Before Jesus calms the storm, they are afraid - but after Jesus calms the storm, they're terrified. Why? Before Jesus was awakened, Mark says, the boat was nearly swamped - it was almost full. The disciples couldn't bail fast enough; they knew the boat was just seconds from being totally filled and they would die. They woke Jesus and said, "Don't you care if we drown?" This picture goes to our hearts, because everyone who's ever tried to live a life of faith in this world has felt like this sometimes.
Everything is going wrong, you're sinking, and God seems to be asleep, absent, or unaware. If you loved us, the disciples were saying, you wouldn't let us go through this. If you loved us, we wouldn't be about to sink. If you loved us, you would not be letting us endure deadly peril. Jesus calmed the storm, and then he responded to them. Jesus asked, "Why are you so afraid?"
The disciples were afraid they were going to drown. They were afraid Jesus didn't care. They were afraid Jesus didn't love them, because if He did, He wouldn't let this happen to them. But Jesus's question to them was behind this thought: Your premise is wrong. You should have known better. I do allow people I love to go through storms. You had no reason to panic.
Why were they still terrified after the storm was calmed? Jesus was as unmanageable as the storm itself. The storm had immense power - they couldn't control it. Jesus had infinitely more power, so they had even less control over Him. But there's a huge difference. A storm doesn't love you. You may say, that's true, but if I go to Jesus, he's not under my control either. He lets things happen that I don't understand. He doesn't do things according to my plan, or in a way that makes sense to me. But if Jesus is God, then he's got to be great enough to have some reasons to let you go through things you cannot understand. His power is unbounded, so are His wisdom and His love.
Nature and circumstances are indifferent to you, but Jesus is filled with great love for you. If the disciples had really known that Jesus loved them, if they had really understood that he is both powerful and loving, they would not have been scared. Their premise, that if Jesus loved them he wouldn't let bad things happen to them, was wrong.
If you have a God great enough and powerful enough to be mad at because He doesn't stop your suffering, you also have a God who's great enough and powerful enough to have reasons that you can't understand. You can't have it both ways.
Elizabeth Elliot said it well, "God is God, and since He is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere else but in His will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."
Being in the center of God's will is not safe. Who ever said anything about God being "safe?" God is good and loving. Life hurts; God is good. He is doing all things to conform you to the image of His Son. There is a greater work being done than that of your kingdom. God is building His Kingdom and is gracious enough to let us in on it. Praise God.
I think C.S. Lewis portrays it very well in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:
ReplyDelete"Is he a man?", asked Lucy.
"Aslan, a man?", said Mr.Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you, He is the King of the wood and the son of the Great Emperor Beyond the Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion - The lion. The Great Lion."
"Ooh", said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he...quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion!"
"That you will deary and no mistake", said Mrs.Beaver. "If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?", said Lucy.
"Safe?", said Mr.Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs.Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe.....but he's good. He's the King I tell you."