Sermon for Pentecost 4: "Divine Power, Divine Compassion"

 + 4^th Sunday after Pentecost – June 20, 2021 +

Series B: Job 38:1-11; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

 

Last fall our family stayed at a cabin near Mt. Rainier. And on the wall in the hallway was a three-dimensional map displaying the Mt. Rainier watershed. It was fascinating to see how all the mountain streams and creeks flowed into rivers, and converged into larger rivers. You quickly learn the truth of the old saying, all streams lead to the ocean.

 

Something similar is happening in Mark 4 as Jesus is in the boat with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee. In Mark 4 Jesus has one foot in the boat and the other in several OT storm stories. Think of Moses and the Red Sea crossing. Jonah asleep in boat during the storm. The Lord’s conversation with Job where he reminds him who sets the limits of the seas. 

 

With Jesus in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, all of God’s divine handiwork with water meet their confluence. All of Scripture is a vast watershed of God’s promises, all flowing downstream to Jesus. 

 

Recall the Exodus, how Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. ²² And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

 

Remember Moses’ victory song that was sung in Exodus 15. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

 

Consider parts of Psalm 107 as well…

 

Some went down to the sea in ships,
    doing business on the great waters;
²⁴ they saw the deeds of the Lord,
    his wondrous works in the deep.
²⁵ For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
    which lifted up the waves of the sea…
²⁸ Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he delivered them from their distress.
²⁹ He made the storm be still,
    and the waves of the sea were hushed.
³⁰ Then they were glad that the waters^[c] were quiet,
    and he brought them to their desired haven.

 

Sounds a lot like Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4, doesn’t it? That’s no accident. All OT storm stories lead to Him who stills the storm. 

 

a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

 

Some call this a nature miracle. And it certainly is. In rebuking the wind and waves in Mark 4, Jesus reveals that he is the same Lord who also rebuked the waves of the Red Sea that Israel could walk through on dry ground; the same Lord who caused the storm to rise up and calm down again when the prophet Jonah was thrown overboard into the belly of the fish; the same Lord who reminded Job that he is the one who spoke the waves and sea into existence.

 

But for the disciples, and for us, it is also a teaching miracle. And to be sure, he’s teaching his disciples, and us, that he has divine authority and power over creation itself.

 

Only don’t think of power and authority according to our sinful desires. In our sinful flesh we think of power as something we use for ourselves: to bend others to our will, to do what we want when we want. We use power to satisfy our selfish, self-serving ways. 

 

Jesus, on the other hand, uses his divine authority and power, not for his own sake, but for his people, his disciples, for you. If you look at Mark 4 and 5 as a whole, you’ll see this play out. Jesus reveals his authority and power over the wind and waves, and calms the storm. Jesus reveals his authority and power over the demons by casting them out. Jesus reveals his authority and power over illness, healing a woman who’d been hemorrhaging blood for 12 years. Jesus reveals his authority over even death itself as he raises Jairus’ daughter.

 

Do all of these events reveal Jesus’ divine power and authority? You bet. But more than that, they reveal Jesus’ divine compassion. Jesus’ miracles aren’t meant to be a show of brute force, but of his mercy, grace, and love. Wherever Jesus goes he exercises his divine authority and power to save, rescue, redeem, and save you.

 

And so with the disciples we ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

 

This is the Incarnate Word – the very voice by whom the wind and waves were created; he speaks and they listen. This is YHWH himself who rebuked the Red Sea for the 12 tribes of Israel and now rebukes the Sea of Galilee for his 12 disciples. This is the prophet who is greater than Jonah who threw himself into the belly of the earth and came out again three days later to save you.

 

This is the Lord who calmed the storm. Who brings peace out of chaos. Who anchors himself to the cross to give you life out of death. Who rebukes your sin and washes you clean in the waters of your Baptism. This is the Lord who is uses all of his divine power and authority not for himself, but for you. 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.