“Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was
a great calm.” Matthew 8:26
Last Monday on Memorial Day, our family visited the U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was such a beautiful day to visit and we had
a great time walking around the campus. We entered this big building called the
Bancroft Hall. We were really impressed by the size of the hall and all the
decorations on the wall, but this one gigantic banner hanging on the center
wall caught my attention. It was a black banner with these words written in
white: “DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP”
This quote reminded me of the tragedy that occurred on the
morning of April 16 in my home country of Korea. A ferry named ‘Sewol’ sunk in
the west coast of the Korean peninsula causing more than 300 deaths in the tragedy.
One of the news regarding the tragedy that got all the Koreans so angry was the
fact that the captain of the ferry was the first one to abandon the ship
leaving everyone else behind. How can the captain be the first one to abandon
the ship? The captain should be the last one to leave. But that did not happen
on April 16.
We have a captain who is faithful to us. The synoptic gospels
tell us about our Captain Jesus. Matthew tells us that Jesus and the disciples
got into a boat. Since Jesus was tired He fell asleep, I mean a deep one. While
Jesus was sleeping a huge storm came! The disciples came to Jesus and tried to
wake Jesus up! Among the 3 gospels I like how Mark wrote what the disciples
said to Jesus to wake Him up: “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
(Mark 4:38)
Jesus “arose and rebuked the wind.” The wind ceased and there
was great calm. Then Jesus said, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you
have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). This is what is written in Luke: “Where is your
faith?”
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