There were also other boats with him.

Mark 4:36

(The Waiting Country is taking a break this week, so here are some notes from a prayer meeting mid-2021)

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In this famous scene where our Lord Jesus is with his disciples in a storm - a storm that he stills with a word - Mark gives an intriguing detail as he narrates the event: “There were also other boats with him.”

It’s a tiny detail that adds colour to the scene, but is that all it’s there for?

1. Corroboration - those who were in the other boats would be able to corroborate what happened. The ferocious squall that came upon the lake presumably didn’t only affect the boat that the Lord and his disciples were in. These other boats would have also experienced the wild weather - and the panic felt by the disciples.

Which means they also experienced the stilling - the sudden taming of the wind, the immediate calm. Perhaps they saw the Lord stand up in the boat immediately before he spoke to hush the storm.

Their testimony would bolster that of the disciples. They had been there and saw what happened. Perhaps it led many of them to faith in the Lord Jesus as well?

2. Mark’s description is particular: “There were also other boats with him.” Not ‘with them’, which would have also been accurate (and perhaps expected in the context, where the disciples were the subject of the verb in the previous verse). So why the particularity?

i. Because Jesus is the centre, not his disciples (then or now). He is the focal point of this scene, even as he is of the gospels and the whole of scripture. Yes, the church is made up of people (us); yes, we’re to be visible - to be salt and light. But the centre, the core, is the Lord Jesus.

ii. Perhaps this is akin to people who are on the fringes of the church - they have seen something of his power to change lives, they are being drawn by his Word, by his love and mercy. They’re with us in our meetings - they’re associated with us in our life as a church - because they’re somehow wanting to be with him, even when they can’t yet articulate that.

We can pray that will be so. That he would be opening their hearts and minds. That we would do nothing to confuse the picture, to move ourselves more centre-stage. That we would be glad simply to be in the boat and to see the other boats following alongside.

iii. If the storm was not localised to the boat Jesus was in, then not only did those other boats witness the calming, they also benefited from it. When the Lord works in the presence of his people, in our lives, those blessings may overflow to others, in one way or another. A difficult character begins to be changed; a deepening of love and compassion blesses others in their need; prayers are offered for the lost and the lone.

Raging storms are stilled.