littlelaughalot
Monday, March 26, 2007
Jesus is on board!
"Late that day he said to them, "Let's go across to the other side." They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. 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?"Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?"
They were in absolute awe, staggered. "Who is this, anyway?" they asked. "Wind and sea at his beck and call!"
Mark 4 verses 35-419 (The Message)
I don’t particularly like being on a boat. And so one of the first things I do when getting on board is to find out where the lifeboats are and I’ll pretty much take residence there for the remainder of the journey. Any chance of the boat sinking and you can forget all my manners....I’m on first!
But the boat that we are talking about in this story is no luxury cruise liner. It would have been a plain old fishing boat. And here we have a situation where Jesus has come on board.
Now there are two questions that I have when reading this passage of scripture.
Firstly, these fishermen, Jesus’ disciples would have seen many storms,I’m quite sure, in their many times out in their boat. So was this storm even more wild and dangerous than anything that they had ever experienced before?...or secondly, was it that by having Jesus on board, they just didn’t think that they would encounter such a storm, and such a threat to their very lives.
I really feel that the second one may be nearer to the truth...and this challenges me every time. Even with Jesus on board, this certainly doesn’t make the men exempt from the storm. It still happened.
I don’t know about you, and what you have experienced, but I think that a lot of people think that because you are a Christian, because you have asked Jesus into your life, they think that we have a pretty cushy time. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Dare I even say that as Christians ourselves, sometimes we expect to have an easier ride...after all Jesus wouldn’t want to put us through such a stormy time?
But one other amazing thing happened through experiencing this storm for those disciples. They learned something about Jesus. They realise that he wasn’t just a prophet, a teacher, a friend and someone who performed amazing miracles...he indeed was the Son of God, so powerful that even the wind and the waves obeyed Him, and through this experience these men acknowledged Jesus for what He truly was.
So take comfort from this story, that even though you may be experiencing rough waters in your life, just remember that Jesus is on board,.....He hasn’t jumped overboard! He is simply waiting for you to ask Him to take over and to take control. And although you might find it hard to comprehend why you are being put through such a testing time, just remember how much more you will have learned about your Lord and Saviour, and how much closer you will be to Him through allowing him to take control.
