Maybe it is because the last couple of years in the world have been shaking, like a raging storm with viruses and unrest and, well, false gods (I don’t know of another word for it.) Maybe it is because the personal details of life have also been uncertain. But reading about Jesus getting up from his nap to mediate peace for the disciples when they couldn’t speak it for themselves is assuring.
But today, on the heels of reading the prophecies and announcements of Jesus’ birth, I’m seeing this story in a different way. I can see it as a picture of what happens on the cross. In the same way Jesus stood between his disciples and the storm, Jesus stood between sin and God and mediated our peace. He stepped into the middle of raging hostility and commanded, “Peace!” He stretches out between God and man and pulls us back together. This is the good news of great joy.
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him 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. But he 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?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
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