Jesus Calms a Storm With a Word – Shush!
In this story from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus calms a storm with a word – the word – Shush! Brian gives some modern day applications.
Mark’s Version of the Calming of the Storm
Our main passage in this post is found in Mark 4:35-41,
“On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he 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?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’”
Mark 4:35-41 (ESV)
The Sea of Galilee
The Sea of Galilee is like a huge bowl surrounded by mountains. It is 700 feet below sea level. Thirty miles to the North is Mount Hermon, 9200 feet high. The cold air coming down that 10,000-foot drop from the mountains smashes up against warm air coming up from the Sea of Galilee. The result? “Great windstorms”. Turbulence, furious squalls. But in the middle of a storm that made tough fisherman afraid, this is the only place in the gospels where Jesus is described as sleeping.
Notice the contrast between the disciples’ fear and Jesus’ peace of mind. He asks, “Why are you so afraid? but “they were filled with great fear.” The disciples should not be fearful. They just need to pay attention to Jesus: 1st – Jesus has told them that they would get to the other side. 2nd – They would not die because he would not die before his time. 3rd – Jesus is sleeping peacefully and is not afraid of the storm. 4th – He has demonstrated compassion for them many times before. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th — but I guess it’s hard to count in a bad storm.
Fear Before Jesus Calms the Storm
Before Jesus calms the storm, they are afraid. After he calms the storm, they are completely terrified. Why are they more afraid after Jesus speaks and makes everything calm? Maybe it is because they see that Jesus holds a power greater, more awesome, more frightening than the crash of the storm. What they have yet to learn, what I need to learn, is that not only is Jesus their best source of power, he is also their only source of rest.
In her book, Gates of Splendor, Elizabeth Elliot writes:
“God is God, and since he is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere else, but in his will, and that will is necessarily, infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.”
Elizabeth Elliot
Facing the Biggest Storms
When you and I face the biggest storms of life, they are powerful and uncontrollable and they certainly don’t love us. But the calm eye of the storm is Jesus, the One who is not only all-powerful but all-loving. The disciples’ question, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” shows they have no clue who he is – his heart, his power and his concern for them. Jesus’ response is very interesting: He doesn’t plant his legs and brace himself. He doesn’t roll up his sleeves and shout a magic spell at the waves. Instead, he says, “Peace. Be still.” That’s it – “Be quiet!” To a hurricane! The way you would shush a misbehaving child. And amazingly, the storm obeys, like an obedient child. The wind stops. The waves settle.
King Canute
King Canute once asked his people, “Am I divine?” He then walked to the shore and said, “Stop!” and of course, the ocean waves just kept coming. He was saying, “Only God can stop the sea.” Jesus can. He is God. He faced the worst storm in history. As he hung on the cross, the storm of God’s punishment for sin beat down on Jesus. Because he is God, he could take all that storm and take away the punishment for the sin of every person who believes in him. The Bible says,
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
(Acts 16:31)
Have you made a no decision or a yes decision about Jesus? Contact us at HopeStreamRadio, or comment below.
Brian Stapley
Brian Stapley is the husband of Margaret and “Christian-proud” father of Tabitha, Ben, Jeremy and Joel. He has been director of the Boys JIM Club of America since 1981 and a “JIM Clubber” since 1958, the year he became a Christian. The mission statement of the JIM Club is, “Discipling boys to love Jesus deeply and express him vividly.”
He has been an educator since 1970, primarily as a high school English Teacher. (Don’t dangle your participles.) He has been in fellowship at Scottlea Gospel Chapel, St. Catharines, since 1976 and travels to preach about three dozen times a year, in Ontario and New York State. He is a ventriloquist, in company with Casey, Theodore, Dodo, Grumpa, and a menagerie of others. Also, a bit of a magician.
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Images Courtesy of:
Stormy Sea – Pexels
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