“Evil, Darkness, and Death Are No Match for Jesus”

Mark 4:35-41

Today’s sermon text from Mark’s Gospel contains three key questions: First, from the disciples to Jesus, “Have you no concern that we are perishing?” In other words, this is one doozie of a storm we’re in. This boat could capsize at any moment. We thought you loved us. How can you sleep when we are in such danger?

Then, from Jesus to the disciples, “Have you no faith?” Don’t you trust me? Don’t you know how much I love and care for you guys? Things are under control, God’s control. Have a little faith, why don’t you? In the words of John J. Kilgallen, “The lesson Jesus teaches is that, despite all odds or human assessment, [the disciples] should have trusted him, in his power and love for them, to bring them safely back to shore.”

Finally, the disciples to one another after Jesus had calmed the storm, “Who is this that wind and sea obey him?” This guy tells the wind to stop blowing, and it does. He orders the sea to be calm, and it does. What’s going on here?

What was going on indeed? Well, a lot more than a few guys in a boat on a stormy sea, a lot more even than what Jesus did. Some commentary by C. S. Mann and David A. Hubbard gives us a starting point for answering the question, “… the story declares the sovereignty of Jesus over the manifestation of Satan as epitomized by the storm (and also at another level over the sea as signifying the place of darkness and death)… the narrative is a demand for faith – not faith in Jesus as a wonderworker, but faith in God as the creator and sustainer of nature”

“Jesus’ [mighty works] were not primarily acts of compassion, though his love was surely evident… they were [signs] that God was at work.”

Jesus really was more than a wonderworker. He was the very Son of God made flesh. He was the Messiah, who had come to inaugurate a new Kingdom on earth: the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God: not a nation state, not an empire, not some sort of better designed political or bureaucratic apparatus, having no privileged royal class, possessing no military or economic clout. The Kingdom of God at work in the world as its citizens carried out the will of God.

Satan did not want this Kingdom to exist. He did everything he could to derail, disrupt, and destroy it. He and Jesus did battle on several occasions, and Jesus always won. Jesus defeated illness, demonic possession, and death. He brought redemption out of the chaos symbolized by the sea. He who had been present at creation was in the world reclaiming that creation for his Father. He who is still with us by the power of the Holy Spirit is, through his Church, working to establish the sovereignty of God over all that is.

Mark’s Gospel was first addressed to Christians who were being persecuted by the Roman Empire. They didn’t fit into the Empire’s grand scheme of things. They refused to be politically correct or be assimilated or compromise their faith in exchange for safety and a seat at the table of the powers that be. That was unacceptable to the powers that be so the Christians had to be stamped out, and the stamping out was ruthlessly efficient. That’s how empires work, with ruthless efficiency. After all, the trains do have to run on time.

Those who first read or heard Mark’s Gospel needed a word of hope and encouragement. Some more commentary, first by John J. Kilgallen, “Mark hopes [those first readers] will have so entered into the story that [they], too, will be filled with awe, but he also hopes that [they], in whatever difficulties [they] may find themselves, will, unlike the disciples, trust Jesus’ love to the end.”

And then from Frederick C. Grant, “… this miracle story meant that the same divine Lord who had been able to rescue his imperiled disciples in the savage night tempest of the sea was still present with his own, and could preserve them in the midst of danger, persecution, or whatever threats of destruction they encountered while grim terror stalked the streets of Nero’s Rome.”

We’re not living, praise be to God, in Nero’s Rome. We are not being persecuted. Nobody is ordering us to fit in or die. We are safe. We are secure. Those are good things.

Sometimes we forget how blessed we are. All too often we forget that, for many Christians, past and present, life was or is lived under conditions more like those of Nero’s Rome than Twenty-First Century America. We fall into the habit of taking our safety and security for granted.

Our problem isn’t that we are in deadly conflict with our culture, but that too often we are co-conspirators with it in denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ. All too often we are willing to trade our loyalty to Christ for a seat at the table of the powers that be. Mostly without realizing that we are doing so we put our ultimate trust in the gods of this world: power, success, social standing, or financial security; political structures, both right and left wing, economic systems, or homeland security; political correctness, theological orthodoxy, both right and left wing, and various forms of “my country right or wrong” patriotism. We proclaim Jesus as Lord with our lips then spurn him with our lives.

Sometimes Satan doesn’t have to oppose us directly. All too often he has already co-opted us under the guise of rampant consumerism, the lack of any sense of delayed gratification, or celebrity worship. We are too easily attracted to glamour and glitter, accepting cheap imitations of the good life in place of the life abundant that is ours in Christ.

We work too many hours, spend too many dollars, and waste too much time in the pursuit of what in the 55^th Chapter of Isaiah has called “that which does not satisfy.” We eat too much, drink too much, and sometimes drug too much. We sacrifice real love and meaningful relationships in the pursuit of cheap sexual thrills. Yes, Christians do such things. A recent survey of evangelical men discovered that a large percentage of them had delved into online pornography.

Sometimes we go too far the other way and expend great amounts of resources and energy straining out the gnats of specific behaviors by specific people while not even batting an eye over gross corruption in business, government, and even the church, or tolerating blatant social injustices just because we dare not upset the cultural applecart or offend the powers that be. The cultural sea that surrounds us is already swamping that boat we call the church, but in this case it isn’t Jesus who’s asleep, it is we.

So what are we to do? First of all, wake up; open our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds to the destructive realities that surround us. Then speak up, trusting the love of God revealed Christ Jesus as we stand over against that which is wrong, And live up to our affirmations of faith that Jesus is Lord by living our lives in accordance with the dictates of God’s Kingdom rather than the rules and regulations of this world. A good place to start is with the Beatitudes.

A couple of side notes here: One: Do we not find it suspicious that so many people passionately desire the placing of the Ten Commandments in public spaces while no one fights that hard to likewise display the Beatitudes?

Two: An interesting movement is going on among a group of evangelicals like Tony Compolo, who have declared themselves to be “Red Letter Christians.” Taking seriously the words of Paul to Timothy, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…,” they nonetheless are trying to focus on the words spoken by Jesus, for instance the Beatitudes, words that are printed in red in most Bibles.

Those red words of Jesus in today’s text that we need to note are: (First, to the storm) “Peace! Be still!” (And then to the disciples) “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” By his word alone he commanded the wind and sea to obey him. By his words he challenged the disciples’ lack of faith. What we need to remember is that Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God, still has authority over every bit of the universe that he created, and that neither evil, darkness, nor death can defeat him.

Knowing this we can dare to stand in his name over against evil, darkness, and death in all its forms: individual sin, corrupt and perverted societies, and cultures that would seduce us into doing the Devil’s work. We will be afraid. That’s part of the human equation, but trusting Jesus we will find the wisdom and courage to say what has to be said and do what has to be done. We will find the courage to follow Jesus in the way of the cross.

I will close with another word of commentary, this time from Halford E. Luccock: “There are times when a church [must get away from popular notions of success] if it is to follow its Master. It must leave this least common denominator of popular thinking, or lack of thinking, and go where no hosannas are heard, but where the shadow of the cross falls.” And I will add, even if the journey is straight into the teeth of a storm. Amen.