Performance Notes:
[NOTE: Special thanks to the men in my reflection group during the Come before Winter Renewal in Namibia, Africa. They were the first to hear me tell this story, and their feedback led to many of the insights in my reflections below.]
Story Pacing
Rapid shifts in pace characterize this short story. It swings between long phrases that encourage the storyteller to speak quickly and concise statements that invite the teller to slow down and allow space for silence. For example, you might visualize the phrasing of 8:22–24 in the following way:
One day he got into a boat with his disciples,
and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”
So they put out,
and while they were sailing
he fell asleep.
A windstorm swept down on the lake,
and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger.
They went to him and woke him up, shouting,
“Master, Master, we are perishing!”
And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves;
they ceased,
and there was a calm.
The longer lines indicate phrases that will require quicker speech to complete in one natural breath. The shorter lines, on the other hand, visualize places where the pace slows. The phrasing encourages the teller to pause between phrases for breaths: “So they put out, . . . and while they were sailing . . . he fell asleep.” Or, “They ceased, . . . and there was calm.” And, of course, the pacing of the language fits the movement of the story. Slowing down at those moments invites the audience to feel the calm before the storm (as the peaceful sailing puts Jesus to sleep) and the tranquility after the storm (as the risen Jesus silences the raging tempest).
The audience soon learns, however, that this second calm also precedes unrest. Jesus’s question injects tension into the scene, and the disciples’ response brings the story to an end without complete resolution. The pacing again moves from quick to slow; but, this time, the pauses create space for wonder and puzzlement more than peace and calm.
They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another,
“Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water,
and they obey him?”
Question Dodging
When learning the story, I noticed a small detail that had earlier eluded me. Jesus asks a question directly to the disciples—“Where is your faith?”—but they never directly answer. To be sure, the story closes with a line of dialogue from the disciples that has been prompted by Jesus’s question, but they fail to answer his question. Instead, they ask “one another” a question, “Who is this?”
The disciples’ question, and their failure to answer Jesus, leaves the audience with a decision. Do we laugh at the disciples and their hardheadedness? In the hands of a good storyteller, this “missed-communication” at the end of the story could become a humorous moment in the gospel. On the other hand, we could also find ourselves identifying with the disciples. By having the disciples fail to answer Jesus’s question, the narrator can forward the question to the audience: “Where is your faith?” (And, with intentional vocal inflection and eye contact, the performer can ensure that the audience hears this question forwarded to them.) An encounter with Christ’s power may leave us “afraid and amazed.” I thought I knew him; I thought I had him all figured out. Now, I’m wondering if I can be so sure. Who is this?
Ambiguous Calm
Learning and telling this story led me to appreciate a delightfully ambiguous pronoun in 8:24. After Jesus rebukes the wind and waves, the narrator tells us, “they ceased and there was a calm” (καὶ ἐπαύσαντω καὶ ἐγένετο γαλήνη). The most likely subject for the third person masculine plural verb ἐπαύσαντω (“they ceased”) would be the wind and waves mentioned in the immediately preceding phrase. The NIV makes this choice (and eliminates the ambiguity for the English reader) by translating the phrase as “the storm subsided, and all was calm.” The Greek, however, remains ambiguous (as do other English translations, such as the NRSV or ESV).
At one level, “they ceased” certainly refers to the wind and waves. But the grammatical ambiguity remains open to other levels of meaning. Could the disciples themselves also be the subject of the verb? They swirl around in frantic, desperate fear (“Master, master, we are perishing!”); Jesus intervenes, soothing their anxious, unsettled hearts; and they cease, settling into a calm mirrored in the tranquility of the sea.
Unfortunately, their tranquility is short-lived. The final scene of the story ends with tension. Jesus asks the disciples a question that puts in the dock. It’s possible to understand this question as a second rebuke. Jesus has rebuked the wind and waves to restore calm; now he turns to the more significant rebuke. “Where is your faith?” As a storyteller, I suggest this connection for my audience by using similar gestures when Jesus rebukes the storm and when he asks the question. The repeated gesture creates a visual link between those parts of the story, opening space for the audience to make (and wrestle with) the connection. The disciples’ fear, more than the storm, needs rebuking. The disciples, more than the sea, need to be calmed.
The same is likely true for the audience.