The Radical Rabbi Who Slept on the Job

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41 (NRSV)

Jesus wasn’t too concerned about “rocking the boat.” He regularly offended people, especially ticking off those in high places. He didn’t hang out with the right people. He talked with a Samaritan woman alone when you weren’t supposed to do that. Jesus spit in public when he healed the blind man. In our passage today, Jesus’ disciples were offended by him because he slept on the job. How could their beloved Teacher sleep in heavenly peace on his little cushion in the stern, while they were going shipwreck??!! But the Rabbi was teaching them…even in his sleep. Jesus could rest because he was trusting God, not fearing the storm. As the reed basket saved baby Moses in the Nile, as the ark saved Noah from the floodwaters, as the whale saved Jonah from the waves, so Jesus himself is the “saving vessel” for the sea of humanity. Jesus, Savior, pilot me over life’s tempestuous sea!

August 2, 2020 Service Bulletin and Bible Study

Image credits

“Christ on the Sea of Galilee” by Eugène Delacroix (1853)
“The Sea of Galilee is filled to overflowing as rainfall blesses Israel” CUFI.org/UK
“Hope is an Anchor Hebrews 6:19” by Melissa Dawn Baker Nguyen

All Sermons by Dr. John C. Tittle are available in our Library of Sermons.

Other Sermons In This Series

The Radical Rabbi Who Hung Out with the Wrong Crowd

July 05, 2020

The Radical Rabbi Who Broke the Rules

July 12, 2020

The Radical Rabbi Who Thought He Was God

August 23, 2020