Sun Kwak, “Mega Narratives in the Meganarrative”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIaUeo5C5-0

TEXT: Mark 4:35-41

[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. [40] He 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?”

SERMON: “Mega Narratives in the Meganarrative”

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the YouTube short clips of the dangers of the North Sea. Usually, they’re AI generated. Honest confession — I actually didn’t know they were AI generated. I thought they were all real, until I once came across this comment, “At least put some water on the camera lens.” And I felt so duped. Anyhow, I enjoy watching these videos, because they’re terrifying. And they always have this song Hoist the Colors, which was from The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. It’s this song in the minor chord that seems to be sung with only those who have the bassiest of bass tones. So, this doomsday song plays in the background of these short clips, which just makes what’s captured on video that much more ominous and the dangers of the North Sea that much more intensified. But you hear the song, and you see video footage of these waves, along with some exaggerated subtitles, and it’s terrifying. Because the picture is not just that the sea is deep or has dangerous and monstrous creatures waiting to devour humans. But the waves themselves are aggressive, seeming like they just want to attack ships and the humans on board. And it makes us reassess our thoughts when we think that the greatest dangers of the sea are sharks and predators of the water. Because the greatest danger, as captured in these videos of the North Sea, is not the monsters deep down but the sea itself.

In our passage today, we’re told three times of something great. In the Greek, it’s the word μεγα, which is where we get the word mega. I grew up knowing of the 151 original Pokemon, and I played the original Red version on my black and white — or more like black and green — Gameboy. But as I’ve been observing through what my kids have shown me, there are over 1,000 Pokemon now. So, one time, I got to looking at some of these Pokemon in their Pokemon Encyclopedia that they borrowed from the library. And I found out that it wasn’t that there were 850 of however many completely new Pokemon. But some of these Pokemon just got additional evolved forms. You didn’t just have Charmander and Charmeleon and Charizard. But they added a Mega Charizard X and a Mega Charizard Y and a Gigantimax Charizard. And in the Pokemon world, from what I remember, Charizard is already one of the apex Pokemon. So, if you had a Charizard, you already had one of the best and elite Pokemon. And so, a Mega Charizard or a Gigantimax Charizard is like a superlative — something even beyond that. And so, that word great that’s used three times might really be better understood as mega. That this great windstorm, this great calm, and this great fear in the hearts of these disciples. These were beyond the ordinary. That storms were already tumultuous and frightening. But here was one that was mega or gigantimax. Here was a mega storm. And it gets met with a mega calm that results in a mega fear. And something we want to examine today is who’s behind all of this mega that’s happening.

My professor in seminary Michael Horton simply writes that When God talks, things happen. That this is the ultimate authority and source of power. You think about when we talk or need to get things done. Something that I do for my sons while at home is print out coloring pages. And they know that there’s a limit to how many coloring pages I’ll print out for them, but they’ll push it. I’ll hear Jones telling one of his brothers — Tell him that you want this Gengar picture. Because he understands that there is a chain, an order. That he can’t make something happen just by speaking. He needs to tell his brother, his brother needs to tell me, that needs to compel me to action, and from my iPad or iPhone, I can act upon this compulsion to print out this picture. And I think that’s often what we mistake with God’s Wordand when he speaks — we assume that there is this chain or order that’s linked to higher authority. But that’s not what happens. When God speaks, he’s not calling upon another to act, his very words, his very speech creates and acts. And what does Jesus say here upon being awoken on the boat? Peace! Be still! In kid-friendly diction, that’s him saying — Shh! And the entire mass of water obeys his hush. Listen to how Sally Lloyd-Jones writes about the story of the storm in her Jesus Storybook Bible — the one with my boys’ favorite story captured. She writes —

Jesus stood up and spoke to the storm. “Hush” he said. That’s all. And the strangest thing happened. The wind and the waves recognized Jesus’ voice. They had heard it before, of course — it was the same voice that made them, in the very beginning. They listened to Jesus and they did what he said. Immediately the wind stopped. The water calmed down. It glittered innocently in the moonlight and lapped quietly against the side of the boat. The little boat bobbed gently up and down. There was a deep stillness and a great quiet all around.

There’s something about the way she narrates this, where it seems to create a sense of calm, not just the calm experienced by these disciples but by us who read. Because the chaos and the crazy is contained and in the control of an all-powerful and sovereign God. He who has fullest authority over all that goes on in and around us in this dizzying world.

Now, there’s a picture that’s formed for us when we read this story. And I think that when we envision Jesus stilling this storm, we might picture things going back to normal, where the waves aren’t threatening but are still there. There’s still winds and some rocking of the boat — just things back to normal. But that’s not what the Bible says. We read in verse 39 that there is a great calm, this mega calm. That what meets this mega and out of ordinary windstorm is an equally mega and out of ordinary peace and stillness. And what I’m picturing here is something equally as astonishing as the raging waters, and it’s a completely still water. The book of Revelation gives us this same picture of a completely still water in Revelation 4:6, where we read — and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And here is the picture of King Jesus, on his throne, and this sea, this representation of the chaos and turbulence and unexpected horror from living in this sin-stained world is completely compacted, contained, and compressed — as if it were crystal where nothing erratic can surprise he who is seated on the throne. That what Jesus sees in every situation is the sea of glass. Meaning that the chaos and turbulence aren’t necessarily removed. But they’re under is sovereign control. That while things and times might feel uncontrollable to us, to Jesus, it’s all contained and under his authority. It’s not that the sea doesn’t exist and evil doesn’t roam from place to place in our experiences. But these wicked manifestations and happenings are not beyond or outside of his control.

You might be examining the chaos that’s around you. And maybe it’s overwhelming for you to read the news or to scroll through your feed. Maybe it’s your bank account or mail in your mailbox that brings you anxiety. These things seem to be drowning you as things out of your control. Maybe it’s a new season, and you wanted a Southern California like change in season for your life. But it’s looking like a New England kind of change in season. And the aggression of the change is overwhelming. Maybe 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago, you got married with certain expectations, and things have turned out differently, and you don’t know what to do about it. Or, your kids are growing up too fast, and the transition with teenage years is just too much to handle. Or, maybe it’s kids out of the home, who you don’t see as often. You see them hurting and in hardship, and you just don’t know what to do. And kids, maybe you’ve been experiencing new things that are different and may seem out of your control. And you feel uncertain or maybe even a little scared with the change, and you don’t know what to do. Who can we trust when the windstorms pick up, when life seems uncontrollable, when we start feeling the water rise in the boat, so to speak?

Well, we look to the one who knows what to do with the mega storms, the one who instills the mega calm, and the one who navigates your mega fears. Because here is the one with consummate authority over all things. And that word authority comes from the root word author. Etymologically, they come from the same French word auctor, which can mean author but is more precisely understood to mean creator. For it’s he who wrote the story who has consummate power and control over every situation.

I met a counselor once during a time of need. And the particular need was that I didn’t know how tonavigate some trauma. And this counselor, we’ll call him Ted. He heard the stories I was sharing, and said that while they were bad and sad stories, he said in complete confidence — Sun, I know this seems unique. But I’ve seen this before, and I’m confident we’ll find healing and restoration. And at that moment, that was exactly what I needed to hear. Because the thing about ministry is that you always find new things. Because we live in a constantly changing world. But it’s often the case that stories rhyme. And when they do, we need to take them to our Great Storyteller and Author, who’s seen all things before.

And you take this cry that awakes Jesus while he’s asleep on the boat, his disciples pleading with him that they might not perish amidst this windstorm on the sea. And this wasn’t new to Jesus — it was a rhyme from a previous chapter in the meganarrative of Scripture. For we read in Jonah 1:14, when those aboard with Jonah and in the midst of yet another great windstorm where another prophet was asleep, who exclaim these words that echo through the panicked words of the disciples aboard with Jesus — O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life. But while Jonah was on the boat in disobedience, and the storm was sent into his life due to his disobedience, here’s Jesus, the greater Jonah and prophet, who was sent into this storm not due to his disobedience but his complete obedience. And while Jonah was thrown overboard to calm the sea, Jesus is not thrown overboard. Not because he wouldn’t take responsibility for the storms occurring but because he was ultimately responsible for an even greater storm.

Because in Matthew 12:41, Jesus is recorded to have said that something greater than Jonah is here. And in Matthew’s parallel account to our story today, the word that’s used to describe the windstorm is the Greek word σεισμος, which is not a word typically used to describe a sea storm but an earthquake. Because the next time this word appears, it’s when Jesus is thrown into the ultimate storm to be engulfed into the ultimate sea of judgment. It’s on the cross, where there was a great σεισμος, a great earthquake, when the curtain was torn into two and the grounds were split. For from heaven came the wrath of God upon the sinless man who took upon the storminess of the converging of God’s holiness and our sinfulness. And he stepped into our place, as the greater Jonah to calm our deepest storms. It’s at the cross, where there was this σεισμος, this great earthquake. And just a few verses later, at the scene of the empty tomb, where the grounds shook and the stone was rolled away. Because to still the storm, Jesus wasn’t spared from the storm. But like Jonah and as the greater Jonah, he was plunged into the storm. And as Jesus stilled the seas, he would still death. And as Jesus had to enter death to still it, he would enter into its storm. He took the storm and stilled it so that these lesser storms in our lives might not overwhelm us. Because we know that he was plunged into the deepest depths of God’s wrath, in order to lift us up out of our hopelessness. So, the question to be asked is not what the disciples initially ask him — Don’t you care that we perish? That instead, we learn to ask — Do we care that he perished? That the Son of God perished in our place? In order that you and I might have eternal life. Because it might be that some of our circumstances happened to us, sometimes when we didn’t perceivably do anything wrong. But Jesus did nothing wrong. And yet, he was put into the deepest of storms to be torn to pieces. And the way that we answer that question — Do we care that he perished? This has everything to do with how you and I will learn to handle and confront the storms in our lives.

And here’s how I want to begin closing our time. I don’t know if you’ve ever been so tired and so exhausted that nothing could wake you. But that’s Jesus at this moment. I read an article some time ago about how some are able to sleep through an earthquake while others aren’t able to. It has to do with one’s ability to stay in deep sleep. That there are stages of sleep — there’s light sleep, REM, and deep sleep. And this deep sleep is what one researcher refers to as recuperative sleep, where the body has the ability to restore, to regain energy, and to heal itself. You think about it. Because deep sleep must have been what Jesus is in for him to be asleep through this storm. And deep rest was what he entered into at the very beginning of his authorship, in the creation story, after having made everything good in the space of six days. And here, he’s disrupted from this rest to enter into the unrest, because his ears are not plugged to disregard our frightened cries and concerns. For these disciples are panicking for their lives. And here’s Jesus getting some healing time in this deep sleep in the busyness of ministry and sacrificing himself for others. And it’s here that he’s interrupted to tend to the concerns and panicked questions of his disciples. Because he trades his deep rest to dive into our unrest and restlessness, so that in him, we might find our rest and our ultimate calm. In all of life’s happenings — the turbulent, the calm, and everything in between. In the midst of it all, Jesus is author, creator over it all. Because when God speaks, things happen. And something Judy recently shared with me that I found deeply encouraging. When we look at this great windstorm and the great calm, the magnanimity of Jesus’ authoritative word is visibly manifested. But what’s equally powerful as his words — Be silent— is everything he also says authoritatively. Things like your sins are forgiven, like your sorrows will turn to joy, like I will wipe away every tear. They have equal power in things seen and unseen. Keep your eyes on Jesus and your ears upon everything he’s said for you and to you.

Michael Horton, who I referenced before, delineates between the metanarrative and the meganarrative. That both describe a larger story that shapes smaller stories. But the metanarrative examines our lives and looks at the story that shapes our lives. But the meganarrative has a different protagonist — it’s not us in the center and it’s not from our perspective but from the perspective of God, the author and perfecter of our faith. And so, we not only examine our metanarratives but confront them with the meganarrative of the gospel that never changes. We bring our smaller moments of mega to the meganarrative of the gospel. The greater story that shapes all of our smaller stories. That this meganarrative of God’s redemption of his people in Christ — through the cross and the empty tomb. That this might speak into your mega storms — circumstantial difficulties, things that seem out of your control, hardships that seem to be overwhelming you. We bring these to the meganarrative that creates a mega calm through the certainty of God’s Word and a mega fear that’s transferred to the fear of the LORD — to the who made us, saved us, and his always with us. And in him, may we find our rest, our calm, our peace.