The answer is Jesus, now what’s the question?

“The answer is Jesus, now what’s the question?”

Sometimes I can sound like that.

How true is it?

Who am I going to call? When Life is overwhelming and doom is looming. Who do I call? I call a carpenter. I call Jesus. That’s what the disciples did in Matthew 8.

“23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”’

One thing that I saw in this story is the humanness of Jesus contrasted with his divinity.

Jesus was exhausted. I don’t want to be glib or irreverent but God was tired. The needs of the people had exhausted Jesus. He understands my human need for rest.

The disciples woke him up. What did they think he was going to do? He wasn’t a sailor. He was a carpenter by trade and a pastor/teacher/healer by practice. They were surprised when he calmed the storm. They wanted help in the storm but from their response it seems they didn’t expect the storm itself to go away.

Jesus shows us his divinity in his authority over the wind and the waves.

Mary and I joke about scary situations and will usually say, “so this is how we die”. Somehow those words can take away the terror. There is in us an innate fear of death. This last hospital stay for Mary I don’t remember saying those words. I was trying to keep Mary from thinking that way. It was another brush with death. We didn’t say “so this is how we die”. Instead we prayed fervently that it wouldn’t be her death.

The answers to life’s questions, why am I here, what is my purpose, what is my value? Those can be answered in Jesus.

I was created, created for a relationship with God, and when that relationship was separated by sin, God made a way for us to be together again through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

What is death? Why are we so afraid?

The answer is Jesus?

Jesus died and rose again.

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Sometimes the questions we are asking boil down to , who cares, who can help, where can I go?

Jesus.