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Date: Fourth Sunday of Pentecost Text: Mark 4:35-41
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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.
Alone.
And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.
In the name of Jesus, Amen. Here again, the words from our Gospel text from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 4. At its conclusion, the disciples were filled with great fear. Jesus had just spoken to a storm as if it was a pet dog and told it to be silent.
Shhh, Jesus says to the storm. And the wind ceased. It was a great calm. Of course, Jesus is asking them the question, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And the disciples, filled with great fear, said to one another, who then is this?
That even the wind and the sea obey Him. You'll note this is early on in the ministry of Jesus and the disciples haven't quite sorted it out. But let's consider some of the irony here and some of the difficulty as we work through a passage like this.
Let's back up in history, maybe six or seven centuries, and go back to Mount Carmel. Remember, the prophets of Baal were invited to a showdown by Elijah, the single prophet of God, to come to Mount Carmel.
And the God who answers by fire, He is supposed to be the Lord. Here again, the words of Elijah from 1 Kings 18. Elijah came near to all the people and he said, how long will you go limping between.
Two opinions?
If Yahweh is God, follow Him. But if Baal, well then follow him. And so the people did not answer him a word. Elijah said to the people, I, even I, only am left a prophet of Yahweh. But Baal's prophets are 450 men.
So let two bowls be given to us, let them choose one bowl for themselves, cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bowl and lay on it the wood and put no fire to it.
You call upon the name of your God, I'll call upon the name of Yahweh. And the God who answers by fire, He is God. Well we all know how this goes. So they chose for themselves one bowl and the prophets of Baal prepared it first, but they put no fire to it.
The text says, they took the bowl that was given them, prepared it, called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, Oh, Baal, answer us. But there was no voice. No one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made and then listened to these words.
And at noon, Elijah mocked them saying, well, cry louder. After all, he is a God. Either he's musing, maybe he's relieving himself. He's in that small room reading the newspaper while he relieves himself.
Or maybe he's on a journey or perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice.
No one answered. No one paid attention. So there is Elijah on Mount Carmel, what, mocking the prophets of Baal because their God isn't answering them. Cry louder. He's relieving himself. Maybe he's asleep.
And see, this gets at one of the difficulties of the incarnation. A lot of people don't know what to do with Jesus Christ because he is none other than the Son of God in human flesh. He is the God Yahweh in human flesh.
And yet, ironically, centuries later, our gospel text has Jesus absolutely bush-dog tired after days of ministry, wearing himself out, wearing himself to the bone, and he getting into a boat, letting his disciples lead the way as they're heading across the sea.
And Jesus needs to get some sleep. And that's when that storm came up. And guess what? The disciples had to wake up their God? What are we to make of this? Doesn't this mean that Jesus isn't God? No, it doesn't.
And that's one of the great profundities of the incarnation. The incarnation changes everything. And the disciples, at the end of this account, are trying to sort this out. Who then is this? You see, Islam, this is one of those religions that is really, really offended by and refuses to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Let me give you an example here. From one of Bo Geertz's works, he writes about a knight who had a Muslim servant. And in this writing, in this fictional account, this knight asks his Muslim servant, what are you thinking about?
And so the Muslim servant answers his knight, master, and he says, I'm thinking about paradise, my lord, this Muslim servant says, and I'm thinking about God. And then he just lays out the Muslim concept of the unitarian idea of God.
And listen to what he says. It sounds pious and ineffable, but this is the means by which Islam denies that Jesus is God the Son, second person of the Holy Trinity in human flesh. See, God, he is one, this Muslim servant says.
He is exalted higher than the heavens. He is incomprehensible, glorious, beyond all understanding, impossible to grasp. If we could understand him, he would no longer be God. And if he could become like us, we would not be God either.
We would never dare to say that the infinitely exalted could have a son with a woman, that the glory and the divinity, the holy, inexpressible, whom we cannot find words for, that this one should be found in a miserable, sweaty, human body, which can get sores and colic, which must stuff itself with porridge and must relieve itself as we do.
This, according to Islam, is blasphemy. Therefore, God gives us victory. Sounds right-ish, but here's the thing. Jesus is none other than God in human flesh. And this is where part of the stumbling block is.
How is it that God would take on frail, sweaty, stinky, needy human flesh and still be God? But that is exactly who Jesus is and what he has done. And so consider this text. From 1 Timothy 3, Paul writes in verse 16,.
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.
In fact, that's the point. The manifestation, the incarnation of the Son of God is a mystery that is great, it is profound, it is difficult for us to comprehend. And at the same time, this revelation that God walked among us, suffered as we suffered, wept as we wept, bled as we bled, died as we died, brings us comfort.
Comfort because our God can relate with our weaknesses. In another text, the Gospel of John chapter 1, talking about the incarnation of the Son of God, it begins with those famous words, John chapter 1, In the beginning, anarchy, in the beginning was the Word, logos, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
You see, Jesus is the Word of God. He was in the beginning with God, and He is God. That being the case, He is the light. And you'll note that John chapter 1 has many of the same themes that you see in Genesis 1.
That in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, let there be light, and there was light, and He separated the light from the darkness. But here we learn from the Gospel of John that Jesus is the light of the world.
He's the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John continues, He was not the light. He came to bear witness about the light. But the true light which gives light to everyone, it was coming.
He was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. And that's kind of the point. Here, this text, John confesses that Jesus is the one who created everything.
It's in that context that we consider the frightening words that we see in our Old Testament text from Job 38. Oh, this is one of the most terrifying texts in all of Scripture. Job, finally buckling under his suffering, begins to grumble and to blame his misery on God to one degree or another.
And God decides He's going to have a chat with Job. And let's just say that God chose to show up and have His chat with Job in power and glory and might. And He shows up, barrels down a highway, coming down the way to talk to Job in a whirlwind, in a big, ginormous, supercell thunderstorm.
And the Lord answered Job out of this whirlwind. And He said to Job, Job, who is it that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? You dress for action like a man. I'll question you, and you make it known to me.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy? Those are the angels. Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band?
And I prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said, thus far shall you come and no farther. And here shall your proud waves be stayed. As brief as our Old Testament text is, you can tell that Job was having one of those moments where he may have involuntarily not only had his knees knocking, but may have wet himself.
Because when God shows up in power and glory and might in this way, and upbraids, oh, an upstart human who speaks without knowledge, God reminded Job that he had intentionality and design and thought that went into the creation of the universe and the things that we see and smell and taste and touch.
And he even commands his creation. You proud waves can come this far and no farther. That's God's prerogative to speak to creation in this way. And in that regard then, consider again what our Gospel text says.
On that day when the evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, let us go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And the other boats were with them.
There was more than one boat. And a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat, so the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep, on a cushion.
Wow.
Again, the mystery of godliness is great. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. We'll read more from John in a minute. But yeah, they're the disciples. Their God was in the boat with them, asleep, dog-tired, having spent all of his energy doing ministry work, casting out demons, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, the ability to walk to the paralyzed and the lame.
Oh, Jesus did it all, and at the end of it, he was spent. And there he was, asleep, on the cushion, on the boat. The storm came up, and Jesus is sawing logs. They're in trouble. Oh, indeed they are. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
What kind of question is that? And by the way, aren't we all? Aren't we all perishing? We may not be in a boat right now that's being tossed by the waves of the sea or in the middle of a hurricane or right in the target of a whirlwind or a tornado.
We may not be on the receiving end of stinging snakes or anything like that. No, no, no. But each and every one of us, because of sin, we are perishing. And so let me ask you the question, does Jesus not care that we are perishing?
He does care. He cares so much that he took on human flesh, was born of the Virgin Mary, and then he suffered under Pontius Pilate. Oh, Jesus cares that you and I are perishing. And it is idolatrous and silly and stupid of us to think otherwise.
God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for our sin. But see, because of the blindness of sin, we are in the dark. The light is shining and we don't comprehend it.
We don't get it. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
So Jesus awoke.
He rebuked the wind and he said to the sea,.
Peace, be still.
I almost feel like the next words weren't recorded. I'm trying to sleep here. And what does the sea do? Just like God revealed to Job, I commanded the sea, this far you shall come and no farther. He just merely spoke to it.
Ah, the sea hears the voice of its creator, its master, its Lord, its God. And what does the creation do?
It obeys.
That's the prerogative of Christ. Peace, be still. The wind ceased. There was a great calm. So Jesus then turns to his disciples, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
Faith in who?
Faith for what? Faith, what are you talking about? And they're all filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the sea and the wind that they obey him? That is the $10 million question.
Who is Jesus?
John continues, The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. What a terrifying thought.
The world, the sea of Galilee, the wind that was blowing that day, knew exactly who Jesus was. And when he spoke and commanded, the wind and the sea of Galilee heard, knew who their master was and obeyed.
But because of our rebellion, because of our joining against God with the devil himself, by disobeying God's words, casting his words behind us, when he said, If the day you eat of that tree in the midst of the garden, you will surely die, the devil comes along and says, You will not surely die.
And we said,.
Okay, we'll not surely die. And guess what?
We died.
And because of this, we've been plunged into darkness. But Jesus is the light. And so he came into the world, into his own creation. You are created by him as well. The world, though made through him, the world didn't know him.
He came to his own, his own people. They didn't even receive him. But listen to these words. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Adopted children who can cry out, Abba, Father.
You see, these are people who were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but they were born of God. And the text then says this,. And the word, God, became flesh, and he dwelt among us.
And we have seen his glory, glorious of the only son from the father, full of grace and full of truth. You see, the devil plunged us into darkness, into mercilessness, into graceless existences filled with lies, because the devil is nothing but a liar.
But see, Christ is full of grace. Grace to forgive you of your sin and your rebellion. Grace to forgive you of your ignorance and your, well, willful ignorance as it comes to who Jesus is, your own creator.
And your failure to even cry out to him to forgive. He is full of grace. He is full of truth. John the Baptist bore witness about Christ and cried out, this is the one of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks me, because he was before me.
Indeed, Christ was before everything. All things were made through him. And then verse 16 of John 1, for from his fullness, the fullness of Christ, we have all received grace upon grace. And brothers and sisters, that's exactly what Christ, the one who can speak to storms and silence them, speak to the creation and it obeys him, that's what he's come to do for you, to give you grace upon grace.
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And I understand that this is difficult. I understand that it's offensive. I understand that there's a lot of people out there who are debating this and saying, you know what, this isn't really a settled matter.
Oh, indeed it is. Every one of Christ's apostles make it very clear who Jesus is. He is none other than the God of the Old Testament in human flesh. And as difficult as that is to swallow, know then that Jesus knows your weakness, he has borne your sin, and he has gone through death ahead of you so that you would never have to taste death.
He knows what it's like to be tempted. He knows what it's like to be brokenhearted. He knows what it's like to grieve and to suffer and to be persecuted, to be hated, lied about, spat on. He knows all of that from personal, firsthand experience.
You see, our God has sojourned among us. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? It is Jesus, Yahweh in human flesh. So let me end this thought by coming back to Bo Geertz's work.
At the end of Bo Geertz's work, that night, the one who was having his conversation with his Muslim servant, that same night was injured in battle and he was on his deathbed. Not only was he on his deathbed, he was far, far from home.
And as he is getting ready to die, Bo Geertz writes of him that he closed his eyes, he folded his hands, and upon doing so, a great peace came over him and he knew that he was not alone. He knew this without needing to clothe it with words.
There was someone here who walked amid the hospital beds, just like in the streets of Capernaum. This one stopped and bowed down. His breasts, too, had a large wound. His hands had bled. One could tell that he knew everything, and those at home would never understand.
He, too, had experienced it. He experienced cold, rain, filth and vermin, beatings and wounds, the fear of death and defeat. The God who had come into all of this, he was very near, and it was good to have such a God.
Brothers and sisters, this is our God, Jesus. He is the one who came into the mess and the muck. He was sweaty, smelly, cold, experienced rain and sunburn, filth and vermin, beatings, wounds, the fear of death itself, asking God to let this cup pass, and he himself experienced the ultimate defeat, death, death on a cross.
But see, what was defeat by our eyes was the ultimate victory. So we are called to repent of our idolatries, of our belief that somehow we've got it all figured out, and because we've got it all figured out, Jesus really can't be, you know, God.
But indeed he is. And what a great comfort and peace it brings to know that we have been bled for and died for, that this Jesus understands us and what we're going through, and he is not saving us from it by relieving us of it.
He is saving us through it by leading the way through it, through suffering, persecution, death, and resurrection. And we have been united with him in his death and resurrection, and we too, like he does now, will be raised from the dead and live forever.
It is very much a source of comfort and peace to know that our God humbled himself and was found in the form of a servant for me and for you. So who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?
I think the answer is obvious. It is the Son of God in human flesh come to save us. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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