Mark 4:35-41
Relinquishing Control

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 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?"

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

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

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

New International Version

"Why are you so afraid?"

Jesus' question to the disciples confronts a timeless struggle with faith. In this circumstance, their fear was of a ferocious storm threatening to capsize their boat. For the prophets, preaching God's message to a people that had rejected God, their struggle was "How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?" (Habakkuk 1:2). For the children of Abraham after the Exodus, the cry was "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" (Exodus 17:3).

When we are threatened, we react the same way, too. We know we need help, and we often ask God for that help. Just like the disciples, we have expectations for when and what kind of help we need. In our core being, we want to be in control, especially when our circumstances appear serious.

Imagine how this situation might have been for the disciples. No doubt, all of them had been bailing water out of the boat, trying to keep it from sinking, while Jesus slept. Maybe the storm had developed slowly, and for a while they could expel the water the waves had sloshed into their vessel. Before the storm had gotten too serious, they were probably complaining that Jesus wasn't also wielding a bucket to heave sea water back into the sea. Maybe that's what they still wanted from Jesus when they finally did rouse him--or maybe they had already conceded their plan wasn't going to work. We want control when the situation is serious, but when the situation becomes desperate we are more willing to give up control.

Faith only works when we relinquish control. If Jesus had agreed to bail water out of the boat, the disciples never would have seen his power over the seas. If the children of Israel had headed back to Egypt as they requested, trading freedom for familiarity, they would not have survived the return trip. Jeremiah understood that God's apparent tolerance for evil might be instead an extension of grace:

Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
     look around and consider,
     search through her squares.
If you can find but one person
     who deals honestly and seeks the truth,
     I will forgive this city. (Jeremiah 5:1)

But even as I write these explanations, I come dangerously close to succumbing to this temptation of control. If I delude myself into thinking I can understand what God does, I can sustain my delusion of control, and I cripple my faith. Job wanted to comprehend why God had allowed the devastation that had happened to him, but God would not explain, and Job repented, "I have uttered what I did not understand, / Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know..." (Job 42:3).

So, what do we know?

We know that God is always close in every circumstance of our lives. We may feel alone in our fears, wondering if God is aware of our difficulties, but Jesus will always be in the boat with us, just like he was with the disciples.

We know that God understands our circumstances better than we do. The disciples, experienced fishermen than they were, had reached a logical conclusion, fully supported by the facts, that the boat was going to sink! Jesus, knowing far more than the disciples, dozed peacefully in the back of the boat.

We know that God has a plan for every circumstance in our lives, and God's ways are far better than whatever plans we devise for ourselves. The disciples wanted the sea water out of the boat, but Jesus stilled the waves. We can trust Paul's assurance that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him..." (Romans 8:28), even though we may not be able to imagine, perceive, or understand that good.

Finally, we know that in each moment we have a choice to make. Either we can hoard control of our lives, or we can offer control of our lives to God. We can limit what we allow God to do, or we can allow God to work more fully in us. This scripture passage urges us to trust God, so God can work miracles in us.