Calming Stormy Seas

Leaving the crowd, they took Jesus with them in the boat just as he was.
And other boats were with him.
A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, 
and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!"
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified?
Do you not yet have faith?"
Mark 4:35-41



The Gospel today is familiar, it is about the Calming of the Sea.

Reading the passage again, I now have a theory that what irritated Jesus was the fact that the apostles said this: "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" One thing I have learned is to always assume that people have good motivations and to have second thoughts on questioning their motives. 


But by saying, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" the apostles suggest that Jesus does not care. He probably was very tired from all that preaching, so tired he slept through the violent squall. But when the apostles woke him up, they were virtually accusing Jesus of not caring about their lives. Not a good way to wake up anyone, I suppose. 


So I don't blame Jesus when he lashes out at them. 


And if we look at what Jesus said, we can read it on two levels. First, he is asking if the disciples do not have faith that he could calm the seas. But I think, on another level, he was also asking if the disciples did not have faith that he cared. In the end, I think the second notion of faith is the one that matters.