More Than a Teacher (Mark 4;33-41)

What do you believe? I’m not really interested in the label that you wear or the church you attend. What you believe is more than eschatology. Who you think God is, your intellectual response to death, judgment and the final destiny of the soul and mankind. doesn’t show what you believe.What you believe is seen in the dark.

In the blackness of the night when an unexpected storm hits, what do you do? When waves of sheer terror splash over you and you realize that you are not in control of your life or of the lives of those you love, how do you respond? When the Jesus you’ve studied about in the Bible and about whom you’ve heard sermons seems distant and you feel desperately alone in the storm, that is when what you believe is exposed.

When the storms comes and you find yourself fighting against the wind and you realize that there is nothing stable beneath your feet, but instead you are like a small boat being tossed by the waves, what do you do? Storms make you feel isolated. Where do you turn? Do you try to escape into oblivion?

Jesus had spent all day teaching about what the kingdom of God was like. Although He had spoken to the crowd in parables, He had privately explained everything to His own disciples. When the darkness came, Jesus told them that they needed to cross over to the other side of the lake. He was exhausted and fell asleep in the stern of the boat. “A fierce windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped” (Mark 4:37). They woke Jesus with these words, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die” (Mark 4:38)?

Jesus had begun His ministry with these words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15)! Jesus had taught His disciples what the kingdom was like, but it was during the storm that what they believed was exposed. They saw Jesus as the teacher. Then they heard Him rebuke the wind and the waves and speak to the sea saying, “Silence! Be still!” It was only after that that they asked the question, “Who is this?” The disciples had spent the day listening to the teacher, but in the storm they learned that He was more than just a teacher. Storms are places where we find out what we truly believe. Storms are places the king leads us to repent and believe the good news. The Jesus they called teacher was not only the savior from the storm, He was the king.