Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
--Mark 4:38b
It would be so easy to pull this verse out of context. The question lends itself beautifully to any one of a number of awful realities in this world as we know it. The perishing of people is featured prominently in the twenty four hour news cycle. If it is too much to take, we grab the remote and change the channel to something more pleasant.
Out there on the Sea of Galilee, it was weather that wasn't pleasant. The boat -- with Jesus sound asleep in the stern -- was being battered by a storm.
"All hands on deck! Wait, where's Jesus?"
"He's crashed on the couch."
"What? If we ever needed his help it's now! I thought He was supposed to care for us. Get Him up, for crying out loud!"
Roused awake, Jesus turns to the weather. "Peace! Be still!" he barks.
And then there was dead calm.
What roused Jesus awake was fear and lack of faith. With the weather made pleasant again, the disciples were in awe. "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" they ask.
With awe, we're getting warmer. But there's still a ways to go if we hope to get past fear and lack of faith. Going it alone -- that is, without Jesus -- won't do. But what if He appears to be asleep in the stern or, worse yet, asleep at the wheel of our lives? Moments like that can be teachable ones, for we are in the school of faith.
PD
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