Authority over the Curse (Mark 4:35-6:6)
Think of your favourite disaster movie or story. We are taught to expect that, in the end, human courage or cleverness will save us — and we are disturbed when the happy ending doesn’t happen. The Bible tells us truthfully that we do not live in a world that is merely difficult, but in a world that is broken — and some things do not get better, no matter how hard we try. And in the face of this, fear and unbelief are not strange reactions — they are what happen when mortal people come face to face with forces they cannot control.
The good news however, is that Jesus does not wait for us to be brave or strong; he enters the storm, the suffering, and the grave, and acts while we are helpless. Only he, through the cross can save us from an inevitable destruction, and bring us to an eternal home. In the end, there is no neutral ground: we either live clinging to a cursed world we cannot save, or we entrust ourselves to the Jesus who enters it to redeem.