(Continuation from Part 1. ⛵)
Another striking part about Jesus sleeping in the storm: do you know where in the boat He was sleeping?
Answer: the stern, where the rudder (boat’s steering wheel) was; where the captain was supposed to be, navigating the boat through obstacles like the storm… except this time, Jesus their captain was sleeping!
If Jesus was only human, the disciples’ reactions would be warranted, as a human captain certainly cannot stop a storm or navigate the boat while asleep. Even if the human captain is awake, despite his best efforts, he is still at the mercy of the storm, unable to guarantee everyone’s survival.
But Jesus was not only human; He was fully human and fully God. Had the disciples truly realised this (their response later showed they didn’t, in Mk 4:41), they might not have been so panic-stricken. They might have thought “If Jesus, our Almighty God, isn’t bothered by this storm, why should we be?” before proceeding to lay beside Jesus for a good night’s rest. The greater their faith in Jesus, the more blissfully they would have slept. As written in Psalm 127:1-2:
“[…] Unless the LORD guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.”
Jesus sleeping in the storm also made me realise: Jesus knows what it’s like to feel deeply exhausted. The beating waves, the pouring rain, the violently rocking boat, his clothes being dampened by the water that was steadily filling the boat… yet all that wasn’t enough to wake Him up, until His disciples called Him!
Exhaustion is a normal part of being human, yet it can still be a lonely experience, because sometimes even our closest family or friends cannot understand our exhaustion. They also cannot offload our tiredness like transferrable baggage.
What about Jesus? Hebrews 4:15 reads:
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus was exhausted, yet He mustered His energy to look for the Samaritan woman and preach to her (Jn 4:6).
Jesus would have been exhausted from a whole day of teaching and performing various miracles for the people, yet He hiked up a mountain to pray after His day’s work (Mt 14:23).
Jesus was emotionally exhausted from the grief of losing Judas (to Satan) and the stress of anticipating crucifixion, yet He mustered the strength to accept the Father’s will of the bitter cup for our salvation (Mt 26:38, 42).
Jesus was exhausted enough to sleep during a storm, yet He cared enough to awake to His disciples’ urgent call even though, as the Almighty God, He didn’t need to be awake to calm the storm.
Jesus promises us in Matthew 11:28:
“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Learn from the Master who slept during a storm, because this is the kind of rest that God wants to give our souls.
Amen. 🛌🏻
