PENnED

Mark 4.35-41 NRSV

³⁵On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him.³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

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I’m going to tell you a secret about Ruth, my wife.  Don’t worry, I have her permission and she doesn’t mind me telling it. Besides, she’s not really embarrassed by it. Just a bit!

Whenever we go out shopping, Ruth has the tendency to go ahead, as if she always knows where she is going. This is particularly true when she’s done shopping and we’d head for the car. She would go ahead, but toward the wrong direction! Then I’d throw the question, “Where are you going?” She would then laugh at herself and let me go ahead!

Isn’t that like all of us? Don’t we all think we know where we are going, or know what to do and that’s why we like to take charge? Uh-huh? Don’t you worry, you’re not alone. In fact, the disciples who literally walked with Jesus were no better!

“Let us go across to the other side” 

One day Jesus said to the disciples, “Let us go across to the other side.” That sounds like just a nice boat ride until we read not just what actually happens next or realize the worrisome prospects on the other side of the sea, which is really a lake. Let’s take the second one first.

The prospects on “the other side”

The thought of going “across to the other side” must have sent a chilling message to the disciples. For these “all-Jew boys” (as in all-American boys) to leave their crowd—fellow Jews—and go to the territory of the other crowd, namely, the “pork-eating pigs” or Gentiles, was a troublesome prospect!

With the advantage of hindsight, we can fast-forward and jump to chapter 5 and there find out what actually happened on the other side of the lake. Jesus and his disciples came to “the country of the Gerasenes.” That Jesus simply “stepped out of the boat” appears as if coming to this foreign territory was no sweat. In reality, however, the shore on which they landed was no vacation beach! They faced a steep slope that descended swiftly almost into the water and which they had to negotiate before they can get to the top of this country on a plateau! And, as if that was not enough, the city was surrounded entirely by towering walls and they’d be lucky if they could get their passports stamped with visa at the gate! But we’re really going ahead of, indeed way beyond, the story. Let’s see what happened as Jesus, and his disciples, stepped out of the boat.

Before they could even shake the sticking sand off their wet feet, “immediately” a demon-possessed man came out of the tombs and met Jesus. This man who lived in the tombs was possessed by some nasty demon that made him howl like a werewolf and injure himself with stones. When Jesus asked for his name, he said “Legion” because, according to him, they were many. If one demon was already too much to deal with, how much more if there was 3,000 to 6,000 of them?

A very interesting thing happened in this encounter with the demon-possessed man. The demon in the man recognized Jesus in a way that the disciples at first did not: “When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him” (v. 6) and acknowledged Jesus as “Son of the Most High God” (v. 7). Legion and his army of demons acknowledged Jesus as, in contrast to the disciples, the one in charge!

Legion begged Jesus not to send them out of the country but instead to send them to the herd of swine. For some reason, that I don’t understand, Jesus “gave them permission” (v. 13). There must have been a weird rushing of the wind as the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the oinks and squeals of the herd of about two thousand pigs that rushed down the steep bank into the sea must have been deafening before they finally went down and drowned!

With this scary experience that made every hair of the disciples stand on end, can they now say they’re in charge? I’m not surprised that we do not hear any word from them again! Who fulfilled this mission? Not one of them did anything. In fact they were not able to enter the town because the townsfolk who heard about what Jesus had done were so afraid that they begged him to leave their neighborhood, and he granted their request. So who evangelized the country? Well, Jesus did. But who helped Jesus execute the mission in Gerasenes?

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed (vs. 18-20).

This gentile and ex-demoniac who was born-again in a very dramatic and powerful way, preached Jesus in the 10 cities of the region! So it’s quite obvious that Jesus is in charge. As far as the Gospel of Mark is concerned, apart from Jesus, this gentile, not Jew, became the first evangelist! But, as in a movie, let’s go back to the scene we left off earlier.

The disciples: the experts at sea

Let’s pick up where we started: As I said, the thought of going “across to the other side” must have sent a chilling message to the disciples.  But these men, who perhaps were no different from those foul-talking macho men in the reality TV show, “Deadliest Catch,” seemed to have overcome their fear because the mode of transportation happened to be a boat, and the toughest guys among them were fishermen!

So although it was Jesus who was taking them along to his mission, ““Let us go across to the other side,” his lake-rated followers appear to want to take charge, execute, the plan and, perhaps, take this Carpenter’s son for the ride of his life!

That’s why, I think, they actually took charge by taking Jesus, “just as he was” (a mere man? a rabbi?)  in their boat, instead of letting Jesus take them. And that’s why, I think, to some extent, they felt they owned Jesus because he was in their boat, while those losers in other boats did not, although their boats were also with Jesus! Aren’t the disciples like some Christian groups today?

How did Jesus respond to the attitude of these presumptuous men? Well, he let them take charge and went to sleep! I could almost hear him say, OK guys, you think you can take charge? Go ahead, make my day—I’m going to sleep! So sleep Jesus did.  But Jesus’ sleep was suddenly interrupted. He was awakened by these supposed-to-be macho men, yelling like terrified girl scouts and waking him up!

Why wake Jesus up? Weren’t they in charge? But they yelled, Rabbi, get up! Don’t you care that our boat is being swamped by this son-of-a-storm? Don’t you care that we’re drowning? They did not say those exact words, of course, but what they said was probably close to that. So Jesus woke up and calmly but authoritatively rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The “wind ceased, and there was a dead calm” (v. 38).

Then Jesus said something revealing:  “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” What were they afraid of? The storm? Perhaps some of them were. Maybe the ex-white collar guys among them were scared of the storm. But some of them were tough fishermen who probably experienced a wicked storm like that one, perhaps many times.  So what were these tough guys really afraid of?  Guys who want to look tough may deny they’re afraid of anything but they, too, get afraid! But more than the storm, I believe these “tough” guys were afraid of this man who slept in their boat. Why? Because by now they realized that he was not just an ordinary man. Thus, we read that “they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’”

Indeed, who is Jesus? Well, if they opened their ears wider earlier, they could have heard, in a deeper sense of the word, that the Prof was not just an ordinary teacher. He was, and is the Lord of all, including of nature, and he’s the one in charge. Obviously, they needed the raging sea to rock their boat and let them see Jesus as the Lord of the storm!  And they also needed the scare of their lives when they got across the lake and met Legion, the lord of demons, to make them see Jesus as Lord of lords!  Jesus was definitely in charge!

Who’s in charge now?

In applying this passage, the boat has been used as an image of the Church, and I think that’s a good way to do that. The Church, too, has been called to go “across to the other side.”  And for us to effectively participate in the work of Jesus, we need to remind ourselves that we’re not the ones in charge. Jesus is!

So whenever we’re tempted to think that we’re in charge of the boat or a church or in accomplishing the mission of Jesus, well, think again! Whenever we’re tempted to think that we should be in charge because we are the experts, that we have lots of experience or that we’ve “been there, done that,” think again. If we’re tempted to think that we can be in charge because we have the faith to believe that we can do the impossible, think again. The disciple’s faith, or lack of it, had nothing to do with the calming of storm. Jesus, the gracious Lord, did it alone.

We may be tough enough to face a storm, but can we survive it without Jesus? We may be tough enough to face our own demons, but if Jesus is not in charge, do we have the power beat demons or their manifestations go away? Without Jesus, can we set people free? Obviously the answer is no!

So, again, if we’re tempted to think that any of us is in charge of the Church or its mission, well, think again. Even better, don’t even think about it! Yes, we may be called to lead but let’s not forget that ultimately Jesus is the Leader. Jesus is the one in charge and he’s is the one taking us in “his boat” and to the other side, wherever and whatever that might be.

And with Jesus in charge, he’ll gladly let us participate; perhaps as leaders or perhaps, sometimes, as mere spectators, but nevertheless we’ll be with Jesus, the one in charge. The experience may be a roller-coaster, but with Jesus in charge, we’ll be on top of everything and, like the demon-possessed man in Gerasenes, Jesus we’ll change us and use us to effectively proclaim the Good News and help fulfill Jesus’, and the Church’s, mission in the world!

Just as it was by his grace that the Lord saved the disciples from the storm and took them safely across the lake and back, so it is by the amazing grace of God that we’ve been saved; it is also by the same grace that the Lord continues to save us from our troubles as we participate in his mission; and it is by the same grace that the Lord will lead us to our eternal home. Therefore, it just makes a lot of sense if we let the Lord be in charge!