Calming the Storm

Mark 4:33-41 (ESV) With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. [34] He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. [35] On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." [36] And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. [37] And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. [38] 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?" [39] 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. [40] He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" [41] And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?" I do at times wonder if this is on purpose, that Jesus and Jonah fall asleep on a boat during a storm. I imagine it is. Jonah was but a prefiguring to Jesus, a type. Jonah stays 3 days in the belly of the whale, Jesus in the grave. The sign of Jonah. But where as Jonah has no answer but to throw him over board for calming the sea, Jesus calms the storm. The sailors that accompanied Jonah feared Jonah’s God. The disciples feared Jesus because here they realized he is their God. Jonah needed to sacrifice himself to pacify the storm. Jesus doesn’t sacrifice himself to calm this storm on the sea of Galilee. But he does sacrifice himself to calm the storm that rages in this world, the storm of battle between good and evil, the storm that rages in our hearts that rains with guilt as we contemplate our lives and our sin. Jesus here on the sea of galilee calms the storm with words, But the storm of guilt, the storm of sin and death, he calms first by offering his life as a sacrifice for sin, and then telling you, your sins are forgiven.