Peace Be Still
“Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves,“Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them,“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
I am afraid of heights. Not severely, but I like to avoid heights. My father is terrified of heights. Given that, on the farm when high work needed to be done, my brother or I were the ones to do it. Putting a tin roof on a hay barn, it was my brother or I. Patching the roof of our home, it was my brother or I. Given all that experience with hight you would think I would have dealt with my fear of heights, but still to this day I am afraid of heights.
I did struggle with questioning if my father cared since he placed my brother or me in these situations. I knew, and know that my dad loved and loves me. He put us in those situations to accomplish a needed task and to prevent us from having the fear that he had that was crippling. Everyone faces the fear that cripples us. That prevents us from acting. It may be a logical fear or illogical, but fear exists in us.
The apostles were very familiar with the waters of the Sea of Galilee and the small fishing boats that they used. They knew the real dangers of these storms. They were scared for real, logical reason. Each apostle likely knew a man that had died crossing Lake Tiberias, as it is known today. They found their teacher, their leader asleep in the middle of their battle against their fear; not fighting beside them but resting in the back of the boat.
The apostles had to have been both shocked and angry. I picture them not just waking Jesus, but shaking him and yelling, “TEACHER, WE’RE GOING To DROWN!! DON'T YOU CARE!!” The answer is always, yes he cares. He did then, and he does now. I read in Mark and think of a waking Jesus seeing the storm and not giving a grand command but a simple look at the storm and mumbling from sleep, “Peace, be still.” Nothing scared Jesus about this storm. The storm had a purpose in the apostles’ lives. Not just to demonstrate Jesus’ power but to also teach the disciples not to fear.
My father was not lazy. He was not allowing his fear to place his son’s in dangerous situations because they were not dangerous; I just felt they were. My father was showing me that I should have no fear. Fear always limits us in our actions, whether in work or in other activities. Many of us fear to share the Gospel because of the response we think we will receive. Many of us fear to leave our homes and going somewhere else to do the work of the Kingdom because of real danger. Many of us fear to give to the ministry due to a real concern over our limited finances. Jesus knows our fear of the storm; looks at the raging storm in our spirit and whispers, “Peace, be still.”
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