Imagine yourself on a cruise ship in
the Atlantic Ocean, sitting in your room on the third floor. You look out your
window and see … waves! Yes, 30-foot waves, crashing into the window. A
hurricane-force storm is tossing the ship and throwing enormous waves against
the glass. One of your fellow passengers leans against the window and says,
“We’re just staying in one place, hoping not to die.”1
Passengers on a Royal Caribbean
cruise ship had this experience two years ago, when they ran into a monster
storm on a trip from New Jersey to Florida. Thousands of guests and crew
members were buffeted by 150-mile-per-hour winds that caused the ship to tip
dangerously off center. Items flew off shelves, deck chairs took to the air,
and the ceiling of the ship collapsed. Four passengers were injured, and — not
surprisingly — everyone got a full refund. That’s the least that Royal
Caribbean could do for people who paid for rooms on the third floor and
suddenly found themselves underwater.
Like the passengers on that cruise
ship, the disciples of Jesus do not expect to run into a monster storm when
they cross the Sea of Galilee. They are looking forward to getting away from
the crowd and enjoying a pleasant cruise. But as they sail across the water, a
great windstorm arises, causing waves to crash into the boat and swamp it.
Jesus is sleeping soundly at the back of the boat, but the disciples panic and
wake him, saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” The
disciples are scared to death, and simply have to know if Jesus is with them or
against them.
Power over chaos
As early as the first century, this dramatic
story became a symbol for the Christian church. In Christian artwork, the
church began to be pictured as a ship — a ship with a cross for a mast, sailing
through the storm of life. Presbyterian pastor Richard Deibert writes that Mark
paints this scene “to typify the mighty challenges confronting [the] Christian
community throughout the centuries.”2
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