Author: Pastor Steve Duffy
What first comes to mind when you hear the word fear? You are likely bringing to mind things you had watched/heard in some form of media, maybe a personal experience yourself, or the experience of being around young people when they’re afraid. And you could in turn spend hours sharing such stories. I wonder how you would describe that fear in specific detail?
Before we unpack this, I want to bring us back to last week’s blog about anger as a start. One lie about anger is that all anger is sinful, and in adopting this mindset we miss the Biblical command to “be angry” (Eph 4:26). Consequently we miss the experience of righteous anger, that is becoming increasingly aware of and responding to a perceived wrong or injustice as God defines it in the Scriptures. Along the same lines we can fall into a similar ditch with fear, and count all fear as sinful, and miss the experience of a healthy fear, one worth pursuing! So what does the Bible say about fear?
A good place to go to see two main variations of fear that we experience as followers of Jesus is Mark 4:35-41. This is the famous account of Jesus calming the storm. The caution here, the story is not primarily about fear, but fear is a repeated theme to emphasize something greater. Nonetheless, we see the disciples' very real human experience of being in the middle of a significant storm in v. 37 and the boat taking on water. Given it would be very dark, on a raging sea due to a windstorm, and water coming into the boat, it is highly likely we’d respond similarly to the disciples! So the disciples awaken Jesus and Jesus calms the storm in vv. 38-39.
We see the first instance of fear show up in Jesus’s question in v. 40 “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”. The word “afraid” is defined as timid or cowardly. The disciples' self-focused preoccupation with the circumstances caused them to lose heart. And Jesus calls out this fear through his question to them. The disciples' response shown in v.41 is now one of “great fear”. What is this fear? It’s fair to say that it isn’t quite to what we might call the “fear of the Lord” (a reverence or awe of God), at least in the fullness that we might experience today or that you might see in the OT in passages like Prov 1:7 or Ecc 12:13. However, it is headed in that direction. How? The climax of this account is v. 40, “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.” The original readers would hear this account and due to familiarity would have attributed Jesus to the only one in history who could command creation in such a way, and that is the LORD Himself as in Psalms 104, 107, and 135! We can see by the passage that the disciples are headed this way through the combination of the “great fear” along with their new fixation on the one of whom they asked one another in v. 41, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Keeping Jesus the main thing in this story is easy, but so is drifting to an incorrect application. Jesus does not promise to calm the storms of our lives. He does promise to be with us in them. In v40 Jesus calls his disciples (including us) to move from self-focused fear to a God-focused fear, evidenced by faith (belief, trust). This passage is meant to remind that Jesus is God, that He is bigger than a most terrifying life situation (a storm for them), He is creator over it. And HE IS WITH THEM! When in circumstances these truths bring us to a right sizing of God and a reminder of the right presence of God, not distant and uncaring, but present, in control, and caring!
So what do you do in the face of fear? How do you help young people navigate it? Help them with their focus!
- God has taken decisive action in history in Jesus’s finished work on the cross, and His presence with us now by the Holy Spirit. God’s desire for us is to continually keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith as Hebrews 12:1-2 states.
- So for the disciples, and for us, God remains big through navigating the circumstance. Circumstances remain, but they are rightly sized next to our Big God! Reminders through the Scriptures like this passage are a primary help!
- With the right focus, now persevering together through the circumstance with God-sized trust is possible with God’s provision in Himself (by the indwelling Spirit), His word, prayer, and one another.
As you face fear yourself, and help young people do the same, also keep these principles in mind when engaging the Scriptures as a primary source to battle fear:
- A human-centered approach to the Scriptures puts the focus on the topic of fear, maybe “the storms of life”. The circumstances get the heavier attention, and the disciples' responses as well. But, since Mark’s gospel focuses heavily on the call to discipleship, with the full weight of this call being placed on the identity and work of Jesus, the greater emphasis should be a God-centered view, that is, who is this Jesus.
- Yes, the circumstances and disciple’s responses are in view, and so are ours today, and they are very real and matter, but the main emphasis is in v38, their question and then the response, and the fact that they addressed him as Teacher. Jesus is the hero of the story in v39, more than a teacher, but the creator of the universe who controls the waves and the winds. Now Jesus is in His right place, and so too is the storm. So acknowledge the reality and difficulty of circumstances, but move to the Creator of the universe Jesus Christ to shift focus to the One who gives peace.
- For us, since God is the creator of all things, and he knows us well (Psalm 139) and has care and concern for us (Matthew 6:19-34), then surely he is bigger than the circumstance we are currently in and can give us what we need each moment of the day to navigate the situations we face.
As fear wells up within you or young people you are walking alongside, be reminded that this has been a shared experience throughout all of time, and move toward the Lord together. May we continually be drawn to a fear of the Lord as we fix our eyes on the greater Moses, Jesus Christ!
“Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” Ex 14:31
