Jesus Calms the Storm
Mark 4
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It had been a long day of teaching.
Let us go across to the other side, said Jesus.
So they got into the boat and set off.
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Jesus had been talking to crowds of people all day long by the edge of the lake, and by evening he was worn out. Let us cross over to the other side, he said. So his friends got the fishing boat ready and they pushed off from the shore into the calm evening water, and a few other little boats went with them.
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Jesus was so tired he fell asleep.
Right at the back of the boat.
With his head on a cushion.
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He went to the back of the boat, put his head down on a cushion and fell fast asleep almost at once. The water was smooth, the light was going gold, and the boat rocked gently along. His friends let him sleep. Several of them were fishermen and this was their own lake. There was nothing to worry about.
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Then the wind came down off the hills.
The waves got bigger and bigger.
Water started coming into the boat.
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Then the wind came tearing down off the hills the way it can on that lake, with no warning at all. The waves got higher and higher and began breaking right over the side, and the boat started filling with water. The fishermen were bailing as fast as they could and it was not fast enough.
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And Jesus was still asleep.
His friends woke him up.
Do you not care that we are sinking?
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And all this time Jesus was still asleep at the back with his head on the cushion. In the end they shook him awake, soaked through and frightened out of their wits, and what came out was not a polite request. Teacher, they shouted over the wind, do you not care that we are drowning?
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Jesus stood up.
He spoke to the wind and to the waves.
Quiet, he said. Be still.
And everything went calm.
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Jesus got up. He looked at the wind and the water the way you would look at a dog barking in the night, and he said, quiet. Be still. And the wind stopped. Not slowly, the way wind does. It stopped. And the great waves went flat, and the lake lay there completely calm.
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The boat sat still on a quiet lake.
Why were you so afraid, said Jesus.
His friends looked at each other.
Who is this, that even the wind obeys him?
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The boat sat there in the sudden silence, dripping. Why were you so frightened, Jesus asked them. Do you still not trust me? And his friends stood in the wet boat under the stars and looked at one another, and the question they asked was not about the storm at all. Who is this, they said, that even the wind and the sea do what he says?
