The painting is called ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’ by Rembrandt van Rijn. And this is about as close as we’ll ever get to it.

In March of 1990, a group of art thieves walked into the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston, outsmarted the guards, and made off with a half a billion dollars worth of paintings, making it the largest single property theft in recorded history.

The painting is notable in several ways. It’s Rembrandt’s only seascape. It contains 13 disciples, not 12. And the one in the cap toward the bottom is widely believed to be Rembrandt himself. (Click here for a larger version)

While the debate’s still on regarding the religious devotion of the famous Dutch painter, he certainly displays theological acumen here, by placing himself right where the storyteller wants us to be – in the boat with Jesus.

This Sunday we will hear the full story in Mark 4, about the voyage across the sea in which Jesus fell sleep while the great storm broke out around Him, sending his disciples into a panic. This is when the 12 came asking, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" – which is a derivation of the questions we often ask God when the world around us is crashing in. We too mistake God’s lack of action with God’s lack of affection.

However, this story isn’t about the need to wake God up as much as it is about the deep trust that we are to put in God.  It’s a peace so profound it allowed Jesus to dose off. So the moral of the story isn’t, ‘run to Christ when we’re in trouble and He’ll make it go away,’ but, ‘run to Christ so we might learn the source of His calm.’

Where do you find this calm? What does it feel like? How might we seek it, more diligently, in the week ahead?

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Reading

Drive – Daniel Pink

Teaching as a Subversive Activity – Neil Postman

The Guns of August – Barbara Tuchman