I fly back and forth from Seattle to Atlanta two to three times a year. Sometimes, I fly alone, and sometimes, I have different family members with me. My dad was a pilot who flew small aircraft, and we traveled internationally often. So, I have flown countless times in my life and have experienced flying in all sorts of weather conditions. To me, turbulence feels like being rocked to sleep. I’m not bothered by it most of the time.

But this flight was unlike any other. It was a red eye flight, late at night. My kids and I were flying together when we hit a huge storm over the Rockies. The wind started rocking and bouncing the plane like a basketball. It was impossible to sleep through. Looking up the narrow tube of the fuselage, the bodies bobbed and jerked to the same animated rhythm. People had even started to exclaim and cry out. I admit, I was pretty scared.

My youngest daughter though, was having the time of her life. She was riding every fall and side jar like a roller coaster. She began to squeal and laugh in delight. It was terribly unsettling, and I finally told her to cut it out.

She was completely clueless that everyone around her was scared of falling out of the sky to their death. For her, it was a crazy, fun time.

I imagine that bouncy flight when I read Mark 4:35-41. I tasted the same fear the disciples experienced in the middle of the sea, at night, in a great windstorm. I, too, began to doubt if I would make safe landing. Here is my translation of this passage.

Mark 4:35-41 : Jesus commands weather.

That same day, when evening had come, Jesus says to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”

So, leaving the crowd, they take him with them since he was in the boat. Also, there were other boats with him.

Then, a large windstorm happens. And the waves were crashing into the boat, so that already the boat is being filled.

Now, Jesus was in the back of the boat sleeping on a pillow. So, they wake him up.

They say to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

Being woken up, Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Quiet! Calm down!” And the wind stopped and it became very calm. Then, he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still not have faith?”

And they were terrified and were saying to each other, “So then, who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

This passage is the first in a series of four stories in Mark that deal with the fear people experienced around Jesus. Yes, you read that right.

Jesus could be scary.

Remember, Mark presents Jesus as a Christ of contrasts. I have called Mark the dissonant gospel because Mark portrays Jesus as a contradiction. The goal of Mark is to present Jesus as the Christ, but a Christ that is incompatible with all expectations. Rejected by rulers, yet recognized by demons. A revelation, yet shrouded in secrets. Righteous, yet loved by sinners. The giver of life, yet a dead man. Master of the cosmos, yet a servant. The contrasts pile up and grate against each other. Good news is packaged in paradoxes. Mark does not present a feel-good, easy to follow Christ. 

We can see the contrasts in this story. Jesus is limited to a body requiring sleep, yet he holds unlimited power over uncontrollable circumstances. He calms the stormy situation, but sparks a deep terror in his friends. Recognizing his true identity, Jesus’ followers must accept him as he really is, not the way they wish him to be. He is scary. But, he cares.

A Sleepy God

Jesus needed to sleep. Do you remember the day Jesus had? He had spent the entire day at the lake, standing in a boat offshore, yelling his lessons to a massive crowd. When evening fell, he is still in the boat, most likely unable to land due to the crowds. He decides the best course is to cross the lake that night. The man needed a nap.

Psalm 121:4 says that God neither slumbers nor sleeps. That is, until God became a man. Mark presents Jesus as the son of God, who had human needs. He was hungry. He was tempted. He was tired. He is the incarnate contradiction. Jesus has divine power wielded through the tired voice of an exhausted man.

In one waking second, that hidden power became blatant. With a word, Jesus commands the one thing that is completely out of everyone’s control – the weather. Jesus speaks. The cosmos obeys.

I wonder if Jesus slipped a bit when he calmed the storm? I am most likely projecting how I react when awoken from a sound sleep. My actions tend to get ahead of my brain. Jesus was jerked out of sleep to a chaotic situation. Waves were splashing, boat tumbling and jumping, and friends shouting at him. He was awoken, and he spoke,

“Quiet! Calm Down!”

Could his calming words have come from a deep sense of Creator-power recalled in a knee-jerk action to still the chaotic waters just as God did in the beginning? Did he mean to make everything go dead still? Or did his power slip out of him in a moment of perfectly-normal, human, sleep confusion?

One second later, in the dripping, dead calm, Jesus says, “Guys, why are you acting like cowards? Do you still not believe?” I imagine a bit of a sleepy, sheepish grin as he says this.

Care For Cowards

Now, the disciples really are terrified, or in the king’s English, they were sore afraid. The Greek says, “Fearing, they feared greatly.” Their fear goes from cowardice to full-fledged terror at the full display of Jesus’ true identity.

The power to calm the sea with a word is divine. Psalm 107:27-29 foreshadows Jesus’ actions as an act of God. It says, “Others went out to sea in ships… [God] spoke and raised a tempest that lifted the waves of the sea. They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths; their courage melted in their anguish. They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.” In calming the wind and waves, Jesus’ identity was again revealed to his followers.

In the space of three words, the timid disciples, who were on the brink of falling to pieces in the face of the storm, became aware that every storm is at the whim of their master, Jesus.

It is simply human to tremble in awe and fear at a display of the greatest power in the universe. Yet, they knew this man. They loved him and knew that he loved them. He woke and responded to their anxious question, “Do you not care that we are going to all die?” Jesus did care. And we was sad that they did not trust his care of them, even when circumstances felt out of control.

Enjoy The Ride

This is where my commentary comes full circle to the opening story. My daughter’s attitude toward the wind that was causing our entire flight such anxiety was a joy to her! She had no fear of the storm, but rested securely in her trust that God held that plane in his caring hands.

When we trust Jesus to not only be in control of our storms, but trust that he cares deeply for us, our stormy circumstances become something we can survive. No, its better than that. We can even enjoy the ride.