In the account of the ship nearly sinking in Mark 4, the disciples called for Jesus their Teacher to help them.
He manifested that He was much more than some teacher.
First, He was peacefully asleep in the back of the boat, even while the storm was raging and the ship was taking on water.
When the disciples questioned Him, shouting with frustration, fear, and indignation that He seemed indifferent to them and their plight, Jesus rose and spoke to the sea.
Notice that Jesus did not shout. He rebuked the sea.
"HELPS" Word studies offers the following on "rebuke":
2008 epitimáō (from 1909 /epí, "suitably on," which intensifies 5091 /timáō, "esteem, place value") – properly, assign value as is fitting the situation, building on (Gk epi) the situation to correct (re-direct).
2008 /epitimáō ("to warn by instructing") can mean "rebuke" but its fundamental sense is "warning to prevent something from going wrong" (see CBL, BAGD).
[2008 /epitimáō (literally, "place due weight/honor upon") does not always mean "rebuke" per se.]
In a sense, Jesus did not necessarily threaten the sea, but merely warned the roaring waves that He was very much in charge.
A mega-calm followed, and then Jesus gently chided His disciples: "Why are you so afraid?"
The account then records that following the massive storm, they were even more afraid! The Greek literally conveys "Really feared with mega fear", an intense phrase explicitly revealing their terror.
Imagine: Jesus has quelled a massive storm into a mega calm, yet the disciples went from scared to mega-afraid! Shouldn't they have calmed down with the storm, too?
When I looked at verse 41, I realized that when it comes to fears in our lives, we need more than the circumstances to change. We need to be set at peace from within.
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26: 3)
A peace which depends on our circumstances will never last, and a peace which does not properly recognize that Jesus Christ is more than a mere Teacher, but a Savior always willing to save, will often wonder with worry and fear whether He will help us or not.
In the next chapter of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus cast out the demon from a naked man roaming in a graveyard. How did the local townspeople respond?:
"15And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid." (Mark 5: 15)
They were afraid. They had no idea what Jesus would do, since He had the power to cast out demons and tame the wild man who was running around in that graveyard. Instead of welcoming Jesus' ministry, the people in the city told Him to go away.
The lasting peace which we need cannot be based on our circumstances. We need to have a sure sense of trust that Jesus Christ is for us, not against us.
Paul would write:
"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8: 31-34)
Our peace must be based on the righteous standing which we receive in Christ. It's not enough that God removs storms in our lives. It's not enough for our flesh and our minds that we see sometime troubles removed from our situations. We need a certainty that no matter what is happening around us, God is on our side.
His allegiance to our needs is based on the New Covenant:
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10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
When we believe that every sin, every shame, every sense and sort of reproach has been paid for, then we can rest easy knowing that no matter what is happening in our lives, especially when we sin, fall, and fail, that God is on our side.
Before He died on the Cross, Jesus delivered to His disciples:
"1Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John 14: 1)
Part of the New Covenant includes a new heart of flesh, and a new spirit, one which rests in His gift of righteousness.
His peace overcomes all problems, all needs, all tumults in our lives.
When the disciples were crying out for Jesus' help on the boat, they did not have His peace living within them. Because Jesus had not yet died on the Cross, they inescapable, unsettling realites of this fallen earth could not but unsettle them.
Even though Jesus removed the difficult circumstance in their lives, without the bloodshed and the New Covenant, they and we have no assurance of His protection.
For this reason, Jesus would instruct His disciples to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness: the status of new creation which will never fall into condemnation ever again.
This revelation has brought me great peace. For a long time, I have learned that we have to rest before God solves the problems in our lives.
I had chafed at this supposed requirement. There is something in all of us which still believes that when we solve this or that problem in our lives, then we can rest and be at ease.
The accounts in Mark 4 and Mark 5 upend that empty assumption. When Jesus ministered to the temporal problems in the lives of His disciples, they ended up being more afraid, since they did not know Him, and did not trust that He would do things for their good, o at least they could not be sure of who He was.
Because Jesus died on the Cross, we can trust Him that no matter what problems we ace, that He is our on our side. No matter what we feel or think, He is for us and not against us.
Why? Because He has died for all our ins and granted us His righteousness.
John writes in his First Epistle:
"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)
God's love is not made perfect for us until we recognize that we have receive a new identity through His Son, that God sees us in Jesus, and not in ourselves.
When we rest in the wonderful truth that Jesus' death on the Cross not only removes all our sins, establishes Him as our High Priest Forever, but also grants to us a spirit of adoption (Romans 8: 15) and we become sons of God (1 Peter 3: 1-3)
When we understand the fullness of God's love for us, then every fear is banished from our lives:
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." (1 John 4: 18)
A new life, a standing freed from sin, established in righteousness, resting in the New Covenant grants to us the perfect peace of Christ, and frees us from all fear.
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