Mark 4:35-41 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, June 23, 2024 “Even the Wind and the Sea Obey Him”
I noticed this about myself on a recent drive up into northern Arizona: no matter how many times it happens, I am intrigued whenever I see a boat. I would see boats hauled on trailers on the freeway, and I would think something like, “That’s a nice-looking boat. They are probably going to have a good time. I wonder where they are going.” I suppose I think that way because boating is not a big part of my life right now. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you just find me stranger than you did before. But here’s my real comparison: I do not have the same level of familiarity with boats and bodies of water as did the disciples in today’s Gospel account from Mark 4. You probably don’t either. Several of the men Jesus called to be his disciples were fishermen. They had a business of going out on their boats and lowering their nets and catching fish. In the first chapter of Mark, the Gospel records how Jesus saw Simon, Andrew, James, and John when they were dealing with their nets and boats and business. And Jesus called them to follow him with the explanation that he was going to have them fish for people instead. And they, and others along with them, followed Jesus. As these men followed Jesus, they saw him do amazing things. He healed diseases. He drove out demons. He let people walk who couldn’t before. He forgave people and taught people and answered questions and amazed many. Jesus often had a crowd of people around him. He did at the time of our verses. Jesus had been teaching the people with parables about the kingdom of God. He had been teaching so many people that to give himself space, he had climbed into a boat and pushed out a little way from the shore so that he could speak as the people gathered along the shore. We’re not told for sure, but it may have been the same boat that Jesus and his disciples left in that evening. We are told that they left to head to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. This was the sea in which the fishermen disciples had their business. Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth was in the region of Galilee, near the sea. Jesus spent a lot of time on the shores and in the cities near this body of water. Crossing the sea was not something out of the ordinary for his disciples. They were experts. Some other small boats also followed them because those people were not ready to stop listening to Jesus. But there was a problem. A serious storm came up on the Sea of Galilee very suddenly. That was something that happened frequently enough. But remember, these were experienced fishermen. They knew boats. They knew storms; they knew the sea. And still they were terrified. This was a serious storm. The winds whipped around. The waves crashed over the sides of the boat. The boat was filling up with water. The men were panicked. They were not used to this. And, incredibly, Jesus was asleep. Well, not for long. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to drown?” What a question! Jesus cared enough to call these men to follow him. He cared enough to let them see the most amazing things they had ever seen. Paralyzed men picked up their mats and skipped away. Demonpossessed people gained their lives back. Sick people were well in an instant. And Jesus, who was doing all those things, took the time to talk to these men and explain the parables he used to teach others about the kingdom of God. Maybe the disciples didn’t know yet all the things that we know about Jesus. We know that he cared enough to leave heaven to live among these men. We know that he cared enough that his whole life was headed toward a sacrificial death on a cross. We know that he cared enough to become a true human being like us, with all that means—like getting tired, so tired from a day of teaching that a rocking boat in the storm didn’t even interrupt his sleep. But they wake him up and ask, “Don’t you care?” What were those disciples thinking? On some level, they must have known that Jesus cared. They certainly knew that he had some unique abilities. They were following him because they expected him to accomplish important things. They were even learning more and more about God’s kingdom. But what did they expect