Why are you so frightened?
—Mark 4:40
Rembrandt’s seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, pictures Jesus’ panic-stricken disciples struggling against a violent storm while Jesus sleeps.
In the biblical story, they wake him and ask, “Don’t you care that we’re drowning?” Jesus stills the storm and asks them, “Why are you so frightened? What has happened to your faith?”
There were thirteen men in the boat that night—Jesus and twelve disciples. But in Rembrandt’s painting, there are fourteen—the fourteenth being Rembrandt himself.
That, it seems to me, is a soul-searching way to read Scripture—put yourself in the picture.
Put yourself in the upper room, the garden, at the tomb. What would you say, do, feel?
Put yourself in that storm-tossed boat. How would you respond when Jesus asks, “Why are you so frightened? What has happened to your faith?”
To get the most from Scripture
become a player in the story.