Mark 4:35-41  After a long day of teaching and ministering  Jesus asks His disciples to take Him across to the other side of the sea of Galilee.  Verse 36 says.. "...And leaving the multitude, they took Him along with them, just as He was..."   Those words.. "just as He was".. strike me today.. He was sitting in a boat as He spoke, so is that what Mark means?  Or does it mean something more?  We know that Jesus fell asleep in the stern of the boat and didn't even notice when the "fierce gale of wind"  and the breaking waves started filling up the boat... was it that Jesus was so exhausted?   Is this "just as He was"?  

Either way, Mark gives us a new picture of our Lord.  Sound asleep in the middle of the storm! When they woke Him up saying, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"  Jesus reveals something more to His followers.  "He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Hush, be still.'  And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm." 

Stop and think on this.. picture the swamped boat, the frightened disciples, the sleepy Jesus.. then.. absolute calm.  He spoke to the wind and the sea.  And.. they obeyed!  Stand still.. or as Psalm 46:10 says it "Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."  Be still and contemplate our great Savior who commands the wind and sea.. something that no man could ever do.. or even think of doing!  

Jesus says to His disciples, "Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?"  Even with all they had seen and experienced in His presence.. they did not know Him as God.  Their question exposes their lack of understanding, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" 

Jesus wanted them.. and us.. to have the kind of faith that goes deeper.. to know that Jesus is more than a man.. that He is God, the Son. He wants us to have such faith that we know He will be exalted in every nation and in all the earth.  He has all authority over creation.. because He is the Creator. "All things came into being by Him.. " John 1:3 tells us, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him." (v10)  He came to His own but they didn't accept Him.. but if we do accept Him.. receive Him.. then the Word says He gives us "the right to become children of God." 

Do we know Jesus.. really know Him?  How I want to know Him more!  What kind of storm will it take for us to recognize His absolute authority over ALL the earth.. and over ALL of us?

Father, grant us this kind of faith I pray.. in the Name of Jesus Christ who commands the wind and the sea.. and Who is the great Savior and Lord .. Amen.