Who Is This? – Mark 4:41

Mark 4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Words and actions need to match. When we say we believe something, then our lives had better live up to our beliefs. If they don’t, then we are speaking our true beliefs by what we do. We call this glaring difference between the two hypocrisy. And as in every age, there is plenty of it on display these days.

We have all heard powerful people say one thing and then doing another. A person in a new political position overseeing the new administration’s climate policies was called out this week for using his private jet to travel to a meeting. He claims the crisis is real, but then shows by his actions what he really believes. His actions show us he believes there is no crisis.

Mark has just finished recording a number of parables that Jesus used to describe the power of the Kingdom when it is at work. When the Gospel is believed it transforms people. A single seed can yield 100 seeds of grain. A tiny oil lamp can illuminate an entire room. The seed knows how to grow all by itself. And the tiniest of seeds can become the largest garden plant.

The Kingdom has power to do what seems impossible. It has explosive power, providing a transformation that amazes and draws our eyes upward.

And then Mark recalls the swamped boat story. Jesus and His disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee on a boat. Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat when a storm begins to swamp it. The disciples are overcome by the water. They have no power to stop its onslaught. They believe they are in danger of capsize and drowning.

But Jesus is there. He gets woken up and He simply tells the storm to stop, and the storm stops. Here the power of the Kingdom gets demonstrated. He simply speaks to the storm and it obeys.

I know I can yell at a storm all I want, and the storm isn’t going to listen. I have no influence over the storm. It has the right to ignore my voice. But Jesus is able to speak to this force of nature, this demonstration of the power of God, this word of creation that points to the existence of a personal God, and this message in the storm listens.

All creation declares the glory of God.

I suggest that this story is a living parable. It is Jesus putting His Kingdom message into a practical message anyone could read. The Kingdom isn’t about helpful sayings and meme postings. The Gospel is about the God of the Universe invading this place and showing up in person. Jesus is that message in flesh.

So Jesus shows the power of the message, the same power that caused the seed to grow in the heart of someone who believes. The human heart can be miraculously transformed. The storms that rage inwardly can be calmed when Jesus speaks to them.

And the disciples see this power and begin to wonder exactly who Jesus is. “Who is this?” they say. There is more to Jesus that we thought. We knew He spoke like no other person, even healing those ‘impossible’ cases of illness and demon possession. But to stop a storm, that is something on a totally different level. We knew He had authority of human conditions, but we didn’t know He had authority over nature itself.