Home > Jesus is God in Mark's Gospel
Jesus demonstrates his command over the natural world in when he calms a violent storm. This incident is recorded in the other Synoptice Gospels in Matthew 8:23–27 and Luke 8:22–25.
Mark 4:35–41 - On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Jesus is the "Lord of the Elements" who shares the unique sovereign status of Yahweh. This describes sailors caught in a storm.
Psalm 107:28–29 - Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
“Peace! Be still!” - Jesus demonstrates his command over the natural world in Mark 4:39 when he calms a violent storm with a few words. This is the exact language Jesus used to silence demons in Mark 1:25. It suggests that the storm was not merely a weather event but a manifestation of chaotic/demonic forces that only the Creator has the right to "muzzle. Nature does not "calm down" gradually; it obeys instantly!
“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” - This act of divine power leaves his disciples in awe and echoes Old Testament passages where only Yahweh stills the waves (Ps. 107:29). This "mega calm" (galēnē megalē) is a physical proof of His exousia over the laws of physics.
They move from a natural fear of dying (deilos) to a supernatural awe (phobosmegas). In Jewish thought, the sea was the symbol of chaos (Leviathan) that only God could tame:
Job 38:8–11
“Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?Psalm 89:9
You rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, you still them.Job 9:8
who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea;
“filled with great fear” - If the disciples—some whom were professional fishermen—were terrified, it wasn't because the storm was gone, but because they recognised that God was in the boat. Their "fear" is the classic biblical response to a theophany (an appearance of God) found in the Old Testament. It ark is presenting Jesus as a "Greater than Jonah."
This is explicitly said in Matthew 12:41.
R.T. France (The Gospel of Mark): France notes that the parallels between Mark 4 and Jonah 1 are too striking to be coincidental. He highlights the "sleeping in the storm" and "rebuking the elements" as deliberate pointers to the Jonah narrative, used to show that Jesus is the one who fulfills and exceeds the role of the prophet.
Jonah: Slept in a storm because he was fleeing God; he had to be thrown into the sea to stop the storm.
Jesus: Slept in a storm because He was at rest in His Father; He stood up and commanded the storm to stop by His own word.
This miracle shows that Jesus is not a "magician" using external spells, but the Incarnate Word whose voice the inanimate creation recognises. He is the one who "treads on the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8), a feat reserved exclusively for the Almighty.