On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
Jesus had been teaching many parables about hearing the word of God to a very large crowd who lined the shore of the Sea of Galilee to hear him. He taught these parables, the parable of the sower, the lamp and the mustard seed from a fishing boat with his disciples that was put out a little ways from the shore.
When evening had settled in and Jesus had finished teaching, instead of returning to Peter’s house which was where they usually stayed in Capernaum, Jesus directed his disciples to sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
There is nothing like an evening boat ride to relax after a long day. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 8 miles across so it probably would have taken them 2-3 hours to row to the other side of the lake where Mark 5:1 says they came to the country of Gerasenes.
36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
Jesus and his disciples left the crowd and began their journey to the other side of the Sea of Galilee in the boat they were already in. The text doesn’t tell us much about the boat they were in. We know several of the disciples were fisherman, Peter and his brother Andrew, James and John were in business together as fisherman. So it’s safe to assume they were in regular fishing boats.
1st century fishing boats are believed to have been about 27 feet long and could easily hold between 8-15 people. A few have been recovered, one in particular in 1985 that is often referred to as the Jesus Boat since it was found at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and believed to be 1st century.
Other boats were with them. They would have been additional followers of Jesus. They may have drawn their boats near to hear his message and then when he set sail, not knowing where he was going, they followed him.
They took Jesus, just as he was. Why do you think this might be important to record? What kind of condition would Jesus have been in been in after teaching the crowds all day from the boat?
37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
The Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake in the world. It is 680 feet below sea level. It is enclosed by hills and mountains. The hills on the east side are 2000 feet high. On top of these hills and mountains are cool, dry air. Around the Sea of Galilee is warm, moist air. The extreme difference in in these temperatures and pressures, result in strong and sudden wind storms rising up.
The Sea of Galilee is a relatively small and shallow lake. It is only 13 miles long by 8 miles across and about 200 feet deep. This causes it’s waters to be easily stirred up by the great winds causing great waves and great dangers to boats that are on the sea when a storm suddenly rises.
This is what happened on this particular evening, a sudden fierce windstorm rose up out of nowhere with violent whirl winds and massive waves crashed against their boat in a continuous beating. One wave after another tossed the boat. The waves began to break into the boat, one after another. They were relentless. One wave had barely ended before the next was drenching them. They did not have a chance to regain their balance, to deal with the water and damage from the last onslaught before the next one was causing them to hold on for dear life. The boat began to fill with water. There was no land or end in sight.
Remember Peter, Andrew, James and John all lived near the Sea of Galilee. They were familiar with its moody weather and sudden storms. They were experienced fisherman and could handle a boat, but this storm was more then they could handle. They were in over their heads.
Matthew 8:25 says they went looking for Jesus and woke him up saying “Lord, save us! We are about to die.”
38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Jesus was sleeping in the stern of this boat, which would have been the back of the boat. Probably a small hull below deck where he was asleep on a pillow but somewhat blocked from the wind and the waves that would be making an end to this relaxing, peaceful scene of this boat sailing away from Capernaum.
Even if the stern area was remotely blocked from the windstorm and waves, it could not escape the violent tossing of the boat, the pandemonium on deck. It could not have been something easy to sleep through. Yet Jesus slept on a cushion, for all appearances quite indifferent and undisturbed by it all.
It was not the fact that Jesus was sleeping that bothered the disciples. They probably let him sleep and tried to avoid waking him as much as they could. It was the fact that Jesus was or appeared to be indifferent to their plight that bothered them. They were all about reaction right now. Quick reactions to save their lives. They were probably bailing water, steering the boat over the waves, barking orders, working and reacting like expert boats men that they were. Yet here as Jesus, indifferent, sleeping, while they were trying to keep him and everyone else alive in the boat.
They woke and asked “Don’t you care, that we are perishing?”
They expected him to do something. They wanted Him to do something.
Why is it that when we are in a panic it often appears that God isn’t doing anything?
Why is it that we immediately connect God’s inactivity with his lack of concern or caring about us?
The apparent indifference of God in times of trouble often bothers all of us. David struggled with this also.
Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psa. 10:1)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. (Psa. 22:1-2)
Even Christ cried out from the cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me!‘ (Mark 15:34) Why do you think it is that God often seems so silent to us, distant to us, absent from the throne, asleep when the storms of life threaten us? It is as Sinclair Ferguson once said,
“There is an awful sense of being forsaken by God when you know you are on the cross.“
Is God far off? Doesn’t He care? I think this is the real question behind all the other questions of where is God and why is He allowing this to happen. Something tells us that if God is with us, if God is on His throne as all sovereign and all powerful, if God truly loved us, then God would do something if He truly cared and He would not delay in His response. He would do something. He would make the storm go away. He would never allow such a storm in the first place.
Storms challenge our faith.
C.S. Lewis wrote in a Grief Observed:
“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth of falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it?”
This quote has stayed with me and I have often recalled it personally going through my own storm of grief. Storms test what you believe to be true about the meaning and purpose of life, about reality, about God Himself
Steve Larson said in a sermon I listened to that in a moment, a storm can reveal where your faith is, where your focus is, where your trust is, where your priorities are
“Storms reveal if we are living what we are learning.”
Think how much the disciples had learned on that day alone from Jesus. All the parables about listening to God’s word and how to hear. How to put it into practice. Where was their faith in practice?
God allows us to go through storms to test our faith. Our faith is more precious than gold.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer various trials, so that the authenticity of your faith — more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6-7
What is a current storm you are going through? How is it testing your faith? How are you displaying your priorities? Your trust in God? What is your focus?
39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
When Jesus awoke, he rebuked the wind, he admonished it. He spoke to both the wind and the sea. Be commanded the howling windstorm to “Silence!” or “Be Mute!” or “Shut Up!. He commanded the waves that were rocking and tossing the boat around around to “Be still!”
Suddenly, the wind stopped at his rebuke. It dropped everything it had been carrying. The waves disappeared, the lake became absolutely still and calm, not just calm but mega calm. The storm had been described as being a mega storm, it was replaced by a mega calm. Nothing moved.
“He calmed the storm, and the waves grew silent.” Psa. 107.29
Just as no one has power over the wind to restrain it, so no one has power over the day of his death. Ecc. 8:8
Who has power over the wind? Who has power over the waters? God alone is ascribed as having this authority and power. All through out the old testament and Psalms. It is a trademark of God that He commands the wind and the water according to his pleasure and will.
40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Jesus now speaks to the disciples. He asks them the million dollar question.
Why are you so afraid? Question
Why are you so afraid? Whenever anxiety comes it is the question we should ask ourselves.
Proverbs 4 calls us to ponder our ways.
“Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” Proverbs 4:26
God ponders our ways.
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he ponders all his paths. (Proverbs 5:21)
We ponder our ways when we take time to search our hearts, to ask our own selves, why we are so afraid, what is it that we fear, what is it that we want? Behind every fear is a desire for something to happen or a desire for something not to happen. When we take time to ponder what’s bothering us through mediation, prayer, writing, talking we can then compare it God’s word to truth and align our thoughts.
David talks to himself in the Psalms all the time. Psalm 42 is one of my favorite psalms of David talking to himself.
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Do you still have no faith?
Jesus is surprised at the lack of faith of his disciples. After all they have seen,
Fear is interpretation or view of any given circumstance. Timothy Keller provides the following
Situation+Self+God = N
(View of Situation + View of Self + View of God
View of Situation was dangerous, deadly,
View of Self is taking into account our own ability, which is usually nonexistent causing fear to rise.
View of God. What is our view of God? Do we see Him as present? Do we see Him as caring? Do we see Him as Wise?
Fear reveals our faith, how we view God.
41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
The disciples went from one fear to another. A greater fear can always cast out a smaller fear.
An exceedingly great fear came over the disciples. They were afraid before, now they were exceedingly afraid and terrified now as they stood before Jesus. Something more terrible then the storm was before them.
Any time one of the old testament prophets stood before the glory of God, they were shaken with fear. Remember Isaiah? He was undone. Whenever an angel of the Lord appeared before man, the first words out of the angels mouth was “Do not be afraid.” Such is the awesome and terrifying nature of God.
But here was Jesus. He appeared as a humble man, sleeping like a rock, worn out, tired, hungry. Yet here he stood in all his power and glory. The demons obeyed him, diseases obeyed him and fleed from his presence and now the disciples see the wind and sea obey him and fall flat before him. The disciples see both natures in Jesus in this moment, his humanity and his deity.
Imagine you found yourself in a boat with God Himself, would you find comfort or fear?
Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
You would think that the healing, the casting out of demons would have caused them to question who Jesus was and what manner of man he was. But it is at this moment that fear, a holy fear hits them, as they see God with them in the boat. He who commands the storm is found to be much more fearful then the storm itself.
Here we see the disciples questioning who Jesus really is. Who is this? Who can this be? What manner of man is this? What kind of man is this? This was no ordinary man that the wind and the sea obeyed him. Many of the Old Testament Psalms may have come to their mind.
You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. Psa. 89:9
He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. Psa 107:29
The disciples probably remembered Jonah. Remember how the storm was made calm by God when he was cast into the sea? The similarities came to their mind, only God was known to command the wind and the waves. He did it at the Red Sea. It was God’s calling card.
