Jesus asked his disciples if they had faith after stilling the storm. But didn’t they have faith to wake him up?
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 4:35-41), in which Jesus and his disciples encountered a storm at sea.
As is not unusual in the gospels, Jesus had been working hard throughout chapter four. He had been teaching it in parables, and at this point Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us cross the lake to the other side.” He was tired. He fell asleep in the back of the boat.
While he was sleeping, a storm came up, and storms on the sea of Galilee are nothing to trifle with. His disciples, some of whom had been fishermen, struggled to keep the boat afloat. Eventually they woke him up, saying, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus said, “Peace, be still!” to the waves and the wind and everything went calm. Then Jesus turned to his frightened disciples and said, “Do you not have any faith?”
It’s a curious question, because they had enough faith to wake him up. They had enough faith to believe that he, Jesus, was able to bring something to the danger, to the chaos, to the threat of death, that they could not. I grant you “Don’t you care?” is not the way I’d like to be woken if people were looking for my help, but still, they had enough faith to go to Jesus when their own efforts no longer sufficed.
I wonder if Jesus’ question was not so much about do they have faith in him. I think Jesus may be asking, “Do you have faith in yourselves? Do you have faith, not in your abilities as sailors, do you have faith in your connection with God? Do you have faith that God is attentive to you even while I am asleep? Do you have faith that God cares?”
I think that’s a question that could be asked of any one of us at any moment. Do we have faith that God cares, not just in the most dangerous or frightening times? Do we have faith that God cares in the midst of our successes and joys? Do we have faith that God cares in the midst of the ordinariness of our days? Do we demand some kind of special occurrence from God to believe, to trust, to have faith that God is with us?
If I’m honest with myself, I suspect the answer, for me, is yes.
“Do you have faith?” Jesus asked them, and eventually they did. “Do you have faith?” Jesus asks us and I believe that, eventually, we will.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
