Over the past few weeks, the Gospel readings from Mark have posed the same question in several different forms. That question is, who is this man Jesus? What I find remarkable is that, while answering this question, the underlying cause for all of the actions Jesus takes is His total obedient faith in God. Everything Jesus does is based on this faith. But, who is this man, really? One way to look at Jesus is to study His actions – what He does in each of these stories.
A couple of weeks ago, we had the story of Jesus and the disciples in a boat in the midst of a great storm. While the disciples were in a panic about the boat being swamped, Jesus was asleep in the rear of the boat. Upon being awakened, Jesus calms the wind and sea with His word, to which the disciples react with awe and say, “who is this man that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” As a result of this episode, we might say that Jesus is king of the created order – speaking to creation just as creation happened by God speaking the words. Jesus does not rebuke the disciples but only asks, “Have you still no faith?”
