Don't you love the Gospel of Mark? It's like a fast running film clip, and characterises Jesus Christ as One to be followed. He is servant to all, but Master also. One story follows another in rapid succession, and we see Him progressing from place to place, meeting with one person after another, teaching, encouraging, healing, challenging, with His disciples battling to keep up with Him, trying hard to understand. In Mark, we see Jesus' ministry build up, like an orchestra reaching the final crescendo, and His death and resurrection are encapsulated in the final chapter, seemingly leaving the reader, after verse 8, to envisage their own ending. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.
Then later manuscripts added the final verses to round the story off, and we read, After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and The Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accopmpanied it.
I want to share on a brief passage in Mark 4, because we've all been there, and we all need His presence in such times. It's when the storms buffet, and we cry out to Him, "LOrd! Don't you care?"
That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat. There were also other boats with Him.A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him, and said to Him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completewly calm.
He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!"
(Mark 4:35-41)
What storms have you known in your life? Most of us have experienced one sort or another, and hopefully have learned to call on the Lord for help.
Some of us have battled through relationship problems, perhaps with a spouse who is not as we would like them to be. We have fallen in love with the person, but then tried to change them into an ideal, with resultant storms.
When the wind rises, and the waves threaten to engulf us, like the sailors in Jonah's boat, we try to row all the harder, in the hopes that our own efforts will extricate us from the storm. We attempt compromise, or confrontation. We try to justify ourselves, and eventually, all too often, the cause is lost and the relationship sinks into the depths, leaving us floundering, alone, lost.
Others have found themselves in a storm of sickness, when, confused, hurting, we try to find our own solutions. Alternative medecines, New Age methods, yoga, acupuncture and the like, advice including "old wive's tales" or other way out ideas are attempted, some even showing a measure of success, but ultimately we find the problems recur, and despair and desperation take their toll.
There are storms of anger, fear, hurt, rejection, resentment; all take their toll on our inner selves, and our spirit strives with the Holy Spirit as He desires to take control.
Perhaps our storm is with addiction, and even though we recognise the need for change, in our own strength we fail to navigate the waves of desire, the troughs of despondency, the billows of dependence, the needs, the cravings, the seas washing over us, leaving us breathless, pain wracked, even suicidal. We decide there is no hope. We fall under the onslaught, and are drowned in the depths, lost and helpless. But wait!
There is hope! Call on the One who controls the wind and waves. He knows all the storms of life . Call on the One who set the rainbow as the sign of His covenant. He cares! He understands. He is the One who can help, because He cares for YOU!
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