Mark 4:35-41. "Should Christians Be Afraid of Jesus?"

In this episode Tim delivers a sermon discussing Mark 4:35-41, where Jesus calms a storm, astonishing his disciples. Despite their experience as sailors, the disciples are overwhelmed by the storm’s intensity and question if Jesus cares about their safety. When they wake him, Jesus rebukes them for their fear and calms the storm, leaving the disciples terrified of his power.

Tim explores the nature of fear and faith, distinguishing between fear of danger, which leads to fleeing or freezing, and fear of God, which entails trusting in His power and love. He explains that the disciples' fear revealed their lack of trust in Jesus’ care. True fear of God, Tim emphasizes, involves faith and trust in His love, even amidst life’s storms. He highlights that the disciples did the right thing by turning to Jesus in their fear, and encourages us to do the same, trusting that Jesus is with us through all trials.

 This Sunday sermon, based on Mark 4 verses 35-41, was preached at Grace of God Lutheran Church on June 23, 2024.  This sermon is preached by Pastor Timothy J. Walsh, a member of WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod). Scripture selections come from the New International Version.

Our services are at 9:30am every Sunday morning, at our campus in Dix Hills on Long Island. Visit our website for more information, at www.graceofgod.church 

Intro Music "On the Way" by Vlad Gluschenko https://soundcloud.com/vgl9
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0

Outro Music "Divenire" by Ludovico Einaudi
copyright (℗) by: Ludovico Einaudi (in 2006)             

Transcript

“The LORD can do all things; no purpose of his can be thwarted.” Amen.

Jesus did not warn his disciples that they would face a storm when they set sail that day on the Sea of Galilee. And this was a ferocious storm. Among Jesus’ disciples were fishermen, professional sailors, who made their living on the water. They were overwhelmed by what was happening! So what Jesus says to them in the end - “Why are you so afraid?” - feels harsh.

I want to emphasize the Greek word translated “afraid” here. It’s a rare, strong word. It only shows up three times in the New Testament; here, in Matthew’s telling of this story, and in Revelation twenty-one, verse eight, which goes like this: “The cowardly” - that’s our word here, the one translated in our reading as “afraid” - “The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” In that reference, this word describes people who will be separated from God forever in hell. In other Greek literature outside the Bible, it describes people who are morally worthless because of their fear.

Had Jesus warned the disciples, that he would react to their fear with names like that? He had not. Instead, what he had been doing earlier that day was telling “small” parables. Parables about small, simple things growing. Seeds cast by a farmer, growing into a harvest. A lamp, shining from where it sits on a table. Then seeds again; growing as the farmer goes about his other chores, growing into trees where birds can build their nests. Parables about smallness.

And all day, his message has been this: “This is what faith is. This is what God’s work looks like.” Small things, growing. Couldn’t he have told a parable about waves and windstorms and sinking boats if he expected a different reaction from the disciples?

Well, let’s consider what happened. After teaching all day, Jesus told the disciples, “Let’s go to the other side of the lake.” This wasn’t their idea. Jesus himself had instructed them to get in that boat and take him to the other side. When the storm comes, Jesus is asleep. The disciples wake him and ask him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 

Jesus gets right up, calms the storm, and then castigates the disciples. Throws this “coward” word at them. It’s harsh. But might it be justified? He had told them to cross the lake. Would he really put them in danger? They questioned whether he cared about their lives. Hadn’t his actions shown them how much human life mattered to him? Had they not learned the lesson of his anger toward the Pharisees before he healed the withered hand of the man in the synagogue that one Sabbath? Of course Jesus cared about their lives.

The disciples were afraid of the waters and the storm; now, it’s Jesus they fear. Verse forty, “They were terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this?’”

That’s the center of this story. What are we afraid of? What do we fear?

Fear is complicated. It’s a complicated emotion. It shows itself in different ways. Someone who’s afraid might scream and run away from what’s scaring them. Another person, in a different circumstance, might freeze. Fear can also lead to what psychologists call defensive aggression. When I’m afraid, I may attack the thing that’s scaring me. I might have the hope of actually destroying it; I may simply hope to scare it away. 

Biblically, fear also means different things. It can mean that emotional reaction to a perceived danger, with all the possible ways that can manifest. But we have a slightly different meaning when we read passages such as Proverbs one seven, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” We’re talking about something slightly different there. A related concept, but a separate one. What does it mean to fear God?

If I’m out hiking upstate, and I run into a bear, I should be afraid. This is a strong, dangerous being, which I cannot overpower. If I were hiking upstate, and I ran into God on the trail, I would think the same thing! This being is strong; stronger than I. This being is dangerous, lethal; he doesn’t even need claws and teeth to take my life. I cannot overpower this being.

Job had an encounter with God in our first reading that’s something like running into God on a hiking trail. “The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm… ‘Brace yourself like a man,’” he said to Job. Get ready, Job, here comes the bear!

Who is this “Job” character? Some of you know his story, some of you don’t. Job lived, more or less, four thousand years ago. He was an incredibly wealthy man; he was also a good man. He loved his family. He treated his servants well. He had a good reputation.

But God allowed Job to face severe testing. God allowed Satan to destroy most of Job’s wealth and to kill all of Job’s children in one day. Then God allowed Satan to attack Job personally. Job became horrifically sick. Boils and sores broke out all over his body. 

Three friends of Job come to see him, when they hear about his suffering. They sit with him for a full week, silent, giving Job the opportunity to speak first. When he finally does, he bares his soul to them. Here’s some of Job’s first words after that silent week, from Job chapter three: “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come?” He’s speaking about himself, of course, but it’s a question that applies to others. When anyone is hurting so much that they want to die, why doesn’t God simply let them die? 

Job’s three friends then start offering their answers. They all basically come down to one thing: “Job, you must have some hidden sin in your life, which God wants you to admit.” They look at what God is doing and they say, “This is God’s mercy, Job! God doesn’t want you to be lost forever because of your sin. Before you actually die, confess your sin! That’s what God wants.”

That sounds pretty good, but it’s not the case. See, God himself states at the beginning of Job’s book, “There is no one on earth like my servant Job. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” God means what he says there! God doesn’t mean that Job is perfect. What God means, Job daily acknowledges both his sinfulness and his actual sins. Job daily acknowledges that all he has is a gift from God. Job daily trusts God.

It’s not that Job’s friends couldn’t be right. God can bring hardship and trouble into our lives to call us to repentance. But it wasn’t what he was doing with Job. And you can imagine, for those seven days, Job examining himself. Examining his life. Wrestling with that question: “Am I offending God with my life?” Finally, he comes to the divinely-confirmed, legitimate conclusion that he is not. Then the sorrow and hurt become too much to bear, and he bursts out, “Why won’t God just let me die?”

Job’s friends go back and forth with him, and it goes nowhere. They keep insisting that God must be looking for repentance from Job, and Job insists on his own innocence. There’s no resolution for them, until God weighs in. That’s the selection we have in our Old Testament reading. A stormcloud gathers around the friends, and “then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. ‘Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?’” God says to Job. The point God makes in this selection is simply, “Recognize that you don’t know everything. Recognize that I am greater than you.” 

If that was all of God’s answer to Job - putting Job in his right place as a creature before his Creator - we would have nothing to criticize. God can do what he wants with what he’s made. The Bible teaches this in such places as Romans nine: “Who are we, human beings, to talk back to God? Will what’s made say to the maker, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” No!

But Job’s objection is not about God’s right to do whatever God wants. Job recognizes that right off the bat. After his children die, he says, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” After the disease strikes his body, he says, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” Job doesn’t have a problem with God doing what God wants. 

But Job - this man who loves God, who knows that God loves him - Job can’t keep himself from wanting to know, “Why?” Because this is what Job knows about God; Job knows that God is love! God doesn’t look at us lesser beings like a kid who caught a fly might, pulling off its wings and legs just to see what. God loves us. Job knows that.

Because Job knows that, God in the end says this about Job, chapter forty-two eight. “My servant Job has spoken the truth about me.” It is true, God says, that I don’t act this way. I don’t lay people flat with pain and suffering for no good reason. I do love you.

That’s why Jesus rebukes the disciples. Unlike Job, they forget this about him. “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” In other words, “Do you really love us?”

The disciples are afraid. They’re afraid of the storm. And to fear something like a storm at sea, or a bear in the mountains, is different than fearing God. When we encounter something like a bear, we want to escape. Some bears, you’re supposed to make noises and frighten off. Others, you should play dead and hope for the best. Because no matter what, the bear is not a being you want to interact with.

Fearing God is different. To fear God is to properly see him as the being you need to interact with. Not to chase him away. Not to play dead. To cling to him.To plead with him, in danger and peril, for your deliverance. In other words, fear of God is faith in God. It’s trusting God.

To fear God is to trust that, despite what may be going on in your life, he does love you. He does care about you. To look at the waves and winds and trust that, no matter what happens, you do belong to him.

That would be easier if we all got warnings like Paul did, right? In our second reading, Paul told the others on his ship that he was confident about surviving the seas because God sent an angel to tell him that they would. Well, that’s nice for Paul, isn’t it. But why hasn’t God sent an angel to tell you when your search for a job will end? When your prayers for a spouse will be answered? When your relationship with your kids will get better? When your cancer will go away? Where’s the angel with the message, God?

Brothers and sisters, we don’t need to know. Neither did Paul. God told Paul, God could tell you. But what God has told you is sufficient, and it should have been sufficient for the disciples. Jesus is with you. Just as Jesus was in the boat with the disciples, so Jesus is with you in your trials. He promises this, John fourteen: “Jesus said, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. The Father will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” God Most High, the Holy and Blessed Trinity, dwells in you. 

Are you afraid, like the disciples, that the God who goes with you is asleep? It didn’t actually matter that he was asleep then, but regardless you can be assured; he doesn’t sleep anymore. 

For all their misplaced fear, the disciples did the right thing. When they were afraid of danger, they ran to wake Jesus. When storms come into your life, do the same thing. Wake up Jesus. When fear would lead you to freeze, let the love of Christ rise up in action. When fear would lead you to flee, let the boldness of Christ steady your feet. When fear would lead you to attack, let the gentleness of Christ be your response. Don’t fear the world. Fear God, like Job, by believing that he is who he says he is. Trust in his love. Amen.