Jesus, Do You Not Care? 6-23-24
Jesus, Do You Not Care?
Job 38:1-11; Mark 4:35-41
Job 38:1-11
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Prayer – Holy Jesus, sometimes it seems that you are so far from us when we encounter life’s storms – whether we are hurting, troubled or in pain. In those moments still the rough and restless seas of our hearts so that we may see and hear you, a Holy One who is with us leading us safely through those very storms of life – amen.
In his book, Letter to a Man in a Fire, cancer survivor Reynolds Price responds to a letter from a young medical student named Jim, who has developed a life-threatening cancer. In his letter to Reynolds Price, Jim writes, “I want to believe in a God who cares . . . because I may meet him sooner than I had expected. I think I am a point where I can accept the existence of God . . . but I can’t yet believe that God cares about me.” (p 25)
In his struggle with the raging storm of cancer, this young man could have taken the words right out of the mouths of the disciples when they cried out to Jesus, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ It is evening and the disciples are in the boat with Jesus. They are crossing the Sea of Galilee when a flash storm pops up which was and remains common there. The boat is beaten by the wind and the waves; it is filling with water and ready to sink. All the while, Jesus is asleep in the stern of the boat, untroubled by the storm, indifferent to their peril and unperturbed by their fear. These words are our words when life’s storms toss us about, ‘Teacher, do you not care?’
When we consider the personal tragedies that people face every day and the global crises that plague our world, we may wonder if Jesus is in fact asleep at the wheel. In recent weeks and months we have observed the deadly violence in Israel and Gaza that has torn the Middle East where Jesus grew up into an even greater divide. In recent weeks and months we have see intense tornados strike across Texas and the Midwest – people have died; homes, schools, businesses and churches have been destroyed. I played golf last week with a good friend on mine whose father learned that his cancer is spreading rather than decreasing after multiple rounds of chemo. Our friend and member, Ron was in Pennsylvania to celebrate the marriage of his ‘god-daughter’ and suffered a stroke that his limited his vision. Our friend and member, Jerry went through a pretty significant surgery that had a few complications that postponed his recovery. One of the pillars of our church, Ken, passed away at 101 years old after a drawn out time on hospice care. These are the kinds of things that can beat our hopes and dreams and swamp out lives. Jesus, do you not care?
In the face of all these things, our Christian faith declares that God does care for each one of us. The Creator of the heavens and the earth knows us by name and loves us. We part of the created world. When we consider this vast universe and our seemingly small place in it, it is astonishing to imagine to believe that God knows our needs, our worries and fears, and continues to provide for us as a loving parent. In his book, Theology of a Troubled Believer, Diogenes Allen notes that understanding that we are not the center of all things and that may help us gain a bit of perspective about our lives. We are material beings, a part of a larger world in which the physical laws and, as Allen putt is, “vulnerable to injury, illness, decay and death.” (p. 77) Such an awareness can lead us to a deeper sense of humility in the face of the wonder of the universe and the greatness of our Creator. And still, we sometimes wonder in the midst of life’s storms, Jesus, do you not care?
We are also spiritual beings on a human journey. When confronted by his Creator, Job, in spite of everything that had happened to him, stayed centered in his faith, grasping the greatness, the mystery and the goodness of God. In the midst of his suffering, Job initially declared, “I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth . . . then from my flesh I shall see God. (Job 19:25) As Allen puts it, “Job had found his way home the hard way – through the path of being reduced to nothing but his skin and bones . . . he is raised by God’s spirit to the soaring conviction that no matter what happens to him, he belongs to God, and God will bring him to the divine presence in glory.” (p. 63) And still, Job succumbed to the storms of his life and with the egging on of his friends, finally wondered, “Jesus, do you not care?”
Allen described a deeper understanding in his book where we begin to trust in God’s loving care even in the midst of our suffering.(p.79) This is the struggle the disciples face in the boat, the struggle we face countless times in our daily storms. Like those disciples, we feel alone and abandoned by the one in whom we have put our trust. When the early church told this story of the storm at sea, they, like us, lived on this side of the resurrection. And yet, they, like us, wondered – where is Jesus when the little boat of the early church is buffeted, rocked, beaten and nearly destroyed by the Roman Empire? In part, our story is told to reassure the church that Jesus in with us in our own suffering even when we can’t immediately see or recognize him.
Reynolds Price tells in his book of an 87 yo woman who wrote to him about one of those moments when the clouds indeed scatter, the darkness lifts, and she could see Jesus with her. She was facing her own time of difficulty as she was going through exhausting medical tests in preparation for surgery. One day she had an epiphany saying, “I went out along the Galilee hills and came to a crowd gathered around a man and I stood on the outskirts intending to listen. But the man looked over the crowd at me and said, ‘What do you want?’ And I said, ‘Could you send someone to come with me and help me stand up after the tests because I can’t manage this alone?’ The man, Jesus, thought of a moment and then said, ‘How would it be if I came?’”
“How would it be if I came?” Jesus asked her and asks us. This is precisely what God has done in Jesus Christ. God comes to us in our suffering and pain, in our struggle to be human, in our fear and anxiety, and in our doubt and uncertainty. Jesus put off deity and put on humanity. He became one of us – one with us – one for us.
When the terrified disciples called out to Jesus, he answered them by calming the wind and stilling the sea. They do not understand that the one who loves them is Lord, not only of their lives, but of even the wind and the waves. Jesus will teach them how to live and how to die in faith. He will teach then and perhaps us, by example. He didn’t refuse the cross, but accepted in in faith. Jesus knew betrayal, disappointment, grief, torture and death. Yet he committed his life to God and found a peace that passes all understanding as he was suspended on that cross between heaven and earth. The resurrection is the sign, the sign that we have everything Jesus said and did is true.
So perhaps Jesus does care, and that doesn’t mean that we will not go through times of danger, suffering, the wilderness, the storms and rough seas. Being a Christian does NOT prevent those times and storms from happening though we wish so desperately that it would. Being a person of faith, being Christian means that even in the darkest moments, when the boat is being tossed to and fro, the waves are cascading over the rails and we feel lost and alone and perhaps even forgotten, Jesus is right there in the boat with us; resting and giving us the assurance that all will be alright.
Perhaps one of the most beloved stories that reflect this assurance comes from Horatio Spafford. Spafford knew something about life’s unexpected challenges. He was a successful attorney and real estate investor who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, his 4 yo son died of scarlet fever. Thinking a vacation would do his family some good, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some pressing business at home. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in a terrible collision and sank. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all for of Horatio Spafford’s precious daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that simply began, “Saved alone. What shall I do?” Horatio immediately set sail for England. At one point during the voyage, the captain of the ship, knowing of Spafford’s tragedy and loss, summoned him to the bridge to tell him they were passing over the spot where the shipwreck occurred. As Horatio thought about his daughters, perhaps his son, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind. He wrote them down and they have since become a well-loved hymn –
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll –
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Life can be so unpredictable – joys and sorrows, beautiful blessings and distressing difficulties can come unexpectedly. Our life’s dreams and plans can change in the blink of an eye. We all know this to be true. So how can we find peace amid such turbulence. How can we know that Jesus really does care? Because Jesus shows up. He doesn’t always calm and still the storms as he did with his disciples. But Jesus shows up – in countless ways – in a phone call, a packet of tissues, a meal, a simple willingness to look the other in the eye and say I will be there as I did with my friend Zach and his dad last Friday.
Not everything can be well with our souls in all aspects of our lives. There will always be storms to face, and somewhere there will be tragedies. And God shows up in everyday, normal people, walking side by side, offering divine help through human hands. Jesus you do care – thanks be to God – amen.