The Perfect Storm

1) total exhaustion from ministering to the crowds, and 2) total peace, knowing who he was and who his Father was. But they interpreted it as a lack of caring. It is interesting that this is the only place in all the Bible that we read of Jesus sleeping. Several times we read of him staying awake all night and praying, and we wonder how he did that. He obviously had to sleep, but this is the only recorded incident of him sleeping. It is ironic because this is a time when you would think it was impossible to sleep. The disciples wondered how he could sleep through the storm, and how he could sleep when they were in danger. They expected him to be attentive to their needs even in his sleep.

We have all been there, haven’t we? You are in the middle of a crisis and it seems like God is off somewhere taking a nap. You can almost hear him snoring. He doesn’t seem very responsive to your need. At least we know that we are in the same boat as the disciples. But what is Jesus’ response when he is awakened? After he rebukes the storm, he rebukes his disciples. He asks them two questions: “Why are you so afraid?”, and “Do you still have no faith?”. Fear and faith are incompatible. You might expect that Jesus would be compassionate here. “Why are so afraid?” the disciples might say. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was the raging storm around us, the violent pitching of the boat, the water swamping the boat so that it was starting to sink. Maybe it was that we thought we were about to drown. Just stuff like that. Don’t you think we had a right to be anxious?”

But Jesus was hoping that what they had seen him do in the past would provide a stronger faith in the future, but that was not the case. So first Jesus had to calm the storm, and then he had to calm his disciples. Has God ever done anything for you in the past? Has he solved any problems or answered any prayers? He is hoping that his faithfulness in the past will cause you to trust him in the future.

And here is the third lesson: Jesus will calm the storm. At the perfect time during the perfect storm he exercises his power over the storms of life. God is never in a hurry, and the reason he is never in a hurry is because he knows exactly what to do at exactly the right time. He does not go by our time. At just the right time, not the right time as far as the disciples were concerned, but just at right time, Jesus stood up and calmed the storm. Don’t worry, God has you in mind. He knows and understand you and your situation. He cares for you. His timing is perfect. The Bible says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). He is always watching out for us. Peter wrote, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer” (1 Peter 3:12).

The fourth lesson is: It is only in the storm that we truly understand who Jesus is. I think the most amazing part of the story is the disciple’s reaction to Jesus. When Jesus asks them why they are afraid, it is the Greek word meaning fearful in the moderate sense. But when Jesus calms the storm, the Bible says, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’” (Mark 4:41). The Greek literally says ephobethesan phobon megan: “they feared with great fear.”