As we’ve said on the past few Sunday’s, Mark’s gospel seems to be about discipleship and in the section of Mark that we’ve been reading, Jesus is preparing the disciples to be good disciples, giving them by word and example, a thorough lesson in what it will take to carry on his work.
But our friends the twelve disciples are having a hard time grasping just what is at stake. Though there have plenty of signs, and plenty of parables, they just don’t seem to get it. And then, in today’s reading, we see Jesus trying once again to get it across to them.
The twelve are sailing over the Sea of Galilee again, this time on their own. And once again, a storm comes up. Jesus, who is still on land, sees the storm rise and sees that the disciples are struggling. He decides to go to them, we would think, in order to help them.
After all, just a few weeks ago in our Sunday reading from Mark, Jesus has managed to quiet the turbulent sea, amazing and confounding the disciples. It’s clear that no storm is a match for Jesus and all he need do is say the word and the wind and the waves obey.
But then Mark tells us that Jesus intends to pass by the disciples struggling at their oars. It doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it? Why would Jesus walk by a floundering boat of frightened disciples -- when they could really use him, especially that mastery over the winds and the waves thing he does.
Well if we listen with our Biblical ears, we’ll hear an echo in this passage from the Old Testament. In chapter 33 of Exodus, on Mount Sinai, Moses asks to see God’s glory, so God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, and passes by him, not allowing Moses to see his face which would kill him, but allowing him to see his back. Moses is the only one to ever see the Most High God. And after this amazing encounter, his face shone, it glowed, and all his people knew that he had been in the presence of the Eternal God.
In Greek versions of the Old Testament, the same verb is used in Exodus as is used here in our passage in Mark. Jesus is preparing to reveal his glory to the disciples, just as the God of Israel did to Moses, by passing before them. There is to be a vision of the might and the glory of God.
But once again, the twelve just don’t get it. Instead of the awesome and mighty God Yahweh, glimpsed only once before on Sinai -- they think they’re seeing a ghost! They are filled with fear on the dangerous sea, and that fear they project on to Jesus as he comes toward them walking on the water. Like us, when they are filled with fear, all they see confirms and amplifies that fear. Jesus is attempting to show them his eternal glory as the only Son of the Most High God. And all they see is something else to be afraid of which makes them even more afraid.
When the disciples cry out, Jesus responds in the ancient formula. Echoing the unspeakable name of God – the great I AM -- he says, “It is I.” And echoing the words of comfort from Isaiah, he tells the apostles, “Be not afraid.” And once again, as he did in our gospel a few weeks ago, Jesus quiets the waves that so trouble the anxious apostles – and once again they are astounded, and once again, they fail to comprehend what is being shown them.
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When it comes to being a follower of Jesus, we can thank the apostles. For if Mark’s account is at all accurate, they have set the bar mighty low for the rest of us. Time and again, Jesus reveals his authority and his healing, redeeming power to them, and time and again, they are confused and uncomprehending. And in their fear and their confusion, their hearts are not filled with joy at the being in the presence of the incarnate God, but rather their hearts are hardened, and they fail to understand.
But, it is hard to follow Jesus. It is hard to be a disciple. It is hard to ‘lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called’, as today’s epistle puts it. There is much in our temporal world that seems to conspire to make us lose sight of the things eternal. There is much in our world that frightens us.
We each of us know what it is like to be tossed about on an uncertain sea. It may be the steep waves on the economic sea that fills us with fear. Or the treacherous currents of aging and declining health. Perhaps we feel battered by the winds of harsh opinion and disapproval, unsure of our worth in the world. Or maybe we are caught up in a tempestuous, dangerous relationship where anger and recrimination threaten to drown us.
We all know what it’s like to feel cast adrift on a raging sea, filled with fear with every crashing wave. And I’m not the least bit surprised that Jesus’ timing makes the apostles mad – I think that I would have been mad too.
‘Oh, come on! You can see me struggling here, Jesus. And now, now is the time you decide to put on the big show? Now I’m supposed to remember my Exodus and realize that you’ve come to reveal your glory to me. Could you have picked a worse time??? Let me see, it’s the middle of the night, I’m about to drown along with all of my friends, the waves are roiling, the wind is blowing, and the water in the bow is deep and rising. No, it’s perfect timing for a theological revelation! Go ahead! Knock yourself out!’
But, my friends, it is just at these moments that our God reminds us that our selfish and self-centered fears are just that: selfish, self-centered and not God-center, and therefore foolish. What have we to fear from any wave on the sea? We are anointed with the Holy Spirit and marked as God’s own forever. We have been saved from the night and the darkness of death by the resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ. What is it in this world that we should fear?
It must seem like the worst of times for Jesus to reveal his glory. And we don’t like it anymore than the apostles do, but that is exactly what God does. It is when we are the lowest that God makes manifest his almighty power and glory.
But that’s not really what we want is it? When times are tough, we don’t want an awesome God. What we want when times are tough is those tough times to end. We don’t want a theological revelation in the midst of the storm -- we want the storm to stop and stop now! That’s because in our humanity, what we want is the absence of fear and pain and all that troubles us. We don’t want to transcend hardship, we’d just like it to end.
But that’s not what’s on offer with the Christian God. That’s not the path that is set before us. After all, our God did not forego pain and death. No, our God went through pain and very death itself. Our God is the crucified God -- tried, convicted and executed, nailed to a cross in the noonday sun, propped up by the side of the road out of town. But that’s not the end of the story. Our God is the risen One, who after enduring great pain and death, rose again from the dead. And showed us that on the other side of suffering is great glory. That on the other side of our humanity lays a divine life with God.
Our God is not about ending pain and death and tough times. Our God is about transcending pain and death and all the troubles of this temporal world.
The Christian life is not one that promises great wealth or affluence. We are not promised a ‘get out of jail free’ card, nor are we promised a ‘get well quick fix’. The reality of pain, loss, fear, need are all very real for most of us -- I think I can say for all of us. But as great as all that may befall us in this life might be, we can know that our God is greater. And that we are God’s own. And that no matter the troubles of this temporal world they will pass away as surely as the morning follows the night. For the temporal world is already passing away, it is the eternal world with God that will remain. So, the troubles of this world -- and its triumphs -- are not what we are ultimately all about.
As our reading from Ephesians tells us, some of us might be prophets like Elisha, yes, but others are meant to spread the word to build up the body of Christ, others to care for the people of God. Some are meant to teach, to bring others as well as themselves into maturity in the faith.
The size or grandeur of our role, whether great or small, is no matter. We are one with God. There is one body and one Spirit – and we are part of it. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. And we are one with each other, and with the one God. There is nothing that this temporal world can bring that will banish us to the depths. For in the midst of those depths, and out of those depths, the glory of our God shines forth -- an emblem of the sacred promise made to all of us, of our own glory to come. + Amen.
© The Rev. Mark R. Collins
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