Mark 4:35-41 - Our God Sleeps?!?! - July 4, 2021

There are several curious – even mysterious – details in this text. What does it mean that the disciples took him [Jesus] along…just as he was? What happened to all of the other boats that were following along when the storm struck? Why does Jesus speak to the wind and the waves, the forces of nature, like they are personal beings – the same way he spoke to the demons when he drove them out (Mark 1:25) – was there something demonic about this storm? But none of those details are as curious or mysterious as the simple fact that in the midst of a great windstorm Jesus was sleeping. Isn’t that curious? Isn’t that amazing? Jesus is God. Our God sleeps?

Actually, is it amazing or is it unnerving? False gods sleep. There’s a famous statue of one of the gods of Hinduism – Vishnu – doing just that called “the sleeping god.” [1] Or remember the confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal? Elijah mocked and ridiculed Baal when his prophets couldn’t get him to answer their requests: Shout louder! He is a god, isn’t he? He may be deep in thought or busy or on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will wake up! (1 Kings 18:27)

False gods sleep. The true God doesn’t. Psalm 121 says: he who watches over you will not slumber. Yes, he who watches over Israel will not slumber. He will not sleep (Psalm 121:3-4). So what’s going on here with Jesus sleeping in a boat in the midst of a storm? Can you think of another famous Bible story involving storms and sleeping? Jonah. Of course, Jonah was no Jesus. He was trying to run away from God’s commission to call the people of Nineveh to repentance. But when God threw a storm on the sea, where was Jonah? Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship. He was lying down and sleeping soundly (Jonah 1:5). And, very similar to the disciples’ response in our text, the captain approached him and said, “How can you be sleeping so soundly? Get up and call on your god! Maybe your god will treat us with favor so that we will not perish (Jonah 1:6). Did you catch the parallel between that captain and the disciples here? The pagan sea captain says “Maybe your god will care enough to save us.” Jesus’ disciples wake him up and say Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to drown? That’s the heart of the issue, isn’t it? Does God care when he appears to be sleeping – when he seems to be failing to intervene to help in our lives?

Has God ever fallen asleep on you? Have you ever felt like God doesn’t care about you? If you’ve never felt that way, then you’re all alone; you’re a special kind of believer. There are times when we’ve all said or thought, along with the author of Psalm 44: Get up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Wake up! Do not reject us forever (Psalm 44:23). Hard times come, problems arise, health and relationships deteriorate – and we pray – but it seems like the winds just blow harder and the waves get bigger. The little boat that we call life begins to fill up and it feels like we’re about to drown. And we think: “Where is God? Doesn’t he know what I’m going through? Doesn’t he care?” We pray, we beg, we bargain, we teeter on the brink of despair. Ironically, when we’re led to believe that our God is sleeping, we can’t seem to sleep anymore. God may not lay awake at night worrying about us – but we sure do.

So what’s the answer to the question: does our God sleep? The Bible says that God neither slumbers nor sleeps – but here, Jesus, true God in flesh and blood is blissfully dreaming. So which is it? Does our God sleep or not? Yes, in Jesus, God sleeps. But far from terrifying or unnerving – this is tremendously comforting!

Sleeping Jesus proves how completely human he is. Jesus, the one, true God, knows what it’s like to be exhausted, to find yourself nodding off while you’re driving or eating supper or brushing your teeth. Jesus knows what it’s like to come to the end of a long day or week exhausted, weak and worn out. He knows how you feel after a long day of chasing after your children; how you feel after long days at work; how many of you feel trying to juggle work and kids and mortgages and budgets; how those of you will a few more years under your belt still lay awake worrying about your adult children and grandchildren; how some nights you wonder if this is the night you wake up on the other side of death, in heaven. He even knows how you feel when you can’t keep your eyes open during a sermon. Jesus sleeping means Jesus knows how exhausting life can be.

Why is life so exhausting? Why do we reach the end of each day, of each week, and – really – the end of a lifetime completely worn out? Well, like every other challenge and trial in this world, it’s the result of sin. It’s the result of living each and every day under the demands of the holy Law of God and failing each and every day to keep it. And it’s exhausting. So it really shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus was tired, should it? Even though Jesus had never failed to keep the Law, he was exhausted because he was not only keeping it perfectly, but he was carrying the burden of our sins, our failures, our exhaustion. It’s no wonder that Jesus was worn out!

Jesus sleeping in the stern of a storm-tossed boat shows you just how difficult obeying God’s Law perfectly in your place was for him. Yes, he was and is true God. But in his humiliation he gave up the full and constant use of his divine power and strength. He didn’t coast through life like Superman with all of the bullets of temptation and sorrow and sadness – and exhaustion –bouncing off of his chest. He lived it just like you and me – like Superman exposed to kryptonite: vulnerable, exposed, human. And that’s how it had to be if his obedience was going to count for us (Hebrews 4:15).

And a wrong understanding of what Jesus experienced has real-world effects on our lives. Why do we still live as if we need to keep the Law or else we will be damned? Why do things like trusting God, gladly hearing and learning God’s Word, respecting the government, remaining faithful in our marriages, keeping our tongues on a leash, and being content with what God has given us – feel like such burdens? Could it be because we don’t really believe that Jesus actually kept it perfectly already for us? Could it be because we have this haunting feeling that Jesus may have done most of what we need for salvation, but we had still better be good little Christian boys and girls if we really want to get to heaven? Jesus sleeping in the stern of a boat destroys those lies. Whereas at the end of each of our days we must pray for God’s forgiveness for our failures – at the end of every day of his life, an exhausted Jesus could offer up his perfect life to God, the Judge, for examination and hear him say, “My law is done, completed, fulfilled, finished.” To which we are to respond with just one word: “Amen.”

But Jesus sleeping in that boat proves more than that he fulfilled the commandments for us in general; it proves he fulfilled the most important commandment in particular, the one we break most frequently: the First Commandment. You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in God above all things. Let’s just focus on fear for a moment. The First commandment means that we’re not supposed to fear what the rest of the unbelieving world fears (Isaiah 8:12). It means we’re not supposed to be paralyzed by the fear that a virus may take our lives; that runaway inflation will drain our savings or wreck our retirements; that if we fail to carefully monitor our diet or exercise routines we may die; that if we aren’t constantly vigilant something will happen to us or the people we love. According to the First Commandment, we’re not supposed to be afraid of anything more than God, the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). But we are. And when we’re afraid of things that aren’t God, we prove we’re not perfect – that we haven’t kept the 1st commandment. Jesus was perfect. By sleeping soundly, Jesus proved that he had no other gods. It proved that he feared, loved and trusted God above all things. He slept soundly because he feared God more than he feared a stormy sea. He loved what God willed even if that meant death by drowning. He trusted in God more than he did the sea-worthiness of the boat or the experience of his disciples.

So what’s the point? I suppose one could conclude that the answer is: just do what Jesus did, don’t worry, be happy, sleep peacefully – even in the middle of the physical, moral, spiritual storms that we face in life. To that all I have to say is: “Go ahead and try. Try not worrying about your health, your wealth, your children, your life – or even death itself. Go ahead and try and I guarantee that you will fail.” We could conclude that whenever the storms of life arise, we can just ask Jesus and he’ll calm them right that moment with his almighty power. But we don’t have Jesus’ promise to do that. In fact, while Jesus did indeed calm the wind and the waves with just a word, his almighty power isn’t really the point of this story. As God told Job, he’s always had the power to control the wind and the waves (Job 38:8-11).

The comfort, the Gospel, in this text is that Jesus – as both true man who, exhausted, sleeps; and as true God, who, with just a word, can command the sea to be still – is wide awake, he is present, he does care about us and he has the power to work out everything, every little and every large detail of life, with the goal of navigating us safely to heaven. That’s really what he was urging his disciples to realize when they woke him up and accused him of not caring about them. Why are you so afraid? Do you still lack faith? That’s a good question, isn’t it? Why were they still afraid? The wind [had already] stopped, and there was a great calm. They were afraid because in that moment they realized that compared to the perfect fear, love and trust of the God-man who stood before them, they were miserable, wretched sinners. They were filled with the fear that strikes us when something goes wrong in our lives: “oh boy, does this mean that God has turned against me?” (How many times have you thought that when something has gone wrong in your life?) It wasn’t just that they failed to recognize that Jesus was true God – it was that they failed to recognize that in Jesus God has proven – beyond all doubt – his love for us (Romans 5:8). God didn’t send his Son to be born into a peasant family, to live as a homeless, wandering preacher, to be mocked and ridiculed and persecuted, to be stuck on a boat with faithless disciples on a stormy sea, to march into Jerusalem to be whipped, mocked, and crucified – for people he hates. That’s the point of this story, the good news: God has proven his enduring and unchangeable love for you by sending Jesus to live and die for you. And neither the storms of life nor our own failure to fear, love and trust in God above all things can change that!

There may be a lot of curious and mysterious details about this story – some that we will likely not understand this side of heaven. But is there anything more amazing than the fact that Jesus, our God, sleeps? His sleeping is Law – a demonstration of what perfect fear, love and trust in God looks like. But even more, it’s Gospel – because Jesus obeyed the First Commandment for us and by his presence on this earth, in that boat, and on the cross – he proves beyond all doubt that God cares about us and loves us. Does that mean that your life will never be rocked by wind and waves? No. It means that no matter how hard the wind blows or how high the waves get, nothing – not even your own lack of faith – can keep Jesus from bringing you to the safe harbor of heaven. Knowing that, you too can sleep peacefully tonight and every night. Amen.

[1] https://vedicfeed.com/budhanilkantha-temple-of-sleeping-vishnu/