Jesus Care For those Who Are Perishing

Mark 4:35-41 The Bible says that:  When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.”   When Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow him, he invites us to live a life of discipleship that ultimately leads to heaven.  The end of our journey of faith is eternal life in the glories of heaven where there is no suffering—no sorrow—no separation from the Lord or his people.  That is what awaits us in heaven. 

But the journey there…well that is something else altogether.  The Bible says that “it is through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God.”  There are examples of that precept in our readings today.

 Job was a man who was “blameless and upright”.  He feared God and shunned evil and yet he lost everything except for his own life.  The Apostle Paul served the Lord courageously and sacrificially and yet endured “hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger.”  How true it is that…

“It is through many tribulations that we enter the Kingdom of God.”  It’s always been that way for God’s people-- and it will be that way for us. 

When Jesus invites us to be his disciples, he is not inviting us to go with him on a journey of safety and ease and luxury-- any more than he promised the disciples that they would sail the Sea of Galilee on smooth waters. 

But he does promise us that he will be with us on the journey and that he cares for us and that he is greater and more powerful than any trial or tribulation that we face and that he will bring us safely home.  He did it for the disciples on the Sea of Galilee and he will do it for us in our journey to heaven.  The Bible says that:

…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.

            I had a friend in Kingsville who had a boat.  Occasionally he would take me out into the Gulf of Mexico to go fishing—30 or 40 miles out into the gulf.  That far out into the gulf, four to six foot swells are called “smooth seas”.  I always begged to differ.  Four to six foot wells meant that the boat was moving up and down four to six feet at a time.  I’ve been out there when swells were more than that and I can’t imagine being on a stormy sea.

            What I was always struck by is how small and weak and insignificant I felt being out there in the ocean on that little boat-- and how powerful and overwhelming are the forces of nature in comparison.

There are all kinds of situations in life like that that the child of God faces.  A few little cancer cells have the power to end our life.  One hail storm has the power destroy our crops and our livelihood.  One genetic mutation can lead to a birth defect or miscarriage.  In a few short hours a hill country stream can turn into a raging torrent that sweeps away houses and lives.  One crazy person with a gun can kill nine people while the study the Bible and pray.

That is the way life is (even for the Christian) in a world that has been broken by sin and ruined by Satan.  There is nothing we can do to stop it or change it any more than the disciples could stop the wind and calm the seas.

And that makes us feel helpless and powerless and afraid and it makes us wonder:  Where is God in the midst of this?  Why won’t he help?  Doesn’t he care about us?  The Bible says that:

Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And the disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

            We understand that question don’t we?  We have asked it ourselves in the midst of hard times.  But that question in the heart of a believer reveals a fundamental misunderstanding we have of what our life with God will be like. 

We have this mistaken idea that life with God as a disciple of Jesus means that somehow, some way, we are going to magically escape all the difficulties that go with living in a world broken by sin and Satan.  (And there are plenty of false prophets in the church today who make their living telling people that lie).  But it is not true and it never has been true!

From the moment sin entered into the world, Adam struggled to make a living against a creation that fought against him every step of the way.  Eve brought her children into the world through pain and suffering.  There was conflict in their marriage and family.  The Israelites suffered through terrible droughts and famines.  Evil men persecuted the people of God.  The apostles were martyred except for John and he was exiled on a desert island.

That’s the way life is for the child of God living in a broken world.  The Bible says: “Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.”   What the disciples learned that day (and what we need to remember) is that just because we are following Jesus, that doesn’t mean we won’t face hard times and frightening trials. 

But in the midst of that storm, Jesus hadn’t abandoned the disciples and he won’t abandon us in the storms of life.  Instead he will come to our aid and meet our need just like he did that day on the stormy seas.  The Bible says that:

Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

            There is a reason that Jesus slept through a storm that terrified his disciples and there is a reason that his words immediately calmed the sea and there is a reason that he could walk on those same waves.  It’s the same reason that in his presence the blind could see and the lame could walk.  It’s the same reason that in his presence hunger became plenty and death became life.  It’s because in the presence of Jesus, the creation meets her Creator and her brokenness has to give way wholeness.

            That is what Jesus wants us to understand.  There is no trial or difficulty that we will ever face that is greater or more powerful than Jesus Christ.  His words calm stormy seas and give healing to the broken and call the dead from their tombs.  That is who Jesus is-- and he is with us and hears us as we call to him and will bring us safely through whatever storm we are facing.

But we do have to understand one thing.  Real deliverance is more than making it through the storms of life.  Real deliverance is making it to our heavenly home.  You see, even after the storm was stilled, that wasn’t the end of the challenges the disciples faced.

They would face people who were possessed of demons.  They would face fellow Jews who rejected them and their message.  They would face thousands of people who were hungry and had no food.  And they would even face another long night on a stormy sea.  And so it would go for them throughout their life until they died a martyr’s death.

Jesus hadn’t come to get them out of one jam after another—he had come to deliver them from the trials of life in a broken world altogether.  So it is for us.  Real deliverance.  Real safety.  Real wholeness does not come when Jesus helps us out of the next mess—it comes when he brings us home to heaven.

That deliverance was not accomplished by an act of his sovereign, almighty power.  It was accomplished by a profound act of humility where he identified with our sin (our faithless fears, our lack of trust, our shameful doubts) and carried that whole sorry mess to the cross to pay the price for all the times we have not trusted a good and gracious God as we should. 

He rose again and ascended to heaven to show us what he really came to do:  to forgive our sins and gives us a new life unencumbered by death and to bring us to our heavenly home. 

That living Christ is still with his people in the storms of life and he will bring us through them—either by stilling the storm--or by bringing us to our heavenly home. 

And so, the words that Jesus spoke to the stormy seas he also speaks to our hearts that are tossed to and fro by the storms of life:  Peace! Be still!  I am with you.  You don’t have to be afraid!  There is nothing you face more powerful than I!  Peace! Be Still! 

Then Jesus asked them a question that he still asks his disciples today:   He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  Well dear friends in Christ, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 

The only response to those questions from the child of God is this:  Lord I believe!  Help my unbelief!  Help me to believe that you are with me!  Help me to believe that you are more powerful than anything I will ever face!  Help me to believe that you will bring me safely home!  He is—and he will.  That Bible says that:  The disciples were filled with great fear

What I find so interesting is how the fear of the disciples changed over the course of their journey.  In the midst of the storm they feared the wind, they feared the waves, they feared for their lives. 

But at the words of Jesus their fear and their trust and their love found its proper object and that is God.  We are to fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  And because they had gone through the storm with Jesus, because they had heard his words, because they had experienced his deliverance—now it had.  They asked one another:

“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?  It is God.  That answer would go with them into the next storm and the next trial and the next hardship.  And so it does for us.  Jesus is Immanuel, the God who is with us and Jesus is the Lord who saves.  That is who is with us in the storm of life.  That is who will bring us safely home.  God.

Well, that is where our text ends but that is not really where the story ends.  Our story began with an invitation from Jesus to his disciples to go with him to the other side.  If you have your Bible open you can see how the story ends in the first verse of chapter five:  they came to the other side.  Here’s the thing…

Jesus did not invite the disciples to go with him only to see them overcome by the story seas.  He was with them every step of the way and his powerful presence delivered them safe and sound on the other side.

So it is for us.  Jesus has not called us to come and follow him only so that we can be overcome by the storms of life.  He has called us to journey with him so that we can safely reach our heavenly home.  May God grant it to us all for Jesus’ sake!  Amen.