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At Jesus’ initiative the apostles set out across the Sea of Galilee to the eastern shore, six or seven miles distant, as the sun was setting behind the Galilean hills (Mark 4:35).
Tired after a long day of preaching and teaching, Jesus slept soundly in the stern of the boat, oblivious to the rising squall. This is the sole instance recorded in the gospels of Jesus sleeping, an image that vividly illustrates his humanness, as well as the hiddenness of his divine nature, which is a dominant theme in Mark’s gospel.
Experienced fishermen that they were, Jesus’ disciples were badly frightened by the violence of the storm. Following their master had gotten them into this life-threatening situation, and a reproachful tone is heard in their anxious cry as they woke him: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Melo, the Greek verb used in this complaint, can also be translated “Does it not matter to you?” The same verb is found in Martha’s question, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?” (Luke 10:40). In both instances, Jesus’ response was the same: to calm the turbulence of troubled hearts and the storms that raged around him.
With a mere word of command—“Be still!” (Mark 4:39)—Jesus subdued the wind and the sea, showing his power over natural elements. Just as God brought the waters into being (Genesis 1:6-10), tamed roaring waves (Psalm 65:7), and parted the Red Sea before Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 14:21-22; Psalm 77:16, 19-20), Jesus exercised authority and showed mastery over the storm-tossed waters of the Sea of Galilee. “The waves are his creatures and behave as such by offering him the fealty of obedience,” notes Scripture commentator Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis (Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word).
In ancient times, the wind and sea were often seen as symbols of chaos. The way Jesus rebuked the elements may also imply that there was an evil force behind the storm, for he calmed the waves with the same command that he used to silence unclean spirits (Mark 1:25; Luke 4:35). It is noteworthy that this miraculous event occurred while Jesus was crossing the lake to pagan territory—the country of the Gerasenes—where he was extending his ministry to gentiles and was soon to confront the unclean spirit “Legion” and heal the man possessed by a demon (Mark 5:1-13). In each of the synoptic gospels, the report of the stilling the storm leads into a sequence recounting Jesus’ authority and power in exorcising evil spirits, curing the ill, and raising the dead (Matthew 8:28–9:31; Mark 5:1-42; Luke 8:26-56). René Latourelle notes that “Jesus is victorious over death, sickness, sin, and the forces of nature, simply because in his very being he is God-among-us. It is not more difficult for him to control the wind and the sea than to prevail over sin and death” (The Miracles of Jesus and the Theology of Miracles).
When the terrified disciples woke Jesus, was it only to reproach him with a cry of desperation because they thought they were doomed? Even if their cry expressed an expectant faith that he could do something to save them, their understanding and faith were still deficient: for they did not yet realize that their teacher was the Son of God and that therefore they were safe all along. Finally, the disciples’ fear of the storm turned into awe at Jesus’ tremendous deed, and they wondered, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41). Jesus’ display of power awakened them to the mystery of his transcendence and identity.
The question of who Jesus really is is a recurring theme in the gospels (Luke 5:21; 7:49; 8:25). It is also a question each of us must answer in the depths of our own heart, especially when we are faced with the need of a savior in the storms of life.