Who then is this?
Pentecost 4, Mark 4:35-41
“Who then is this?” we ask.
Do winds and waves obey
a being set apart
with words we dare not say,
not even when we pray?
“Who then is this?” we ask.
A man so spent and worn
he cannot help but sleep,
although the skies are torn
and there may be no dawn.
“Who then is this?” we ask.
A person steeped in trust
who dares to stay at rest
as wind and waters thrust,
and fear burns fierce as lust.
“Who then is this?” we ask.
Though waking to distress
as friends and storm wear out,
he knows when more is less,
and what he must address.
“Who then is this?” we ask.
He stands and says: “Be still!”
The storm reverts to calm.
His peace flows out to fill
clear space beyond our will.
Barbara Messner 15/06/2021
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Barb, poet priest 
What a wonderful “looking” at the different sides of the One who brings peace. I love especially the image of Jesus so tired that he must rest.
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Thanks Maren. I do feel for Jesus in chapters 3 and 4 of Mark. Twice the crowds were so large that he has to retreat to a boat. He tries to go home for a break and they are there again, and his family think he’s crazy, plushe does lots of teaching and explaining to people who don’t get it. That bit about leaving the crowd behind and taking him on the boat “just as he was” suggests to me a very human, exhausted, “end of tether” Jesus, with whom I can fully empathize! The encouraging thing is that fully human and fully divine go hand in hand, and sometimes it’s when we are at the end of our tether, that we find ourselves snuggled up to the divine.
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