Scripture Passage
Mark 4:35-41
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Important Lessons
This story tells us a very important lesson about faith. Before today’s story, Jesus taught the disciples about the kingdom of God, using different parables. We examined one of them last Sunday. It was a parable of a seed falling on the ground. It is the smallest seed when it is sown, but becomes the big tree where the birds of the air come and rest. But we don’t know how the seed grows. It is something that God does and it is hidden to us. But it has an implication for us that we should never lose hope of sowing the seed even when our situations are helpless. We may be helpless but we are never hopeless.
After these wonderful teachings, Jesus took the disciples to the lake.
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ (Mark 4:35-36)
And there in the lake, they encountered a great storm. After teaching all these precious lessons about the kingdom of God, Jesus allowed them to encounter a real situation where they had to put into practice what they learned. Jesus wanted to teach them not in a class room setting but in a real life situation.
BUT THE DISCIPLES FAILED.
They were overwhelmed by the size of the waves they faced. Before the boat was swamped by the waves, they were swamped by their own fear.
We realize that it is one thing to learn and it is another thing to live out what we have learned. Knowing a theory and actually living it out are very different. There are two different levels of knowing. Knowing it in your thoughts and actually living it. It is one thing to know with your brain and another thing to know with your whole self. When you know with your whole self, the knowledge becomes you. As I often said, when a thing happens to other people, it is a concept. But when the same thing happens to you, it is reality.
This is so true when it comes to faith. Faith is not something that remains in your thought; it is something you live out.
Faith We Live
I gave you a story of a tight rope walker. This tight rope walker walked across the Niagara Falls and came back. People were so fascinated that they shouted their amazement. He asked them, this time I will walk across with a person on my back. Do you believe that I can do that? The crowd shouted, yes we believe you can! He asked, who would like to go on my back? Nobody volunteered. I won’t do that. But with Jesus, it is a different story.
What good is faith if it remains only in your thought? The kind of faith we need is not faith in our thought but faith we live.
FAITH IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK; FAITH IS WHAT YOU LIVE.
Faith in your thoughts has no power. No power to defeat fear. But faith you live has power to deal with storms in your life. So your faith has to travel from your brain to your life if it is going to be real faith.
What matters in the end is whether we have faith that helps us persevere through our storms. Christian journey is to sail through storms. In the storms, we will all face our own vulnerability.
Jesus’ Journey
That was Jesus’ own journey. When you read the Gospel Mark, you can see that clearly. Mark described Jesus’ life as journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. On the way, he did many miracles and wonderful things but in Jerusalem, he didn’t do any miracles. He didn’t do any wonderful things. He didn’t even teach. In Jerusalem, he didn’t show his power but his faith. His ultimate destiny was the cross where he became totally vulnerable. That was his storm. The ultimate question was whether he had faith to embrace his own vulnerability or not. The ultimate question for us is whether we have faith to be able to embrace our own vulnerability.
This is well described in Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane.
Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want. (Mark 14:36)
Jesus was very vulnerable. The Son of God was very vulnerable. He made himself to be that way. That is our Lord and Saviour. Our saviour went to the extreme degree of his own vulnerability. It was so hard for him to take it and so he asked,
REMOVE THIS CUP FROM ME
But even then Jesus had faith. He didn’t follow how he felt, the fear. That’s what you feel when you are vulnerable: FEAR He followed his faith. He didn’t take control of his situation. He let God take control.
NOT WHAT I WANT, BUT WHAT YOU WANT.
Our Saviour showed us the power of faith. We are saved because of his faith. Jesus even took the cross, ultimately leaving every control in God’s hands. That is what faith is.
When Jesus sent twelve disciples, this was what he instructed.
He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. (Mark 6:8-9)
Jesus wanted them to experience vulnerability and total dependence. They had to ask for food from people.
Face Your Own Vulnerability
That was not what Christians did when they reached out to the indigenous people in this land. They went in not with vulnerability but with power. They were not dependent. They were dominant. That’s why all these abuses happened.
They didn’t go in with desire to serve but the desire to conquer with a sense of superiority. They took away what was important to the indigenous people rather than serving them with faith.
CHRISTIAN JOURNEY IS NOT THE JOURNEY TO CONQUER WITH POWER BUT TO SERVE WITH FAITH.
To take the Christian journey, we have to learn to face our own vulnerability.
The disciples were not just afraid. They panicked. They panicked because they didn’t have any power to control their situation. They felt totally vulnerable. They had to learn to deal with their own vulnerability. They had to learn to let go and let God. But it was hard for them to do.
Jesus knew that they would soon find real storms of life. The early Christians experienced the storms in life. When Nero set the fire in Rome and blamed Christians and massacred them, that was about time Mark was written. Roman soldiers invaded Jerusalem, and destroyed the temple and killed many people, that was about time when Mark was written.
Early Christians experienced the storms of life in a real way. They survived because they had faith. They didn’t give up and give in. They persevered because they had faith. That faith was not in their thought. For them, faith was everything. It was their faith that made Christianity survive through the storm. Christianity survived not through their own power but through faith.
When their sisters and brothers were thrown into lion’s den and when Nero killed Christians and put them on the stake and light up Rome like street lamps, they might have wondered where God was. They felt the silence of God. That is what vulnerability is. But they didn’t give up. They believed.
Sometimes we feel that God is silent. We feel that our prayers are not heard. But God is never asleep. God always cares for us.
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep (Psalm 121:4)
Somehow the disciples who had the faith of mustard seed became spiritual giants who had the faith of the tree. We don’t know how their faith grew. They didn’t know it either. All we need is faith of the mustard seed. Just as their faith has transformed from faith in their thoughts to real faith, our faith will be transformed too, someday.
When we have faith that embraces our own vulnerability, nothing in the world can destroy us. We can face any kind of storms in life.
When life’s difficulties hit you, don’t complain. That is the best time for your faith to travel from your thoughts to real life. There is no other way. Your faith in thoughts will be challenged when you face your own vulnerability. Just learn to trust in God. God will help you to grow your faith.
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