The Savior Is in the Boat (Mark 3:1-6, 4:35-41)

In this episode we'll study two more miracles in the book of Mark. Together we'll learn:

• Why it was controversial for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath.
• How Jesus's questions challenged the heart of his listeners.
• How the disciple's fear reflects our own hearts. 

Friends, there is hope because the savior is in the boat! 

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Transcript

Welcome back to Hanging on Every Word and this season we are studying through the Miracles in Mark together. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Samantha last week. I’ve got another great guest for you coming up next week, but  This week we’re going to cover two more miracles from Mark 3 and 4 and I’m excited because there is so much good stuff in these verses, so let’s get right to it!

We’re moving into our fifth miracle in the book of mark which in my Bible is called Jesus Heals on the Sabbath and it’s found in. Mark 3:1-6. So like we do on this bible study podcast, I’m going to read the scripture to you:

Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”

4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

If we’re following the arch of attitude shifts toward Jesus, we might notice that this miracle has quite a different vibe than the last miracle Jesus performed in a synagogue that we studies. Then people were amazed and they ended up at Peter’s house that night, bringing their sick. The text said the whole town was at his door to see Jesus. But time has progressed, Jesus’s fame has spread, as we saw in the last miracle when Jesus healed the paralytic and the religious leaders are becoming increasing skeptical of Jesus. 

Before this fifth miracle even takes place, there is a sense of entrapment from the religion leaders. They are waiting for him to fail and then the perfect opportunity presents itself. There’s a man with a shriveled hand. He likely can’t work. He may have had this from brith or may have suffered through an accident. Either way, this vulnerable person is the Jesus’s regular clientele. He’s the perfect person for Jesus to heal, but there’s one problem, it’s the Sabbath, when Jews were meant to rest from all their work. Though the Bible does lay out laws for the Sabbath, much of the laws the Jewish people observed were man-made traditions adopted as if they were Bible when they weren’t. This scene - the vulnerable man who needs healing in the synagogue on the Sabbath — seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch Jesus and prove that he wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t a God man who could heal sins as he claimed to be in the last miracle, he was just a guy. Maybe then the crowds would lose their respect for Jesus and return their awe toward the religious leaders once again.

What’s interesting abut their plan it proves itself wrong. Because in order to catch Jesus in a wrongdoing, he had to perform a miracle. It’s clear as the people are watching to see if he would heal that they believe without reservation that Jesus can heal. There’s an unspoken admission to the power and authority Jesus has. Even his opponents can’t deny it. 

Jesus is of course very aware of their schemes and so he gives them what they want. Very publicly he asks the man with a shriveled hand to stand up. We talked last time about the significance of the onlookers to Jesus’s miracles. Sometimes they were done very privately. But other times, like this instance, they were don’t publicly to prove a point. He asks the crazed, is it better to do good or evil, to save or kill on the Sabbath. 

Jesus does this often in the Gospels, he asks a question that is impossible to answer, not because the answer is unknown, but because the answer is so obvious it obviously reveals the heart of the accusers. Of course it is better to do good and to save life. But they can’t answer because their hearts are so bent on ego and evil.

Jesus is angry and distressed by their stubborn hearts. This is a description of his humanity- his emotions. He felt the frustration we feel. He felt the depth of struggle we feel for those who don’t understand the hope of Jesus and continue to reject him. And he felt the dissonance of love even for his enemies. These emotions are complex because Jesus cares. He cares because though they are his accusers, these are HIS people. They know the Bible. And yet, even as he stands before them, they can’t see the truth. They are defending the word of God to the Word made flesh and their argument is futile. Jesus can see it, he longs for them to see it, but they are blind. 

Of course, Jesus does what is good, what is life giving, and heals the man’s withered hand. It’s interesting to note that Jesus actually does no work to heal this man. He does no big ritual. The only action in this miracle is that man held out his hand. Jesus didn’t break any Sabbath laws. He healed with just a word. The leaders were so concerned about the works that they didn’t recognize the power of the word of Jesus, which friends, is a word for us.

This miracles ends with this foreboding details that the Pharisees and Herodians conspired together  on how they might kill Jesus. The Pharisees and Herodians were not normally on the same team. The Pharisees were the religion leaders who will well trained in the law. The Herodians were jewish people that were sympathetic to the Roman leader Herod. It was the religious and political parties of the day who were normalizing in opposition teaming up together against a combined enemy - Jesus. And they didn’t plot how to trip him up because clearly their efforts failed. They jumped right to how they might KILL Jesus - such an extreme reaction. I think the extreme reaction show the depth of the threat they felt. 

They knew Jesus was powerful. They knew his authority stretched beyond their own. And instead of longing for that power, they feared it. 

May we long for more of Jesus, to lean into his power, to lay down our own ego, along with traditions of man, and let Jesus heal us to give life and good to our withered hearts. 

Let’s transition now to our sixth miracle in the book of Mark. This one’s a famous one. Jesus Calms the Storm. It’s found in Mark 4:35-41

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Jesus had been teaching to a crowd and when evening came, he suggested that he get in the boat with the disciples and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus hops in the boat and they begin to sale to the other side of the Sea along with some other boats. A storm popped up which was not uncommon on the Sea of Galilee. The waves broke over the boat, water covered the men. Soaked and tired from navigating the raging storm, they see Jesus asleep  in the stern. 

Let’s stop here for a moment. Because this is a wild detail.

Now, Jesus being asleep is intentional and they give us a look into his identity. First, this little deep sleep nap shows the humanity of Jesus. Remember, he had just been teaching crowds and if you’ve ever taught a class or bible study or spoken a message then you know just how exhausting it is. When you done you just want to crash. Jesus is tired because he’s human. But also, Jesus is fully God. And so unlike any sane human, he’s able to sleep through a raging storm with the peace of a God who has complete control not just over demons or disease but over all creation. 

But the disciples aren’t thinking about all that in that moment. There’s all of this chaos is going on, the men are working so hard, trying to keep the boat from capsizing and they look over and find the miracle worker, the one who has all this power and authority, asleep int he back of the boat. Asleep? I would have probably been annoyed too.  They’re like, nope, we’re not doing this. This guy who we decided to follow needs to get up and help us. Even if he’s just holding down a rope for the sail, we need all hands on deck, literally, and this guy is not going to ask us to cross the sea and then fall sleep. 

So they wake him up and ask him 

Teacher, don’t you care if we drown? A question that sounds so frantic and so real. 

There question is interesting. It’s actually more about love than it is about circumstances. Don’t you care that we’re dying? Don’t you care, Jesus? Isn’t that so real for us. When we’re suffering we want the struggle to end, for sure, but the deeper question, the one that haunts us is, why would God let us go through this? Doesn’t he see how much this hurts? Does he really love me if he knows I’m suffering. 

The disciples question is them wondering how Jesus could be right there an not help them fix their situation. 

I have asked the same question of God in my own curios storms of life. In a season of infertility it felt like Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat oblivious to my deep pain while I tried to navigate the grief of longing for a child and he did nothing. If you’ve felt that about Jesus, let’s read on. 

I love that Jesus gets up and does not immediately respond to the disciples frantic request. Instead he basically stands up, looks at the waves and says, “Hush now, that’s enough.” And this God of order creates complete calm out of chaos. Again, there’s no effort, it’s done with just a word.

But Jesus has a word for the disciples. He has two questions, in fact. Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? 

We might answer, um, Jesus, I think it’s obvious why they were afraid. I would have been too. But there’s something deeper to what Jesus is saying. They were in the presence of God, the Messiah being revealed to them slowly over time. They knew he had the power to heal disease and demons. They believed this. But they didn’t have the full picture of him yet. They didn’t know that he had power over creation. We know this because they say, who is this? Even the wind and sea obey him. They’re surprised. 

Jesus is turning their eyes to his identity. The savior. If the savior is in the boat, what is there to fear? IF the savior is in the boat, what can man do to you? 

Their question, don’t you care that we are drowning? Could be stated differently - don’t you love us and want to save us? It’s an ironic question to ask Jesus, isn’t it. Though they didn’t understand the whole story yet, Jesus’s whole mission on earth was to love us and save us. 

And their lack of faith in both Jesus’s love for them and his ability to save them is the same lack of faith we struggle with when we face the storm. But Jesus knows the truth that the storm ins’t the enemy, it’s just a circumstance. It’s not the storms that threaten to drown us but our sin that is killing us. And Jesus, the savior came to save us not just from the chaos of circumstances but from the condemnation of sin. 

This miracle is so powerful because it shows us all three things we’re searching for as we study these miracles. Jesus’s identity - he was fully god and fully man . Jesus’s authority - he had the power to call the wind and sea. And Jesus’s kingdom - his mission is to love and to save not just from circumstances but from sin, not just temporarily but forever. 

And that is such good news. 

If you’re a Christian, the savior is in the boat, what do you have to fear? 

I’m going to be thinking about that this week, and until next time, I can’t wait to study with you.