Mark 4:41

‘And they were filled with great awe and said one to another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” '

But this topped all they had ever seen. They had seen His miracles of healing on all who came to Him. They had seen His power over evil spirits. But to control the wind and the sea, both recognised as uncontrollable, before which men had to always to bend while doing their best to fight against them, this filled them with awe (Although it was not in fact a greater miracle, only more spectacular).

We should note that in a sense their whole experience had been recorded long before in the vivid description of men in a storm in Psalms 107:23, except that here it had been heightened. We cannot doubt that the fishermen among them had often meditated on this Psalm which so expressed something which was probably to them a fairly regular experience, and gave the welcome impression of God's care for fishermen and other seamen;

‘Those who go down to the sea in ships,

Who do business in great waters,

These see the works of the LORD,

And His wonders in the deep.

For He commands, and raises the stormy wind,

Which lifts up the waves thereof.

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths,

Their soul melts away because of trouble.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,

And are at their wits' end.

Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble,

And He brings them out of their distresses.

He makes the storm a calm,

So that the waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because they are quiet,

So He brings them to the haven where they would be.'

The point, however, here was that this storm went beyond anything that that has in mind. They had no doubt already cried to God, but things had got so bad that it left them nowhere to go but Jesus as their last hope.

It is probable that we are to see that Jesus acted in time to save, not only those in His own boat, but His followers in the other boats as well. For this would be included in Jesus' word of faith.

In concluding the passage we should consider the fact that it is extremely unlikely that Mark failed to recognise the overwhelming message of the passage, that with Christ present all is right with His people, however extreme the storms. He is Lord of Wind and Wave and Storm, whether physical or spiritual. But the thought that would also have been carried away by them all was undoubtedly that Jesus was Lord of Creation, just as He was Lord of the Sabbath.

It should be noted that in the section chiasmus this parallels Jesus' words concerning His suffering as the Son of Man, which will finally result in resurrection. That describes another Satanic storm through which He will have to go, from His point of view far worse than this one, and from which also He will emerge triumphant (Mark 9:30).