Mar 4:35-41 | KingComments | STEP | As noted at the beginning of this chapter, Mark gives us an overview of the Lord’s service and of our service. He is the true Servant and prepares us as servants to follow in His footsteps. He has shown the results of the Divine service in the parable of the sower. The fruit is comparatively small. What brings fruit must become more fruit, and then the fruit must become light. What He has taught in secret must be passed on publicly to others. Then He also tells in two parables the two sides of the service that are important for today’s dispensation. It is about the inner and the outer side of growth. God works the growth, but outwardly it becomes a tree. In the last event of this chapter, the storm at sea, we also see that the Lord is asleep, as in the first parable ( ). He sleeps aboard the boat in the storm. In the storm we see the outward circumstances directed against “the One Who serves” and His servants. The Lord has been busy all day, until the evening (cf. ). When evening falls, He commands His disciples to go over to the other side. He says: “Let us go over.” He goes with them. He’s with them, though He sleeps. So it seems sometimes when we serve Him. We know He’s with us, but sometimes it seems like He’s asleep. As long as there are no storms, we don’t notice, but when storms come, who we are will be revealed and we will see Who He is. When He goes aboard, He leaves the crowd behind. The disciples take Him, “just as He was”, into the boat. This addition, which only Mark gives us, shows us how important it is to allow the Lord into our life “just as He is” and not to create another image of Him. It doesn’t suit us to tell Him how He should be and that we don’t allow Him into our life until He answers our ideas about Him. We have to ask ourselves how we take Him with us in our individual and also in our church boat of life. Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 11 about the danger of tolerating someone who preaches another Jesus than he has preached ( ). If we do that, we do not take Him with us just as He is. In order to know whether we take the Lord Jesus “just as He was”, we will have to open the Bible. If we keep what we read about Him in our heart, it will result in us living our lives according to His will. Then He will take the first place in everything and will be followed and served by us with love and thankfulness. In addition to the boat on which He is aboard, there are other boats with Him. It is reminiscent of those believers who do all kinds of things in His Name. They are not with the disciples ( ), but the Lord uses them because they are acting in His Name. All those other boats are also at sea and in the storm, but they are with Him. Although He is not with them on board, they also share in the blessing of quieting the storm. The disciples in the storm are a picture of servants in trials. This event is also a picture of the history of faithful servants through the ages. After showing the development of the sown Word in the previous parables, the Holy Spirit now shows how things will go with the disciples in the time when the Word is sown. They will be in great difficulty. The enemy will create a storm against them. The storm into which the disciples will go is no ordinary storm. They were used to something. Surely, the fishermen among them were familiar with the water. But here even the most experienced sailors lose all trust in their own skill and, what is worse, their trust in their sleeping Master. The Lord sleeps in perfect rest, while everything around Him is in turmoil. He is completely opposite of the man in the next chapter. That man is in a place of absolute rest, the tombs, but nowhere is it so restless as in his heart ( ). Here we have the only reference in the Gospels to the Lord’s sleep. He sleeps the sleep of complete trust in His God ( ). From His rest they could have learned to be calm as well. However, we do not see that. We see that they awaken Him and then blame Him for not caring that they perish.

‏ Mark 4:35-41

The Storm at Sea

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, Mark gives us an overview of the Lord’s service and of our service. He is the true Servant and prepares us as servants to follow in His footsteps. He has shown the results of the Divine service in the parable of the sower. The fruit is comparatively small. What brings fruit must become more fruit, and then the fruit must become light. What He has taught in secret must be passed on publicly to others. Then He also tells in two parables the two sides of the service that are important for today’s dispensation. It is about the inner and the outer side of growth. God works the growth, but outwardly it becomes a tree.

In the last event of this chapter, the storm at sea, we also see that the Lord is asleep, as in the first parable (Mk 4:27). He sleeps aboard the boat in the storm. In the storm we see the outward circumstances directed against “the One Who serves” and His servants.

The Lord has been busy all day, until the evening (cf. Psa 104:23). When evening falls, He commands His disciples to go over to the other side. He says: “Let us go over.” He goes with them. He’s with them, though He sleeps. So it seems sometimes when we serve Him. We know He’s with us, but sometimes it seems like He’s asleep. As long as there are no storms, we don’t notice, but when storms come, who we are will be revealed and we will see Who He is.

When He goes aboard, He leaves the crowd behind. The disciples take Him, “just as He was”, into the boat. This addition, which only Mark gives us, shows us how important it is to allow the Lord into our life “just as He is” and not to create another image of Him. It doesn’t suit us to tell Him how He should be and that we don’t allow Him into our life until He answers our ideas about Him.

We have to ask ourselves how we take Him with us in our individual and also in our church boat of life. Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 11 about the danger of tolerating someone who preaches another Jesus than he has preached (2Cor 11:4). If we do that, we do not take Him with us just as He is. In order to know whether we take the Lord Jesus “just as He was”, we will have to open the Bible. If we keep what we read about Him in our heart, it will result in us living our lives according to His will. Then He will take the first place in everything and will be followed and served by us with love and thankfulness.

In addition to the boat on which He is aboard, there are other boats with Him. It is reminiscent of those believers who do all kinds of things in His Name. They are not with the disciples (Mk 9:38-39), but the Lord uses them because they are acting in His Name. All those other boats are also at sea and in the storm, but they are with Him. Although He is not with them on board, they also share in the blessing of quieting the storm.

The disciples in the storm are a picture of servants in trials. This event is also a picture of the history of faithful servants through the ages. After showing the development of the sown Word in the previous parables, the Holy Spirit now shows how things will go with the disciples in the time when the Word is sown. They will be in great difficulty. The enemy will create a storm against them.

The storm into which the disciples will go is no ordinary storm. They were used to something. Surely, the fishermen among them were familiar with the water. But here even the most experienced sailors lose all trust in their own skill and, what is worse, their trust in their sleeping Master.

The Lord sleeps in perfect rest, while everything around Him is in turmoil. He is completely opposite of the man in the next chapter. That man is in a place of absolute rest, the tombs, but nowhere is it so restless as in his heart (Mk 5:1-7).

Here we have the only reference in the Gospels to the Lord’s sleep. He sleeps the sleep of complete trust in His God (Psa 4:8). From His rest they could have learned to be calm as well. However, we do not see that. We see that they awaken Him and then blame Him for not caring that they perish.