A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But [Jesus] 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?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:37-40)
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. I count this as the first miracle in the story. The second is the calming of the storm.
We relate to this story because we all experience storms. They take many forms: natural catastrophes, breakdowns of one kind or another, the inhumanity of human beings toward each other (our sin that dehumanizes us and the sins of others that hurt us). Whether our storms come from within or without, they create disturbance and fear and test our faith in God. They occasion the question, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Fear tempts us to trust in ourselves rather than God. Anxiety creates an urgency to take things into our own hands as if there is no time to wait on God and discern next steps. Faith, on the other hand, will have us at peace in the midst of the storm—even in the midst of a societal breakdown. It will, therefore, free us to act in life-giving ways.
Faith in God enabled Jesus to sleep as the storm raged, and also enabled him to calm the storm. It is by faith that we realize God’s presence and power. I have the impression that when Jesus, after calming the storm, said to his disciples, “Have you still no faith?” he was implying that if they had believed, they would have calmed the storm themselves rather than wake him up. After all, he said, elsewhere, that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could move mountains.
Jesus calls us to desire after God and to draw near to God that we might increasingly live from God. We are encouraged that a very little faith—a mustard seed size—will take us a long way in facing and engaging the disorder of our time. By faith, we find that we can walk through storms, and receive, learn and grow. The storms will come, and some will be long-lasting, but, by resting in God, we will rest in the storm. And, at times, be given the power to calm the storm.