Seeing Jesus In The Storm
I used to enjoy flying so much. As a kid, I loved being on a plane when it hit turbulence. You know that feeling you get in your stomach on a roller coaster? I wanted to experience it on every flight! But now, turbulence messes me up. I get light headed, start to sweat, and I pray the most glorious prayers you’ve ever heard; prayers that would bring the actual presence of Jesus on that plane with me. If the canon were still open, Psalm 151 would be one of my turbulence prayers!
In Mark 6, Jesus’ disciples hit some turbulence on the sea, but Jesus was noticeably absent from among them. A few hours earlier, he made them get on a boat while he want up to a mountain to pray and watch their boat. Then their boat hit a hurricane. He saw them struggling. And what he did next, walking on the storm, speaking to them, and calming the sea, shows much about what he does for us in our storms.
Jesus Is God
We believe that God created and sustains everything, including water and the laws of physics, and he can do what he wants with them. He has power over the creation that he made. And what we learn about how our Triune God created is that it was actually Jesus who did the creating. Colossians 1: Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. Jesus was there at creation. He made the water he was walking on. He was actively holding it together while he was walking on it! Just like he was holding the boat together, and the molecules on the disciples bodies together. And only God can walk on the storm, guys. Job knew that. Listen to what Job wrote: “God alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.” God alone; only God could do what Jesus is doing.
We get beat around by storms and turbulence. We don’t see one part of this story here in Mark. Probably because Mark is Peter’s telling of the story, and he was probably a bit embarrassed about what else happened here. But Matthew doesn’t care. He writes away: “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter answered him, “command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!” We see the storm, and we crumble, we fear. But there’s one who doesn’t. Jesus is God, and he is able to overcome any fear in your life, any storm you feel like you’re going through. Maybe it feels like it’s too late. Even if Jesus did show up in your life, you’ve already made too much of a mess, there’s already been too much damage, too much sin, too much brokenness. The storm that’s raging in your life is too big. Thankfully, we also see that…
Jesus Is In Control Of Your Life
It wasn’t just that these guys made some bad life choices and found themselves in this boat. No, remember, Jesus made them immediately get into this boat. He put them in the boat at the exact time needed for them to be in this storm. If you’re in the storms of life, feeling like you’re sinking, God wants you to be there. Because God wants us to be in a spot where we’ve got no place else to turn but him. Because he knows us. Jesus knew his disciples, how dense they were. And we’re the same. As long as we can have some confidence in ourselves or trust in something in this world, we’ll not even think about Jesus. Just like me on a plane. I don’t think about Jesus until the turbulence hits. And so the storm may need to get worse for some of us. Peter left the comfort of even the boat. And Peter came to the point where he was drowning, with nothing at all to fall back on, so he just cried out, “Lord, save me!” Guys, we’ll never cry out for Jesus to save us if we think we can do it on our own. We never will. It’s because of what Proverbs 14 says: There is a way that seems right to a person, but it’s end is the way of death. There’s always going to be a way that seems like we’re in control or we’re self sufficient, we have everything we need, but God tells us that the end of that path is death. So for some of us he has to lead us into a storm, lead us to a place where realize that we can’t handle, and we’ll cry out for him to save our lives. That’s an evidence of God’s goodness, his grace in your life. Because you’d be putting your trust in someone who is greater than the storm: Jesus, Stormwalker.
Jesus Is Pursuing You
That’s the third thing we learn about Jesus. He leaves the mountain he’s praying on and enters a hurricane to bring these guys the courage they need. Jesus pursues you; he’ll walk into any storm to meet your needs. He’s not just there for us when we’re easy to approach, he’s there for us in the storm, passing by us, showing us how powerful he is. He pursues us, even when we’re not pursuing him. And I believe that he’s pursuing each person reading this post. We each have a next step God wants us to take with him. But my fear is that we can sit in our row boats, sinking in life, and just kind of wave at Jesus and say, “Hey man I see you, but I’m good. I’m taking on water, drowning, but I got this!” Maybe Jesus has been pursuing you, but you just haven’t recognized it. That’s what Job realized. After Job said that only God treads on the waves of the sea, look at what else he said: “If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him; if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.” Job realized how much trouble he had recognizing God, even when God was working right in front of his face. And that’s all of us. God works right in front of us all the time; giving life, blessing us, working things for our good, answering prayers we didn’t know to pray, giving us 10,000 reasons to praise him and see him for how good he is, but we’re focused on our bank account, or the next game that’s on, or comparing ourselves with our neighbors. Just like the disciples were focused on the loaves of bread. Is there a way God’s been pursuing you, showing you who he is and how he wants you to trust him? He’s pursuing you for a good reason…
Jesus Give You Peace
That’s what Jesus wants to do for his disciples here. He wants them to have peace and courage even though the storm is raging. We get a hint of what kind of peace Jesus wants his followers to have at the very end of this chapter. Look at the last verse of Mark 6: Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe. And everyone who touched it was healed. That word, “healed,” it actually means that they were saved. And here’s the amazing thing about how Jesus gives us peace guys: all those people Jesus physically healed, still died. People that Jesus did something physically for, still suffered later. In fact, even though he saved his disciples from this storm, they would all die pretty rough deaths that actually may have been worse than this storm.
A lot of time we think that Jesus came to bring peace around us. Just to quiet all of our storms and heal people and set people free. He may in fact do that. But that’s not what he was telling people that he came for. He kept telling people that he didn’t come just to bring peace AROUND us, but to bring peace INSIDE of us. He said I’ll give you peace in your soul, and that comes from having him with you.
And that’s really good news for us, because we’re never going to have peace all around us. We can try all we want, but it’ll never happen. Even if we get all the money we ever dreamed of having, we’ll be stressed about keeping all that money. We may buy our dream house, but be bogged down with upkeep and things breaking. Get our dream job, but the stress of doing it well is killing us. We think that peace comes from all of our outside circumstances being how we want them; our peace depends on our current financial situation, our relationships or lack of relationships, our possessions, our health, family dynamics, but Jesus says that we’ll have the peace we’re craving in life when we have him. The physical storm that these disciples were in was just a picture of their spiritual struggle going on on the inside. The struggle of knowing that they didn’t know God, their lives were filled with brokenness, and they were fearful about what would happen when they die. That was a raging storm on the inside of each of these guys. And maybe that’s a raging storm inside of you too.
I know that some of us have real, terrible physical storms that we’re begging God to save us from. And he may. But eventually we all die. The good news is that Jesus wants to heal us, save us, on the inside, forever.
Everything you and I need in life to have peace forever, Jesus took care of by walking into another storm. The storm was the consequences of our sin and rebellion against him. And he quieted it on the cross. He was broken on the cross, he died, to quiet that storm. You can have Jesus today, you can receive him, receive the peace that he purchased for you, and have the storm inside of you be completely quieted.