The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Supernatural Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus spoke to the wind and waves in the same way a father might speak to his fidgety child: “*Be quiet!*” Dear Christian friends, 1. The first thing we must learn from today’s Gospel is that nature is NOT our friend. You might disagree with that statement. For example: · You might enjoy walking through the woods on a snowy day. However, the beauty of the snowdrifts might be rooted in the fact that you are warmly dressed. The same snowdrifts will not seem so charming when you are wearing only a pair of shorts. Given the opportunity, a beautiful snowdrift will put you into the hospital. · You might enjoy the warmth of the sun upon your face or your back. Sit there long enough and sun will patiently destroy you: dehydrating you, burning you, filling you with tumors or even inducing a stroke. · Chase storms. Thrill at the power of the lighting and the force of the wind. The thrill will turn to horror when floodwater invades your living room, or when a tornado moves your house into the next county. Nature is NOT your friend. The Scriptures teach us to believe that God uses this natural earth—God uses His creation—to provide us with everything we need to support this body and life (e.g., Isaiah 55:10). The Scriptures also teach us to believe that this earth and its natural powers are the voice of God’s wrath and the agents of His judgment. It is written, “*the wrath of God is revealed from heaven*” (Romans 1:18); and again, “*He lifts His voice and the earth melts*” (Psalm 46:6); and again, “*cursed is the ground because of you… thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you*” (Genesis 3:17, 18); and yet again, “*As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may You peruse them with Your tempest *[O Lord]* and terrify them with your hurricane*” (Psalm 83:14-15). “*A great windstorm arose*” in today’s Gospel, “*and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling*.” · If we were to watch the Weather Channel, we might say “*a great windstorm arose*” the conditions were right. · If we look at the Scriptures, we can say with much greater accuracy that “*a great windstorm arose*” in today’s Gospel because “*sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin*” (Romans 5:12); because “*all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God*” (Romans 3:23); because “*there is no one righteous, no, not one*” (Romans 3:10). While we are at it, we can blame sin for the lily pads that are growing in your backyard right now. Nature is NOT our friend, and two months of soggy ground in central Missouri help to prove the point. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven (Romans 1:18) against all sin, and the entire creation groans in futility, eagerly longing for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:18-23). 2. The second thing we must learn from today’s Gospel is that our Lord Jesus Christ stands above and beyond everything in nature. Stated another way, our Lord Jesus is supernatural. When I say that Jesus is supernatural, I do NOT mean that He is a ghost or a poltergeist or some stupid thing you might see in a horror movie. The Latin word “super” means above, beyond, over and greater. Jesus is supernatural because He is greater than all things in heaven and on earth. Jesus is supernatural because everything in nature—everything in His creation—proceeded out of His mouth and into existence. Jesus is the God who rebuked Job in today’s Old Testament, asking “*Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?*” Jesus our God speaks to the elemental forces of nature in today’s Gospel. He speaks not with a shout or a roar, but with supernatural power in His Words: “*Peace! Be still!*” What happened next? “*The wind ceased, and there was a great calm*.” There is some valuable stuff for us here in today’s Gospel, especially in these two points, that 1) nature is NOT our friend and 2) Jesus our Lord is supernatural, above and beyond all things in nature. · First of all, today’s Gospel gives us a good perspective for this seemingly endless wet weather we have endured for so long. Today’s Gospel might even want us to know that we experience so that we will continually re-direct our attention back toward our Christ and His mercies. Whenever the weather is calm, we should thank and praise God for His generosity and patience toward us, because “*He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous*” (Matthew 5:45). Whenever the weather turns bad and destructive—as it has been for several weeks—we should think of today’s Gospel. In today’s Gospel, the bad weather did more than display God’s wrath in the creation. The bad weather in today’s Gospel chased people to Jesus: “*They woke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”*” Essentially these men were praying to Jesus the very things we also must pray to Jesus: “Have mercy, Lord! Guard and protect us, O Lord! O Lord, preserve our lives!” Of course, these are the sorts of prayers we ought to pray every day, but you know the laziness of your own flesh and you know how quickly you forget God’s mercy and grace. The evils of the weather have a way of getting our attention and re-directing us back toward our Lord. · Today’s Gospel also gives us a very good way to think about the forgiveness of sins that Christ Jesus our Lord speaks to us. Yes, Jesus wants you to have the forgiveness of sins—that is why He died on a cross. Jesus wants you to hear the forgiveness of sins—that is why He continues to speak through His Scriptures and through His Sacraments even to this day. The Words of Jesus deliver His forgiveness to you. Jesus wants you to know in today’s Gospel that His Word of forgiveness to you is a supernatural Word, that is, a Word that stands above and beyond everything in the creation. Stated another way, the Words of Jesus have more strength and power and authority than even the most elemental forces of nature. “*A great windstorm arose*” in today’s Gospel, “*and He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm*.” The same Jesus speaks the forgiveness of your sins to you today. Jesus wants you to use today’s Gospel to think about the immense, creation-defying power of the forgiveness He speaks to you. Jesus said to you earlier in worship, “I forgive you all your sins.” Jesus is about to say again in the Holy Communion, “This body and blood is given for the forgiveness of your sins.” Jesus wants you to use today’s Gospel as a way of reasoning to yourself, “If my Lord’s Words are powerful enough to calm the wind and the waves, then they certainly are powerful enough to remove the guilt of all that I have done! Therefore I will not fear! Jesus says He forgives me, and even the wind and the waves must yield to His voice!” · Today’s Gospel gives us good reason to feel great confidence in our Lord Jesus and in His mercy and grace toward us. We should feel this confidence, despite the fact that we are each deeply enmeshed in the corruptions of this creation. Not only did everything in nature get subjected to futility on account of our sin and rebellion, but the Scriptures teach that we ourselves “were by nature deserving wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Death is NOT natural. Death is a foreign intrusion into nature, brought about by sin. “*Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned*” (Romans 5:12). Praise be to God! Today’s Gospel shows us that our Lord Jesus is Lord over the Creation, and therefore, Lord over death. “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” There is nothing for you to fear in all of heaven or in the entire earth beneath, but Jesus is Lord. “*Even the wind and sea obey Him*.”
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