Sermon Tone Analysis

Imagine, for a moment, that you are the disciples.

You’ve been with Jesus.

You’ve heard his teaching.

He asks you, in the evening, to cross the lake- to go to the other side.

And you agree.

But half way across the lake, a storm arrives.

Not just any storm- a whopper of a storm.

The boat is beginning to take on water.

And in the midst of certain calamity- in the midst of chaos at sea- Jesus is sleeping.

His head is on the pillow, his body is relaxed, and he has no idea (so we think) that the storm is about to sink the ship.

Please, take the time to note the details.

just as he was.

other boats

waves were breaking into the boat,

the boat was already filling

sleep on the cushion.

Jesus says, “Peace!

Be Still!” and the storm does.

The storm stops, the waves die down, the water is emptied from the boat, all gets sback to normal.

But there’s a new storm.

His Disciples are now upset about Him.

But that will come soon enough.

Note what got them upset in the first place.

“Don’t You care?”

Does Jesus care that we are in a storm?

I don’t want to discount this question, but I do want you to understand it.

“Do you not care that we are perishing?”

They sensed not that they were going to be swamped- they sensed that they were going to die.

The word “perishing” means to be utterly destroyed.

As much as the scriptures talk about the disciples that were fishermen and the stories of the sea, generally the sea was a place of great evil.

Most people did not work on the sea.

In fact, the seas became a symbol of the dark power of evil that threatened to destroy God’s good creation… think like Noah’s flood.

If you read the book of Daniel closely, you come to find that the sea is where monsters come from.

We need to understand this- the sea… and a storm at night played directly into this mindsight.

Noah story, Jonah story, Daniel.

We are going to die.

And so, the early readers of this gospel would have easily understood what Mark was trying to say in this gospel.

The forces of evil are real.

The monsters of our deepest fears can be roused from their sleep.

And they can be angry and threatening, much like this storm on the sea.

And when the storm is its thickest, when the enemy is crouching at the door- the one that wanted the trip in the first place is sound asleep on the front of the boat.

“Doesn’t He Care?”

This boat is about to go to the bottom of the sea with everyone in it.

We are going to drown and “Don’t you care?”

And Jesus does something remarkable...

We have four children- all 18 months apart.

It doesn’t sound like much, but there was a time when three of the four were in car seats… and the fourth was in a booster car seat.

On the day Rachel was born, I had removed the customized pedastel seats in our van and installed a stock factory bench seat in order to facilitate the room we needed to carry four car seats!

And so I can remember many times when in the back section of our van an argument would erupt, or some disruption would occur, and I would turn my head at a stop light or look in the mirror while going down the highway and try to settle the situation.

And I usually failed.

But Jesus, he is sound asleep with the commotion of a storm on a sea at night.

And when he awakes, with the calmness of a very competent parent speaking to his children- he speaks to all of creation, “Peace!

Be still!”

And all of the nature, as far as these fishermen could see- listened.

The Psalms speak a few times about God calming a storm.

The disciples would have been familiar with these, as familiar as they were with the possibility of a storm at night on the Sea of Galilee.

Perhaps most popular would have been Psalm 107.23-30

And so, Jesus just speaks the word, “Peace!

Be Still!”

And the storm stops.

That which a moment ago was dangerously powerful and uncontrollable- was now still.

Wow!

You’ve all heard sermons and Sunday school lessons on this passage.

But please see something here.

When Jesus rescues the disciples from their dire situation, you are seeing in concrete terms what God’s kingdom is capable of.

And please see this story in light of the parables that occurred just prior to this.

All of Mark 4 prior to this is about the Kingdom of God.

The Parable of the sower...

A light under a basket.

The parable of the mustard seed.

All parables of what the Kingdom of God is about.

And right in the middle of that Jesus says this in Mark 4:10-12

The Kingdom.

Here’s what it looks like.

The most dastardly, difficult power of evil you can imagine… the monsters of the sea, the storm out of nowhere… is about to meet the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom, after all, is at hand… isn’t it?

Its’ not what they expected, but it’s just as powerful and just as real.

It’s the power that made the world in the beginning, and this power is alive in Jesus Christ, and it’s now acting through Him.

And it subdues the storm, it calms the sea, it overcomes the evil.

I love Colossians 1:15-20

But look closely at Colossians 1:16

It tells us that this is who Jesus was- God.

And calming this storm is ample proof of that fact.

This man just spoke three words and a hurricane stopped.

This man just spoke three words and a tornado ceased to exist.

But what he did isn’t what this is about.

You see, when the storm settles, Jesus takes their question and puts it back on them.

He momentarily speaks to the storm, but his response to the disciples is another question.

Disciples:”Don’t you care that we perish?”

Jesus: “Why Are You Afraid?

Have you no faith?”

The meaning is actually, don’t you yet have faith?

I just taught you what to expect from the kingdom in those parables… I told you that the kingdom would be like a field growing in some thirty, sixty, ninety fold.

It would be a bright light that could not be hidden… it would be like a seed- growing in your hearts and minds!

And this faith in you would bring God’s kingdom to bear on the earth through the people who believe- YOU!

YOU!

Remember, the outsiders have parables because they can’t see what you know because you believe!

So, making a storm settle down is nothing!

This is child’s play.

What would happen if believers- people of faith- actually lived into the storms of their lives and of our world as if they meant it?