November 22 - Mark 4:35-41 - "Fear and Awe"

MPC 22nd November 2020.

Pete Kutuzov

Do you remember how Jesus had had to get in a boat to preach? Pushed just out from the edge of the lake so that he doesn't get crushed by the crowds.

Well this is the end of that day.

I love how obvious it is that Mark is based on eyewitness testimony.

Jesus is already in a boat... there's some other boats around too... And the day is turning to evening. It's been a long day. And Jesus is like, "Guys... let's just take the boat straight over." He's has been teaching all day.

Using these parables. Pithy stories that fascinate and confuse the crowds in equal measure, but explaining them to his followers in great detail.

A long day. Let's just get out of here. But it is evening. So possibly there's some element of danger already to this trip.

(Why the other boats???) (I don't know. But when there are storms, you'd want to hope that you're in Jesus' boat. A little note that does remind us that there are other boats experiencing a seismos megas).

They're there. Tasting the salt in the air. The faint aroma of dried old fish guts. Feeling the wind drying out the skin on their cheeks. And then, hearing the wind rush up. And looking, and seeing, that in the dusk the clouds have come on way more quickly than they'd realised.

They're facing a windstorm. In the Greek, a mega windstorm. And the boat under them is starting to feel it. And before they know it still has changed. The surface that they were on is now breaking over them...

And the boat is filling up. There's no sense of 'riding out the waves' Negotiating the ups and downs It's not this dramatic long battle.

It goes straight to hopeless. This is how boats work. The hull pushes down and displaces the water, and it's the air in that hull that keeps the boat afloat. And that air, is gone. No dramatic rising and falling. Just quick, effective doom.

All because Jesus wanted to get across the lake that night.

They're not in this storm because they were disobedient, remember. They're in this storm because they did what Jesus said to do!

Jesus, who's still asleep. Which never made sense to me, because I had that image of riding up and down the waves. You'd be lucky to stay in the boat, let alone stay awake in that.

And I think you notice that sense of doom in the disciples too. In the way they talk to Jesus. "Teacher. Don't you care that we're dying?" It's almost bitter. In a huff. It's all over! And you've done nothing! Don't you care?

And like it's in one motion, Jesus wakes up and calls the wind on its inappropriate behaviour... and says... literally... "Shhh... be quiet."

And there was a second thing that was mega... A mega... calm. You could hear a pin drop.

It's a funny thing this, really. Jesus talks to waves

I wouldn't be surprised if in a room this size someone here had talked to the sea, but it's not typically thought of as normal behaviour.

If you've done it, I'm not saying you're weird... I'm just saying... Waves don't have ears... it's all I'm saying.

And yet, the waves heard him. They obeyed. Why?

If you know your Psalm 107, you'll know that it's God who can still the storm to a whisper, and hush the waves of the sea.

In the voice of Jesus, they heard the voice of their master. The waves without ears perceived their creator. They heard the tones of the one who owns the place.

The crowds heard Jesus' words that day, but they didn't get it. In fact, that's why Jesus was teaching them in parables, so that they wouldn't. But even his disciples didn't get it. They didn't get him.

Why? says Jesus. Why? Why are you so afraid? But the word Jesus uses isn't even 'afraid'. It's not a nice word. It's more like, Why so cowardly? Why are you so yellow? Do you still have no faith? Don't you trust me? Don't you know me?

Their cowardice... is a result of their lack of faith. They're scared, because they don't trust. Which is how it works. If a person doesn't trust planes, they will be petrified of flying.

My favourite soccer player, Dennis Bergkamp, spent his life dedicated to getting to the top of world football, but he missed many matches because of a fear of flying.

He developed this lack of faith in flight after travelling in lots of small airplanes in Italy, and thereafter was never able to trust any plane again. He would get nervous, sweaty... and he wouldn't step foot on a plane.

At the same time... a mountain climber who trusts their gear will make camp hanging a kilometre above certain death... and sleep like a baby.

But then we come to the third mega in this story: The mega fear. Because after Jesus calms the storm, a new kind of fear hits the disciples in two different ways.

Firstly, it's a bigger fear. Did you notice that Mark never actually says that the disciples were frightened up to this point? It's only after Jesus calms the storm that they lose their minds. That is so weird! Wouldn't you be glad? It's calm! But that's not what happened.

The words Mark uses to describe the emotional state of the disciples at this point are the most emphatic words that he uses in the whole story. They're emfeared with a mega .. fear. Mark stacks up three words to get the full effect.

Because they've realised, that they're out of the frying pan, but into the fire. Someone more powerful than a storm is standing in a small boat with them. Is a deer in the Serengeti happy when the hyenas hunting it get scared and run away? What have we got ourselves in for?

We like to have a laugh at the disciples sometimes, don't we? They get stuff wrong so often. That they put their stuff-ups in the gospels is part of why I trust them.

But here, they see things far more clearly than I would have. I've had simply been happy that the storm was gone! But in that moment they realised that something far more than a storm was there. And they had the good sense to fear him.

But there's a second way that this fear is different to the earlier fear in the passage. It's a better fear.

See, Mark doesn't use that same cowardly word for the state of the disciples after they meet the power of Jesus.

The word he uses is fear, yes, but it's got more of a hint of awe to it. Respect. The respectful fear that you have before a lightning storm, that has the power to kill you in an instant.

I love storms. Anyone else here love storms? One night when we were living in a flat at Toowong, I experienced the most incredible lightning storm that I have ever been in the middle of.

And I'm loving it. Mel doesn't like storms so much, which is making me love it all the more! As each lightning strike hits, I can feel the sonic boom of the thunder bounce through my body. Lots of the bolts we can see, through the sliding glass door that goes out to the balcony. They're hitting on our street.

And the more that Mel's showing fear, the more that I'm enjoying being a bit less scared than her, and pretending that I'm not scared at all.

And I want to see more of the lightning, so I go open the sliding door. Mel's asking me to please stay inside but I'm just loving the exhilaration of this powerful thing that is happening around me. Because I can feel its power, but ... I'm in a flat.

It's not going to hurt me.

And I start to take a step out onto the balcony. And then it hits. Not 20m in front of us. BOOM! And I am harrowed, to the core.

I'm not enjoying being a little less scared than my wife anymore. I'm literally considering my mortality. I'm processing the fact that I'm in the presence of something that could incinerate me in an instant. I'd just been meters from it. No more Pete. And in that moment, I'm forced to respect the storm. To fear it. And it's in that moment, I've got perspective.

Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom... "

Because without fear, without that healthy "this being has the power to end me" kind of respect we do not have perspective on who Jesus truly is. If you have got a handle on Jesus, then it's not Jesusthat you've got a handle on.

When are you less brave than you would like to be? When are you cowardly? When do people seem imposing and scary, and God feels far away and impotent?

Chances are, that's when you sin. Could be that you fight, because of the fear. Lash out. Get angry. Could be that you flee, because of the fear. Run away. Don't face the situation, only making it worse. Could be that you fake, because of the fear. Change the story. Tell a 'white' lie. Or maybe you just freeze up.

Fear Jesus. You don't need to be scared of people. Fear Jesus.

He is worthy of your fear. Of your awe. Of your respect. It is in his power to end you. That is the beginning of wisdom. But it's not the end.

The end of wisdom (for the non Christian). Jesus' power isn't the only thing that the disciples didn't get.

They didn't yet understand that this man that they were scared of, in awe of, was planning on dying for them. That he would taste death on a cross, the shame of sin on his shoulders, so that they would not have to.

Don't you care Jesus? Of course I care, guys. What were you thinking asking that question? I'm going to die to save you. I'm going to place your welfare above my own. There will be storms that you'll face for obeying me, but I will bring you home to be with me and my father.

The fear of Jesus, is the beginning of wisdom. The cross of Jesus, is the fulfilment of wisdom.