Why are You Afraid?

Mark 4:40 says, “And He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” Are our lives ruled by fear? Faith is trust in God. Do we trust God? Why didn’t the disciples ask Jesus for help? Why did they react so sharply and ask him if he cared? That’s what fear does. It makes us belligerent. Even being falsely accused, Jesus calmed the sea. God is merciful towards our fear. And then, the disciples fear Jesus and not the storm. Let us bring our fears to God and watch as he transforms them. God is so much bigger and filled with grace than we thought.

What the World Needs is You

When national storms come along, politicians argue with little result. We do not need another political solution from either side. What the world needs is you, the Christian to stand up and tell everyone that you have found the answer. The disciples faced a storm and complained to the right source (Mark 4:35-41). They did not have the faith. They did not have the ability. But, they did go to the right source, Jesus. The church is not here to take political sides. Human solutions are not the answer. Neither side of politics has the ability to rebuke our national cloudbursts, nor the authority to tell our economic squalls to be still. There are people who know where the answer lies. What the world needs is for Christians to tell the good news. What the world needs is you.

Man-Made Storms

While the storm on Lake Galilee was a natural calamity (Mark 4:35-41) we often face man-made storms. Real estate collapse, family destruction, hostile takeovers, recessions and fraud are all storms caused by covetousness among other things. No amount of legislation can change hearts from greed to generosity, from corruption to nobility, from covetousness to chastity. We have all coveted our neighbor’s house, spouse, car or other possessions. It is part of the human condition. And so we must recognize that we are also in part responsible for the storms that such lusts create. We have all contributed to national debt, family destruction and even worldwide recessions. The power over such storms does not lie within us. We are helpless victims of human vices. The answer is spiritual. The answer is a power beyond our own. The answer is Jesus.

Reactions to Fear

Science has taught us that there are two normal reactions to fear, fight or flight. As an international traveler who has lived and traveled around the world, I notice that since 9-11 America has become a more fearful nation. That fear has resulted in both flight from aggressive risk-taking investment in our future and fights both at home and in faraway places. Economists even call recessions a period of fear after a period of greed. Covetousness causes national economic distress and thus fear. So when the disciples panicked as they crossed the Sea of Galilee in a raging storm (Mark 4:35-41) their fear was something quite normal. When our emotions drive us to fight or flight let us fight on the only side worth fighting for, Jesus’ and let us flee to the only sure place of safety, Jesus.

Jesus who Sleeps through Storms

Why did Jesus sleep through a storm that had so frightened his disciples (Mark 4:35-41)? Their ordeal even took them to the brink of sinking and losing their lives. In the context we can guess that Jesus was totally exhausted from a day of preaching and healing. However, there is more to it than that. Are we tempted to ask if God has gone to sleep when we face terrifying ordeals? Are we tempted to ask if God even cares? Of course we are. Yet, we read of Jesus’ power over even the waves. We also read of his rebuke regarding the disciples’ lack of faith. We are no different and Jesus is also no different in character. He will often allow our circumstances to go to the point of sinking, but he is there and always has been.

If the Unthinkable Happens

When Mark wrote about Jesus calming the storm, many of his audience were facing martyrdom (Mark 4:35-41). It was a Christian holocaust that lasted roughly 300 years, as Roman Emperors attacked the church over ten periods of persecution. How could the story of Jesus calming the storm relate to those who would drown in their own storms? How does it relate to us who face our own catastrophes today, such as losing a loved one, losing a career, facing homelessness, or to Christians in North Korea who face losing their lives to a modern day murderous Caesar? In such circumstances, when faith is tested way beyond its elastic limit, we can have calm in our hearts, knowing that Jesus will never leave us and even if we must die, he will carry us beyond the storm into eternal peace.

Doesn’t God Care

What do we do when we encounter fierce squalls on the sea of life? We live in a time when median net worth has dropped 38.8% between 2007 and 2010.# We worry about health care, car payments, cancer, identity theft, immigration, industrial pollution, internet viruses, lifestyle changes, military conflicts, strange new religions, terrorism and taxes. Life can be wonderful one minute and we are faced with a terrible even the next (Mark 4:35-41). We are tempted to ask, doesn’t God care? The answer lies not in the disciples’ faith, which was obviously as weak as ours, but in the fact that Jesus was with them. If we open our eyes and look, we will see that God is with us too and always has been. Even as our faith is weak, God’s presence reveals how much he cares.

Taking Jesus Just as He Is

It is amazing how we like to create a Jesus in our minds to be just like we want him to be instead of just as he is. When the disciples took Jesus across the lake, they took him along just as he was (Mark 4:35-41). What would our churches look like if we took Jesus along just as he is? The way he lived wouldn’t fit in with many of our churches today. He partied with the rich and touched the unclean and marginalized. The way he spoke was sometimes offensive and blunt and sometimes mysterious and hidden in the veiled language of parables. He often went against local religious customs and expected his followers to live lives of self-sacrifice instead of materialistic self-indulgence. How would our lives look if we took Jesus along just as he is?

Faith-Filled or Fear-Filled Living

Jesus spent a large part of his ministry around and even at times on the Sea of Galilee. The lake is below sea level and contains freshwater. It is 13 old fashioned miles (21 modern kilometers) north-south and 7½ miles (12 kilometers) east-west. So when the disciples wanted to cross the lake, it was a long way. The lake is known as Yam Kinneret locally and has a mild climate. It is also known for sudden and violent lake storms. Large storms can create waves even ten feet (3 meters) high and have caused damage to lakefront towns. It was a similar storm that tested the faith of the disciples in Mark 4:35-41. Jesus used the opportunity to challenge his disciples about their lack of faith. Though our faith may be small, we can ask Jesus to calm the storm.

Covetousness, the Fear of Missing Out

Why do we covet what does not belong to us? Do we believe God is unfair and therefore we will miss out on the best things? Do we believe that what God will provide abundantly is far inferior to anything that our neighbor has? Is it because we fear and panic instead of rest in faith? Lust and covetousness attack us from many different directions. We fear that we may never have as nice a house as our neighbor, or that our neighbor found a better marriage partner, or that our neighbor has a business with great employees. We may feel like God cheated us out of a nice car or truck like our neighbor’s. Like a furious squall at sea the fear of missing out can drown us. Only Jesus can calm the storms of covetousness (Mark 4:35-41).

Control Freaks Controlling the Uncontrollable

The Nicene Council not only introduced a wonderful creed which summarizes some of Christianity’s most important doctrines, it also worsened a very human dictatorial tendency in the church. Nicea contradicted Paul’s instructions for freedom regarding worship and conscience. If you don’t want people to use their minds just call a council of the church infallible especially if it contradicts the Bible. When Jesus symbolized the kingdom of heaven like a mustard seed (Mark 4:26-34) he was describing a rather unruly plant that gave birds access to the family vegetable garden. Ever since, church leaders have tried to lord it over the faith of believers, something Jesus did not want (Matthew 20:25-28). The kingdom of God will grow where God wants despite human politics. Yet control freaks will continue to try limiting and controlling the uncontrollable reign of God.

Worst Theft of All Time

What could possibly be the worst theft of all time? Could it be the theft of native lands by colonizing powers? Could it be the semi-legal theft of personal finances by shady banking practices? Could it be taking excessive portions by the very wealthy? Could it be the immoral use of tax revenue? Would not the greatest theft of all history be anything that prevents or hinders the growth of the only permanent institution on earth, the kingdom of God (Mark 4:26-34)? When we steal material things from others, we are also engaged in a far worse theft. When we allow evil to reign in our lives instead of God we have stolen life’s greatest possible blessing from ourselves, the kingdom of God. There is nothing in life worth more and worth protecting more than our citizenship in heaven.

The Religious Experience

A popular but false concept is that we must have a dramatic religious experience as initial evidence of the Holy Spirit’s intervention in our lives. While that kind of experience is certainly possible and does happen sometimes, if we understand Mark 4:26-34, then Jesus taught that it was not necessary or even normal. Like a crop in a field, the evidence of the kingdom of God in our lives may be totally unseen at first. This story also contradicts another popular idea, that we must exert extraordinary human effort to make God’s reign in our spiritual lives grow or to make our churches grow. The story explains that God’s kingdom grows whether we are awake or asleep, totally without our understanding as to how. Like the crop in the field, it is God’s action that make his kingdom grow.

The Hidden Kingdom

Mark 4:26-34 introduces to us the concept of the reign of God being a hidden kingdom. It is not recognized by the world around us and is often hard to detect. What is the kingdom of God? In modern terms we would say the reign of God. Where is that? It is among those who submit to divine authority. Although some people have such wonderful discernment that they can possibly tell who is God’s just by looking at someone’s face, most of us would have to have more information than that. It is like a crop that grows in the field. Initial evidence can be like a small green shoot poking through the soil and may be like noticing little changes in a person’s life. As God’s realm grows, it becomes increasingly evident that he rules a person’s life.

Church Growth

The first Christian church in Africa was planted by the Apostle Mark in Alexandria, Egypt. Their descendants belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church. How large has the church grown in Africa? This past century it has grown from 9 million in 1900 to 380 million in 2000. Among the earliest churches in Asia were those established by the Apostle Thomas in central Asia and India. The Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew spread Christianity to Armenia and the Apostles Simon and Andrew planted churches in Georgia. Between the 9th and 14th centuries the Church of the East spread as far as China and India, but declined after persecution, disease and isolation. Christian growth has returned to Asia. Within the next 30 years, Asia may have a larger Christian population than Europe. Jesus Predicted that his kingdom would grow large (Mark 4:26-34).

Optimistic Church Future

Many Christians in the western world are pessimistic about the future of the church. While numbers have declined in Europe and America this past century, numbers in Africa and Asia are increasing. Did Jesus prophesy anything about this? Mark 4:26-34 is one passage that speaks of the spread of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God reigns and God reigns in the church. There is no guarantee that our denomination or our local church will survive or that the church will always look like ours, but the future of the Christian church is good. Even while we sleep, the church grows. The church will grow to be the largest entity on earth. In fact it already is. Jesus seems to be ruling in the lives of a third of humanity. Now that’s a large kingdom.

Terror, Panic and Faith

There are times when the storms of life overwhelm us, and it seems as if God is asleep. Jesus Christ was certainly asleep when a raging storm threatened his disciples on Lake Galilee. The story is in Mark 4:35-41. Like those disciples, we may very well ask God, "Don't you care if we perish?" Sometimes when we pray to God in heaven, we may also be in terror and panicked. The situations we sometimes face put even the most patient and calm person to the test. How often do easygoing and coolheaded people become hysterical and fearful under adversity? We tend to mirror our circumstances and scoff at miracles, until we really need one. We plead for Jesus to intervene and when he does, he may ask, "Don't you have any faith?" And we may ask ourselves, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

Take Heed what you Hear

In Mark 4:23-25 Jesus encouraged us to hear, but take heed what we hear. There is a source of good news out there and if we listen, it will drastically improve out lives. However, what sells is bad news and cynicism. If we wallow in it we will become negative and jaded in character. We basically have a choice between two world views. We can immerse ourselves in skepticism, mockery, criticism, doubting and pessimism. Some people do. On the other hand, we can decide to become involved in a positive way of life. Imagine choosing to be around grace, mercy, love, belief, praise, approval, faith and a positive atmosphere. We will also tend to become like that. If we fill our minds with positive influences including the Gospel of Christ, then more will be given to us. Whoever returns to negativity, what good they had will be taken from them.

The Kingdom of God Secret

We often treat the Gospel as a secret and hide it under our traditions and fads. Yet the rule of God cannot be hidden. It's a secret that cannot be kept. In Mark 4:21-22 Jesus spoke of the lamp that came not to be put under a basket or hidden under a bed, but to be put on a stand. The light cannot be kept a secret. We have a long heritage of religious hullabaloo which takes center stage, but everything hidden or secret will eventually come to light. In every church, we have many faults, wacky ideas and weak human efforts. The world sees our obvious failings and wonders. However, none of our weak and silly church customs are so powerful as to hide the message of Christ forever and that is real good news. The good news is carried by weak vessels, but it still comes to light.

Is Teaching a Waste

Bible teachers may wonder if they have cast pearls before swine. It's frustrating when people stubbornly believe falsehoods and will not listen to reason, or will even accuse us of being false teachers if we do not agree with wacky interpretations of Scripture. So why do we bother? In Mark 4, we find the parable of the sower. There too, the seed of the kingdom is scattered in a seemingly indiscriminate manner. Why would anyone deliberately scatter seed on useless ground? Doesn't it seem like a waste? We need to understand ancient agriculture to understand the parable. Seed was sown in hope, because ground quality was not always obvious until after sowing. Anciently, plowing came after sowing. The focus of the parable is also not on wasted effort, but on the ground that did produce fruit. So, teach in hope that fruit will be produced: thirty-, sixty- and a hundred-fold.