Why Are You Afraid?

As we continue our series on questions Jesus asks, today we’re going to be dealing with a question about fear so members of our Creative Communications team Katie Wilcock and Kenny White asked a number of people both inside and outside the church what they’re afraid of and they got an interesting range of responses. Take a look. (Show video)

Each of us would answer the question, Why Are You Afraid in our way. Listen to the scripture where Jesus asks this question of the disciples. It happens in a setting those of us on Cape Cod can easily picture: a group of people out in a boat when a sudden storm arises.

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July 19, 2015
Mark 4:35-41, Why Are You Afraid?
Pastor Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church

“35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Some of us were part of the Cape Cod Council of Churches trip to Israel and Jordan four years ago and perhaps my favorite area was around the Sea of Galilee. We even went out in a wooden boat on the Sea of Galilee and had some time in silence imagining what it would’ve been like to be with Jesus and the disciples on that body of water in that particular place. We shared in worship and communion at a place called Tabgha which is right on the north shore and commemorates Jesus feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and some fish. We visited the Church of the Multiplication, which is run by the Catholic Benedictine Order and is best known for its fifth-century mosaics, including one depicting two fish flanking a basket of loaves. The Benedictine Christians there were very welcoming to us and the mosaics in the floor of the sanctuary were lovely. Four weeks ago on June 16 several rooms were damaged at the church in a deliberate arson attack by Jewish nationalists who also spray painted Hebrew graffiti on an entrance corridor of the building, reading, “The false gods will be eliminated.” This incident was the most recent in a series of such attacks in Israel against Christian sites. Fortunately the most historic parts of the church were not damaged and the police and Israeli security arrested several suspects last weekend.

The Sea of Galilee where the Church of the Multiplication is located, and where today’s scripture takes place, is surrounded by hills with narrow, gorged valleys that act as wind tunnels. The prevailing winds come from the west across those mountains, and there’s a tremendous down draft. A storm could come up in a matter of five or ten minutes, the disciples would have experienced this more than once. In today’s scripture from Mark 4, after a full and exhausting day of Jesus teaching and the disciples hearing stories about faith, how faith grows, and the kingdom of God, it’s now evening. Jesus and the disciples decide to cross to the other side in a boat because it’s the only way to get away from the crowd. You know what happens next. “The weather started getting rough. The tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be lost…” oops, sorry. Wrong boat. Wrong crew. And the disciples were not fearless or courageous, or filled with faith. The disciples are afraid so they wake Jesus up and say with concern, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” These words come from a group that includes professional fishermen, who had spent their lives on that body of water. They were experienced men who knew exactly how those storms came up. They were afraid.

They were frightened enough to think this might be it. So they wake Jesus up with words we often address to God: “Do you not care?” I wonder how many of us have said that to God in our moments of fear, anguish, anxiety or anger. “God, don’t you care? Jesus, don’t you care what is happening to me?” In times of danger, a natural human reaction is to wonder if there is a God, and if so, whether God is even aware of my problem. We sometimes cry out to God as Psalm 44:23-24 does, “Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?”

This is not the first time a character in the Bible has been sleeping on a boat while a storm is raging. In Jonah 1:5-6 we hear, “Jonah, meanwhile had gone down into the hold of the ship and had lain down, and was fast asleep. The captain came and said to him, ‘What are you doing sound asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps the god will spare us a thought so that we do not perish.’” Jonah’s captain and the disciples accuse Jonah and Jesus respectively with being indifferent to their plight; with not caring about whether they live or die. The difference is Jesus doesn’t have to call on his God in order to save the crew. Jesus can handle the job himself. Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind, and says to the waves “Peace! Be still!” (literally, “Be muzzled and remain so”). The wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

Anyone who is familiar with the ocean or been at sea knows that when the storm stops, the sea does not. The waves often continue for days and are great for surfing. This is a two-for-one miracle. Not only does the wind stop, the waves stop as well. Jesus then asks the disciples our question for today, “Why are you afraid?” Why, of all people, are the disciples afraid? Mark 4:35 begins, “On that day,” well what day was that exactly? What had happened “On that day?” Jesus had spent all day teaching from this very boat (4:1). The disciples listened to Jesus saying things, like, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.” (Remember that from last week?) With a series of parables, Jesus spoke to the people, “but he explained everything in private to his disciples.” The disciples were in an all-day class on faith taught by Jesus from the very boat they were sitting in. They stayed after school and got personal help from Jesus who explained more fully exactly what he meant about faith. Then they went out that evening in the same boat and flunked the test on faith. When they woke Jesus up they called him, “Teacher,” but they hadn’t learned the lesson on faith in a classroom, they had to learn it in life, in a boat on stormy seas. Their unspoken answer to Jesus’ question, Why are you afraid? Seems to be that they thought they were going to die.

Much as we may hear spiritual teaching in a Bible study in the comfort of a home or in a sermon in a sanctuary, we truly learn and apply spiritual truth in the storms of life. Jesus actually asks two questions one after the other and they’re connected: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Jesus connects faith and fear. One thing we know about faith is that it always depends on its object. I can have very little faith in the ground underneath my feet to hold me up, but it probably will. I can have great faith in myself that I could beat Usain Bolt of Jamaica in a 100 meter sprint, but it’s never going to happen. It’s not the amount of faith we have. It’s the object in which we place our faith that matters. Another time Jesus said (Matthew 17:20), “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” It’s not the amount of faith – a mustard seed is very small. It’s the object in which we place it. Jesus wants his disciples, then and now, to have faith in him. Jesus wants us to trust him.

The disciples’ question, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ shifts the focus from the miracle back to Jesus and his identity. Who is this Jesus? That’s a question we’ll spend a Sunday on next month, but I’ll say briefly that Mark hopes we’ll come to believe that Jesus is not just a person with amazing abilities to preach and heal; he is the Son of God. He is the Lord of nature and he’s present with us in our fears and anxiety. Jesus is faithful to us. The disciples’ question, “Do you not care that we are perishing?” overlooks the obvious fact that Jesus is in the same boat as the disciples! He is in the situation with them. Jesus doesn’t abandon us to the storms of life or leave us to our fate; he shares it with us.

What Jesus doesn’t share in a storm is our sense of panic. Oftentimes we expect other people to share our panic or distress when we are upset or in a crisis. If they seem calm, relaxed or detached from the situation we face or from us- we may accuse them of not caring about us or our suffering (even though in a crisis we’re probably better off with people who can keep calm and carry on when we’re having difficulty keeping ourselves together). Panic reactions can divide us from those who might help just as they can cause us to doubt God’s love and care for us. Jesus is present with us in our fear even if we don’t sense his presence or perceive that he cares for us. Jesus can calm storms on the outside as well as on the inside.

Some of you may have heard about the Jefferson Bible. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, made his own Bible by cutting out and deleting everything he didn’t like or didn’t believe. He didn’t like this story because Jesus is portrayed as having supernatural influence over nature in calming the wind and the waves. But sometimes even more of a miracle than calming wind and water is how Jesus can speak to and calm the storms raging within us, telling us, “Peace! Be still!”

When I was thinking about fears and being afraid, a clip from a Charlie Brown Christmas came to mind where Charlie Brown is talking to Lucy about his problems and she keeps asking what he is afraid of so she can label it and she finally asks, “Do you have pandaphobia?” “What’s that?” Asks Charlie Brown. “The fear of everything.” “That’s it,” Charlie Brown cries.

As we think about the fears that would threaten to tie us up in knots of worry and anxiety perhaps today’s Bible story can help us to remember a couple of things. If Jesus is in your boat, he is a worthy object of faith and as long as we’re close to him, we’ll be all right no matter what else happens.

Secondly, storms come to everyone, but storms don’t last forever. God is interested in developing our faith and our growing in faithfulness and God knows we can learn a lot in the storms; often we learn more in the storms than when our boat is safely tied up by the shore.

There’s a difference between faith and foolishness and the difference is the object of my faith. Is the object of my faith worthy of my trust?

This story from Mark’s Gospel and Jesus’ questions: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” challenge us to have faith in Jesus and to trust him more even in the rough and scary times of life. If we’re open to learning, storms can be growing, shaping, and faith-forming times. The question for us today is, will we trust and have faith in Jesus – Jesus who is present with us even in our fear and anxiety.

Prayer by St. Augustine:

God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey with us on the road of life, to Your honour and glory. Amen.

Blessing: Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Questions for Discussion or Reflection

1. Why are your afraid – what sorts of things scare you (heights, spiders, change, illness, death, etc.)?
2. Being in a boat in the midst of a storm, the disciples ask Jesus a question: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Have you ever said that (or something similar) to God in a moment of fear, anguish, anxiety or anger. “God, don’t you care? Jesus, don’t you care what is happening to me?” Try to recall if you’ve ever felt that way, and if so, what “storm” were you in at the time?
3. Jesus calms the storm and then asks the disciples two questions: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Why do you think Jesus asked them those two particular questions? How would you describe the relationship between faith and fear? How does one impact the other?
4. Discuss or think about what practical steps you can take to grow your faith and to diminish your fears.
5. After going through this experience, the disciples ask one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” How do you think Mark wants us to answer this question?