The story of the calming of the storm continues from 4:1-2 where Jesus sits on a boat and teaches a crowd in parables. After the seaside speaking engagement, he invites the disciples to cross over to the other side of the Sea (of Galilee). On the way, a storm arose that caused even fishermen to be concerned. Jesus was at the place where the boat steersman should be; and he was asleep. The disciples wake him up, he rebukes the wind and a great calm descended upon them. The miracle astounded the disciples so much that they began asking themselves who this is whom the winds and waves obey. That is how the main lines of the story go. Let us go into detail...
In verses 35-36, Mark introduces the scene. It was already evening and Jesus ends the lesson for the day. Mark informs us that there were other boats that accompanied the boat where Jesus was. But it was only the boat that transported Jesus and the disciples that becomes the center of his story.
In verse 37, all hell breaks loose. Storms suddenly arise in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, but these do not surprise fishermen who are used to them and who have learned to know the signs of their coming. This time, however, the waves generated by the "great wind" threatens to capsize the boat, and so it becomes a matter of grave concern. The external turbulence of the sea and the anxiety of the disciples on the one hand, contrasts with the calm of Jesus on the other, who soundly sleeps at the stern where the boat's steersman should be.
It has been said that one of the features of Mark's gospel is the way it depicts the humanity of Jesus. Jesus was tired and so he was asleep. He has done his work for that day and like the farmer in one of his parables (cf. Mark 4:26-27) he sleeps and not worries about the seed he has planted. He is like one of those loved by God who "provides for them even as they sleep" (Ps. 127:2)
In contrast, the disciples were worried. Their anxiety is implicit in what they say to Jesus when they wake him up: "Does it not concern you that we are perishing?" First, Mark points to the danger that the boat would turn over in the midst of the sea. Now the disciples see the threat as directed to them. They think that Jesus' sleeping through the danger is a sign of uncaring. But Jesus wakes up because the disciples called.
"Be quiet. Shut up!" Jesus addresses himself to the great wind (v. 37) as if it were a howling animal. And immediately a "great calm" descends like a blanket over thes sea. In the Bible, the Sea is the primordial chaos which the Creator God subdues. It threatens God's creation when it crosses beyond the limits set for it, but it is God who beats it back to its place (cf. Psalm 104:5-9). In Job 38:8-11, God challenges the impudence of a man who thinks he knows more than God with the following words:
Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness
when I fixed the limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place
when I said "This far you come no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt?"
The Sea is like a dangerous animal who knows its owner. When Jesus gave it an order that it obeyed, the disciples begin to wonder: "Who is this ...?"
Jesus rebuked the disciples in turn "Why are you afraid? Don't you have faith yet?" These were after all men who have seen him drive away demons with a word. In the Bible, faith contrasts with fear. Those who have faith are not cowardly (Greek, deiloi deiloi, the word used here). In Jesus' mind, the disciples should not be afraid because he was with them.
The rebuke however seems to have missed its mark as the disciples were thinking of something else: "Who is this wom the winds and waves obey?" Mark employs another word for fear to indicate the astonishment of the disciples phobeisthai fobeisyai, the equivalent of "awe" in this context. "Astonishment" "amazement" and "awe" -- these characterized the disciples who witness Jesus' mastery over the Sea and waves -- a Lordship that only Yahweh has demonstrated throughout the history of His people.
Mark hands on to his readers a memory of Jesus that he in turn received fro the apostles. It is a memory that has been colored by the subsequent experience of the risen Lord in their midst. Mark rewrites the memory so as to include even those insights that have formed in the conviction of the early christian community about Jesus the Christ. St. Paul would even say "We no longer regard Christ as if he were merely human" (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16b, kata sarka "according to the flesh"). For he is no longer simply "son of the carpenter"; he has received the name above every other name: "Lord" (cf. Phil 2:11). "I will be with you," the Lord promised, "until the end of the ages" (Mt. 28:20). Even during moments when the great winds of persecution threatened their boat, the Lord was with them. Jesus' rebuke to the disciples in v. 40 is now presented as a challenge and an invitation to faith. For faith, no matter how small, matches any great wind that make life so uncertain and ever so threatened.
