In the storm with Jesus
Eero Järnefelt, detail of In a Storm with Jesus (1926), original size 17.7 feet high × 12.1 feet wide, Church of the Holy Trinity, Raahe, Finland.
Today’s Gospel (Mk 4:35-41) tells the story of Jesus calming the storm. Eero Järnefelt’s altarpiece, “In a Storm with Jesus” (1926), portrays the moment when Jesus commands the wind and waves to be still.
The experienced fishermen were in fear for their lives, while the landsman Jesus stayed soundly asleep. They woke Him in their panic. “Didn’t He care that they were perishing?” What could they possibly have expected Him to do? In fact, He did something they could never have expected. Jews believed that only God could command the wind and waves. But Jesus, by doing precisely that and with just a word, proved that He possessed an authority and power reserved for God alone. Well might the awe-struck disciples ask, “Who is this man, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
Storms and raging waters are Biblical metaphors for the trials and troubles of life. This story then is a parable about our own struggles and emotional storms, when God seems far away or fast asleep. It invites us to trust that Christ will deliver us by His power from the storms that rage outside or sustain us by His presence from the tempestuous fears within.