Helpless In the Storm

A couple of days ago it came a really bad storm in our city. It was lightning and thundering and the wind was blowing really hard. We have been teaching our 20 month old son to say “back!” to things that were bothering him, such as the dog or the waves in the swimming pool. Well, when the storm really got going he looked out the window and put up his hand, and with the most serious look on his face he said “Back thunder! Back!” Much to his dissappointment the storm mocked him and continued to scare him while daddy held him in his arms.

My mind immediately went to the disciples as they were in the boat in Mark chapter 4. I bet they felt helpless, just like my son. But that’s not the end of the story. There was one on the boat who the storm really obeyed. Jesus. Even the blinding flashes of lightning, the loud claps of thunder, and the roaring white caps were as nothing when the Lord of Creation uttered his command to be still! Thanks be unto God that he is our Saviour when the storms rage in our lives…even though we may feel sometimes like my little 20 month old son.

“And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”” -Mark 4:37-41

He Stood With Them

...And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them." -John 18:5

John in his gospel has a strong theme running through his book, and it's a scary one. It's a theme of those who close their eyes to who Jesus is and step off into a dark hole. There are the Jews who see his miracles and hear his claims, and then crucify an innocent man as a blasphemer. There are the Pharisees who knew the OT Scriptures and saw them fulfilled before their eyes to the most minuscule detail of every prophesy, and carried out a plot to kill the Son of God.

Worst of all, there's Judas, who walked with Jesus and heard his heart piercing teachings on the dangers of loving money more than Him. Judas also saw him have compassion on the worst of sinners. Somewhere in the middle of all that Judas' heart became love-proof, warning-proof, and repentance-proof. He had a hard heart of unbelief. If there was any doubt to Judas whether what he was doing was spiritual suicide or not it should have all cleared up for him when Jesus said, "...woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born." If Judas ever doubted that Jesus was talking about him when he kept talking about the one who would betray him, Jesus confronted him here so as to leave no doubt.

When Judas left Jesus it was for the final time. John says, "...(Judas) then went out immediately. And it was night." Judas closed his eyes in hardened unbelief to Jesus' appeal of warning, and it wasn't just dark outside, but it was forever dark in Judas' soul. One interesting thing is that Jesus let him go. Sometimes we look at this and say "Why didn't Jesus run after him, doesn't he care?!" We have to trust that only God knows when it's time to turn an unrepentant sinner over to their sin. Sadly the next time we see Judas, John says that he stood with the Pharisees. This wasn't just a description of the proximity of Judas to the crowd. The Pharisees wanted Jesus dead and out of the way. So there they stood...with the treacherous Judas standing with them. This wasn't a momentary lapse for Judas and this wasn't something he fell into. This is something he thought out and deliberately stepped into. He sided with the murderers of Jesus...for a hand full of change.

John Owen on Sin in Believers and Unbelievers

“Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known
lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." -Romans 7:7

That which in the entrance he calls “sin” indefinitely, in the close he particularly terms “lust,” as being the hidden, secret cause of all sin, and which, once discovered, swallows up the thoughts of all other sins, it being altogether in vain to deal with them, or to set a man’s self in opposition to them, whilst this sinful womb of them is alive and prevalent. This is that which we call original sin, as to that part of it which consists in the universal alienation of our hearts from God, and unconquerable, habitual, natural inclination of them to every thing that is evil; for this sin works in us “all manner of concupiscence,” Romans 7:8. This, I say, is the womb, cause, and principle of sin, both in believers and unbelievers, the root on which the bitter fruit of it doth grow, wherever it is. No man ever sins but it is from his own lust. And in this there is an agreement between the sins of believers and others, they are all from the same fountain." -Owen