Jesus Calms the Storm

Mark For Everyone

MARK 4.35–41
Jesus Calms the Storm...

...It isn’t only boats that are in danger on the Sea of Galilee. To this day, the car parks on the western shore have signs warning drivers of what happens in high winds. The sea can get very rough very quickly, and big waves can swamp cars parked on what looked like a safe beach. I have in my study a photograph of the lake, which I took from the top of the Golan Heights on a calm and sunny day; but when the wind suddenly gets up you wouldn’t want to hang around outside with a camera. A boat on the lake suddenly gets tossed around like a child’s toy.

This tale, though, isn’t just about danger and rescue. Behind stories like this, Mark’s readers would probably have heard older echoes. Think of Jonah. Instead of doing what God told him, he was sailing away in the wrong direction; a great storm arose, which was only calmed when, at his prompting, the sailors threw him overboard. Or think of the Israelites, coming out of Egypt when God made a way through the sea. Think even further back, to the stories of creation, when God’s order, God’s new world, emerged from the dark primal sea. The Psalms several times speak of the creator God who rules the raging of the sea, telling its rough and threatening waves to quieten down (e.g. 65.7; 89.9; 93.3–4; 107.23–30)...

Taken from Mark for Everyone by Tom Wright