Swamped

Where is God when bad things happen?

Many people have asked this question. Where is He when we deal with the loss of loved ones, natural disasters, war, disease? Where was He when Covid-19 hit? We look around at the world and see natural disasters, human

catastrophes, refugee crises murders, poverty, abuse, childhood trauma. In London we see a knife crime epidemic. Throughout the country there is an increase in suicides. We may have experienced our own personal tragedies, felt the pain of divorce and unemployment.

We read of the Manchester Arena bomber and all the people who might have stepped in to avert his act of terrorism. Some blame the venue security, some blam

e police officers taking an overlong lunch break. Some may blame God. Where was He when 22 children, young people and adults were killed by the hatred of one young man? Is He asleep? Is He not listening? Is He indifferent to the pain of humanity, like those capricious Greek deities who toyed with the lives of men and women? If He cares, why does He not act? Can’t He see we are overwhelmed? We are swamped.

This is perhaps how the disciples felt when the storm hit them. Jesus was lying asleep in their boat when a great storm came out of nowhere. As these seasoned fishermen battled against the wind tossing them around, Jesus slept. As the waves overwhelmed them and swamped the boat, Jesus slept. Why did he not help them? Why did he not intervene?

While all this chaos was around them, He was asleep. When you’re asleep

you are vulnerable. You’re not conscious of what’s going on around you. You are in a dream world, totally detached from reality.

Jesus was asleep and the disciples, finally losing faith in their own sea-faring experience, were so frightened by the storm they rushed to wake him up.

They ask Jesus a question: “Don’t you care that we are perishing!?’

This is the burning question that many of us have asked when going through the storms of life. This is a question the world often asks.

We are swamped. The world is swamped. We look around and things don’t look good. If there is a God, is He asleep? Not conscious of our pains? In His own dream world and detached from the reality of our lives. Is He like the picture many grow up seeing,

an old man sitting on a cloud. Is He like the gods of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome who toy with the lives and emotions of humans for sport?c

“Don’t you care that we are perishing?”

The answer hinges on our answer to another question. The question the disciples ask each other after Jesus wakes and calms the storm. “Who is He?”

Jesus rescued the disciples first and then spoke to them. He spoke to them on the other side of the storm. Now, they could hear Him, they could take in His questions.

“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Jesus speaks to us on the other side of the storm. On the other side of the cross. From the cross He answers our burning question: “Do you care that we are perishing?”

Our Creator does care. Our God is not toying with us like the Greek deities. He loves His creation. You can hear it in the details of the questions He asks Job about the foundations of the earth, the measurements, the limits of the seas, the beauty of the morning stars.

God loves every detail of His creation. He declared it ‘good’ and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy when they saw it.

God loves humans, He called them ‘very good’ when they were created. He loves every hair on our heads. He cares about every pain you have experienced. Every injustice you have gone through. Every hurt that has been inflicted on you and every hurt you have inflicted on someone else through your words or actions.

God cares deeply about it

all.

When humanity fell into sin they were quickly overwhelmed and swamped. The small act of rebellion snowballed into lying, blaming others, carrying shame, being eaten up by jealousy and rage, murder, polygamy, violence. Exploitation of the land and people, wars over resources and ideologies.

Humanity is swamped by

the waves of sin that keep steadily washing over us. It is bigger than us.

We are overwhelmed by internal and external forces. Battling our own sinful nature and tendencies as well as suffering the impact of the sinful actions of others. We are swamped.

Sin is overwhelming. It affects us all. There is no one holy, not one. The bible teaches us that we are all in the same boat. We are all sinful humans, people who, despite how good our morals are, we often fall short of them in how we treat ourselves, our neighbours and our enemies.

We are overwhelmed by sin. We can’t defeat it in ourselves. We need a saviour.

But God cares that we are perishing. Through the Law He showed us how he intended our lives to be lived before the w

aves of sin engulfed us. And through the Prophets He points us towards a saviour, a solution, a rescue from the storm that is too strong for us to get through alone.

God cares so much that He comes into the boat with us, physically entering into our world history. He says: “At an acceptable time I have listened to you and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

He enters the boat of humanity and lives among the people. Jesus races around through the Gospel of Mark from place to place healing individuals in crowds, saving people from their personal swamps.

But God’s salvation mission is bigger than just those people Jesus helps during his three years of ministry. It is bigger than making wine at a wedding, bigger than rescuing scared disciples from a stormy lake. Those acts are miraculous but when contrasted with the size of the sin storm we’re in, it is like using a bucket to help bail out some of the water.

No, God’s salvation plan is bigger. Because, more than any work or miracle the disciples and the crowds are witnessing, Jesus is here to do the one miracle that will rescue the whole world from the whirlwind of sin we are engulfed by.

At the cross God answers the cosmic question: “Do you not care that we are perishing?”

To the onlooker we see Jesus in a position of vulnerability, a position of weakness as He is brutalised and beaten. He is spat on, stripped naked, laughed at. He is

killed and laid to rest – asleep – in a tomb.

But just as the disciples watched Jesus sleep in the boat, seemingly vulnerable and weak, they didn’t spot that he was at the stern of the boat. The stern of the boat is where the captain has his sleeping quarters. The stern of the boat is also where the steering device is housed. Even in that apparently vulnerable sleeping position, Jesus was in control of the boat, He was in control of His creation.

And though placed dead in the tomb, Jesus was in control and demonstrated this when he rose from the dead. Through his brokenness on the cross he had destroyed the power of sin. He took the full force of the waves of sin that swamp us and all humanity. He bore the punishment for sin in our place.

Then He offers us His perfect holy life as a free gift and cries out: “Peace! – with

God the Father, your sins are forgiven by His grace. Be still! – from your strivings, your reliance on your own efforts, will-power and moral superiority to attempt to win God’s favour.

When we look at the cross in all it’s brutality and glory we will find ourselves in awe, like the disciples, who asked each other: “Who then is this?”

This is our God, our deliverer. The one the psalmist tells us to “Give thanks, for He is gracious. His steadfast love endures forever. He has redeemed us from the hands of our enemy.”

Jesus is the right hand of the Father, the living Word of God. This is our God who loves His creation. He loves us. He does care. He doesn’t want us to perish. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life. Jesus is the one who has come to reconcile us to the Father. To make peace betwee

n fallen creation and the Creator.

Who then is like our God? A God who enters into the storm that is swamping us. A God who dies to save His creation.

Will you put your faith in Him? Will you trust His victory over the sin in your life

? Will you receive His Grace, mercy and forgiveness?

When we put our trust in Christ, we will still go through the storms. We will sometimes be taken by surprise by th

e waves of sin, the temptations we face daily, the impact of the sinful actions of other people. We will face many troubles while we are in this earth but we are not alone.

We don’t have to go through it alone. Let Jesus be the captain of your boat, of your life. Call on Him, He cares for you. He will deliver you, both in this world and the world to come.