I Stand Amazed

Kathleen Peterson, https://www.kathleenpetersonart.com

Filled with Awe

“And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, ‘What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” -Mark 4:41

It was when Jesus brought calm that the disciplines found the space to experience the fear. What they had been experiencing before that was the terror and dread of being shipwrecked in the storm. Now, however, it was a kind of holy fear, an experience of the unknown for which they had no frame of reference.

What do you do with that?

So, the fear that the men had when Jesus calmed the sea was not terror, it was breathtaking awe. It was that overwhelming disorientation that comes when you realize that you control nothing.

It is coming to understand, with Anselm, that there is a God who is greater than anything we can conceive of or imagine.

We are knocked off of our feet by the magnitude of the divine presence. We are enveloped in glory. We are struck down by power. At the same time, we are healed and comforted as we settle into trusting that power and the one who possesses it.

We use words like “awe,” “wonder,” “reverence,” and “amazement.”

God defines God’s own glory. God creates it and God shows it in the Lord Jesus Christ. What manner of man is this?

That is the right question. It is always the right question for any who are weighing the wonder of Jesus Christ. It is the right question for every seeker who might be considering his life, ministry, words, and calling?

There lies Jesus, asleep on a cushion in the stern of the boat, resting easy through the squall. Was he so unaware of the ricking of the boat? Could he not hear the crashing of the waves? Could he not sense the panic of his friends?

Was it, as they questioned, that he did not care that they were about to perish?

Doesn’t Jesus care for his companions with whom he shares the boat? Doesn’t he even care about his own wellbeing?

He is, after all, in the same boat, with us. That is incarnation?

He is with us. He is vulnerable. He has determined to go down with us. Yet, in that moment, he knew that no one was going down. At least it seems so.

“Where is your faith?” That is what he asks.

They ask why he is not afraid. He asks why they are?

They ask if he cares. He asks if they believe.

Should believing make that much of a difference in a storm?

He speaks to the storm and calms the storm. Many of us have experienced that in a more esoteric encounter. Many have experienced it in actual time and space miraculous intervention by God at the word of Jesus: “Quiet. Be still.”

Sometimes that word is spoken to the storm. Often, it is spoken to our hearts. There is always something that can be settled in the stormy moments of our lives.

They ask:

“Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Nature obeys him.

Who is he? What sort of man is he? How do we size him up? How do we respond to him? Who is this man who is showing himself to be more than a mere man?

What do we do with him? We have no box for him. We have no preexisting definition for him. We cannot label him or package him. He is who he is, and it is more than we can describe.

We stand amazed and in awe as we stand, bow, kneel, or fall in his presence.

On this day, he set out to amaze. At least he seized the opportunity to do so.

We all need some amazement in our lives. If God is with us, there is nothing ordinary about it. God is with us in Christ and the reality of it defies explanation or understanding.

Something remarkable has happened among us and to us in Jesus Christ.

The peering gaze and penetrating voice of Jesus, after all the teachings and all the signs and wonders, all the miracles, all the observation, is asking, “Haven’t you yet come to believe? Don’t you trust me? Haven’t you found in me a higher purpose, calling, and grace that overcomes these storms?”

It is as if belief is to be the new norm of our lives.

It is never true that Jesus does not care. Jesus always cares and that care reflects God’s loving concern for us. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in that deep caring.

But Jesus models what it looks like to believe and to trust by taking a nap.

What if we, in our amazement and awe, could learn to nap in the boat with Jesus no matter what was happening around us?

It is an amazing thing to be aligned with one whose power calls forth the obedience of the forces of nature. He doesn’t do that every day because those forces are good and nurturing. Yet, there come times when they must be defied and overridden. If it needs to happen in order for God’s purposes to be accomplished and God’s people to be delivered, it will.

Sink or swim, we are protected and guided by the awe-inspiring presence of the Lord in Christ,

In 1905, Chris Gabriel, who wrote over 7000 compositions, must have been feeling some of these emotions when he penned this hymn:

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene,

And wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.

How marvelous, how wonderful!

And my song shall ever be:

How marvelous, how wonderful

Is my Savior’s love for me!

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Mark 4:35-41
New International Version

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”

Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Art Attribution: Peterson, Kathleen. Tempest, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56574 [retrieved June 20, 2024]. Original source: Kathleen Peterson, https://www.kathleenpetersonart.com.