Mark 4:41 (NLT) The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

One day Jesus got in a boat with the disciples to get to the other side of the lake. He took advantage of the downtime in getting across the lake and decided to catch up on some sleep. While He was sleeping, a terrible storm came up and the boat was being tossed violently on the waves to the point that the water was coming into the boat. The disciples, as can be expected, started panicking. At least four of the disciples were fishermen who were used to being on rough seas, so this storm must have been particularly fierce. Where was Jesus while all of this was happening? He was asleep at the back of the boat, undisturbed (He is, after all, the Prince of Peace) until the disciples woke Him up. "Don't you care that we are going to drown?" they asked. Then Jesus did an unbelievable thing: He rebuked the wind and told the waves to be still...and they obeyed!

Seeing Jesus heal people from all sorts of diseases and seeing Him cause the lame to walk and the blind to see must have been mind-blowing, to say the least. But this was in another category altogether. This was nature obeying the man that they knew as Jesus and loosely, as the Messiah...sometimes. To see wind and waves obey Jesus was too much for them. They were terrified, and with good reason. "Who exactly, after all, is this Jesus?", they wondered. They confessed from time to time who He was but didn't fully have a grasp on the whole picture. How could they? This was a man, yet He was God. He was God, yet He was a man with flesh on as they had. This was the promised Messiah, but so much greater than they could have imagined Him to be. They understood a little but didn't really understand at all.

Today, we have a slightly fuller picture because of the gospels and all the inspired scriptures written after He resurrected and went back to the Father. But I think that we have the same problem as the disciples did in trying to grasp the vastness of Jesus. Who is this man who died for us, saved us, sanctified us and who now lives in us through the Holy Spirit? Who is this that rescues us, delivers us, heals us, provides for us and is our constant companion, all the while knowing all the wrong things that we have done and forgiving the wrong things that we do even after receiving Him as Lord and Savior of our lives? It is too wonderful to take it all in, but it is not terrifying to us anymore. The little more that we know that the disciples didn't know helps us to rest in His loving arms, secure in His unfailing love for us. But even with that, we still wonder who this incredible, amazing and almighty Savior is. He is Jesus, God incarnate, the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6) who now dwells in us and will continue to be with us until we see Him face to face, but who is still too wonderful to fully comprehend. Blessed be His Name!

Pastor Joey Vazquez