It had been a wonderful day. So many people had wanted to hear the Lord Jesus that He had gone on board ship and preached to them from the water as they pressed along its edge. Now it was evening and His disciples were taking Him with them in the ship to the other side as He had requested (Mk. 4:35–36). Suddenly, a fierce storm hits the ship and it fills with water before the disciples can react (v. 37). There He is behind them: a real Man who had spent His strength that day in selfless service (Isa. 49:4), asleep on the cushion where they had been pleased to let Him rest when they came aboard.

Now they see Him there, and they change like the weather. Rousing Him from His rest they virtually accuse Him of neglecting them. It is not so much the wind and waves He feels in His face when He wakes, but their reproachful words. Yet, tired as He is, He is fully longsuffering and truly God; He rebukes the wind and waves, saying to them, “Peace, be still!” (Mk. 4:39). There is a great calm, gilded by His gentle words, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Despite this, an even greater fear fills their hearts; they say to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (vv. 40–41). They had much to learn, but later one of them would write to Christians going through a different kind of storm, “He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7).

How foolish of the disciples to think of themselves as perishing when the Lord Jesus was in the ship with them. How like them we are, though as Christians we have much less excuse! Let us learn from their experience, not forgetting Him, but depending on His love and power in every situation of life, wherever He asks us to go.