It was a day to
remember, as most days with Jesus were. It was one of those times when they got
into the boat to go across to the other side. It was a particular day – on that day. It was a particular time – when evening came. It was a moment to
get away from everything else. They took Jesus because they all wanted some
peace, and they took him just as he was.
There was no planning, no preparation, no packing – just into the boat and off.
That way they must
have escaped a lot of folk, but they weren’t on their own, as other boats were with him. There was no
complete escape, such was the impact that Jesus was making. There are clearly a
lot less people around now, and they are in accompanying boats, but Jesus and the
disciples are not on their own. It is interesting to reflect on who was able to
come and who was not. Was it a question of wealth – or of who you knew. It
certainly had something to do with having a boat or, at least, managing to gain
access to one.
But it may well have
turned out that all the participants in this little flotilla wished they had
stayed at home – because the next thing is that a storm blew up. Storms were
not uncommon on the lake and you would imagine that the fishermen amongst them
would be used to that. However, this seems to have been a big storm. We are
told of a great gale. Even the
experienced fishermen were scared. Indeed, the only person who seems untouched
by the storm is Jesus. He was asleep.
It is good to be calm in the storm!
However, the
disciples woke Jesus up. Whether they needed every pair of hands to bail out
the boat, whether they he should not drown without waking up, or whether they
thought he could “do” something is not really clear. But they felt that they
needed to call on him – as we might feel we need to call on God. When they did,
Jesus certainly did something. He calmed the storm. From a great gale things changed to a
dead calm. There are no half measures on Jesus’ part here. The storm is
gone. In no time at all they experience opposite extremes of weather.
Unsurprisingly they are filled with awe – as we should be: for this is our God.
It was January 1992.
I was in a small boat in Panama, sailing from Bocas del Toro to San Cristobal
in order to lead worship at San Cristobal Methodist Church. It was calm when we
left, though the boatman clearly was not sure that it was going to stay that
way. It didn’t. The storm blew up. The boat was quite literally tossed out of
the water as it rode the huge waves. I don’t remember being scared. I certainly
did wonder how long it would be before I came through the experience. But we
did and sailing back, after the service, across a now calm sea was very
different.
Putting those two
things together, I can imagine myself on the fringe of the disciples, getting into
the boat with Jesus and Peter and Andrew, and the rest of them. We were all
tired. It had been a long day. We just wanted to get away from the crowds, and
the rest of us left the boat to Peter, Andrew, James and John. It was a bit
annoying that there were a few other boats following us, but at least there was
a momentary respite, and we were getting away from most of the crowd.
It was good to go off
with Jesus. Would he have something special to say to us? We needed to wait and
see, but it felt exciting. That was at the beginning of the trip. We did not
expect a storm, certainly not one like the one in which we found ourselves. The
excitement was quickly replaced by fear. Were we going to survive? It seemed
unlikely.
Then I noticed that
Jesus was asleep. How could he sleep through this? Why wasn’t he doing his bit?
We were scared. Of course, he was tired – but so was everybody. Somebody woke
Jesus up. But, instead of joining in the bailing out operation, he told the
storm to stop, to be still. It seems ridiculous. It did at the time, and it
still does – but it worked. The storm ceased – no wind, no waves. Amazement –
awe – wonder.
I guess the other
boats had wished they had never set sail with us, but then were more than glad
to have done so. They would not have missed this for anything. Of course, we
all now had to row to get to the other side, but that is better than risking
your life in a storm.
We were all asking
the same question: who then is this, that
even the wind and the sea obey him?
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