Calming what storm?

Categories: ouch, st-pixels

Tags: Accident, Jesus, Christ

Date: 27 June 2012 16:23:53

Diary of an accident victim - part 58

This is a reply to the St Pixels Service: Mark 35-41. It is too long to fit in a reply box, so I'm linking it from here.

-oOo-

Mark 4:35-41

New International Version - UK (NIVUK) - and all other quotes in this blog entry.

Jesus calms the storm

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ 41 They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’
The disciples reacted in the same way we all do when we are afraid..Where are you? Why aren’t you helping us? What does this reading teach us about trusting in Jesus?

-oOo-

Now it's my bit.

What does it teach me about trusting in Jesus? Not much actually. Because I am sick and tired of those who will take this passage in isolation and say, "When you are in the storms of life if you turn to Jesus it will all be OK." But it isn't OK. Those who have been reading my blogs for the last 6¼ years will know that I have pain walking following an accident. An accident which the courts say was completely the other person's fault. An accident which I had no chance of avoiding. But if you listen to those who claim that if we turn to Jesus he will calm every storm then it must be my fault that I got hit, because if I had been trusting Jesus it wouldn't have happened. Do they think that if I'd have called Jesus' name in the split second the car swerved at me it would have missed? But Jesus teaching does not say that at all.

What Jesus said:

Look at what Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees:
Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. Matthew 23:34
So the ones that Jesus sends will be crucified, flogged or chased out of town.  Nice. Or these words of Jesus to the disciples:
 ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ John 16:33
Jesus has overcome the world, but that doesn't mean we won't have trouble. We will have trouble. So wht does the calming of the storm passage mean then? taking into account that the rest of the New Testament does not say we will be freed from troubles? It says something about the divinity of Jesus. Here was a man who could control storms. The power of God was working through him. It shows Jesus caring for the physical side of people's lives. It must have been some storm. At least four of the disciples were fishermen, experienced sailors who would have experienced the odd storm before. How bad does it have to be for then to be afraid. If these four disciples had seen signs of the storm coming would they have got into the boat in the first place. As for saving the disciples, what happened to them later? One betrayed Jesus and committed suicide, one died in exile, the other ten died for their faith in Jesus. Look to Jesus and things will be OK? I think not. One thing has me confused though, why did the storm need rebuking? If it was simply a case of calming it would have been enough. But Jesus didn't just say,"Quiet, be still. " First he rebukes the wind. The next bit is purely speculative, there's no evidence from the text itself, but could the origin of the storm have had a spiritual dimension? Jesus and the disciples all in one boat. Get rid of them all at once, Jesus death may still have been redemptive, but who was to tell about it? Could it have been a diabolical storm? Literally. Speculation over. One thing that it does say in the text is that Jesus is present with the disciples in the boat. Even before the storm is calmed he is there. With them. What is true of my experience as a Christian is that Jesus is there in the bad stuff. He goes with you through the bad things in life. In hospital all those years ago I experienced Jesus close to me in a way I have never done before or since. So what do we learn?
  1. That the power of God works through Jesus.
  2. That Jesus is with us when life is less than perfect.
And that's about it.