This is the final installment of a three part series. You can read Part I here. You can read Part II here.
As I write, I continue to watch and hear about rescue and clean up efforts in the mountains of the Southeast after Hurricane Helene’s tragic and traumatic devastation of so many last week. I have no doubt that many, even myself, are tempted to ask the disciple’s question “Jesus do you not care that we are perishing?” As we follow the story from Mark 4, we see that Jesus does indeed care.
Once their storm is over and the seas are calm, the disciples ask a final question: “who, then, is this that even the winds and waves obey him?” They still have much to learn about him. It’s as if- as Jesus continues his ministry- he’s saying, “Just watch.”
Let me ask you to take a moment with me and reflect. Jesus invites the disciples to trust him in the storm but none of our hearts naturally trust Jesus. In fact, we’ll either be paralyzed with fear, overwhelmed with despair, or frantically try to endure or fix the storm in our own strength or wisdom. We don’t simply need to be told to ‘trust Jesus.’ We need to be given a new heart that actually trusts him. We need the heart surgery that Ezekiel promised (Ezek. 36:26). But that new heart will come with an enormous cost.
When our son Noah, as an infant, got home after the open-heart surgery that saved his life, we got a bill for well over a million dollars. We were thankful for insurance but we still needed to cover quite a bit of it. Yet, Liz and I don’t care. It’s a cost we’ll never complain about covering because each day we wake up and see Noah running around with a smile.
As the disciples continue to watch Jesus, they will see him pay the immense cost for their new hearts. In Gethsemane, the night before his crucifixion, he could see the storm clouds coming. In incomprehensible agony he sought the face of his Father, acknowledging he was ‘deeply troubled.’ But there in that moment, the disciples fell asleep on him- though he pleaded with them to stay awake. The next day, he would enter the storm alone, with no one by his side.
I’m not speaking about the storm of Herod, Pilate, and the crowds. I’m talking about the storm of God’s justice and wrath that was due to our sin, even the sin of our unbelief. There wasn’t anyone there who could calm the storm for Jesus or say “Peace be still.” He had to endure it all to the bitter end, even the end of death.
The curious thing? Most of the disciples would face their own deaths because of their faith in Jesus and desire to proclaim him among the nations. However, after Calvary the disciples no longer asked if Jesus cared- they knew, they knew deep in their souls, that he did.
In the midst of your storm, he cares for you, and he proved it by enduring the storm of Calvary on your behalf.
Today, this day, let your heart be convinced- no matter what storms come your way- that he cares for you.
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