Was Christ just a man, or was he God…

Marc 4 – 35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 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. 40He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

How often has this story been linked to us going through some storms and Christ has the ability to calm them down. Giving us peace in our hearts. Well I have a surprise for you, and the key is the very last statement in this text.

Their celebration once the storm had calmed down wasn’t, “yay, we’re not going to perish” but “who, the heck is this?”

This text is a direct reference to many psalms. Psalm 93, 89:9, 65:7, 107:22-30….and these are only a few of the verses that point out my topic. Christ, is God.

These fishermen, no doubt were very well versed in the trade of fishing. Going into the boats and having some waves crash into the boat didn’t intimidate these men. Something like the show “The Deadliest Catch” about arctic crab fishermen that sometimes see the bottom of the ocean due to the height of some waves. 10 – 30 feet high of waves and these guys are shoved around on deck. And right back to their stations, business as usual.
It takes some serious waves to scare these guys. They are used to seeing waves like this all the time.

No doubt our fishermen in the Marc account are the same type of men. They have seen some serious waves and keep fishing and screaming at each other to keep working. No fish, no pay, get it done.

Now enter Christ in the story. While he’s sleeping, the men are screaming in terror (must have been a serious storm) because they see that they might lose their lives in submission to this raging storm. And there is nothing they can personally do, since the waves are throwing them all over the place.

They finally wake Christ up, and He calms the storm. Their reaction is not to be happy that while some hard times were on them, Christ helped them, their reaction is directed directly to the psalms they learned since they were kids. These were not only seasoned fishermen, they were also well educated in the old testament.

I suspect they knew the psalms like the back of their hand as well. And as soon as Christ calmed the waters and the storm just by speaking, no doubt the psalms mentioned above came to mind. The only problem they now had, was that those psalms are all acknowledging God. And all of a sudden, Christ does what God does in the psalms.

The point of this story is not to say that Christ can calm the storms or persecution in your life (though He can), it’s to say that Christ, is God in the flesh.