October 16 - Mark 4-5: Do You Care?

We don't really understand something unless we experience it ourselves.  We can project our own experiences or feelings.  We can give intellectual assent to someone else's ideas.  We can sympathize because we've experienced something similar.  But, to truly know the nuances and depths of an experience, we usually need to go through it ourselves.

I find this true in friendships.  There are friends whom I can share the strains of the push-and-pull of parenting teenagers.  There are other friends with whom I can talk about being over 40.  Only a couple of friends can truly understand the sorrow that has never left my life because of the death of my sister at an early age.  There are my childhood friends, high school friends from overseas and college friends with whom I share particular memories that I love to recall.  Most importantly, there are friends whom I can discuss what it's like to seek Christ over many years and through suffering.  I'm incredibly grateful for each of these relationships and the role they play in my life.  Even though I've shared much of my story with a few friends, to expect anyone (even my husband!) to completely know me and all of my history, would be unrealistic.  No one knows all of anyone else because we lack the full experience of someone else.

In Mark 4 and 5, Jesus is sharing stories to reveal more about Himself with the 12 men who are closest to Him - who He is, what He's come to do, and what really matters to Him.

He taught by using many, many stories. (4:2)

But to those who can't see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight.  He continued, 'Do you see how this story works?  All my stories work this way.' (4:12-13)

With many stories like these, he presented his message to them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity.  He was never without a story when he spoke.  When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, sorting out the tangles, untying the knots.  (4:33-34)

The disciples heard Jesus' many stories in many contexts.  He even explained the stories to them, trying to reveal more and more of Himself as they could take it in.  Then, all of a sudden, they get more than they bargained for.  They don't just get a story, they are the story.

A huge storm came up.  Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it.  And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping!  They roused him, saying, 'Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?'  (4:35-36)

In other words, the disciples were saying, "Jesus, don't you care that we're about to drown?"  "What good are all your stories now if we're at the bottom of the sea?"  They had heard his stories.  They had seen His miracles.  But, they hadn't experienced Him personally, fully.... until now.  He calmed the sea and took the breath out of the wind.

They were in absolute awe, staggered.  'Who is this, anyway?' they asked.  'Wind and sea at his beck and call!'  (4:41)

This was more than a story.  This was the Son of God, who spoke the Ocean into being, who "made the sea dry ground" (Exodus 14:21), who touched the "Jordan's water...the flow of water stopped" (Joshua 3:14).  The One who spoke to Job "from the eye of the storm."  In this moment, did it all become clear to them?  All the stories, all the miracles, all of their upbringing in the synagogue - did it suddenly dawn on them that He wasn't just a really good Rabbi?  He was the Messiah.  They had experienced the Almighty God in the flesh.

When I experience storms, rocky situations, the unbalanced feeling because of a wind of difficulty, my first response can often be just like the disciples - Don't You even care, God?  Are You sleeping -unaware of the pain I'm in?  Because I know the stories, but haven't experienced them.  I've spouted the words, but not lived them.  My response reveals much about me, my cowardness and my lack of faith (4:4). 

The storm reveals His call - to experience Him, to really know Him, to depend on Him through the storm that He controls.  He has not abandoned.  He's revealing who He is and how deep and wide and long is His care.  More than I can ever imagine or understand.