Failure and Faith
Text: Mark 4:35 – 41
Proposition: When we fail, it is the opportunity to let go of all that we could in our own confidence accomplish but didn’t and to then turn to what only Jesus can do.
Introduction: In a culture that has a placed a high value on success and winning, failure has become the inadvertent by product. Most of the intrigue in any sport is found in the possibility of failing. The batter has two strikes against him the potential of the next ball goes big in the possibility of failure. The curler has last rock and she needs to draw in to the button, it’s the fourth game in a hockey series and the score is 7 to 0, failure and the possibility of it creates some of the tension. The same is often true of work situations or relationships, or any major breakthroughs. The Dyson vacuum had 1500 failures before it is what you see today. Charles Schultz wrote a comic strip called Peanuts that was rejected by every major paper and strangely enough the main theme in Peanuts was Charlie Browns struggle with failure. It’s even gotten to the point where reality TV has programs on cooking like Master Chef where the intensity comes from the potential of failure. What this tells us is that the potential of failure is not only part of human life and has been since Adam and Eve, it shapes how we live and what we believe. So this morning let’s look at an event where failure happens and then is pushed back by something even more powerful, faith. Have a look at Mark 4:35-41.
I. God Often Uses Failure, Even Sends Us Into It, As A Perfect Place. In the account before us Jesus has been with people by the sea shore near Capernaum. He has been explaining the parable of the Sower and the Seed, a parable about the failure of people to understand the Word of God, a parable about the incredible kingdom of God. But now the day is coming to a close. Jesus is tired and hungry as are the disciples. Then Jesus says to the disciples, “Let us cross over to the other side.” It’s really a command, it’s Jesus’ idea which means it’s the Father’s idea. So they take Jesus just as He is, empty, tired and yet moving forwards in obedience to the Father’s plan. They set out at evening to sail about 6 miles across the Sea of Galilee. Perhaps there’s a slight offshore breeze, they are about 630 feet below sea level as the wind comes down the slopes to Capernaum. Their departure doesn’t go unnoticed, a group of others in small boats seek to go with Him. I can only imagine that things changed quickly, clouds rolled in, the sun went down, the wind came up, things began to get uneasy. Verse 37 says, “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.” They are maybe a mile or two out when this sudden squall happens and suddenly they are trapped. They can’t go back, there’s no help in sight and it’s still getting worse. Orders are being shouted out by the fishermen of the crew, some are bailing water, some are pulling in the sail, some are holding on for dear life. It’s in the chaos of the storm that God often uses failure to expose and then strip away our foolishness. This storm isn’t the failure, it’s what we do in the storm that exposes failure. The truth is that they were here because Jesus wanted them here, which also means the Father wanted them here. Storms like deserts have a way of pairing down our lives, stripping away what was not real, not important, not true and reducing us to a place where God can get our attention.
II. When Jesus Isn’t Doing What We Need Him to Do, Faith Struggles. Unfortunately, that’s what we see in this story, what Peter and the others needed Jesus to do was help bail out the water, show some concern or even panic with them. So you can see their frustration come out in what they say to Jesus, look at verse 38. “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” So what failure is being exposed in these moments that Jesus wants to correct? I think it starts with the command that Jesus gave while they were still on the shore, “Let us cross over to the other side.” They didn’t know the reason for this, that a man called Legion was over there and being destroyed by demonic power. They couldn’t have known what Jesus would do but what they ought to have known is that Jesus fully intended to get to the other side. If you like you could say this was not only a command to go but also a promise to keep them as they go. So perhaps the first failure to be exposed is their belief that Jesus is unable to follow through on His promises because there are things greater than Jesus, things like this great wind storm. Which really means that they had not yet come to the belief that Jesus is greater than all creation. He had done miracles, He had great wisdom, He had cast out demons, healed a man that was paralyzed and another whose hand was all withered up. These are wonderful things but they had not yet reached the point where Jesus is recognized as being God. Why is that so critical? It’s because their faith needed to be much stronger than what it was for the things they would experience in days to come and that faith needed to be in an Almighty God and not just a good man. Perhaps the other area of failure that is exposed is their degree of confidence in themselves verses their degree of confidence in God. These seasoned fishermen felt they were in control as they the shore that evening yet that was soon exposed as untrue. Perhaps much of what God intends failure to do in our lives is to move us to placing less trust in our capabilities and much more dependence in Him irrespective of the circumstances. So it comes down to seeing Jesus for Who He really is, the Son of God, fully man and yet incredibly fully God. Look what happens next in this passage, verse 39, “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.” Nobody does that. Nobody except God could show such an instant demonstration of power. The wind ceased, the water went calm, it is to a seasoned fisherman… impossible. Yet there it was and their belief in Who Jesus is went through an earthquake where all the old structures of belief came tumbling down. In verse 40 it says, “But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Notice that He doesn’t criticize them for accusing Him of not caring. He doesn’t make little of their efforts to fight the storm. Jesus speaks straight to issue being exposed, their faith. “Why are you so fearful?” He could have added, ‘Because I’m right here with you’. He could have said, ‘I didn’t bring you out here just to fail and loose everything.’ Fear of the things beyond their control, fear of the unknown and the loss it might entail, these disciples were so fearful that faith was blocked out. Then looking into their eyes Jesus asks, “How is it that you have no faith?” The question has two edges, one is like a reminder that asks don’t you remember all that we have done together, all that you have seen in Me and in the Word? The other edge is how could you have thought that things end here? There are people I have yet to show you, places I have yet to take you, transformation in you as you uncover the deep reality of Who the Father is and what I am come to do. Moments before the disciples had been afraid of wind and waves, that fear has now been displaced by a more perfect fear, a fear that Scripture calls the beginning of wisdom. Look at the last verse, “And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
When we fail, it is the opportunity to let go of all that we could in our own confidence accomplish but didn’t and to then turn to what only Jesus can do. It’s then that the fear of the unknown and the fear of loss of control fall away as I see Him with fresh eyes.