So earlier this morning I was reading over the Scripture text for this morning’s Sunday School lesson.
I came to verses 37 and 38 (naturally, since the passage is Mark 4:26-41):
And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow; and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
What should have they done?
What do you think you would have done?
More importantly, what did Jesus want them to do?
Not what they did. That’s quite obvious from what He said to them (v. 40) after He calmed the storm:
And he said unto them,
Why are ye so fearful?
how is that ye have no faith?
Frankly, I don’t know what they were supposed to do.
I mean…yeah, I know they were supposed to be full of faith and without fear.
But in practical terms, what were they supposed to do?
And when my “boat” is being pounded by the wind and filled by the waves, what am I to do?
Hey Mark,
“What were they ‘supposed’ to do ?”
Good question. Because it leads to a good answer.
What they did was perfectly human. The vast majority would have done the same thing. My experience is that the answer to the question is seldom what one is ‘supposed’ to do. What it usually comes down to is what one ‘will’ do, because we are what we are. But what we may have been and may have done yesterday, may not necessarily be what we are and would do today. And tomorrow we may be and do differently yet. (And should we not thorougly hope so?)
If I were ‘in the boat’ I may freak as bad any. But if I were ‘in the boat’, so to speak, on numerous different occasions over time, so that I came to perceive an unseen hand guiding and working things in uncanny ways, then perhaps I would little by little learn to relax, as my natural fear is replaced by a supernatural faith. I think this is what Jesus was prompting them to understand. That our human nature shall yield with time as faith is learned more and more as we go. If so, it is not our own doing, but is the sovereign presence and work of ‘God within us’, (Immanuel) which is why faith is a gift, and not of ourselves.