From the Pulpit: The silliest question in the Bible

January is shaping up to be a month of storms, storms we didn’t see coming when the winter started so mildly. We knew winter would hit us eventually, we just hoped that this year would be different than last year’s onslaught of snow. These storms remind me of one of the most famous storms in the Bible, one that was also unexpected. Jesus was once crossing the Sea of Galilee when, according to Matthew 8:24, “Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.” Several of the disciples were seasoned sailors, and they knew how to read the signs of the weather, like “red sky at night, sailor’s delight.” Yet they were caught unprepared. 

Only one person in that boat knew there was going to be a storm, and that was Jesus, the all-knowing Son of God. And yet we are told in Mark 8:38, “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.” The cushion Jesus was sleeping on was most likely a large canvas bag of sand used for ballast to stabilize the boat. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but Jesus, tired from teaching and healing people, made do. Jesus, 100 percent God and 100 percent man at the same time, was 100 percent tired, so he slept. 

This led to what I call the silliest question in the Bible. The disciples had to wake Jesus up, and they asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” I simply can’t imagine a sillier question. Of course, he cared! He was in the boat with them. This true story occurs before another storm story, where Jesus walked on water, so they didn’t yet know he could do that. Did they think he would somehow save himself and laugh at them as they drowned? To this day I have no idea how they could ask that question. 

And yet, it is the same question Jesus is asked to this day during life’s storms. We ask things like, “Jesus, don’t you care that I’m sick, or my relative is sick? Jesus, don’t you care if I sink into bankruptcy? Don’t you care if my marriage falls apart?” Like the disciples, it is fear that makes us ask these silly questions, not faith. We know that no one in history has ever cared more than Jesus. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have left heaven, became man, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and rose again to insure our rising at the last day. Can anyone look Jesus in the eyes on the cross and dare to say, “You don’t care?” 

When we face life’s storms, it helps to remember that Jesus is the God who is in the boat with us. Jesus has been called, “The Inseparable Christ.” He sticks with us closer than our closest earthly friend. The one who said, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” doesn’t get out of the boat when the storm hits and deserts us. He stills the storm. In John 10:28 the Good Shepherd promises us, His sheep, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Stay warm, and when storms hit, pray, “Lord I believe, increase my faith!”