The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
JESUS CALMS THE STORM
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
JESUS CALMS THE STORM
Lesson Plan:
1. Crossing the Sea (vs 35, 36)
2. The Storm (v 37)
3. Jesus Asleep in the Storm (v 38)
4. The Disciples in Fear Wake their Master (v 38)
5. Jesus Stills the Storm (vs 39, 40)
6. Effect on the Disciples and Others (v 41)
Lesson Setting:
Time: Probably the autumn of 28 A.D. Place: The Sea of Galilee
Place in the Life of Christ: Toward the close of His second year
How to Gain the Unsearchable Riches of the Kingdom of Heaven: Introduction – After the Sermon on the Mount Jesus returned to Capernaum, and soon after began His second tour of Galilee. Among the events that took place before this lesson, there were two distinct onward movements, or developments of His work. (a) Raising to life the Widow’s Son at Nain. This is the first recorded miracle of Christ in which He raised the dead; a day of teaching by the Sea of Galilee at the close of His second tour of the country (Matt. 12:22-13:53; and Lk. 8:4-21). (b) The teaching by parables beside the Sea of Galilee, with which Jesus closed the labors of that great day, marked a new epoch in His teaching. It grew out of the increasing opposition and prejudice of the leaders, who were ever ready to distort and pervert everything He said. Jesus, therefore, taught the truth in parables which planted good seed in their minds, which they could not easily destroy, and taught the disciples many truths which they could not understand at the time, but the meaning of which would be unfolded as time and training went on.
A day of miracles by the sea (Matt. 9:18-34; Lk. 8:22-56) followed the busy day of teaching. (The first of these is our lesson): (a) The stilling of the tempest, (b) The Gadarene demoniac, (c) The raising of Jairus’ daughter, (d) The two blind men, (e) The mute demoniac.
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:35, 36
1. Crossing the Sea
v 35 ... "And the same day" on which Jesus had spoken the eight parables by the seaside, while sitting in the fishing boat, probably owned by one of His disciples, as is implied by what follows.
v 35 ... "When the even was come." The first evening probably between three and six o’clock. Before sunset.
v 35 ... "Let us pass (go) over unto the other side." Spoken to the twelve who are part of them in, and part around, the boat, or going in and out according to circumstances. The object seems to have been to escape from the crowd, because Jesus was utterly wearied by His long day’s work with the multitudes. His sleep during the storm surely confirms this view.
v 36 ... "And when they had sent away the multitude," escaping from them because they pressed so eagerly about Him for more of His teaching.
v 36 ... "They took him even as he was in the ship" (boat). That is without any change of clothing, or in the same boat in which He had been teaching.
v 36 ... "And there were also with him other little ships." This fact is added to show that even seawards escape was difficult. Some of the peoplegot into boats to be nearer the speaker. It is possible that the words ‘with him’ implies that these boats accompanied Jesus and His disciples. The accounts in Matthew and Luke differ slightly from Mark, but simply because of being spoken from different standpoints, or at different points in the event described.
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:37
2. The Storm
v 37 ... "And there arose a great storm of wind." The Greek designates a furious storm, a hurricane. Matthew use seismos, ‘a shaking,’ as an earthquake; a commotion of the marine elements corresponding to an earthquake. From experience, Dr. W.M. Thomson wrote, ‘The sun had scarcely set when the wind began to rush down toward the lake; and it continued all night long with constantly increasing violence, so that when we reached the shore nest morning, the face of the lake was like a huge boiling caldron. The wind howled down every wady from the northeast and east with such a fury that no efforts of rowers could have brought a boat to shore at any point along that coast. To understand the causes of these sudden and violent tempests, we must remember that the lake lies low, six hundred feet lower than the ocean; that the vast and naked plateaus of the Jaulan rise to a great height, spreading backward to the wilds of the Hauran, and upward to snowy Hermon; that the watercourses have cut out profound ravines and wild gorges, converging to the head of the lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the cold winds from the mountains’ (Land and Book, vol. II, p. 351).
v 37 ... "And the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full" (R.V. ‘filling’), was becoming full of water, and likely to be swamped in the middle of the lake.
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:38
3. Jesus Asleep in the Storm
v 38 ... "And he (Himself) was in the hinder part (stern) of the ship, asleep on a pillow" (the cushion). Probably the coarse leathern cushion at the stern for the steersman. Our Lord’s work for the day was done; the navigation belonged to others, and He took the opportunity for repose. He must have been very weary. Here He shows His human nature, as His stilling the tempest displayed His divine nature. The two elements together make a perfect Savior.
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:38
4. The Disciples in Fear Wake Their Master
v 38 ... "And they awake him." This shows that they had some faith in Him, although it was weaker than it should have been.
v 38 ... "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" He seemed to be indifferent; He took no part in managing the vessel; He was obvious to their danger and their struggles against the storm, but it was the calmness of knowledge and power. Notice the variations of the different reports, more graphic in the abrupt form of the original, reproduced in the revisions: ‘Save, Lord, we perish’ (Matthew); ‘Teacher, carest thou not that we perish?’ (Mark); ‘Master, Master, we perish’ (Luke). All three reports are correct. One disciple cried out in one way, others in different words. Little faith prayed, ‘Save us;’ Much faith cried, ‘We perish;’ Distrust urged, ‘Carest thou not?’ More faith said, ‘Lord;’ Discipleship called out, ‘Teacher’ (Mark); Faint Hope cried, ‘Master, thou with authority’ (Luke). The whole made a vivid scene.
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:39, 40
5. Jesus Stills the Storm
v 39 ... "And he arose (awoke) from His sleep. And rebuked the wind." As a master rebukes his slave for disobedience. Observe the poetic parallelism of this verse; wind and sea separately addressed, and the corresponding effects separately specified; lulled wind, calmed sea.
v 39 ... "Peace, (Be silent) Be still." Greek, ‘be muzzled,’ like an ox. The same word that Christ used to the demon (Mk. 1:25). The tense expresses the idea, ‘Be still and continue so.’ Peace, be still are probably the very words that Christ used.
v 39 ... "And the wind ceased." Greek, ‘grew weary,’ tired of its fruitless struggle. A beautiful and picturesque word. The sea sank to rest as if exhausted by its own beating.
v 39 ... "And there was a great calm." No after-swell such as is commonly seen for hours after a storm. The stopping of the wind might have been thought an accidental coincidence, for sudden storms in that area cease as suddenly as they arise. But it always requires time for the sea to subside. Hence, the proof of the divine power that dwelt in Jesus. Compare the fancy in Shakespeare’s Tempest – a fancy ethereal, but not spiritual – of a magician who has power upon the elements. He does not act without a purpose, but he serves his purpose first by raising storms, and then by quelling them. So a wonder-worker would be likely to do, without divine self- control. Jesus never raised storms, but He certainly quelled them. Note: There should be no difficulty regarding this miracle. Every man by his will has some power over nature, not by breaking its laws, but using them. It would be strange if God could not do with His infinite power on a large scale what man can do in his narrow sphere. To a person looking upon these things from the outside there is nothing more incredible in one than the other.
v 40 ... "Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?" (R.V., ‘have ye not yet faith?’) Have you not yet learned to trust Me, after all My teachings, and all the miracles you have seen Me do? Have you not learned the lesson of trust after so many lessons in My school? They had some faith, but sadly needed to pray, ‘Lord, increase our faith.’ Jesus was doubtless looking forward to the time, less than a year and a half away, when they would be exposed to more terrible tempests and darkness and a much stormier sea, i.e., the storms of persecution, while in the hands of enemies He was crucified, and afterwards unseen in the heavens, as just now He had been asleep in the tempest on Galilee. It was high time that they had learned the lesson of faith.
Scripture Reading: Mark 4:41
6. Effect on the Disciples and Others
v 41 ... "And they" ... ‘and the men’ (Matthew), implying that there were others than the disciples in the boat "feared exceedingly" in the presence of such a stupendous power. It was a new revelation to them of the power of Jesus, far more awe-inspiring than the curing of disease, or casting out demons. Hitherto the disciples probably felt they knew little about the Lord. They knew little yet. They had only glimpses into something within that seemed to be transcendent in glory and illimitable in resources.
v 41 ... "That even the wind and the sea." These mighty, wild, seemingly lawless elements, not given to obeying.
v 41 ... "Obey." Singular, the wind and sea thought of separately. The miracles of Jesus, as attestations that the elements of nature were plastic in His hands, are really a new key to the grandest scientific principle in the universe, which is that God lives and moves and acts in all of nature, every instant, and that the whole creation is formed and guided in the interest of the spiritual man, i.e., of the kingdom of heaven on the earth. This world is a place for the training of souls in a Christian immortality. Hence Christ must be the Lord of life and death, of seas and storms, of diseases and demons, of every mystery and might and secret of created things.
Conclusion: This experience was Christ’s school of faith, where He taught His disciples the lesson of faith in Him, wrought into their natures, and thus prepared them for the greater moral tempests which were soon to assail them. Our lives, too, including our experiences, are a school of Christ, in which we are to learn the same lesson of trust, clearer visions of God’s goodness and power, and thus gain more and more of the heavenly character. This miracle typifies: The church in the storm: (a) The boat is the church of our Lord, and it sails across the ocean of the world’s history to the ‘other side’ of the life beyond the grave. Ours is a ship on a voyage, not a ship in a harbor; a ship in progress. (b) The disciples are in this boat toiling and laboring anxiously to take the boat to the place where the Lord commanded. (c) Their Lord Jesus Christ is in the boat with them. There is no true church in which Jesus does not dwell. (d) The tempest represents the storms of persecution, of opposition, of worldliness, of false doctrine, and every opposing force which the great enemy of good can excite against the people of God. (e) Jesus sometimes seems asleep in the storm. He lets the storm rage and does not at once interfere. The delay seems long, and the faint-hearted, looking at the waves rather than at Jesus, sometimes lose courage. But the object of the delay is to increase our faith. Those churches where the Word of God is not awake are in danger of shipwreck; not that Christ sleeps, but He is slumbering in us, by reason of our sleep. But where faith watches, there is no fear of wreck from the powers of this world. (f) Our hope lies not in the absence of danger, but in the presence of Christ, who is able to control the storm. A church with Christ in it cannot be wrecked or lost. More of the living Christ, more of His love, more of His teaching, more faith in Him, more prayer to Him, more of His Holy Spirit, more of His holy life. These are the salvation and hope of the churches of Christ (Rom. 16:16). A ship in the sea if safe so long as the sea is not in the ship. The church is safe in the world so long as the world is not in the church. On the voyage of life, if we are disciples, Christ is with us, though He may not be seen by the voyager. Our Lord may seem asleep or hidden, but the angels know and can see that He is ever with us to guide and guard. The presence of Jesus is our comfort in the storm. His power turns the storm into peace. He transforms the contrary winds into favoring gales. He brings good out of seeming evils. He transfigures bodily sickness into spiritual health. Christ’s presence does not prevent our ship of life from being endangered; but, if He is with us, it cannot be wrecked. Our unuttered, but often heartfelt reproaches of a seemingly indifferent Christ, “Carest thou not that we perish?” are always unjust. A nation in the storm: As long as a nation is based on Christian principles (is your nation based on Christian principles?); as long as its aim is righteousness revealed in God’s Holy Word (is it?); it will survive the storms of the future (will it?).
