In the Struggles and Storm, Pt. 1
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There’s a particular kind of tired that has nothing to do with laziness. It’s the tired you experience when you’re doing everything right but still not seeing progress. Pastor Nick Gatzke points us toward a hope that holds steady, even when results don’t show up
When the Andrea Gail left the town harbor of Gloucester, Massachusetts on September 20th, 1991, and headed into the North Atlantic, no one could have known that the fishing boat would never be seen again. Only a bit of debris was ever found, and the six crew members of the vessel vanished forever. In his book, The Perfect Storm, author Sebastian Junger immortalized the fate of the Andrea Gail. A film followed, but the real star of the book and the movie was the storm itself. A terrifying, relentless oppressor born of fierce wind and mountainous waves.
No wonder meteorologists called it The perfect storm. Three deadly elements came together in October of 1991. A front moving from Canada toward New England, a high-pressure system building over Canada’s east coast, and the dying remnants of Hurricane Grace churning along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Strong weather was coming from three of the four points of the compass, and all of it converging on this small fishing vessel—the Andrea Gail. On their own, warm air and cold air and moist air are hardly unique or hardly noticeable, but when wind patterns force them together, the result can be lethal.
And the last radio transmission of Billy Tyne, the captain of the fishing boat, came at 6 p.m. on October 28, 1991. He reported his coordinates to the captain of his sister ship, the Hannah Bowden, saying, she’s coming. She’s coming on, boys, and she’s coming on strong. The book and the movie brought the term the perfect storm into common usage. But the concept is as old as humanity because people have always had to deal with the convergence of multiple rough circumstances. So much can go… so wrong so quickly that we shake our heads and use the expression, when it rains, it pours.
None of us are immune to the storms of life. And in Mark chapter six, we see the disciples of Jesus in the midst of the storm. And like all of the miracles of Jesus, this struggle and his rescue shows us something about who Jesus is, and it teaches us something about how he interacts with us in the storms of life. So open your Bible with me to Mark chapter 6. We have a short little account this morning, starting in Mark 6:45, and follow along as I read. It says this, “Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.” That crowd is the 5,000 men, women, and children that he had just fed. “And after he had taken leave of them, he went up to the mountain to pray.”
“And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea and he was alone on the land, and he saw that they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought that it was a ghost, and they cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.” And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. And when they had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.”
Already experiencing significant weariness, Jesus and his disciples had just spent the day with 5,000 men plus their wives and children. The spiritual hunger of those people was palpable.
And the physical hunger became real. And Jesus showed them that he is able to satisfy all the types of hunger that we have in this life as he taught them God’s word and as he fed them through a miracle. And in verses 45 and 46, it says that he immediately made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side. It would seem that they didn’t necessarily want to go, but he made them and they obeyed. That’s sort of bizarre. With all the people around, you might expect that it would be good for Jesus to keep the 12 disciples with him. But nevertheless, They obeyed and they went on their way. And that little detail could be important later.
The crowds continued to press in, but Jesus dismissed them. John 6 gives us the account of this event. He actually tells us that the crowds thought that Jesus was a mighty prophet and they were going to take him by force and make him the king. And so Jesus had come preaching a message to repent. and turn from your sin because the kingdom of God is at hand. And now the people actually want to make him a king, but he resists them because his kingdom is not the type of kingdom that they have in mind. And so in the midst of the weariness, and now a significant amount of pressure from the crowd trying to make him the king, he sends everyone away. Sends his disciples ahead on the boat, he sends the crowds away, and he retreats to the mountain to pray.
We don’t know what he prayed for, but you can imagine some of the things that would make sense. You can imagine that Jesus might pray in that moment for strength. It’s interesting that his omnipotence, his all-powerful nature, and how that interacts with his humanity is a mystery to us. I mean, he is able and all-powerful to the point where he can multiply food, and yet he himself still gets hungry. He prays and seeks strength from his father, the one who is able to give. Perhaps Jesus felt all the pressure of the crowds, and he prayed that God would keep him faithful to the mission and to his focus that is handled. I mean, the people were starting to see all of this power that Jesus was exhibiting. Many wanted him to use it in ways that he did not intend it to be used. They wanted their kingdom, not God’s kingdom.
So perhaps Jesus on the mountain alone in the midst of weariness prayed for the will of his father to be accomplished and to be strengthened on that path. Prayer is the privilege of all of God’s children. And yet it’s so often minimized, forgotten, or ignored.
I think of the tale of the small town that had historically been known as a dry town. But then a local businessman decided to build a tavern. And the group of Christians from a local church were concerned, and they planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. And it just so happened that shortly thereafter, Lightning struck the tavern and burned it all the way to the ground. And the owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. And the presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated, no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not. Martin Luther once said, pray as if everything depends on God and then work as if everything depends on you.
If Jesus relied on his father and expressed that through prayer, That’s probably a pretty good idea for us to do the same. As he concludes his time with his father in solitude, he looked up or looked down, I should say, upon the lake. Perhaps the moon was shining bright and the beam was right through the area that the disciples were rowing. John 6 is specific about how far they’ve gotten by then. It’s about three to three and a half miles out. But now the storm was upon them. And it says in verse 47, when the evening came, the boat was out on the sea and he was alone in the land and he saw that they were making headway painfully because the wind was against them.
It’s such a short description that it’s almost easy to gloss over how difficult the struggle of the storm might be. Because when you start to do the quick calculations, you realize that Jesus had probably dismissed them seven to eight hours ago. The sails were up at the time. The wind had changed, however. The storm had rolled in, and now they were being pushed further and farther away from their destination. They surely had dropped the sails by now, and they started to row. But if you’ve ever rowed a large boat into the wind, then you know how much of a painful and frustrating this experience can be. The feeling of exerting all of your strength to solve the problem to get to the destination just to keep moving forward. And minute after minute, hour after hour, you’re driving the oars in and through the water and pulling back so that every muscle in your arms and your backs and your legs is starting to burn, but there’s very little ground being made. Sometimes life feels that way. Maybe you feel that way even today. Maybe you’re pushing forward, expending all of your effort, exerting all of your resources, but you aren’t gaining any ground.
Life is hard and the storms are real. Maybe some of us are feeling like we’re struggling with our health and we keep trying and we keep visiting doctors and we keep pursuing the results, but the wind is just blowing against us. Perhaps your marriage is a struggle and you just can’t get forward momentum, but you aren’t giving up and the storm is all around you. Maybe it’s that sin that you just can’t seem to gain victory over. You fall in prey to temptation. You resolve that this was the last time, but then before long, you stumble and fall again. And the struggle is ongoing, and the guilt is building, and you feel like you’re in the storm.
And what’s interesting about these disciples is how they got into the storm. They got into this mess because they were being obedient to Jesus. You see, sometimes the storms in life are self-created, and they’re the consequences of our actions. But other times, the storms of life can come upon us when we are doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. If the disciples had disobeyed Jesus, they would have most likely had a quiet night around the fire, recounted the activities of the day, had some stories and some laughter, had a hot meal and a good, solid, long rest. And instead, Because they obeyed, they’re dripping wet, they’re exhausted, they’re physically rowing for hours, they’re making little ground, they’re scared, and they’re miserable, and they’re wondering if this is possibly going to ever end. Their obedience to the Lord brought them into the storm. Sometimes your obedience to the Lord will bring you into the storm as well. And you might not even see it coming. And in that moment, there’s a very real choice to be made. I could choose the short-term comfort and take the route of disobedience, or I could trust him in the middle of and through the storm.
Eugene Peterson speaks about the dynamics of obedience this way. He said, “at the age of 35, I bought running shoes and began enjoying the smooth rhythms of long-distance running. Soon, I was competing in 10K races every month or so, and then a marathon once a year. By then, I was subscribing to and reading three running magazines. And then I pulled a muscle, and I couldn’t run for a couple of months. Those magazines were still all over the house, but I never opened one. The moment I resumed running, though, I started reading again, and that’s when I realized that my reading was an extension of something I was a part of. I was reading,” he says, “for companionship and affirmation of the experience of running. I learned a few things. along the way, but mostly it was to deepen my world of running. If I wasn’t running, there was nothing to deepen.”
So there’s a parallel here with reading scripture and hearing and obeying God. He said, if I’m not living in an active response or obedience to the living God, then reading about his creation, his salvation, his holiness won’t hold my interest for very long. The most important question isn’t, what does it mean? But it is, what can I obey? Simple obedience will open up our lives to the truth of Scripture more quickly than any number of Bible studies, dictionaries, or concordances. There’s a good lesson here about the nature of obedience. If the disciples had disobeyed and sought their short-term comfort, they would have missed something and would have never seen or experienced or gained from what was about to happen. They would have missed an opportunity to see Jesus for who he really is. They would have missed an opportunity to see the magnificence of the fact that he is God.
Their short-term comfort would have cost them long-term gain. And so it is for you, and so it is for me. If we choose disobedience, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to see just how the Lord of the universe is going to display his glory in our lives. And that’s exactly what Jesus does as he comes to the rescue.
Look at verse 48. It says, “he saw they were making headway painfully. The wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.’ And he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased and they were utterly astonished for they did not understand about the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”
Jesus does in these few short verses something that only God can do. The fourth watch of the night is between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. The struggle had gone on long enough. Could he have gone down there earlier? Yep. Did he? Nope. Could he rescue you out of the storms in your life earlier? Yep. Sometimes he does. And sometimes there’s an opportunity for us to learn in the struggle.
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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
