms in his life. On that night Jesus was aware of the coming of the storm and allowed the disciples to face it and only in their struggle he went to their aid. Throughout the past twenty centuries the church has faced the storms and always has found Jesus to give peace tranquility and safety. Jesus has given us the promise that he will be with us till the end of times taking care of us and protecting us from the storm.