Awe and Wonder {Mark 4}
2:00 PM
Have
you ever been in a storm and it caused you to be afraid? When we read Mark 4, we come to the place
where Jesus calms the storm.
At
the moment I’m writing this, there’s a storm going on in my life. It’s been going on for a few years and
recently it has snowballed and it’s frightening to me. Mark 4:35-41 is an awesome place to go when
you need time alone with Jesus to help you through the storms of life.
Jesus
ordered the disciples to get in the boat to go to the other side of the
lake. I think the boat, and His
disciples in the boat serve as an image of those living in fellowship with
Jesus, being obedient to Jesus and being separated from the world by Jesus!
Last
week I talked about Sue’s post and my realization that I am following Jesus – I’m
doing what’s right. (Isaiah 30:21). And then, this storm grew even bigger!
But
as I read this chapter and I came here to the disciples being afraid of the
storm, I was reminded that this storm came up in the very path of my obedience,
and if I was not obeying Jesus, I would be safe on shore with the crowd.
Being
ordered by God to go out into the storms of life is a reoccurring theme in the
Bible. Abraham was ordered to Canaan,
but when he got there, a famine wiped out the food supply. Jacob was sent to Mesopotamia where his uncle
tricked and cheated him for 20 years.
Joseph was sent to Egypt where he spent years in a dungeon. David was obedient to God by fighting Goliath,
but afterwards, spent years in the wilderness threatened by Saul. The Apostle Paul was sent by the Holy Spirit
to Philippi (Acts 16:9-10), where he was imprisoned. In all these cases, and more, it appears to God’s
people that He is indifferent to their circumstances and their lives are in
danger. However, in this story in Mark
4:35-41, we can see that God does care, and Jesus was testing and building
their faith. Jesus had said they were
going to the other side.
I
don’t like discipline! However, I prayed
for discipline because as I had said in this post, I knew I lacked discipline. I’ve been just like the disciples and tried
to wake Jesus and ask Him if He cares and that I’m about to die.
And
so, He brought me here and said, “How is it that you have no faith?” I mean Jesus
could have said something like, “wow, close call – thanks for waking me.” But, instead He admonishes the disciples (and
me) for their lack of faith. We, as
students, realize that to learn this kind of faith, we must have the experience
of the storms of life.
Then
in verse 41, fear shifts to awe – the awesome power of Jesus in the boat with
them. Is it safer to be in the boat with
Jesus in a storm or in the calm without Him?
As
much as this present storm I am in is fierce, I have come to the conclusion
that I am safer anywhere with Jesus than without Him.
I
can’t help but enjoy the blunt honesty of this Gospel writer. Mark immediately leads us not to a calm place
of rest, but to Gentile territory filled with demons, pigs, dead people and the
hostile Gerasenes (chapter 5). But God –
reigns there too!
I’ll
be honest here, I pray that the demons present in the storms of life recognize
Jesus in me – for they will know their final resting place is the eternal
fire. It seems that wherever Jesus goes,
His holy presence triggers a reaction from the forces of the adversary of
God. As Christians, we will face
trouble. But as Christians we carry
Jesus to the demons and He alone has the encounter to make them fully human
again! Because no one is at peace and
fully human without Jesus!
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