45 immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. 47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 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." 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, 52 for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. (ESV)
Last night's message had many great points, and I wish I had time to reiterate them all to you here. You can check out the Calvary Chapel Chattanooga message dated for this weekend if you want to hear these points yourself (www.calvarychatt.com). It'll be worth your time.
For the first time, I noticed the phrase at the end of verse 48 that I had never really noticed before. It says, "...He meant to pass by them." What? I always thought He was coming to them to rescue them. Why would it say that He wanted to pass by them? As our pastor continued with his message, he made a reference to Job 9:8, which reads, "who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea." Job 9 is giving a description of God and His character, so there was a direct connection between this verse of a God who tramples the waves and Jesus having the power to calm the storm. While there, I read a little further down into Job 9, and I saw another verse that quickly caught my attention.
Verse 11 goes on to say, "Behold He passes by me, and I see Him not; He moves on but I do not perceive Him." Job 9:8 makes a reference to God's control over the sea (in alignment with Mark 5), and now verse 11 makes a reference to Him passing by, just as Mark 5:48 stated that Jesus had meant to pass them by.
As I thought about those verses and how they applied to my walk with Christ, this is what I began to realize. Christ was crossing through the storm with them, but He was not necessarily there to save them. It was not until they saw Him on the water and cried out that He calmed the storm and saved them. Too many times, we will struggle through our own storms, not realizing that Christ is crossing through the storm with us. It is in those moments that we can either focus on our storm and allow Him to "pass by", or we can recognize Him walking through the storm and let Him bring calm. This doesn't necessarily mean that He is just going to walk on and let you drown if you don't call on Him, and it doesn't mean that He is going to teleport you to the other end of your storm if you do. What He does offer is something that can be much greater than simple delivery from the storm. He offers peace and calm during the storm. It was when He joined them that the wind ceased.
I don't know what your storm is, but I want to encourage you to look for Christ in the storm and don't miss an opportunity to call out to Him, so that He will not pass you by.
