OIA Chapter 4.35-41, Page 9.11-23

Observations

• Who: Jesus, disciples, the crowd, people in the other boats
• Where: In the boat, on the sea of Galilee: sailing from west to east, from the Galilee side of the lake to the Decapolis side of the
• When: directly after telling the parables, that evening
• What: Jesus gives instructions and the disciples obey; other boats come along; a great windstorm; Jesus sleeps during the storm; disciples awaken Jesus and question his concern for them; Jesus rebuked the storm, and it became calm; Jesus questions their lack of faith and fear; the disciples were terrified and question Jesus’ identity
• Repeats: asleep, fear; two questions
• Contrasts: crowd/in the boat; great storm/great calm; scared sailors/sleeping Jesus; fear/faith;
• Contrasts: great storm/great calm; demoniac’s lifestyle/sitting clothed in right mind; Jairus’ panic/amazement at healed daughter; dead girl/walking and eating;
• Connections: faith (paralytic and friends specifically; all who have obeyed Jesus more inclusively); sleep – the seed grows while the sower sleeps; rebuke 2x to unclean spirits; authority
• Responses to Jesus:
• Wake him up
• Doubt Jesus’ care
• Terror
• Question his identity 

Interpretation

• This story begins a section of four stories that directly follow the parables of the kingdom; you might consider these as a continuation of the parables: the parables describe Jesus kingdom theology; these four stories demonstrate kingdom power.
• There are key common themes in this section: faith/fear; hopeless/restored; failed human technology/efficacious spiritual power; out of control/calm, and others
• The men in this boat were professional fishermen years of experience and good technology; they were better equipped to meet this crisis than most people would be; their assessment of their situation is that it is hopeless: we are going to die.
• The disciples were doing the right thing, just what Jesus told them to do, and they get into a life-threatening situation with the result that they experience Jesus’ power and authority in a way that terrifies them. We sometimes have the idea that if we are doing the right thing, we are promised a smooth path; Mark refutes this idea by showing here, and in other stories, and following Jesus may in fact lead to real risk, conflict, and self-doubt. This is a significant discipleship learning theme in the pages to come, and begins to prepare the reader for the ultimate shock: Jesus will be killed, and those who follow him will meet the same fate!
• This is the first time the disciples have spoken since they found Jesus alone praying; in many ways their question is the question of the entire gospel: Who then is this! The disciples ask this question here, and this section ends with the people from Jesus home town asking a very similar question.
• Jesus seems willing to provoke, or at least allow, an extreme crisis to come into his disciples lives; as a result they are forced to confront their own fearful faithlessness, and their limited understanding of Jesus identity and power. Jesus seems to value this type of experience, even see is as fundamental to following him.
• When Jesus allows, or provokes, such a crisis, people tend to respond like the disciples: don’t you care about me? This story pushes us to a new understanding of what Jesus’ care means.
• Fear is contrasted with faith: not what we might expect!
• This story takes place while Jesus is on his way to a Gentile region where he will restore a man from a living death, and send this man as his first missionary. This may well be an illustration of the macro-conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil: the enemy would like to keep Jesus out of the Gentile region. Jesus sleeps while this conflict rages (c/c the sleeping sower in the parable of the growing seed); the disciples are caught in the conflict and fear first their own death, and then Jesus! Following Jesus is more that an inner peace, and a happy life: it is partnership in the battle between God and the enemy; and consequences are real.

 Application

• Jesus has the power to control the wind and the waves with a word. Have we experienced that kind of power in our relationship? How did we respond?
• How do we react to the idea that Jesus may lead us into crisis situations as a way to awaken spiritual development, to increase our dependence on him?
• Have we experienced this type of opposition in following Jesus?
• How are faith and fear contrasted?