"WHY ARE YOU TERRIFIED?"

Homily for June 21st, 2015, 12^th Sunday in Ordinary time, Year B: Mark 4:35-41.

AIM: To deepen the hearers' faith.

The gospel reading today begins: AOn that day, as evening drew on ...@ The day, in Mark=s description, had begun with Jesus teaching people by the lake shore. To avoid being overwhelmed by the crowd, and so that the people could all see and hear him, Jesus got into a boat and put out a short distance from shore. Standing or seated in the boat, he told several parables, including the familiar story of the sower and the seed. Mark concludes this section by indicating, in the passage immediately preceding today=s gospel reading, that what he has just recorded was typical of Jesus= teaching.  ABy means of many such parables he taught them the message in a way they could understand. To them he spoke only by way of parable, while he kept explaining things privately to his disciples@ (4:33f). What follows was intended by Mark as a continuation of Jesus= private explanation to his disciples: in deeds this time rather than in words.

These explanatory deeds begin, as we have just heard, with Jesus sound asleep in the boat, in the middle of a storm B the only place in the four gospels, incidentally, where we see Jesus sleeping. It was the sleep of exhaustion after a busy day. But it was also the tranquil rest of the only man in that boat who had no reason for fear amid the elemental forces of nature.

Though the disciples were experienced seamen, Mark says nothing about any measure to ensure the safety of the vessel and her crew. Instead these seasoned fishermen turn in panic to their sleeping master, who unlike them was no sailor, with the reproachful question: ATeacher, do you not care that we are perishing?@

Without a word of reply, Jesus acts. In language identical to that already used in chapter one of his gospel to describe a healing at Capernaum (1:25), Mark writes: AHe rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, >Quiet!  Be still!=@ Jesus has already shown that he has power over illness. Now he shows that he rules wind and wave as well. Repeatedly the scriptures of Jesus= people ascribe this power to God alone. 

Mark says the same in the gospel: Jesus Awoke up, rebuked the wind ... The wind ceased and there was great calm.@  It was more than the stillness of nature.  There was an eerie calm in the boat as well, as Jesus= disciples looked at each other in amazement, each formulating the same question: AWho then is this whom even wind and sea obey?@ Remember: their scriptures told them that only God could do what they had just seen Jesus do.

The first to break the silence is Jesus. In this story which consists almost entirely of questions, it is now his turn. AWhy are you terrified?@ Jesus asks. ADo you not yet have faith?@ Mark wants us, his readers, to hear Jesus putting these questions not only to his friends in that boat, but to all his friends, ourselves included. 

From the earliest times Christians have compared the Church to a ship. Like the ark, which rescued Noah and his family from the great flood, the Church preserves us from the flood of danger and evil in the world. Time and again, however, our ship is buffeted by storms. Whenever storms assault the Church, it is easy to think that the Lord is absent B or at least indifferent. Like those first friends of Jesus in the storm on the lake, we cry out in fear. At the proper time B which is God’s time, not ours B the Lord banishes the danger, and with it our cause for fear. Having done so, he challenges us with the insistent question: AWhy are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?@

The answering question of Jesus= disciples, AWho then is this whom even wind and sea obey?@ is a pre-Easter question. Jesus friends in that boat had not yet seen the risen Lord. We, who here encounter the risen Lord in his holy word, and in the sacrament of his body and blood, have an advantage over the men in that boat. We know him better than they did. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is our elder brother, and our best friend. Yet he is also God=s Son. If Jesus could demand faith of those friends of his in the boat, who knew him only as one like themselves, how much more can he demand this same faith B trust B of us who also know him as one unlike ourselves. 

ADo you not yet have faith?@ Jesus asks us. What better response could we give than the cry of another friend of Jesus in this gospel according to Mark: ALord, I believe. Help my unbelief.@  (Mark 9:4)