Pentecost 6 – 4 July 2021 – Year B.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 6^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 1 – 13:

He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. ² And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. ⁴ And Jesus said to them “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives andin his own household.” ⁵ And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And he marvelled because of their unbelief. 

And he went about among the villages teaching. 

⁷ And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸ He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— ⁹ but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. ¹⁰ And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. ¹¹ And if any place willnot receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feetas a testimony against them.” ¹² So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. ¹³ And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

 

One of Christianity’s most basic confessions about God is the fact that He is omnipotent.  This is just a fancy word that means that God is all-powerful.  For a Christian, this is one of the most basic, elementary confessions of the faith.  Every Christians knows and believes this about God.  If you don’t believe that God is almighty and all-powerful, then you don’t believe in the one true God and you can’t rightly call yourself a Christian!  Even the littlest of children make this confession when they sing, “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” Basic stuff that no faithful Christian would ever question or doubt.

And yet…as we turn our attention to the Gospel lesson this morning, we’re faced with a rather glaring contradiction.  ^{(Mark 6:5)“} [Jesus] could do no mighty work” among his hometown people, except maybe lay His hands on a couple of sick people and heal them.  Jesus could do no mighty work…that’s a dilemma!  According to St. Mark the omnipotent was essentially rendered impotent.  The almighty and all-powerful was not.  What does this mean?!  

This is certainly challenging and thought provoking, but, the Word of God is very clear in stating that Jesus could do no mighty work in the presence of His hometown folks who doubted Him.  In fact, the original Greek tells us that “… He did not have the power to make anything powerful happen.” Does this mean that Jesus truly didn’t possess the skills, the abilities, the resources—the power—to work powerful things in their midst, or could it mean that Jesus wasn’t allowed to work these powerful things in their midst?  You see, there is a difference—a HUGE difference!  You can have all the skills, abilities, and resources in the world, but if you’re not permitted to use them; if you’re prevented from working, all those skills, abilities, and resources won’t do anybody any good.  Basically, you can be rendered truly powerless despite all the power you truly possess and are so willing to share.

Yes—Jesus could do no mighty works in His hometown…because the people there doubted and rejected Him. ^{(Rom 1:16)} “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the POWER of God for salvation to all who believe.”  These are the mighty, resurrecting, lifesaving, life-giving works Jesus was unable to perform.  The people heard His Word; His Law and His Gospel, proclaimed with His authority, and they rejected it.  They were offended by it.  “Who does this man think He is?  This is the carpenter’s son.  Here are His mother, His brothers, and His sisters.  He has no right to say these things to us!” They prevented Jesus from working His powerful lifesaving, life-giving gifts of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation. 

 

Now, could Jesus, as almighty and all-powerful God, have simply snapped a finger or spoken a mere word and over-rode their decision by doing His work against their will, making them submit?  Of course He could!  However, if He would do this then He would no longer be a loving and gracious God.  He would no longer be the God of Scripture; the God He has revealed Himself to us to be.  He would instead be a forceful, tyrannical God. -  “You will serve, honour, love, and obey Me, whether you like it or not!”

You know, it truly saddens me that this same faithless prevention exhibited by the hometown crowd still goes on today.  People still deny and prevent Christ from working all the time.  Scores of people this day will lament about how much trial and tribulation and fear and sorrow they have in their lives, and yet they will, in the same breath, denounce Christ’s means of grace. The free gift of salvation through the Word and Sacraments which He gives out through His Church, denouncing all of this as a big waste of time; a burden that trespasses into their sleep time, their leisure time, their “me” time.  Countless parents keep their children from Christ’s life-giving power of baptism because all they see is simple water or a man-made rite of administrative membership.  

Thousands of people in our own communities this very day will partake in mere bread and juice, calling it communion, and yet openly denying that Jesus could be present with His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, even though He says so quite clearly that this IS His body and His blood for the forgiveness of sins.  Generally, they are using human logic to manipulate God’s Word.  It disturbs me greatly to know that good Christian people are using bread and grape juice, in a manner contrary to Jesus’ command, simply because in doing so, they’re preventing Christ from giving them His life-giving gifts of Body and Blood.  It disturbs me greatly to know that people, mostly unwittingly, are content with an empty, powerless counterfeit.  Maybe it concerns you as well.  Maybe it doesn’t.  I personally am troubled at such indifference and unbelief influencing Christian denominational doctrine.  

Of course, this is just looking at all this from the perspective of “Word and Sacrament Mainstreamers” (Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic etc.) looking out at everyone else.  Whether we want to admit it or not, we do the same sinful preventative sorts of things in our daily lives too!  I say this for good reason because, while there are many times when, whilst we would NEVER voice this doubt concerning God’s omnipotence, there are those same times that we’re certainly thinking it.  There are those times when life turns ‘pear shape’ and bottoms out, and being the good Christians that we are, we turn to God in prayer.  Unfortunately, the bad situation only gets worse, in spite of our prayers, in spite of our noticeable increased fervour toward religiosity, in spite of the fact that we call on God to fix and heal the situation.  Things don’t change within our expected timeframe.  Nothing powerful happens right away… and that’s when the doubt gets a foot in the door of our faith.  Perhaps there truly are some things that Jesus can’t handle.  

How often we are slaves to our humanity.  We may not like to admit it, but we routinely deny and prevent Christ from working His gifts of life and salvation for a wide variety of reasons.  We stay away from church because of the weather, our emotions, our feelings, the other people at church…whatever.  There’s never a shortage of self-justifications and excuses.  How many times have we failed to open our mouths and speak up, proclaiming the truth of Christ’s Word when it is needed most?  I know that you all know somebody who isn’t here today and needed to hear this message.  Why don’t you share it with them?  What’s stopping you?  What’s preventing you from speaking and teaching the truth of Christ and His Word?

You know, when all this prevention happens in our lives, I understand why Christ marvelled at the people’s unbelief.  It really is sad because in all these instances here’s the Almighty and all-powerful God calling us and reaching down from heaven to us to be in our very midst; to work and speak to us and through us; to teach us and to teach through us; to feed and nourish us and our fellow brothers and sisters with His gifts.  And what do we so often do?  We muzzle Him.  We slap His hand away, preventing Him from working the very gift that is so desperately needed; the very powerful, life-giving, life-saving gift He so desperately wants to give to us and to all His people—His free and unmerited gift of Gospel grace, mercy, peace, forgiveness, and everlasting salvation.

Dear friends in Christ: My simple prayer this day and every day is that nothing prevents the receiving and sharing of these life-giving, life-saving gifts in our lives—not me, not you, not anyone or anything.  My prayer is that through the eyes and ears of saving faith, which God has freely given us as His gift; a gift which enables us to recognise and repent and receive and give thanks for the mighty and powerful workings of God in His Word and His Sacraments, we behold not the mere broken vessels and earthly means God chooses to use, but the true giver of these powerful, life-saving gifts—Jesus Christ; the same Jesus Christ who is our loving and gracious, almighty and all-powerful Lord and Saviour; the same Jesus Christ who willingly laid down His life for us on His cross for the complete forgiveness of all our sins; for our life and salvation, all so that nothing would prevent us from receiving the eternal love and life that our heavenly Father has for us and is already ours because of Jesus Christ alone.  

It is finished, in Christ alone and because of Christ alone.  The powers of sin, death, and the grave have been crushed and put to death by the omnipotent power of Christ and His all-redeeming life, death, and resurrection.  The omnipotent Saviour—Jesus Christ, full God and full man—has effectively and eternally rendered sin, death, and the devil impotent.  There is nothing to fear; nothing to doubt or despair over, no matter how dark the world and current events may seem.  “It is finished!” Our omnipotent God and Lord has declared it.  It is so.  This is our Good News.  This is our Gospel, Baptismal reality.  

Almighty God has worked truly powerful things in His life, death, and resurrection, and He did it all for us.  Think about that for a moment.  If you were the only person to ever live in all of history, Jesus still would’ve died for you.  That’s how precious we are to almighty God.  we are His precious children; children He willingly laid down His life for on a criminal’s cross, suffering all of His Father’s righteous, hellish wrath for us in our stead.  He did all of this all so that nothing would ever prevent us from receiving the eternal love and life that our heavenly Father has for us and is already ours because of our baptismal in-grafting into Jesus Christ alone, through the Holy Spirit.

May this Gospel Good News of God’s omnipotent and immeasurable love for you take root in your heart and work His mighty works in you and all those He brings you into contact with.  To Him alone be all the glory, for it is He alone who works His miraculous works of repentance and salvation!  Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!  Praise God, to whom alone belongs all power and dominion and grace and mercy and peace. Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

 

 

Pentecost 5 – 27 June 2021 – Year B

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 5^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 21–43:

 

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. ²² Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet ²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” ²⁴ And he went with him. 

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. ²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” ²⁹ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. ³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” ³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² And he looked around to see who had done it. ³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

 ³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your disease.”³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” ³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” ³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them,“Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” ⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” ⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. ⁴³ And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

The Gospel we just heard is a record of one miracle nested inside another.  Jairus came to Jesus on behalf of his daughter who was very seriously ill.  Then, while Jesus was on His way to heal the daughter, He encountered a woman who suffered from a bleeding disorder.  Although this woman only wanted physical healing, Jesus knew she needed much more.

From a human standpoint, this causes a dilemma.  Should Jesus remain there and deal with the woman or continue onward with Jairus?  If He remains, Jairus’ daughter may die before Jesus can get to her.  On the other hand, the woman has needs beyond mere physical healing, and Jesus may not be able to find her again later.

Fortunately, Jesus is not limited to the human viewpoint.  He took time to deal with the woman even though it meant that the daughter would die.  But then, He dealt with the daughter not just by bringing her back to life, but by bringing her back to perfect health.

When Jesus stopped and turned around in the middle of the crowd, no one was more surprised than the woman who had touched His garment for healing.  The account clearly implies that she wanted her healing to go unnoticed.  She didn’t want to be any trouble.  She would just sneak in, touch His garment, and be gone. No one needed to know.  This woman was undoubtedly shocked when Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ^{(Mark 5:30)} “Who touched my garments?”  In spite of her fear, ^{(Mark 5:33)}  “the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth”. She was terrified that she was about to be punished for her actions.

You see, the nature of her bleeding condition had rendered her just as unclean as any leper.  The law concerning a woman with her condition was very clear. ^{(Leviticus 15:25)} “If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. As in the days of her impurity, she shall be unclean.” Not only was she unclean, but she had also exposed the entire crowd to her uncleanness.  Strictly speaking, under the law, this woman had sinned against every member of the crowd.  Her mere presence should have forced them to go to the priests for the purification ritual.  She rightly expected punishment for violating the ritual cleanliness of every member of that crowd.

You see, this woman was born under the ‘Law’, the Scribes and Pharisees would condemn her for her inability to keep the ‘Law’; her sin condemned her. But the man Jesus knows her human weakness; He knows her needs, and so the account tells us that Jesus had nothing but Gospel (literally ‘Good News’) for the woman.  ^{(Mark 5:34)} He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Jesus understood that the bleeding condition was the least of this woman’s troubles.  If Jesus would have let her go on her way, she would still carry the guilt of her sins.  Not just the guilt of sneaking through the crowd and stealing some of Jesus’ power, but the guilt for all the other sins in her life.  Physically, she would be fine, but eternally, she would still be condemned.  Jesus’ words comforted her, forgave her, and gave her His peace.

Every one of us enters life with the same fear that this woman had, we are all born under the Law.  Deep down inside, we know we don’t measure up.  Deep down inside, we know that we need help.  Deep down inside, we know that that help can only come from God.  At the same time, we know that God has every right to punish us for our sin.  We find ourselves in the painful situation of needing help from a source that terrifies us.  We find ourselves in the situation where we want God to help us when we are struggling in our lives, but, like the woman, we want minimum contact in our need, but we distance ourselves from God the rest of the time.  This is fear.

This seemingly irrational fear began in Eden. ^{(Genesis 3:8–10)} “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Adam and Eve sinned, and ever since, the presence of God has terrified people.

 

Ever since that day, humanity has laboured under the false notion that we must somehow earn our way back into God’s favour.  Somehow, we must fix what went wrong in Eden.  That is the reason that most people believe that religion is all about becoming a better person.  It is all about getting right with God.  Of course, anyone who is half-way honest will readily admit that they can’t make that happen.  Therefore, God terrifies them.  They know that they will not meet God’s standards on the day they must go to meet their maker, there is no human rationale that can assure us that we have been good enough.

The sad thing about all these terrified people is that they have the idea of religion all wrong.  True religion is not about ‘us’ living a righteous life for God.  It is about God taking on human flesh and living a righteous life for ‘us’.  It is not about us getting right with God.  It is about God dying on a cross so that He can give His righteousness to us.  It is not about us paying the penalty for our sin.  It is about God paying that penalty for us as He hangs on a cross and endures the punishment we deserve.  It is not about a God who demands and takes.  It is about a God who offers and gives.  (Romans 5:8) “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

The question is, since we live in a sinful world and our own sinful nature fills us with the false religions of terror, then how can we receive the true religion of forgiveness, life, and salvation? 

In the Gospel we just heard, Jesus did not allow the woman to sneak off with mere physical healing.  He wanted to heal her in body, mind, and spirit.  So He ^{(Mark 5:30)} “turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments?”

He asked this question for the same reason He asked Adam where he was in Eden.  Just as He knew exactly where Adam was, so He also knew all about the woman who had touched Him.  In Eden, He asked in order to call Adam to Himself.  In the same way, He asked, “Who touched my garments,” in order to call the woman to Himself.  He knew exactly who had touched His garments and He gave her nowhere to hide.  She had to come forward.

It was then that Jesus gently and lovingly laid the Gospel on her.  He said to her, ^{(Mark 5:34)} “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Jesus did not just heal her disease, but He also gave her His peace.

The woman did not seek out Jesus for healing in mind and spirit, but only for physical healing.  Indeed, once her body was healed, she wanted to sneak off never to be heard from again.  That is not the nature of Jesus love, the woman received mental and spiritual healing because Jesus called her to Himself and gave her His peace.

The other sign in today’s Gospel demonstrates this even more, for Jairus’ daughter did indeed die.  As a dead person, she could do nothing to help herself.  Nevertheless, Jesus called her and she woke up from death.  It is easier for Jesus to wake a person from death than it is for one of us to waken someone from simple slumber.

Friends this isn’t Bible history, Jesus still gives His words of peace and healing today.  We have His words given to His prophets before he was born.  We have His words given to His Apostles out of His very human mouth … Words that the Apostles did not immediately understand, but that the Holy Spirit brought to their memory after Jesus ascended into heaven.  We hear His words when we hear the reading of the Holy Scriptures as the Holy Spirit said through the Apostle Paul. ^{(Ephesians 2:19–20)} “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone”. So it is that the Holy Spirit works faith in us through the Word of God.  It is the Holy Spirit at work through the Gospel that converts us from the false religions of fear and death to the true religion of forgiveness, life, and salvation … to the religion that looks to Jesus on the cross as the source of all the gifts God gives to us.

The Gospel we just heard told us of a woman who was afraid when Jesus exposed her deed.  In a similar way, our sinful nature is afraid when the Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel.  Just as the woman had no reason to fear, we have no reason to fear.  Just as Jesus gave peace and healing to her, He wants to give eternal peace to us.

Jesus has died on the cross to take away all our sins.  He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.  He has earned your salvation and gives it to us freely.  Don’t be afraid, but ^{(Acts 16:31)} “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”. Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

 

 

Pentecost 4 – 20 June 2021 – Year B

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 4^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Mark: Verses 35 – 41:

 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

 

 

The incident recorded for us in the Gospel we just heard is not just a nice story about Miracle Worker Jesus saving His followers from a watery grave.  It is also gives us real insights concerning the nature of Jesus as the Christ and the nature of the sinners in the boat with Him.

 

The events leading up to the account in today’s Gospel include a very full day of teaching for Jesus.  We heard two of the parables He taught in last week’s Gospel.  It’s been a long day.  Jesus is tired.  As is often the case after a busy time of ministry, Jesus decided to get away with His disciples for some much-needed rest and relaxation.  In this case, He elected to sail in a boat, with His disciples, to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

 

The Sea of Galilee (also known as Lake Gennesaret) is about thirteen kilometres across from West to East at its widest point.  It is situated some 213 metres below sea level and surrounding the sea, the hills of Galilee reach 450 metres above sea level and the Golan Heights (called the Decapolis in Jesus time) reach more than 750 metres. The sea’s location makes it subject to sudden and violent storms as the wind comes over the Eastern mountains and drops suddenly into the sea. The cold air, being heavier, drops as the warm air rises. This sudden change can produce surprisingly furious storms in a short time.

 

On calmer water with a good sea breeze, the sailing boat crossing should only take a few hours, but on this crossing, a storm came up.  Now, even though several of the disciples were experienced fishermen, they were still frightened.  This indicates that the storm was powerful.

 

Where was Jesus during this storm?  In these boats there was a ‘VIP seat’ for travelling guests. A little seat in the stern of the boat with a cushion and a carpet, and He was reclined in this seat blissfully sleeping.  He was exhausted from His long day and fell into a sleep so sound that even the storm did not wake Him.

 

The fact that Jesus was asleep is a revealing demonstration of the nature of the Christ.  Other than His actual death on the cross, there is no better demonstration of the humanity of Jesus than the sleep of exhaustion.  Every human being on the planet knows what it is to grow tired and fall asleep.  Here Jesus demonstrates His unity with all people.  He sleeps like any other human being.

 

But then the disciples wake Him and ask for His help.  The question in my mind is why did they wake him? It’s true that by this time, the disciples had seen Jesus do some miraculous healing and heard some of His wise teachings, but these men did not have a good track record of faith in and understanding of Jesus mission. So, we should not assume that the disciples were expecting much from Jesus.  After all, he was brought up as a carpenter, not as a sailor.  But, He was their leader and teacher, and they were in a panic, so they took the problem to Him. I mean how could he sleep through all this anyway? At the very least he could be another set of hands to help bail the water out of the boat or some other similar activity.  

 

I am inclined to think that they were overwhelmed, and Jesus was their last hope, so they woke Him to get Him involved. Ever get that feeling of despair? You know you feel you’re in deep trouble, with no answers in sight, and, pardon the pun, you feel as though you’re in the same boat as the Disciples that night. The thing is though, when they woke Jesus, I am sure they did not expect what happened next.

 

Jesus woke up and had a word with the elements.  The word “rebuke” in the text means that Jesus scolded the wind and the water rather harshly.  After that, the wind and the water became calm.

 

Now, you and I could scold the weather until we were blue in the face, and nothing would change.  In fact, if we continued in that sort of activity, people might wonder if they should take us somewhere to get a mental check-up. 

 

 Jesus, on the other hand, scolded the weather and the weather paid attention.  It paid attention because Jesus is not just your ordinary, sleepy human being.  He is also the God of all creation.  

Jesus’ ability to control the wind and the waves with just a word clearly shows that He is God.  So it is that this one event very clearly demonstrates that Jesus is both 100 % man and 100 % God in one person.

 

The disciples may have been full of fear on account of the storm, but, on the other hand, when they witnessed Jesus calm the storm, they were terrified.  The original Greek says that they feared a great fear.  They were in a boat with someone who could talk to the wind and the waves, and the wind and the waves would pay attention to what He said. 

 

 They began to question who their master and teacher really was. Isn’t it a sad indictment on out human nature that we have to be shocked into belief? When we don’t really come to terms with our sinful nature until we realise we are in the presence of God Himself? Why else would they have great fear? They realised they could be riding in the same boat as the God of creation.

 

This is one of the themes in Jesus’ life.  People often ask who Jesus is.  Today, we heard that the wind and the waves know who Jesus is.  In other parts of the Gospel account, we learn that diseases, birth defects, and injuries know who Jesus is.  Even the demons know who Jesus is.  But, when it comes to the human beings, Jesus is a great mystery.  They regularly ask, “Who is this?  Where does He get this authority?”  This reminds me of the words that the Holy Spirit spoke through His prophet Isaiah. ^{(Isaiah 1:3)} “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”  

 

All through the Old Testament whenever God appeared, there was great fear. You see it is not until God’s presence becomes obvious in our lives do we realise how sinful and inadequate we are. 

The terror of God traces its way clear back to Eden.  God called and Adam replied, ^{(Genesis 3:10)} “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid.” Adam had sinned and the presence of the holy and almighty God terrified him.  It is the same for all people who see their sin clearly in the holy presence of Almighty God.  ^{(Hebrews 10:31)} “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”.

 

That is the reason it so important that Jesus be both man and God.  If Jesus were only God, He could not take our place under the law and live a holy life for us.  He also could not suffer the penalty we have earned for our sin.  If Jesus were a man, and nothing more, then His perfect life and sacrificial death would earn the salvation of one and only one person.  The rest of the world would be lost.  It is essential for our salvation that Jesus be both God and man.

 

We need the salvation that Jesus provides because the storm on the Sea of Galilee is just one instance of the many disasters that the sin of humanity has brought into this world.  The destruction that storms bring is an expression of the curse that came when sin entered the world.  Our sin not only brings sickness and death to us, but even the world is cursed.  The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write to the Romans: ^{(Romans 8:22)} “We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now”. Floods, fires, cyclones, tornadoes, hail, lightening, earthquakes, and all the other natural disasters are the result of the curse that our sin brought into the world.

 

These natural disasters are not the only limited to the storms that our sin has brought into the world.  There are other adversities in our lives as well.  There are the medical storms of infections, heart disease, diabetes, strokes, cancer, and so forth.  There are the relational storms of broken families and friendships.  There are the financial storms of businesses closing and staff layoffs.  Ultimately, there is the storm of death that comes to all of us sooner or later.  We may try to deny the existence of sin in our lives, but these storms, both private and public, say otherwise.

 

It is in the incarnation of Jesus Christ – the fact that the Son of God assumed human nature – that we see God’s loving plan to deal with sin.  In Jesus Christ, God assumed human nature to save humans from their nature – their sinful nature.  It is our own original sin that doomed us to perish – not just from this earth, but also from the blessings of God’s presence with us.  

 

The good news of the Gospel is clearly announced to us in ^{(1 John 1:7)} “But the blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin”. Christ’s human nature allowed Him to be the target of God’s wrath as He hung on the cross for our sake.  Christ’s Divine nature allowed Him to endure that wrath for all people in all times and places.  So it is that God took on human flesh and saved us from our sins.

 

We can have complete confidence in that salvation that Jesus earned for us because death was unable to hold Him.  For Christ did not remain in the grave, but, after He conquered death, He rose from death never to die again.  After He rose, He showed Himself to His disciples.  He encouraged them to examine the marks of the cross in His body.  He talked with them and ate with them.  He interacted with them in very human ways.  At the same time, locked doors and windows were no barrier to Him as He appeared and disappeared at will.  In His resurrection, He demonstrated that He lives forever as both God and man in one person.

 

Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man.  With that combination, we find our full salvation from sin, death, and the power of the devil.  In His humanity, He was able to suffer on the cross in our place and for our good.  In His deity, He was able to defeat our foes and rise from the dead to give us eternal life.  It is in the person of Jesus Christ who both slept and stilled the storm that we have confidence that He will still the storms in our life. 

 

The vital question for us is, when our boat is rocking and the storms are raging in our lives, are we prepared to wake Jesus in prayer? Do we have the faith to be confident that, regardless of the circumstances, He will bring calm and peace back into our lives? Hear His promise ^{(Matt 11:28-30)} “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”. Amen

 

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen