Christ Church Sermon, Questions Jesus Asked: Why Are You Afraid? May 10 2026

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Good morning.

>> Today's scripture is Mark 4 35 through

41.

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?

They were terrified and asked each

other, "Who is this? Even the wind and

the waves obey him." Hear what the

spirit is saying to the church.

>> Thanks be to God. Thanks, Aaron.

>> Well, good morning everybody.

>> Morning.

>> So, a few years ago, I was on a flight

and that flight hit turbulence. Now,

I've flown pretty much my whole life. I

love to fly. I'm used to turbulence, but

this was the kind of turbulence where

the plane drops and your stomach is

still up where it was before it dropped,

right? You know, the moment where

everybody's going from comfortably

sipping their ginger ale to wearing

their ginger ale and now they're

grabbing the armrest thinking that

that's the only way they can control the

plane from going down, right? No one

says anything out loud, but you can feel

it. Their eyes get wide. Their

conversations stop. People start

wondering, "Is this normal? Should I be

concerned? And then you look at the

flight attendant because if they're

calm, you're kind of okay. But if they

look nervous now, the fear really ramps

up, right? Well, here's the thing. In

most of those cases, nothing actually

changed about the plane. The engines are

still working. The pilot is still in

control, but the feeling that you had

changed everything. And in the Gospel of

Mark 4, Jesus and his disciples are in a

boat when a storm rolls in. The waves

are crashing, the wind is howling, the

boat is filling up with water. And the

disciples are wondering where Jesus is.

Well, he's asleep. And the disciples

wake him up and they say, "Teacher,

don't you care if we drown?" And Jesus

calms the storm and then he turns to

them and he says, "Why are you afraid?

Do you still have no faith? Now, that's

the question for us today as we continue

in our questions Jesus asked sermon

series. Why are you afraid? I mean,

let's be honest, the disciples had a

good reason to be afraid. This was not a

small storm. Some of those disciples

spent their livelihood out on that lake.

So, if they were nervous, that means

things were really bad. The waves were

real. The danger was real. And it's the

same in our lives. We don't feel fear

for no reason. Fear often comes from

what we can see. We fear a diagnosis

that we didn't expect. We fear a

financial situation. We fear a broken

relationship. We fear an uncertain

future. We fear a calling that's bigger

than us. And and what we can see is

overwhelming. And that leads to fear.

But I want you to notice something.

While the disciples are staring at the

storm, afraid, they're forgetting who's

in the boat with them. Because that's

what fear does. It narrows our vision.

It makes the storm look bigger and it

makes God look smaller. It's like being

in a thunderstorm in the middle of the

night. Lightning flashes, thunder booms.

If you have a dog like mine, he's laying

on your head shaking because he's afraid

of the thunder. And everything around

you feels chaotic. And sometimes in that

moment, we miss what hasn't changed. The

ground is still there. The house is

still standing, but the storm has

interrupted our perspective, just like

it did for the disciples.

Now, listen closely to what the

disciples say to Jesus. Don't you care

if we drown? That's not just fear

talking. That's an accusation. That's a

moment where their anxiety takes over

and they start to actually question the

heart of God. And if we're honest, we

have all been there. Fear causes us to

question God's care. Now, we might not

say it out loud in a prayer. We might

not post it on social media, but deep

down, we have thought it. We've thought,

"God, don't you see what's happening?

Don't you care about this situation I'm

in? Why aren't you doing something, God?

Why does this feel like you're silent?

Well, why is because it starts with fear

and fear begins to rewrite our story. It

goes like something like this. We think

this is hard and then it shifts to this

is too much. And then fear takes over

and if we're not careful, we start to

say, well, clearly God must not care

because fear doesn't just magnify the

storm. It distorts our understanding of

God. It takes that moment of uncertainty

and it turns it into a question on God's

character. Now, I want to be sure we

don't miss the irony of this moment with

the disciples. They are questioning the

care of Jesus while Jesus is literally

in the boat with them. Now, think about

that for a minute. The one they are

accusing of not caring is the one that

chose to be right there with them in the

midst of the storm. Now, don't miss

this. Jesus didn't stay on the shore and

send them out alone with a pat on the

back and a go get them. He got in the

boat. He was literally in the storm with

the disciples. And the same is true for

us today because we need to understand

that the presence of a storm does not

mean the absence of God. In fact, the

storm is the very place where God's

presence becomes the most real. Even if

we don't feel like it in the moment

because if we're being real, God's

presence does not always look like what

we expect.

We expect immediate calm. We expect an

instant answer. We expect visible

intervention.

But sometimes God's presence looks a

little different. It looks like strength

that we didn't know we had. It looks

like a peace that doesn't make sense. It

looks like people that just show up at

the right time. It looks like this quiet

assurance that lets us know we're not

alone.

Again, going back to the storm analogy,

you remember being in a storm when you

were a little kid. Thunder's loud,

lightning's everywhere, everything's

overwhelming. What did you do when you

were a kid? You went and looked for your

parents. Not because they could stop the

storm, but because their presence

changed how you experienced the storm as

a kid. We didn't need them to control

the weather. We just needed to know that

we weren't alone in the midst of the

storm. And sometimes they didn't even

say a word. They just sit with us and

things started to settle. And it wasn't

because the storm stopped. It was

because we were no longer facing the

storm by ourselves.

That's what the disciples missed. Jesus

was right there with them.

right there in the boat in the storm.

Now, from a Wesleyan perspective, from a

Methodist perspective, that matters

deeply because we believe in a God whose

grace goes before us. We call it

pervenient grace. It's working in ways

that we have not even yet seen. We also

believe in a God that walks with us. We

call that justifying grace. God's not

distant. God's not detached. God is

personally present just like Jesus was

in that boat. And we believe in a God

who continues to transform and sustain

us. We call that sanctifying grace. It's

giving us strength to endure, strength

to grow, strength to trust even in the

midst of a storm. So when fear starts to

whisper Jesus isn't here, faith push

pushes back and said he's already in the

boat. When fear says Jesus doesn't care,

faith pushes back and says Jesus already

settled that on the cross. When fear

says we're on our own, faith declares

Jesus never left.

And maybe that's a word that somebody

needs to hear today. God's silence does

not mean God's absence.

God's delay is not God's indifference.

God's presence is not dependent on our

perception.

We can't afford to miss this truth.

Jesus is with us. Jesus is with us when

we get that diagnosis we didn't expect.

Jesus is with us in the uncertainty.

Jesus is with us in the brokenness.

Jesus is with with us when the calling

feels too big. Jesus is with us in the

boat. And that changes everything

because it reminds us that faith is not

the absence of fear. It is trust in the

middle of fear. Notice Jesus doesn't say

to the disciples, "Why did the storm

scare you?" He says, "Why are you

afraid?

Do you not have faith?" Jesus is not

rebuking their emotion of fear. He's

addressing their trust. Because fear in

and of itself isn't the problem. Jesus

knows it's a natural response. Fear

shows up when something feels bigger

than us. Fear shows up when we lose

control. Fear shows up when when when

the outcome is uncertain. So Jesus isn't

expecting them to not feel fear. He's

inviting them to trust differently in

the midst of the fear.

And here's the truth that we have a hard

time coming to grips with sometimes.

Faith and fear can exist in the exact

same moment. We can believe and still

feel anxious. We can trust God and still

have questions. We can follow Jesus and

still feel overwhelmed.

We can't miss the fact that the

disciples had faith. I mean, they left

everything to follow Jesus. They got in

the boat because he told them to, but

their faith hadn't really been tested

yet. It hadn't been stretched. It hadn't

been uh deepened by a storm.

And that's true for us as well. We trust

God until the unexpected diagnosis

comes. We believe until the situation

kind of starts to spiral out of control.

We feel confident until things get out

of our control. It's easy to have faith

in calm water. It's a different thing to

have faith when the waves start crashing

over the sides of the boat. But here's

the thing about faith. Faith is not

about pretending like everything is

fine. Faith is not about ignoring the

reality. Faith is not about denying the

storm. Faith is choosing to trust when

we don't have the answers. When we don't

see a way forward, when we can't control

the outcome. Faith says, "I see the

storm, but I know who's with me in the

boat."

Now, to go back to my opening

illustration about flying through

turbulence, nothing about turbulence

feels safe.

Now, when we notice the flight attendant

isn't nervous, it helps a little bit.

But when we hear the pilot's voice on

the intercom say, "Ladies and gentlemen,

we're experiencing some turbulence, but

everything is under control." The fear

subsides.

Why? Well, did the turbulence stop? No.

Did the feeling of uh of falling

immediately go away? No. So what

changed? Our trust changed because we're

not trusting the absence of the

turbulence. We're trusting the one who

is in control of the plane. And that's

exactly what Jesus is inviting the

disciples to live into. Not a life

without storms, but a deeper trust in

the the Lord who is with us in the

storms. Because the storms didn't reveal

the absence of Jesus. It revealed the

the condition of their trust. Storms do

the same things for us. They expose what

we really believe. They reveal where we

run to first. They show us whether our

confidence is in our control or is in

Christ. Our story today shows us the

grace that is offered by Jesus to us

every single day. Jesus doesn't abandon

the disciples because of their weak

faith. He teaches them. He stays with

them. He helps them to grow. Because

faith is not something that you either

have or you don't. It's something that

develops. It's something that matures.

It's something that deepens over time,

especially in a storm. So maybe the

question for us today isn't do we have

fear?

Because the answer to that question for

all of us is probably yes. Maybe the

better question is where am I placing my

trust in the middle of that fear?

Because faith tells us, I may feel

afraid, but I'm not alone. I may not

understand, but I'm still going to

trust. I may be in the middle of a

storm, but I know who's in the boat with

me.

And don't forget, Jesus stands up and

says, "Peace be still to the storm." And

immediately the wind stops and the waves

calm. So the thing that the disciples

feared the most, the storm, was

completely under Jesus's authority. And

in response, the disciples go from being

afraid of the storm to being in awe of

Jesus.

They ask, "Who is this? Even the wind

and the waves obey him." And notice the

shift. Because when we see Jesus

clearly,

fear gets redefined.

So I want to come back to the question,

why are you afraid? Not as a question

meant to shame us, but as a question

meant to invite us. Because when Jesus

asks that question, he's not pushing us

away. He's actually drawing us deeper.

He's inviting us to look beneath the

surface of our fear and pay attention to

what's really going on inside of us.

Because our fear is usually trying to

tell us something. It reveals where we

feel out of control. It reveals those

places where we're trying to hold on to

things or hold things together and we

realize that we can't fix it. We can't

manage it. We we can't predict it

anymore. It reveals when we've lost

perspective, where the storm has gotten

so loud that it becomes the only thing

we can see.

It reveals when we start actually

questioning God's care, when

disappointment or silence has slowly

turned our doubt into wondering if God

is actually really paying attention at

all.

And it reveals where our faith is

actually being stretched. Not broken,

but stretched. Stretched beyond what

feels comfortable. Stretched beyond what

feels safe. And that kind of stretching,

that's hard

because we would much rather be in

control than to trust. We would much

rather have clarity than uncertainty. We

would much rather have calm than than

than a storm that's growing our faith.

But what if

what if the storm is not just something

for us to get through, but what if God

is using us using the storm to help grow

us?

Because maybe today, right now, in this

moment, Jesus isn't just calming our

storm. He's forming our faith. Maybe

he's teaching us to trust him in in ways

we we never have before. Maybe he's

expanding our vision so that we stop

measuring his presence by what he does

and what we see and we start measuring

his presence by who he is. So instead of

running from the question, why are we

afraid? We need to lean into it because

the why are we afraid question, it leads

us to even more questions like where is

fear shaping our decisions?

Where is fear shrinking our faith?

Where is fear causing us to forget who's

in the boat with us? I mean, I wonder

what it would look like for us as Christ

Church to respond differently. What

would it look like for us to name our

fear honestly but not let that fear lead

us? To acknowledge the storm but not

lose sight of the Savior? To step

forward in faith even if the water still

feels uncertain. Because here's the

promise we're given. We don't have to

have it all figured out. We don't have

to eliminate fear before we move

forward.

And when we realize that, we realize

that the same storm that made us afraid

can be the very place where our faith

grows the strongest. Not because the

storm was easy, but because Jesus was

present in the storm with us

and he still is.

Let's pray. Lord, we are grateful that

no matter what we face, no matter what

storm comes our way, no matter how big

the waves get, no matter how hard the

wind blows, you are with us in the midst

of it.

And you're not asking us to not be

afraid. Fear comes from what we see.

You're just asking us to put our trust

in you in the midst of it. And that

changes everything. And the reason we

can do that is because you are with us

in the midst of it. You're not off

somewhere else. You're right beside us.

So no matter what we face in this world,

may we stop, take our eyes off of that

storm, and put our eyes on you and look

to you for what we need to navigate

what's in front of us. Thank you for

loving us and thank you for being with

us every step of the way. We ask all

this in your son's name. And everyone

said, "Amen."