The Disciples in the Storm.
The whole of this narrative is historical; all literally took place eighteen centuries ago; but at the same time this page of the Gospel is like a sublime parable whose minutest features comprise a teaching for all ages, and which is wonderfully adapted to sustain the faith of believers today.
I. What is it which so often troubles our faith in the Divine promises? It is the fact that God does not direct events and things for the triumph of His cause, and that that cause seems often to be vanquished by fatality. This is a contradiction which confounds us. God wants truth to prevail; He commands His Church to announce it to the world; His design is here express and manifest; and when, to serve Him, His Church puts itself to the work, God permits circumstances to array themselves against it and hinder it. We forget that Christ overcame the world only by raising against Him all its resistance; that the Cross has been a sign of triumph only because it has been an instrument of punishment, and that in its apparent impotence and ignominy we must at all times seek the secret of its power and of its invincible attraction.
II. History is like a night stretching across the ages; in all times believers are called to wait for God's intervention, but God delays to come, and that is the supreme trial of faith greater, perhaps, than the opposition of men and even of persecution. Often Christ appears to humanity as a phantom. That pure and holy image has often awoke in those who beheld Him for the first time, only mistrust, hostility, mockery, and more than one generation has hailed Him with a repellent cry.
III. But in the midst of the gloom which envelops the disciples a voice is heard. Jesus Christ has spoken. He has said, "It is I; be not afraid." The Apostles recognise that voice; in the midst of the storm their hearts are penetrated with a Divine peace. It is the same at all seasons. There is an incomparable emphasis in Christ's sayings. Yesterday we were in trouble and anguish, today we hear and are subdued. Explain who can this phenomenon. It is a fact for which witnesses would rise today in all parts of the world. Everywhere and in every age there are men who are enlightened, soothed, consoled, by this voice, and to whom it gives an invincible conviction, an immortal hope.
E. Bersier, Sermons,2nd series, p. 48.
References: Mark 6:45-52. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 128; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 140. Mark 6:47; Mark 6:48. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 83.