The Stilling of the Storm

S. Mark iv. 35–41

The eastern side of the Sea of Galilee has been characterised as a “natural refuge from the active life of the western shores.” It was for this reason that our Lord so often retired there for rest, and to commune with His Father in the solitude of the mountain range by which it is bounded. If the sequence of events be taken according to this Gospel, it was after a day spent in teaching the people through a succession of parables, that at eventide Jesus expressed to the disciples His desire to pass over to the other side. His wish was law, and it would seem there were special reasons on this occasion for avoiding the least delay. The boat, which was always drawn up on the shore where He was, was immediately launched, and, without any preparation, they embarked. It almost indicates that He was physically exhausted 1 with His day’s work, and they wished without loss of time to get on to the lake, that He might be refreshed by its breezes. At all events, “they took Him even as He was in the ship.”

“And there arose a great storm of wind.” Travellers say that the Sea of Galilee is peculiarly liable to sudden squalls caused by the physical features of the district. It is not unlike some of the lakes of Switzerland, on which sailing is admittedly dangerous from a more or less similar cause. The sea lies in a deep depression, as much as 600 feet or more, below the level of che surrounding country. It is girt in almost entirely by a range of hills, rising in places to a considerable height, and crowned by vast plateaus of tableland. The hillsides are worn by watercourses into deep gorges, which act like funnels, through which the wind pours down from the higher latitudes on to the surface of the lake. The temperature on the edge of the water is almost tropical, while that above is many degrees lower, and this variation aggravates not a little the violence of the storms.

The disciples on this occasion were overtaken by one of these, and in imminent danger of being wrecked. It was a storm of more than ordinary severity, for the disciples, who were fishermen, and had had their home on those very waters, and must have been often exposed to tempestuous weather, were in real fear. The waves were fast filling the boat, and it would certainly sink if matters did not immediately mend.

Their omy hope lay in the miraculous intervention of their Lord, Who, with His head upon the boatswain’s cushion, was sleeping, wholly undisturbed by the tumult around. They had as yet seen but one instance in which He had exercised His power over the material elements; but the miracle at Cana of Galilee had shown that even the waters were obedient unto His word, and though, as was probable, only a few of the disciples had witnessed it, the fact must have become known to all; and if they thought of it at the time, despair would be relieved by hope, when they awoke Him to a sense the well,” ourws, “as He was,” apparently expressed by the preceding words, “being wearied with His journey.” of their danger. “Master, carest Thou not that we perish?” It is almost certain that they were the words of S. Peter. The rest may have joined, but they are in such exact accord with that impatient and impulsive spirit, which so often betrayed him into unbefitting words and acts, that we can have little doubt that the remonstrance was his in the first instance.

The recollection of that hasty speech clung to him in after years; and while the other Evangelists only record an expression of earnest entreaty, “Lord, save us; we perish,” or “Master, Master, we perish,” S. Peter was careful to make known to S. Mark one which he felt reflected discredit upon himself.

But though there is in their cry an evidence of imperfect confidence, and even of hasty impatience, knowing how little way He had been able to advance them as yet in their spiritual training, Jesus showed nothing but tenderness towards them. “He rebuked the wind.” Seeing the wild fury with which it was lashing the waves into commotion, as though it were some monster whose roar must be silenced, He cries to it to “be silent and be gagged,” for such in the original is the force of the expression, “Peace, be still.”

Nature in her wildest uproar recognised the voice of Him Who was her rightful Lord, and obeyed His command. “And there was a great calm.” It was no ordinary abatement, for commonly, when the wind ceases, and for long after, there is a great swell upon the waves: when they are no more agitated by external force, they require time to recover their ordinary condition; but here they were themselves at rest as though nothing had disturbed them. It puts out of question all possibility of explaining the miracle by natural causes.

Then, having relieved His disciples from their impending peril, His first thought was to turn it to account in helping and preparing them for the greater dangers and difficulties that lay in their future. Nothing could exceed the gentleness with which He reproved their impatient distrust. “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” It was a simple call upon them to remember what they had learned, what proofs He had given of His power and His willingness to help and deliver. And great fear came upon them — not the fear which had made them tremble for their safety, but an overmastering sense of awe. What they had just witnessed was not altogether a new revelation, but it had torn away another bandage from their eyes, and their apprehension of Him Who was thus “gradually making Himself felt in all His fulness,” became proportionately stronger, and they asked one another, in amazed surprise at their convictions, “What manner of man is this,” or, more literally, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” The “then” is by no means without its significance, for it points back to what they had witnessed, and points on to the conclusion that must be drawn from it. The truth which was unfolding before them is clear and patent to us, that it was He of Whom the Psalmist had written, “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still;” or again, “O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them.”

The symbolical application of this miracle has been made almost more frequently than that of any other, whether that Galilean boat be compared to the Ark of Christ’s Church, or to the individual soul sustained in its voyage through “the waves of this troublesome world” by the indwelling Presence of the Captain of our salvation and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Under a very familiar figure in early times, the Church is depicted as a ship supported in the sea by a great fish, whilst a dove is sitting upon the top of the mast. The fish was regarded as emblematic of Christ, because the Greek word formed an acrostic, containing the initial letters of “Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour.” The dove perched upon the mast, represented the Holy Spirit, Who, as at the first creation, broods over the waters, and by His gentle influence brings order out of confusion.

One of the great Latin Fathers has applied the several parts of the miracle to the history of the individual soul somewhat as follows: “We are sailing through life as through a sea, and the wind rises, and storms of tempest spring up. How is this, save because Jesus is sleeping in thee? If He were not asleep in thee, thou wouldst be calm and at rest. But why is He sleeping? Because thy faith is asleep. And what shalt thou do to be delivered? Arouse Him. ‘Master, we perish.’ Then He will awaken: thy faith will revive: and though the tempests roar and beat into thy ship, yet, strong in thy recovered faith, thou wilt defy the elements: the danger will pass away, and thou wilt reach in safety the haven where thou wouldest be.”

Note: There is evidence of this in the fact that He fell asleep in the boat. The expression “just as He was” is akin to that in S. John iv. 6, “sat thus on

Note: This took place most probably before any of the disciples had been formally called to the Apostleship. The five who were mentioned in the first chapter of S. John would naturally be with them.

Note: cruinra, TecpLfAwcro. The latter word is used properly for “muzzling” a beast — 1 Cor. ix. 9; 1 Tim. v. 18. Our Lord applies it also to the unclean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum (S. Mark i. 25). Possibly there is an allusion to “the Prince of the power of the air” having aroused the storm. £ SS. Mark and Luke both place the rebuking of the wind before His complaint of the disciples’ want of faith; S. Matthew inverts the order. The difference may have arisen from the former resting upon a general report, the latter upon actual eye-witness of the scene.

Note: For an account of the anagram, cf. the author’s After Death, 88. H

Note: I owe this quotation to Trench on Miracles, 157.