Mark 4:35-41

Rachel Workman: ³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Sounds like me every day of my life. Well almost every day. Jesus, Jesus save me. When the fact is he already has. I need a shirt that say Keep Calm and Trust Jesus.

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Pat Bell: He explained everything to his disciples, yet they still didn’t totally understand. They continued to have fears and doubts, poor Jesus. As much as his disciples failed him then, how much do I fail him now. 

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John Burnett:  ³⁰ And He said, “How shall we ^[a]picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the ^[b]air can nest under its shade.”

³³ With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.  The group of disciples, were small like the mustard seed, and like the seed they were powerful and God’s Kingdom grew and grew.

Jesus Stills the Sea

³⁵ On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ^36 [c]Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸ Jesus Himself 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?” ³⁹ And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ^[d]it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you ^[e]afraid? Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”  Bit by bit, they were learning more and more about Jesus, the man but also that He was God himself in the flesh.

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Allen Michaels:  ³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

The disciples panicked because the storm threatened to destroy them all, and Jesus seemed unaware and unconcerned. The disciples were experiencing a physical storm, but storms come in many other forms. I have a few storms in my life. Anything that causes us great anxiety is a storm. I can worry and assume that Jesus no longer cares, or I can resist that fear, putting my trust back in him. The choice is totally mine. When I feel like panicking I need to confess my need for God and then trust in him to care for me. Right now this whole Paris situation is a storm for me. But I must lose this anger and just trust that God is in control of everything.

⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” It’s sad to me that even though the disciples lived with Christ they always underestimated him. They did not see that his power even applied to their situation. Jesus has been with his people for over 20 centuries, and yet we, like the disciples, underestimate his power to handle crises in our lives. But in all fairness to the disciples this did not yet know enough about Jesus like we do today. Therefore, we cannot make the same excuses.

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Tomorrow's reading for Mark 5:1-10.

5 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.^{[a] 2} When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.