Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

“Who Is This That Even The Wind And The Sea Obey Him?”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, June 20, 2021

Today’s Gospel (Mark 4:35-41), which is the story of the calming of the stormy sea is a great nature miracle that most regular churchgoers are familiar with, for it is found in all the four Gospels. When Jesus calms the stormy sea, his disciples were so astounded that they asked, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Simply put, the disciples’ question is: Who is Jesus? 

The central claim of the Church about Jesus is this: In the singularity of his person, he is the coming together of the divinity and humanity. Two natures— divine and human coming together in a unity of his person without mixing, mingling, or confusion. As such, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the greatest institutions of Israel— Temple, Prophesy, Torah, Law and Covenant. All of them were designed to bring divinity and humanity together, to reconcile God and his people. All of these happened in the most unsurpassable way in the very person of Jesus when the two natures of divine and human come together. That is why we say that Jesus is our salvation. But in the course of history, heretics have emphasized in a one sided way, the divinity or humanity of Jesus. Centuries ago, the Monophysites overemphasized the divinity of Jesus. The Nestorians, on the other hand, overstressed his humanity. Today, there are more people, more Nestorians than there are Monophysites who overemphasized the humanity of the Lord. The problem with each of these notions is that they undermine the stubborn fact of salvation. If Jesus is simply divine and not human, then we are not yet saved. If he is simply human and not divine, we are also not saved, so said St. Athanasius. Our salvation depends upon the coming together of divinity and humanity. One of the greatest mistakes made today by not a few people is the reduction of Jesus to a mere great ethical and moral teacher. If that is all he is, it means that Jesus is in the same boat that we are. If he is not divine, then he needs to be saved as much as we do. 

Jesus of Nazareth is both human and divine. But what is the warrant for claiming the divinity of Jesus? Though he is like Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Jeremiah, Isaiah, John the Baptist by way of being sent, nevertheless, Jesus speaks and acts in the very person of the God of Israel, which makes him qualitatively different than any other sent figures who came before him. In all the Gospels, Jesus is consistently presented as the one speaking and acting in the very person of God. The primary purpose of the gospels is not to show what a wonderful ethical teacher that Jesus is. The gospels are there to show that he is God. To the paralyzed man Jesus says, “My son, your sins are forgiven” (Mk. 2:5). The moment Jesus uttered those words, some of the scribes remarked, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins? (Mk. 2:7). Throughout the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5,6 and 7, Jesus says over and over, “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors… but now I say to you…” When we read those words, we pass over them and keep reading, but in the first century, in the Jewish context, they did not ignore them because what Jesus is referring to is the Torah, the highest authority given to Moses. In these words, “But now I say to you…” Jesus claims the authority of the one who spoke to Moses.

When the Pharisees called Jesus’ attention to the picking and eating of the heads of grain on the sabbath by his disciples, something that they considered unlawful, Jesus says to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering which either he nor his companions but only the priest could lawfully eat?  Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent?” Then in reference to himself, he says to them, “I say to you, something greater than the Temple is here” (Matt. 12:1-6). For first century Jews, the Temple is not just a shrine of Yahweh. It is Yahweh’s home on earth, his dwelling place on earth in practical and literal sense. The Temple is the possible holiest place because Yahweh, the God of Israel lives there. So, for Jesus to say in reference to himself “You have something greater than the Temple here” means he is the dwelling place of God, and the first century Jews did not misunderstand what he said. Furthermore, in reference to his teaching, he says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:35). No one will say such a thing about their words unless the one who is himself the eternal Word. Talking about the conditions of discipleship, Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:37). A religious founder or teacher will most certainly say, ‘unless you love God more than your mother, father, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and the things you consider important to you, you are not worthy.’ But to declare, “Unless you love me more than the highest goods in this world, more than your very life, you are not worthy of me” is breathtaking. The only one who could legitimately say that is the one who is in his own person the Highest Good. The story of the calming of the raging sea is a great miracle, but no first century Jewish audience would have missed its implications. Throughout the Old Testament we find references to Yahweh’s power to still the storm. Psalm 107:28-30 says, “In their distress they cried to the Lord, who brought them out of their peril; he hushed the storm to silence, the waves of the sea were stilled. They rejoiced that the sea grew calm, that God brought them to the harbor they longed.” The Gospel’s account of Jesus walking on the water is another astonishing story for it echoes the very beginning of the Book of Genesis when Ruach Yahweh— the Spirit of God hovers over the surface of Tohu va-bohu (the stormy chaotic water) and brought order and calm. When Jesus calms the stormy sea, his disciples were so astounded that they exclaim, “Who is this man that even the wind and sea obey him?” (Matt. 8:27). For them, Jesus is doing what God alone can do. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus famously asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matt. 16:13). He did not ask what people think of his teaching or what impression he was making. No other religious figure focused on himself. This makes the point that the Gospels are not first and foremost interested in the moral teaching of Jesus, but interested chiefly in who he is. Again, look at the Nicene Creed we say every Sunday. It says nothing about his teaching, but obsessed with the fact that he is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.” Now, those are not some later Greek imposition, but claims coming right from the Gospels themselves. They wanted us to know who this Jesus is. 

Where is this taking us? It means that Jesus compels a choice, a decision in a way no other religious founder or figure does. It is therefore important for all believers to insist, but not violently or obnoxiously that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord. If he is who he said he is, then we have to give our whole life to him. If he is God, not one teacher among the many, then our mind, heart, soul, body, everything must belong to him. But if he is not who he said he is, then he is not a good person, he is not an ethical inspiring figure, he is a bad man. He is deluded, crazy, and self-absorbed. C. S. Lewis said that Jesus is either a liar, lunatic or Lord. The Gospels compel we make a choice. If Jesus is Lord, commit to him unreservedly and wholeheartedly. Doesn't Jesus himself said, “It is either you are with me or against me?” (Matt. 12:30). In the theology and logic of the Gospel, it is crystal clear that Jesus compels a choice, and Christians should make this bold declaration although not in an aggressive manner. If we proclaim Christ and people remain indifferent about him, we haven’t proclaim him adequately. If someone reacts negatively against Jesus after we have proclaimed him, at least we proclaim decisively what is true about him. Present adequately who Jesus is and if someone still rejects him, you have done your job adequately well. 

We have been emphasizing the divinity of Jesus, let us now focus on his humanity for if we hyper-stress one nature above the other, we fall into a heresy. In the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, the Church says that the two natures of Jesus come together without mixing, mingling or confusion. What does this mean? It means that God’s coming close does not resolve in the suppression or eradication of Jesus’ humanity, rather in the enhancement and elevation of it. In the old myths and fairytales, when the gods come close and break into our world, people are overwhelmed and have to give way. Why? Because the gods exist in a competitive manner. For them to appear, we have to turn over and give way. As for Christianity, the claim is that God in Christ comes close but does not overwhelm the humanity to which he assumed. In the story of the burning bush, the bush is on fire but not consumed. That is the opposite of mythological imagination. In Christianity, as God comes close to creature, the creature’s beauty and integrity is enhanced, not overwhelmed. So, we say confidently and unapologetically that Jesus is true God and true Man. At the trial of Jesus, Pontus Pilate said of Jesus, “Ecce Homo!” (Behold the Man!) (John 20:5). When Thomas encountered the Risen Lord, he declared, “My Lord and my God.” You know what? Both assertions are true! In the measure that Jesus is divine, he is fully human. The implication here is that Christianity is the greatest humanism ever proposed. There is no philosophy— ancient or modern that proposes greater and better humanism than Christianity. Christianity proclaims the divination of our humanity, that in Christ our humanity is raised up, enhanced and rendered more beautiful, more radiant by the presence of God. The modern culture thinks that religion is oppressive and that it denies our humanity, but that’s just not true. With incarnational confidence, let us proclaim the divinity of Jesus, because when we do so, we are in the same token proclaiming the greatest possible humanism.