When Jesus Sleeps 當耶穌睡著時

Twelfth Ordinary Sunday, Year B
Theme: When Jesus Sleeps 當耶穌睡著時

Today, we read of Mark’s narrative of Jesus’ miracle of calming the storm. Mark’s gospel tells us of a Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is more powerful than Caesar who also claimed to be the son of god. Mark’s Son of God is a man of action. He works miracles without hesitation. However, before Mark 4, the miracles only show that Jesus is human because human beings are also able to perform exorcisms and to heal diseases. But calming the storm is a miracle of a higher level. In general, we take this miracle as a proof of the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ who possesses two different natures in one person of the Son of God.

As a human being, Jesus was exhausted after a day’s work of preaching and healing. He needed to sleep to replenish His strength for another day’s work. Moreover, Christ is truly divine because as the disciples says, “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?” (Mark 4:41b） The disciples could only see the visible humanity of Jesus. They were not yet able to comprehend His divinity. The first reading supplies us with the proof text we need. I am sure most of you have heard of the story of Job. The author of the book of Job tried to make sense of why innocent people suffer for no obvious purpose. In answering this challenge from Job, God did not pass judgment on whether Job was sinful or not, thus proving that Job “deserved” the sufferings. Instead, God points out Job’s ignorance saying, “Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance?” (Job 38:2）. Of course, we are unable to compare our intelligence to that of our Creator’s. Just as Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways --- oracle of the LORD. For as heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9）. Had God not bothered revealing Himself to us, we would not have been able to understand a little bit of His modus operandi. Back to Job. God started enumerating His acts of Creation saying, “Who shut within doors the sea … When I set limits for it and fastened the bar of its door, and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves stop” (Job 38:8a, 10-11）. Only God is able to perform such feats. Therefore, in the calming of the storm miracle, Jesus showed off His divinity by speaking to the raging sea, “Quiet! Be still!” and the wind ceased and there was great calm (Mark 4:39b）. Indeed, this calming the storm miracle together with the feeding of 5000 with five loaves and two fish are signs/miracles from heaven demanded by the Pharisees (8:11）. They prove the divinity of Jesus.

When I meditate on this miracle these days, I wonder why, among so many ways to show the humanity of Jesus such as His Nativity and eating with tax collectors etc., God chose “sleep”. I am sure that it is worth meditating.
There are two occasions in which the gospels speak of Jesus’ sleep, namely in the miracle of calming the storm which we read today. The second occasion is his burial in the tomb. In both cases, the disciples were in great fear. What was Jesus’ doing in both cases? Before I go any further, I need to justify why I treated Jesus’ death as a sleep. The gospel of John supports me with the story of Lazarus in which Jesus spoke of Lazarus’ death as a sleep. “‘Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him’ … But Jesus was talking about his death, while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep” (John 11:11b, 13）. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus also spoke of the death of Jairus’ daughter as a sleep (Mark 5:39）. Luke gives us another clue when he tells the story of the martyrdom of Stephen. Luke finishes with, “As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and when he said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59-60）. We see that both Jesus and Stephen speak of death as a sleep. It is a typical Christians belief that Christ has conquered death. Death is no longer a total annihilation but a crossing over a threshold to waiting for the final eternal life. We have to remember that speaking of death as a sleep waiting for resurrection does not guarantee that the time before death is NOT painful. No, it can be excruciatingly painful. Therefore, it is truly a blessing to die peacefully in sleep. Now that I have two witnesses, I am not wrong in treating Jesus’ death as a sleep!

Bear in mind that Jesus is the New Adam (Romans 5:19, 1 Corinthians 15:22）, let us look at the sleep of the original Adam. “So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, He took out one of his ribs and … built the rib … into a woman” (Genesis 2:21-22）. Just as a new form of life emerged from the original Adam, do we find a new creation from the sleep of Jesus, the New Adam? Yes, we do! Paul demonstrates a more mature understanding of Jesus Christ than the disciples in Mark 4. Because of his Damascus’ experience (Acts 9:3-6）, Paul was more capable of seeing the divinity of Jesus than the disciples early in their followings. Thus, in the second reading today, Paul claims, “Even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer” (2 Corinthians 5:16b）. Then he continues, “So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (5:17）. Paul insists that we should not understand the historical human Jesus only. We need to know the theological Christ as well. Let us explore how new creation comes about in Jesus’ sleep.

Let us start from the end, the second sleep!

Tradition tells us that the Lord descended into Hell to release all those ancient souls of the Old Covenant, namely Adam, Eve, Abel, Abraham and King David etc. who have been waiting for the foretold Messiah (Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14, 11:1-9）. The Apostles’ Creed says so and a lot of icons depict such a scene. Although the Nicaean Creed does not include this article of faith, we have to remember that Catholic theology is rather defensive. If people start to challenge a certain article of faith, theologians would debate and deliberate it. In the end, the Church would either abandon it or enshrine it as a dogma. Take the case of the Christian Tradition of the breaking of bread (Acts 2:46） and some other practices (8:17; James 5:14）. The Nicaean Creed does not mention them because in 300 AD, no heretics challenged them. Five hundred years ago during the Reformation, the seven Sacraments have become a dogma because of volleys of challenges from the Protestants! Return to the article of faith that Jesus descended into Hell for three days. We can still hold on to it as long as the Church does not declare it wrong! Jesus descended into Hell to renew the Old Covenant and incorporate it into the New Covenant, bringing the Old to fruition!

Now, what about Jesus’ sleep on a storm-tossed boat? Did Jesus bring about a new Creation in His brief nap on the boat? I would speculate that in His brief nap, Jesus drew up the blueprint of the future Kingdom of God, the Church, His Spouse. We knew practically nothing how the LORD God fashioned Eve out of the rib of Adam. But in the case of the Church, we see the steps Jesus took to build her up. After raising the daughter of Jairus from dead, thus confirming once more His divinity and His identity as the Author of Life, Jesus sent the Twelve to evangelize. The evangelization was successful. The Twelve were able to gather 5000 people for Jesus to perform the five loaves and two fish miracle. Then Peter walked on the water to prove his love of Christ. Then, in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus made Peter the Rock of the Church, making the future Church catholic and apostolic etc. Unlike the making of Eve in which the time taken was brief, perfecting the Church (Ephesians 5:26-27） takes millennia. Making the process of Church building visible is advantageous for building up the faith of believers.

Like the boat tossed by storms and waves, the Church navigates perilously among the nations. She pleases nobody but God and thus becomes enemies to Communists as well as Capitalists. Without political alliance, the Church faces enemies on all sides. The miracle today tells us that our faith has always been weak. We are aware of the presence of the Lord. Yet, we doubt whether the LORD would keep His covenant with His new creation.
Beloved brethren! Let us pray to the LORD to strengthen our faith. Amen.
God bless!

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