I feel like everyone in my family has some kind of irrational fear.
Allie, my 10-year-old, was scared of the movie The Incredibles until she was 6 years old. I have no idea why. And my wife Veronica is terrified of spiders. It doesn’t matter how small the spider is, her reaction would make you think it’s huge and requires Hazmat gear and a compound bow to remove. Again, this fear is totally irrational to me. It’s just a spider.
We all know someone with an irrational fear. Maybe others think you have one of your own. But when you have the presence of Jesus in your life, all fears are irrational.
After Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and calmed the storm in Mark 4, he also rebuked the disciples for being afraid. Now, it seems to me that their fears were legitimate. They thought they were going to die. If there’s ever a time to be fearful, that would be it.
Did they really think God would let them sink with Jesus in their boat? They should have known better. If Jesus was going to make it to the other side (which he was), and if he was in their boat (which he was), that meant they would make it to the other side, too.
But because the disciples didn’t understand the power of Jesus over the storm, they feared the storm. Had they feared Jesus and understood his power, they wouldn’t have been afraid of the storm at all.
It makes me think of the movie Jurassic Park. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert … for the five of you who didn’t see this movie at some point in the last 20 years), velociraptors are surrounding the main characters, who are sure they are going to die. But then, just as they despair, the T-Rex bursts in and gobbles up all the raptors. At that moment, they see that the T-Rex is the real thing to be afraid of.
But what if the T-Rex is on my side? Then I don’t need to be afraid of the raptors. If the T-Rex is on my side, what can raptors do to me?
Jesus is the truer and better T-Rex. After all, “If God is for us, who can be against us? …. Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” (Romans 8:31b, 33a ESV)
Mark tells this story because it depicts how we often feel in life. We sense these storms brewing around us, and it seems like Jesus is sleeping. We are overwhelmed by the size of the waves coming up over the sides of the boat. We feel like we’re being drowned by bills, marriage concerns, problems with kids, or issues at work.
We’re trying to balance too much in life and wonder how we’re going to make it. And we look at Jesus and say, “Do you even care? If you love me, why would you send me into this storm in the first place?”
Here’s why: There are certain things about God you can only learn in the storm. In a storm, Jesus will always do one of two things: He’ll show off his power by delivering you from the storm, or he’ll show off his power by his ability to keep you in the storm.
The peace that passes all understanding is not always—not even usually—his calming of the storm but rather his sustaining presence with you in the storm.
When we worry, it’s because we’re either forgetting the power of Jesus over the storms or doubting his commitment to us.
You see, this story is supposed to remind us of another prophet who had an incident with the sea—Jonah. Jonah, that disobedient prophet who was running from God, calmed a storm by plunging himself into it. Jesus calmed the storm, however, by speaking to it. And that’s because this was not the place for Jesus to plunge himself into the sea. He would plunge himself into the sea—the sea of God’s wrath—where he would be swallowed up by death for three days, just like Jonah was swallowed up by the fish. The wrath of God was terrible, like a raging sea, and would have destroyed us forever. But Jesus faced the terror and silenced it in love.
The more we experience the fear of God, the more we learn to love. We are forgiven so that we might fear, and forgiveness makes us love Jesus (Psalm 130:4). Fear is the key to love.
And, if he cared about us then—when the waves of God’s wrath for us overcame him—surely he’ll never forget us now and will continue to watch over every detail of our lives and keep us from being destroyed.
He always has been, always is, and always will be wide awake to our storms and our suffering, always in perfect control.
For more, be sure to listen to the entire message here.
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