Faith or Fear? Mark 4:35-41

³⁵On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? How is it that you have no faith?” ⁴¹They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” 

Mark 4:35–41 (NASB95) 

The Gospels give us insight into the who, what, and how of Jesus. They teach us about His divine nature, His purpose in coming among us, and the means He employed to secure our righteousness. They also give us a glimpse into the values that Jesus holds exhibits…and by extension to those of us who follow Him, the values we should embrace. 

But the Gospels also tell us something about ourselves. In Matthew 8 and Luke 8 we find parallel accounts to this true story involving Jesus and His disciples. In each of those accounts, there is a plea from the disciples to “save them” as the storm was overwhelming and threatened their lives. In all three accounts, Jesus speaks to the storm, calms it, and challenges the anxiety of the disciples as a “faith” issue. Mark alone says out loud what many people are afraid to: “Do you not care…” (Mark 4:38)? The Greek word- melei points to the care and concern that the disciples had. After all, some of them are seasoned, professional fishermen. This is not new territory. Still, it is overwhelming. They are worried and they want to know why Jesus is not worried. How can He sleep through it? Jesus’ response begs a different question: How can you not sleep through it? 

For the disciples, the situation was out of control; But Jesus initiated the journey across the lake to begin with (4:35). The tempest of the seas drowned out the disciples’ voices, but Jesus’ voice silenced the storm. The disciples surmised that if they were in this situation, it could only mean that Jesus did not care! Yet, it was Jesus’ concern for the disciple’s faith that prompted Him to put the disciples in the situation to begin with. They respond to the crisis with fear and Jesus redirects them to faith. 

Verse 40 pits fear against faith. One cancels out the other. The destructive power of fear emanates from the deficient presence of faith. That means that the power OVER fear is present in our faith. Don’t think of faith as a noun…something we acquire; rather, think of it biblically…a verb if you will…something we exercise. Faithing life is a consciously informed decision to rest in the fact that Jesus is in charge. Nothing occurs beyond His awareness or control. Our training and testing of faith journey are according to His ultimately good plan. When anxiously overwhelmed, our peace is often as close as calling out to Jesus and watching Him work. He’s easy to connect with. In most of the storms of our lives, he is waiting in the back of the boat for us to stop bailing water feverishly and simply call on Him for instructions.