Levels of Faith

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Mark 4:35-40 (NIV)

Mark 4:35-40 describes one of two recorded miracles involving the Sea of Galilee; Christ’s rebuke of the storm.

Jesus and his disciples had concluded a busy day of ministry, healing, teaching and preaching on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. When evening came, Jesus told his disciples to get into the boat to cross to the other side of the lake, then their boat and others began the night-time crossing.

During the crossing, Jesus went to sleep at the back of the boat and while he was asleep, a vicious and sudden storm descended up them. The wind was so strong and violent that it churned up waves high enough and powerful enough to swamp the boat. The disciples, naturally enough, feared for their lives.

This part isn’t recorded in scripture, but I would imagine they’d been bailing water with all their might, trying to row and steer the boat and do everything they could to save themselves and to get safely to the other side of the lake.

Back to what scripture does say. The disciples woke Jesus and asked him if he didn’t care whether or not they drowned. He awakened, rebuked the wind and waves and, after everything was calm and quite again, turned and questioned his disciples.

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

My earliest understanding of the faith Jesus spoke about was the kind of faith that would have allowed the disciples to calmly awaken Jesus, bring the problem to his attention and wait patiently for him to answer. That’s the explanation I’ve understood ever since.

But there are other, deeper meanings to Christ’s question.

Neal said recently that the disciples may have been upset that Jesus lay asleep in the back of the boat while they were doing all the heavy work (bailing) and that their request was almost more of a sarcastic question.

“Don’t you care that we’re drowning here? Why are you lying there sleeping and not helping us?”

In other words, they were expecting Jesus to provide manual labor; to get up and bail, just like they were doing. They wanted him to join them in their labor because they lacked the faith to see any other solution. Jesus’ question about faith could very easily have been a question about their ability to see and expect the unexpected. He had, after all, been healing people and performing other miracles. Why not expect a miracle this time?

That idea led me to the thought that there is yet another level of faith the disciples could have exhibited and that is the level at which they would have awakened Jesus, apprised him of the situation, then waited while he did whatever miracle he was about to do. I imagine myself reaching that level of faith some day. When I can put all of my troubles and problems at the feet of the Savior and wait patiently for His response.

And yet, that still seems short of the goal when compared to the realization that struck me upon my most recent reading of the passage above.

Real, honest, deep-seated faith would have given the disciples the calm and peace to sit in that boat as it was being rocked by the waves and battered by the wind and know they would be rescued without having to even wake Jesus. It would have given them the patience and trust to not even seek their own solutions to an overwhelming problem because they knew God knew what was happening and would provide the right solution at the right time.

I don’t have that kind of faith. I don’t even know if I have the second kind of faith and I’m pretty sure, given personal experience, that the little bit of faith I have (the first kind) is pretty puny and manifests itself only after I’ve tried everything within my power and everything I can think of to do.

Yes. We all have to start somewhere. Entry level faith is a good place to start. Even the disciples, who later became apostles, started there. They had enough ‘entry level faith’ to accept Jesus’ first invitation to follow him.

But they didn’t stay there and neither should we. They advanced through a series of advances and retreats to stronger and stronger faith. When the time was right, they were equipped by the Holy Spirit and their faith was advanced far beyond anything they could have ever imagined on that rocking boat on the Sea of Galilee.

That’s what we should all pray for because the truth is, we can’t do it on our own. None of us can live the Christian life on our own and none of us can increase our faith by such human means as ritual, routine or effort. It is the gift of God through the Holy Spirit, but we have to be ready to receive the gift.

That’s what I’m praying for.

What about you?