A word to wind and water

Out on the Sea of Galilee, in the middle of a fierce storm, Jesus stood up in the boat and spoke to the wind and the water. For 'be still', Mark uses the same word as in the synagogue at Capernaum, where Jesus silenced an unclean spirit. Literally it means: to muzzle.

Jesus speaks to the storm the way you would restrain a wild animal. For the disciples, some of them fishermen who knew this lake well, that was shocking. In the Psalms it is God who calms the storm and quiets the waves. After one sentence from Jesus, the water lay still.