Day 94 — Who Is This?
Our devotionals are a little different this week, written from the perspective of the character in the Bible passage. This practice of ‘Adoration’ helps us to ‘sit’ in the Scripture and use our imagination to take us into the story in a new way – towards a place of adoration of Jesus. You can read the passages in your Bible first to find the original context and trust that the Spirit is with you as you read and reflect today.
Mark 4: 35–41
They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Have you ever had a friend you knew fairly well, were comfortable with and felt, kind of, on a par with? Then, out of the blue, they suddenly step up and show a side you’d never have dreamed, which completely blew you away – pick up a violin and play some Bach, take control of a committee meeting, steer a free kick over the wall into the top corner?Then all you can do is step back and admire, acknowledge that they’re in a different league, absolutely no parity about it. Who knew?
Well, Jesus said we should all sail across to Bethsaida. It was the end of the day but should have taken under an hour, much quicker than walking and the experienced guys had a couple of boats at the ready so off we went. All very leisurely, three or four were catching a nap at the back. But squalls are notorious on Gennesaret: no clouds, rain, hardly any warning but the wind and waves come out of nowhere and they are treacherous. I could see that Peter and the Thunderkids were panicking. It was all hands on-board, lots of shouting and swearing, feverishly trying to bail out the water in both boats as fast as we could but still losing.
I’m not sure what we were hoping and, crazier still, why we had to wake the Master; Peter actually yelled at him! Then, this: Jesus got up, commanded the storm, “That’s enough!”, like a naughty kid and sat back down calmly. As did the storm.
We all flopped down too, with a bit of a splash, actually, but still afloat. The silence was deafening. Jesus was telling us off but we just looked at each other, stunned, terrified but mesmerised. I guess we were all thinking the same. We’d all been raised from kids on the scripture stories of chaos and monsters coming out of the sea, Jonah, Moses escaping at the Reed Sea and Joshua entering the Land through Jordan River. Only God could tame the sea, bring it to heel. What had we just seen? Jesus was our friend, we travelled, worked, laughed together. So, who on earth or heaven, is he actually?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I bow before you, my Lord and my God. You have all authority in heaven and earth. You are the creative Word, sustaining all things by your powerful word, but made yourself nothing, took the nature of a servant, in human likeness, humbled yourself even to death on a cross.
I worship you for bringing calm and beauty to my life and to the world out of disorder and storm. I will place my trust in you for ever, my wonderful Lord and King. Amen.
Brian Eccleshall