St. John’s Episcopal Church
Tallahassee, FL
Mark 4:35–41
“When evening had come,
Jesus said to his disciples,
‘Let us go across to the other side.’” [1]
* * *
As your preacher, pastor, and priest,
I wish to make a confession.
A few years ago,
I came to realize
that for most of my life,
I had been reading the Bible wrongly,
and for many of those years,
I taught my parishioners to do the same as well.
What I mean is
every time I would read the Bible,
I would always to try to find myself in it,
always to try to find us in it.
When I would read David and Goliath, for instance,
I would tell us to see ourselves as David,
the determined underdog who could do anything.
Or when we would read the gospels,
I’d tell us to see ourselves as the disciples,
except, unlike them, we liked to think
maybe we could actually get a few things right.
Searching, searching, and searching the scriptures
for stories of our own heroics
and promises of our own glory.
That’s exactly how I did it
until several years ago
when a theologian friend of mine said,
“Lonnie, Lonnie, Lonnie. Don’t you know?
Don’t you understand that you are not
the most important person in the Bible?
And by the way, neither is David,
and neither are the disciples.
“No, no, no.
The most important person in the Bible
is always, always, always God,
and therefore, in the Gospels,
the most important person
is always, always, always Jesus.
“Keep your eyes on him.
Point to him.
Preach about him.
That’s where the Good News is.
Everything else is just us
trying to be our own heroes.”
* * *
I mention all of this today
because we have a story in the Gospel
in which it would be extremely easy for us
to take our eyes off Jesus
and miss the point entirely.
“When evening had come,
Jesus said to his disciples,
‘Let us go across to the other side.’”
Maybe you’ve heard this story a thousand times,
or maybe today is your first time ever.
Either way, you’ve heard what happens:
They get into the boat;
Jesus falls asleep;
and all hell breaks loose.
A massive windstorm comes along,
churning up the primordial chaos of the sea.
The storm is so monstrous and big
that even those veteran fisherman in the boat
are terrified out of their minds.
They yell, “Teacher, do you not care
that we are perishing?”
And so Jesus stumbles up out of the stern,
bed-headed and bleary-eyed,
perhaps a little drool in his beard.
He barks at the storm, “Peace! Be still!”
grumbles at the disciples for their lack of faith,
and—for all we know—
crawls back into the stern
and goes back to sleep.
* * *
But here’s the thing, y’all.
In this story,
if you keep your eyes
only on the disciples,
then this just becomes
yet another fable
all about our fears.
In this story,
if you keep your eyes
only on the storm,
then this just becomes
yet another fable
about all the world’s chaos.
But what happens when
you keep your eyes on Jesus?
Well, for my money,
when you do that,
you quickly realize that
the most important line is not,
“Peace! Be still!” or
“Why are you afraid?”
No, the most important line
is at the very tippy top.
Pull out your bulletin,
find the Gospel reading,
and read with me
the very first line.
“When evening had come,
Jesus said to the disciples,
‘Let us go across to the other side.’”
You keep your eyes on Jesus,
and you soon realize that
there’s something going on from the start.
Jesus has something in mind.
They aren’t boarding that boat
just to go on a pleasure cruise.
This is not some three-hour tour.
Jesus is standing
on this side,
on the safe side,
on the easy side,
pointing his finger
across the boundary,
across the border,
across the sea,
and saying,
“Boys, get ready,
‘cause we are going
there.”
And where exactly is ‘there?’
Well, in this story,
‘there’ is the land of the Gerasenes.
‘There’ is the land of the Gentiles.
‘There’ is the land where no respectable Jew
would ever want to go.
To the Jewish mind,
‘there’ was a land of lawlessness and sin;
‘there’ was a place of debauchery and filth;
‘there’ was the wrong side of the border. [2]
But that is exactly where Jesus wants to go:
to the outcasts,
to the unsavories,
to the ones whom his followers do not even think of as people . . .
so that he can love them,
and heal them,
and treat them like human beings
because they—yes, even they—
are loved by an extraordinary God.
And when you know that—
when you keep your eyes on Jesus—
you soon realize that this is no story
about disciples and thunderstorms.
This is a story about a Savior
who is so heaven-bent and determined
to get to the people on the “other side”
that he will stop at nothing to get there.
Even the storms of chaos on the angry sea
are but a minor inconvenience to our Lord
when he is determined to make his way
to the other side. [3]
* * *
Of course, none of this should surprise you.
This is the business in which Jesus
has always been engaged.
Long before this story ever took place,
back when the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
were sitting together in eternity,
they looked across
the greatest boundary,
the greatest border,
the greatest sea . . .
the one that separated heaven and earth.
And God said, “Look at them.
They are all suffering in anger, and chaos, and despair.
Do we not care that they are perishing?”
To which the Holy Spirit said,
“Yes, but the only way to save them
is to go there ourselves . . .
to cross the border,
to have skin in the game,
to heal them from within.”
To which Jesus said,
“Fine. I will go.
I will cross the border.
I will show them who they really are,
so that I can show them who we really are,
and I will make a way home for all of them.
I will probably lose my skin in the process,
but it will be worth it.
It’s the only way.”
And so it was.
And so he did.
* * *
What this means then, my friends,
is that you and I have a God—
you and I have a Savior and Friend—
who has been to “the other side,”
who cares about “the other side,”
who is unafraid of “the other side” . . .
whatever “the other side” is.
So what is “the other side” for you?
Where is the place
you know you have to go
but that fills you with fear?
Perhaps you are the young student,
about to cross to the other side
known as college,
and you are afraid.
Fear not.
Jesus is already there.
Perhaps you are the young couple,
about to cross to the other side
known as marriage,
and you are nervous.
Fear not.
Jesus is already there.
Perhaps you are the older couple,
about to cross to the other side
known as divorce,
and you are uncertain and brokenhearted and sad.
Fear not.
Jesus is already there.
Perhaps you are the parents
about to bring a new life into the world.
Perhaps you are the daughter or son
about to tell your parents
something vulnerable and true
about who you really are.
Perhaps you are the widow
about to start your next chapter
without your beloved by your side.
Perhaps you are the employee,
about to take a stand.
Perhaps you are the immigrant
moving to a new and foreign land.
Perhaps you are the patient
about to go through surgery.
Or perhaps you’re just you,
and every day
brings its own unique
chasms
and chaos
and crossings
and seas.
Fear not.
Jesus is already there.
Friends, if there’s one thing to know today,
it is that no matter where you go—
even when you come to the very end of your life
and face the Other Side with a capital O and a capital S,
when you face death itself—
there is no place
where Jesus has not already crossed
and made a way forward
and stands ready to meet you.
Whatever “the other side” is to you,
that is the grace for you today.
* * *
So stop reading your Bible
trying to figure out
how to be a hero like David
or a disciple like John.
Instead, you just be you,
and while you’re at it,
keep your eyes on Jesus.
That’s where the Good News is.
Everything else is just us
trying to be our own heroes.”
* * *
“When evening had come,
Jesus said to his disciples,
‘Let us go across to the other side.’”
Amen.
[1] Mark 4:35
[2] Skinner, Matt. “Commentary on Mark 4:35-41.” Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3677. Accessed 20 June 2018.
[3] Ibid.