By Joe
Chesser
It was not an unusual event, but it was
unexpected at the moment. And it happened so quickly. One evening Jesus had
decided to cross the Sea of Galilee. So, when he got in a boat his disciples
followed him. As they were crossing the sea, a vicious storm suddenly appeared,
so violent that the boat was being swamped by the waves. Even the seasoned
fishermen among them were afraid they were about to die. Yet, the storm wasn’t
bothering Jesus; not at all. He was asleep on a cushion in the stern of the
boat (Matthew 8.23-27; Mark 4. 35-41; Luke 8.22-25). As the song I grew up
singing so powerfully asks: “Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are
tossing high! The sky is o’re-shadowed with blackness, no shelter or help is
nigh. Carest Thou not that we perish? How canst Thou lie asleep when each
moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep?”
In the midst of tragedy we are so often
like these disciples. We see the problem and we are filled with fear at what
might happen. Cancer or heart disease threatens our lives. An accident leaves
us severely injured. Death of a loved one leaves us devastated. And what’s even
worse, we may not think Jesus cares about us during these tragedies that are so
frightening to us. “Carest Thou not that we perish? How canst Thou lie asleep?”
It’s so sad that many of us in this type of
situation turn completely away from Jesus. We are convinced that He doesn’t
care. We may even think that He couldn’t do anything about it if He did care.
If He could do something about it why did He let it happen in the first place?
Ah, but the rest the story we began above
shows that Jesus does care and that He can turn tragedy into triumph. As the
story continues, you have to give the disciples some credit. Even in their
deepest despair and their weakened faith they did go to Jesus, wake Him up, and
confess to Him their fears and doubts. I’m not sure what they expected Him to
do, but they did wake Him up to see. One of the biggest mistakes we can make in
times of tragedy is to fail to ask Jesus to help us. We don’t have to know how
He will work things out. That really doesn’t matter. What matters is that we go
to Him and ask Him for help. Later on Jesus’ brother learned that “You do not
have because you do not ask” (James 4.2).
When Jesus woke up He rebuked the wind and
said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Immediately they obeyed Him; a great calm
came on the sea. But the disciples were not so quick to let Jesus calm their
spirits. Their faith was at this point weak and struggling. So Jesus asked
them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith?”
I wonder if you hear Jesus asking you these
same questions when tragedy strikes your life? If you believe Jesus calmed the
sea, walked on water, raised the dead, etc., what is there to fear? Jesus can
and does turn tragedy to triumph time and time again. And, of course, the
greatest tragedy is sin, and you know what He did for that! “Thanks be to God
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15.57).
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