Homily for Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The sea forms the backdrop to most of our gospel stories. The obvious reason for this is that the bible, both Old and New Testaments, have a Mediterranean setting. But 'sea' and 'water' have great symbolic power in the Jewish and Christian tradition also. The sea instils fear and awe in equal measure. Both attitudes are evident in our story today. The "sea" being crossed by Jesus and his followers is the Sea of Galilee, so the area they are moving on to would be the present-day Jordan.
This would take him into territory controlled by Gentiles, pointing to the eventual expansion of Jesus' message and community beyond Jews and to the Gentile world.
During the trip across the Sea of Galilee, a large storm comes up - so large that the boat threatens to sink after so much water has entered it. How Jesus manages to stay asleep at all?
In all probability, the author of Mark has Jesus sleeping out of literary necessity: Jesus' calming the storm is designed to evoke the story of Jonah. Here Jesus is sleeping because the story of Jonah has him sleeping down in the ship.
Jesus proceeds to end the storm and restore the sea to calm - but why? Calming the storm doesn't appear to have been absolutely necessary because he rebukes the others for not having faith - presumably, they should have trusted that nothing would happen to them while he was around. So ostensibly, had he not stopped the storm they would have made it across just fine.
Was his purpose then simply to create a display of naked power in order to impress this apostles? If so, he succeeded because they appear to be just as afraid of him now as they were moments ago of the storm. It's strange, though, that they don't understand who he is. Why did they even wake him if they didn't think he might be able to do something?
Although it is still relatively early in his ministry, he has been explaining to them all of the secret meanings of his parables. Hadn't they covered who he is and what he is doing? Or if they had, do they simply not believe him? Whatever the case, this appears to be another example of the apostles being portrayed as dolts.
Returning once again to traditional commentaries on this passage, many say this story is supposed to teach us not to be fearful of the chaos and violence around us in our lives. First, if we have faith, then no harm is to come to us. Second, if you act as Jesus and simply command the chaos to "be still," then you will at least achieve some inner sense of peace and thus be less troubled by what is occurring.
The calming of a raging storm fits with other stories where Jesus' power is manifested against awesome, even mythic forces: raging seas, hordes of demons, and death itself. Confining the sea itself is depicted in Genesis as an aspect of divine power and privilege. It is not coincidental that the following stories of Jesus involve further instances of combating forces more powerful than what has been seen thus far.
But again, the main point of the story in today's gospel is simple enough: when we encounter storms and upsets, Jesus appears to be asleep, uninvolved. But if we alert him to our plight he will be a calming influence and, because he is travelling with us, we will arrive safely at our destination.