Mark 4: 35 - 41  

Sunday’s gospel passage is one of the great miracles of Jesus – the calming of the storm. The community of the gospel of Mark were consumed with doubt and surrounded by evidence of the world as they knew it falling apart. They were living the metaphor captured in the story: a boat adrift on the sea in the midst of an almighty storm. The cry of the disciples was the cry of the Christian community: ‘Master, do you not care?’ They felt that God did not care about the turmoil that surrounded them. The gospel writer reassures them that God does care about their struggle but at the same time chastens them for their lack of faith!

The experience of the disciples as their boat was tossed about the sea by the powerful storm may sound like a familiar situation. At times in life we may feel that we have lost control of our situation and we are being blown from one ‘disaster’ to the next. At such times, we may find ourselves asking the question that the disciples asked of Jesus, ‘Master, do you not care?’ Jesus’ reply to the disciples suggests that had they been calm and trusted in the slow work of God then they would have made it through the storm unharmed.