Monday meditation: Questions for anyone afraid they’re about to sink
“Here’s What Jesus Does”
Part 5: He Quiets Our Storms
Four questions stand out in the short story we’re reading today.
It tells of seasoned fishermen afraid in a storm on the lake where they’d spent countless quiet hours since they were boys. The boat that had served them so well for so many nights was now thrashed about in a storm like none they had ever experienced. With the water washing over the sides and their stomachs churning with fear for their very lives, they shook the shoulders of the teacher asleep in the stern.
“Do you not care that we are perishing?” they shouted at him over the roar of the wind and the waves.
Some reading this have cried out with the same question in the night to a God who seemed far away. We, too, have been tossed about by waves of disappointment and dismay as the challenges of caregiving grow only more difficult. We, too, have stared at the ceiling in the dark and have prayed, “God, don’t you care?”
We can take some solace in knowing we’re not alone. These fishermen were neither the first nor the last believers begging God to keep them from drowning. “How long, O Lord?” the psalmist cried centuries before them. “Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”
But God hadn’t forgotten the distraught psalm writer, and Jesus didn’t ignore the water-soaked men who came at him with desperate fear. With no effort, he simply told the sea to settle down, and then the disciples were as afraid at the solution as they had been by the problem.
Stunned, they stood to see the sea as calm as a backyard pool, and before they could bail any water out of the boat, Jesus returned their question with two of his own: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
These men had already seen greater wonders from Jesus than most of us have experienced: a demon dismissed, a leper’s wretched wounds made clean, paralysis removed, a withered hand restored. Peter, the most boisterous of Jesus’ followers, had watched in wonder as Jesus, with just a touch of his gentle hands, healed his mother-in-law of a disabling fever.
And yet when they came to their own problem, they panicked and quaked.
We understand. We, too, have encountered Jesus in many ways and places. We have read dozens of devotions, heard hundreds of sermons, attended a string of Scripture studies, enjoyed inspirational books, studied commentares, tried Bible-reading plans. We know about the miracles, we believe God raised Jesus from the dead, and we’ve seen at least a couple answers to our own prayers.
But today’s problems still make us tremble. Maybe a good exercise this week would be to ask ourselves the question Jesus thrust at his disciples. “Why are you so afraid?” Most of us will have more than one occasion to grapple with our response.
Perhaps we’ll find peace by considering the question the disciples asked themselves as they stood dripping with wonder. “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
We’re tempted to look down on them for not knowing the answer, because we certainly do. All that reading about him, hearing about him, and talking about him has told us Jesus was the very Son of God. But now we’ve come to a crossroads where we must claim the calm he brought that night.
Those with faith to believe the undeniable answer to the disciples’ question will discover the unimaginable solution he brought to their crisis. “Peace, be still” he commanded the threatening waters. And so, we’ll pray for the same quiet when tumult threatens to rage within us this week.
Read: Mark 4:35-41
Pray: Dear God, we want to answer the questions of Jesus with firm, fearless faith. But too often we find ourselves quaking at the crisis we’re facing. Thank you, Lord, for staying with us through each storm, even when we wonder if it will overwhelm us.
llustration copyright Classic Bible Art. All rights reserved. Click here for a list of events where you can see Classic Bible Art on display this year. For more information about securing a library of this beautiful art for yourself, see here or here. Some art in this series is available for you to license at Goodsalt.com.