Mark 4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
What actually happens and what gets reported are often different things. We know that those observing an event going their own history and bias with them when they witness an event, and that history and bias changes their perceptions and interpretations of the event. No one is an objective reporter.
We aren’t objective either. Our view of events is colored by our citizenship in heaven. We view life from a longview perspective. We see eternity in the present moments.
Jesus has finished a day of teaching, mostly telling parables. But if you have ever had to work with crowds of people, you know it can be exhausting. Jesus even takes this into account as He again gets into a boat in order to have a better vantage point to teach. He is in the boat, and the crowds are on the land.
We know from the next chapter that people pressed in around Jesus, hoping to get close enough to touch Him. I can only imagine what celebrities have to face with those wanting signatures and selfies. The constant call for attention. The change of angle and the close proximity of strangers. That would certainly take a toll.
So Jesus has left the crowds by way of a boat journey. Several other boats are part of the same flotilla of vessels that cross the lake that night. And they all get swept up in a violent storm.
Now storms are not unusual at that location. The geography makes it ideal for sudden storms, the winds moving off the higher elevations and rushing down to the lake. And then all of a sudden, the winds have picked up and the waves are crashing.
For us who live in the era of motorboats, storms like this aren’t as bad. Just point the bow in the direction of the wind, keep a tight grip on the rudder, and power into the storm. It isn’t pleasant, but it is controllable.
But for vessels that rely on oars and sails, it becomes a battle to keep the bow headed into the wind. With each wave, the boat slips to one side or the other as the boat crests the wave. So with each wave there has to be a correction of course. Sails are almost useless, since they flop in the breeze as you head into the wind. And human power exhausts rapidly under these intense circumstances.
And where is Jesus when this is happening? He is sleeping on a cushion in the rear of the boat! Sleeping at a time like this! Swamped and ready to drown. “HELP!”
Jesus answers the call to action. He doesn’t grab the tiller, or man an oar. He speaks to the storm. It calms completely.
It isn’t that the storm let up some, and they were able to regain control. There wasn’t a decrease in the wind velocity that happened over a few minutes. The slowed and it became completely calm.
Now that is eerie. Those in the boat go from being terrified of the storm to being terrified of Jesus and His ability to calm a storm. There had to be an unexplainable calming of the wind and quieting of the storm. If the storm had just kind of petered out, they could have just chalked it up to normal storm behavior. Nothing to be frightened of here.
But they were terrified! This man speaks and the winds and waves obey Him. He has power of nature, and we saw it with our own eyes. What kind of person is able to do this?
The Arnold Journey 