Asleep at the Stern

Read

Mark 4:35–41 (LSB)

And on that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling up. And Jesus Himself was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion; and they got Him up and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you so cowardly? Do you still have no faith?” And they became very afraid and were saying to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

What It Is Speaking to Me

This is one of my favorite stories. Jesus tells the disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” He tells them from the beginning where they are going. They are going to the other side. What He does not mention is the storm in the middle of the trip.

Then the storm comes. The disciples panic, and honestly, I cannot really blame them. The boat is filling with water, the waves are crashing around them, and where is Jesus? He is asleep in the back of the boat.

Indignant, the disciples wake Him and accuse Him of not caring about their hardship. Jesus stands up, rebukes the wind, and tells the sea to be still. And it obeys. It does not get much cooler than that.

What has God told you to do? Where is He sending you? Where is He taking you? He does not necessarily tell you about the storms that are coming along the way. We may respond to those storms the same way the disciples did. We may panic. We may doubt. We may even accuse God of being asleep in the stern or of not caring about what is happening to us.

But we forget that if He is taking us to the other side, He is going to get us there. Rather than being consumed with worry about the storm, we can rest in Him. We are going to get there. If we are going with Jesus, the boat is going to the other side.

What Is It Saying to You?

- What has God told you to do?

- Where is He sending you?

- Where is He taking you?

- What storms are you facing right now?

- In what ways are fear or uncertainty tempting you to doubt His care?

What Are We Going to Do About It?

If something unsettling happens this week, pause before reacting and ask: What would it look like to respond from a place of peace and faith instead of panic and doubt?