Mark 4:38 Don’t You Care?

One of the reasons that the Bible is so important is that it often explains circumstances.

For example, in Mark 4, the disciples were in a boat that was in danger of sinking.  While a lot of people in a similar situation might say something like, Things happen, a Christian will want to know why it is happening.

The disciples saw this as a sign that maybe Jesus didn’t really care about them.  They saw Him do incredible miracles, but now they are sinking in a boat, and their first response is: Don’t You care?  We are about to die, and you’re not doing anything?

And Jesus then turns the discussion around and asks them some questions:  Why are you timid?  Don’t you have faith yet?

The obvious question here is what does the one have to do with the other.  What does whether Jesus cared about them have to do with faith?

How many times do you look at your life and think that things could have, should have been different?  How many of you now are in a situation that is less than desirable, and you’re thinking: why is God allowing this?  Why didn’t God do something about it?  Or, why is God doing this to me?

And I believe that Jesus’ answer to those questions would be the same answers as to the questions of the disciples. 

Why are you timid?  Don’t you have faith yet?

The disciples were in a life-or-death situation, and Jesus turned it into a question of faith.  The disciples were looking at circumstances that were unfavorable, and Jesus talks about faith.  The disciples were questioning God’s care for them, and Jesus talks about faith.

But what does that mean?

It means first of all that we should never interpret our life circumstances in a way that questions God’s care for us.  In fact, there is a passage that uses this same expression to affirm God’s care for us. 

1 Peter 5:5–7 (NASB95) ⁵  . . . God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. ⁶ Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, ⁷ casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

English Bibles insist on translating the verb about humbling as a middle [humble yourselves] where it is clearly a passive [be humbled].  But that’s a question for another time. 

It’s the last part that is important here.  God cares about us, so we can cast all our anxiety [worry, care] on Him. 

God expects us to respond in these situations with faith, which in this situation would be a confidence that God will deliver us. 

I know that some Christians will say that that is too strong of a statement, that sometimes God chooses not to deliver us. 

That would take a lot of space here to discuss that, but if God indeed might choose not to deliver us, then I don’t think Jesus’ question was a valid one.  If God might be willing to let them die in the storm, would that then have been improper to ask if Jesus really cared for them?  I don’t think so, but some might disagree. 

But what was it that showed the lack of the disciple’s faith to Jesus?  Was it thinking that Jesus didn’t really care about them or that they thought they were about to die? 

But Jesus asked them why they were timid.  That had nothing to do with whether Jesus cared about them and everything to do with whether they believed their lives were in danger. 

So back to the original point.

When we look at life, our lives, and wonder whether God really loves us, why He allowed certain things to happen to us, He wants us to respond in faith.  But what does that look like?  Well, it’s certainly not timidity.  Where we are afraid of the outcome.

And this lesson is addressed to me as much as anyone.  My response is not timidity.  It’s usually sadness.  Same thing.  It’s a questioning of God’s goodness and His care. 

And Jesus’ response is the same.  Why are you sad?  Don’t you have faith yet?

Am I saying that all sadness is a lack of faith?  No, that would be too broad of a statement.  But if a person is sad, they need to ask the question whether that sadness is related to a disappointment with God because they question whether God cares for them.  And Jesus might ask them the same question He asked the disciples: don’t you have faith yet? 

Now notice how after Jesus asks the disciples if they had faith yet, the subject keeps coming up again.

In the next chapter, a woman is healed, and Jesus tells her that her faith had saved her.  Mark 5:34 She had had this condition for 12 years.  She had gone to doctors, spent all she had on them, and was still sick.  It doesn’t say whether she prayed and asked God to make her better, but I would assume she did.  Yet it persisted until she got faith to be made well.

In Mark 5:36, a man’s daughter had just died.  Jesus tells him to stop being afraid and just believe.  But Jesus was there.  So what difference would it make whether the father was afraid or believed?

But then in the very next chapter, Jesus was in his hometown.  It doesn’t say Nazareth.  Maybe it was Capernaum.  I didn’t research the issue.  But Jesus was UNABLE, UNABLE to even do one miracle there, except for healing a few sick people, and He marveled at their unbelief.  Mark 6:5  Seems that faith matters even when Jesus is present.

In Mark 6:37, they had thousands of people there, the hour was late.  The disciples suggested that maybe they should dismiss the crowd so they could go find something to eat, and Jesus tells them:   YOU give them to eat.  [The YOU is emphasized in the original text.]  Unless Jesus was just kidding them, that would have involved a miracle which He then did for them.

Later in that chapter, the disciples are crossing the lake in a boat again, and Jesus walks out to them on the water.  The weather was stormy, but it immediately becomes calm.  The disciples are totally beside themselves, but Mark then makes an unusual statement.  Mark 6:52  They didn’t understand about the loaves, but their heart was hardened.  One time before in Mark, somebody’s heart was hardened, and it was the Pharisees, and Jesus had just healed a man on the Sabbath.  Mark 3:5

And don’t forget about Pharaoh from the time of Moses, the most famous instance of a hardened heart.

This passage doesn’t explicitly mention faith here, but the loaves thing is mentioned again in chapter 8, and it’s all related.  So a hardened heart kept them from understanding, and a lack of understanding kept them from believing.

Mark 8:14-21  They had forgotten to take bread, and they thought Jesus was upset at them for that.  And Jesus reminds them of the two times where He had fed thousands of people from a few sandwiches, and He asked them:  Don’t you understand yet?

Just like they didn’t have faith yet, they didn’t understand yet.  Understanding would have given them faith.   Twice He had multiplied the loaves.  Why are they worrying that they forgot to bring food?

The disciples were afraid of dying, and Jesus asked them why they don’t have faith yet.

The disciples question whether Jesus cared for them, and He questions their faith.

A woman who had been sick for years, who went to every doctor around, found faith and was finally healed.

A father whose daughter had died was still told to just have faith.

Thousands of people needed to be fed, and Jesus tells the disciples to feed them, before doing it Himself.

The disciples forgot to bring food, and Jesus reminds them of what happened when thousands of people didn’t have food.

I think maybe we err when we think our faith demands that we know exactly how things will turn out, and that often discourages us when they don’t.  But faith should cause us to be strong and hopeful even when things look hopeless and even when we may have contributed to the problem.

Faith says that God is enough, God can turn any situation around, and He cares for me enough to do it.