The Miracle of Not Needing a Miracle

Mark records a day of teaching in the life of Jesus in chapter four. On that day, Jesus taught about the seed and the soils, the grain of mustard seed that grows to a huge plant where birds find shelter, of the small piece of leaven that influences the whole loaf of bread, of the partnership of the farmer with God as he plants the seed, which becomes a blade, then a stalk, then bears fruit, as the farmer watches in wonder. All of these parables, Jesus told as He taught the disciples and the crowds of the nature of God’s Kingdom on earth.

At the end of the chapter it says, “On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them, just as he was…” Mark 4:35 – 36. It goes on the say that when they got out into the lake, a great windstorm rose and the waves were filling the boat, while Jesus slept on a cushion. How could Jesus sleep when the boat and the disciples were in such danger?

One reason is because Jesus was very tired. This is one of those places where you see the full humanity of Jesus. He had been teaching and healing all day, and He was bone-tired. Another reason is because He was resting in the word and direction the Father had given Him to go to the other side of the lake, now. Jesus was not worried or afraid of the circumstances around Him for He trusted in the Father’s word and direction and timing for His life.

The disciples, on the other hand, were terrified of the storm and for their lives because the storm was speaking louder and with more power than the word that Jesus spoke, when He said, “Let us to across to the other side.” Jesus was sound asleep with confidence in the Father’s word, while they were wide-awake with fear from the voice of the storm. Later in the gospel it will be the other way around; Jesus will be wide-awake in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, while the disciples will all be sound asleep, totally oblivious to what was happening and about to happen.

The disciples woke Jesus up with a question that we too have asked, “…do you not care that we are perishing?” How does a person answer a question like that? You can’t. The question is flawed by fearful unbelief, and we have all been there and done that. John 3:16 reveals God’s love in His Son for us so that we will not perish, and yet from time to time we get into similar situations that begin to dictate doubt, causing us to lose faith in the goodness and provision of God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus rose from His sleep and first rebuked the wind and sea, then the disciples for their unbelief. First He spoke to the wind and sea saying, “Peace! Be still!” And then He taught them with two pointed questions, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 4:40.

As the lake got still and flat, and the only sound they heard was the water dripping from the sail into the water in the boat, the unnecessary miracle began to take hold of them. They had been with Jesus the whole day and had not received a single word He taught. It had fallen on the hard path of their hearts and the wind and the waves had stolen it away. And yet Jesus still spoke to the storm of the sea, as well as to the wind and waves of their unbelief in order to help to believe and to trust Him, that what God says, He does, every time.

Today, reflect upon the miracle of not needing a miracle; the miracle of hearing God’s word and watching Him do it, in you, with you, through you, as you, before the Father and the watching world around you. God loves seeing His word at work in you. It pleases Him. This is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.