Below is the gospel for this Sunday, June 26th (wow, can you believe it's almost July!?) So let's start our study this week with the basics - you can and should do this for any bible text /story you decide to read. We'll just use this Sunday's gospel as an example. Simple enough, right? Here we go:
Mark 4:35-41
35When evening had come, [Jesus said to the disciples,] “Let us go across to the other side.” 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he 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?” 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
OK. Now, let's ask ourselves some questions that we'd ask after having read any biblical text/story. Ready?
1. Where is this taking place? Well, we'd have to go back to verse 1 in this Chapter to see where this is taking place. It appears as though it's by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus had been teaching there all day apparently (from earlier verses in Chapter 4.), so he's tired. Verse 35 in our reading for Sunday says it was evening. A long day for him and the disciples. This may explain why Jesus falls asleep in the boat in the middle of the storm. Right? Who wouldn't be exhausted?
2. Who's in the story? Well, there's Jesus, and the "them", which is likely his disciples. You'll notice the text says that they leave the crowd behind them. I would think that means he's had enough, and now he wants to be alone with just his inner circle. It's interesting that the text here says they took Jesus "just as he was." That might mean he's tired. He needs a break. Or, it could mean something else entirely. How do YOU interpret it? IF you look quickly at Chapter 5, you can see that he's got more work to do - more people to deal with, more healing, and so forth. Notice in the NT how often Jesus is inundated with people in need. Sick and dying people. People with infirmities. People being challenged by life. So we know Jesus is tired, and there's no let up in his schedule. How might that make him feel? How would YOU feel with such a schedule?
There are the folks left behind on the shore. People Jesus and his disciples had just been dealing with. And, there were other boats, obviously with other people in them. The disciples were largely fishermen, so it's not unusual that other fishermen would want to follow the disciples, and Jesus. So the crowd the water was large. I'm guessing most of them worked on the water, so they'd be familiar with storms probably.
3. What's going on here? Well, in the crossing of the sea/body of water, the disciples are doing the hard work here of navigating the storm. You'd imagine that they knew what they were doing, but even this storm is a challenge for them. That may raise a question about our own abilities. Think of what you're really good at, and how you'd react to something so great that all of your skill, talent, and experience fails you. What would you do? How would you react?
One of my initial reactions would be to look to point blame. Who got me into this mess? Why didn't I listen to that voice in my head so that we wouldn't be in such a state!? How am I ever going to get out of all of this, and what will I don once we do get out!? You can add your own questions here. How does this all inform you regarding the story so far?
The boat in which Jesus and some (or all) of his group is being tossed around in the water. Can you think of a time in Scripture when the seas were raging and danger was all around? What comes to my own mind is Genesis ! - the Creation story, where it says, "In the beginning when God created[a] the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God[b] swept over the face of the waters." You know that story, right? Maybe Mark is hearkening the hearer/reader to Creation, where God was present in the midst of this dangerous scene. Deep, unsettled waters. Death lurking all around. A wind lurking over the waters.
I hear in this text for Sunday Mark saying that even though the waters are rough, even though danger and death are all around, God/Jesus is nearby, and in control. The cry of the men in the boats is something like, "Hey, Jesus, where are you when we need you!?" Sound familiar to our own lives at times? Hey, Jesus, I'm in a bad way here. I could use some help. Wake up! Pay attention to your drowning servant! Cries of desperation. Cries of abandonment. Cries for help from God.
And just as God breathes over the waters at creation (Genesis 1), order emerges out of the chaos on the lake here. Imagine the times you've seen a "dead calm" sea, or body of water. It's refreshing. Calming. Restorative.
And then, Jesus rebukes their lack of faith, which he often does in the NT. "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" You can hear from his use of "still" that this is not the first time he'd confronted this lack of faith. Although I'd have to go back to see if and where he encountered this before this story.
4. So , what's the message here? What's the "so what?" Here are some things I take out of this story:
1.). Jesus' humanity AND his divinity - We can see in this story both his humanity (falling asleep in the boat after a long day. His frustration at his disciples for not having more faith that he was still in control even though he was in the bow of the boat.
2.). Jesus' response despite his being tired from a long. day. He could have just gone back under the bow of the boat, but he knew that people he loved (and maybe even some he didn't particularly love) needed him. Great prayer thought here.
3.). Mark, writing to a mostly Jewish audience here, iis clearly trying to make an appeal to his Jewish friends that this Jesus was indeed the Messiah. God in the flesh. He had power to even still the most violent of storms.
4.). Here's something else that I find in this text,. Jesus doesn't guarantee a storm free existence. Life has storms. Life is full of danger and death. It's deadly out there. But he does promise to be "in the boat" with us, so to speak. Finding a way when we see no way. Giving comfort in his very presence.
The pattern, like so many stories in the bible, follows some version of this:
o Jesus confronts danger/death/hostile things or crowds out to do him in (the sea, in this case.)
o the crowd, either hostile or friendly, is watching Jesus' everu move to see if he really is who he says he is
o Jesus responds by calming the storm, or other healing action
o the crowd, again, either hostile or familiar, reacts with "This guy is the real deal", or "Who does this guy think he is, the Messiah!?"
Well, enough for now. We'll continue these next week.
BTW, this is precisely how I prepare my weekly message, using the techniques above! It's not rocket science.
ASSIGNMENT
Pick a favorite story in the bible - one that you know well. Read it carefully, slowing down to make sure you don't miss anything. (I'll bet you pick up one thing that you hadn't noticed before!)
Ask yourself the questions above - the ones that I just asked. And take your time in answering them.
Summarize in your own mind what you learned about the text you selected. Did you find something new? Something you hadn't thought of before?
Finally, tell the story as you now know it, to someone close to you. Tell them what you learned. Something new and exciting.
Amen? Amen!