Are You Afraid of Jesus?

In 2010, a man named Barry Glassner published a book entitled The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things. While I cannot endorse all his ideas, I agree with his view that people and organizations (like politicians, advocacy groups, the marketing/advertising industry, and news outlets, including weather reporting) manipulate our perceptions about what is going on in the world, stoking our fears about low threat concerns. They usually have an ulterior motive for doing this, such as getting us to vote in a certain way, raising funds, or persuading us to buy a product or service.

For example, Glassner highlights our fear about flying in airplanes. While airplane passengers may feel uncomfortable when their plane hits turbulence or when they remember that they are flying thousands of feet high, in a metal tube, at 500 mph, they often have greatly exaggerated fears about crashing or dying. Glassner points out that, “In the entire history of commercial aviation…fewer than 13,000 people have died in airplane crashes.” In fact, “The average person’s probability of dying in a plane crash is about 1 in 4 million, or roughly the same as winning the jackpot in a state lottery.” Despite these obscure odds, airplane crashes often make headline news, while car accidents do not.

It’s fascinating to consider whether you are allowing misinformed fears to influence your life. It happens to everyone. But there’s one thing – one person – that Satan wants everyone to fear, and that is Jesus. You see, if he can get you to be afraid of him, then he can get you to stay away from him. Just as the wrong perspective about airplanes can keep you from getting onto a plane, so the wrong perspective about Jesus can keep you from believing on him for salvation or following him with your life. In fact, I suggest that most people in the world are afraid of following Jesus for one reason or another.

Are you afraid of Jesus – of who he is or what he says? If so, then why? As you think about these questions, consider what Mark’s Gospel says about being afraid of Jesus. In fact, Mark mentions fear and being afraid many times throughout this record of Jesus’s life and ministry, making this a point of emphasis.¹ From this emphasis, we learn the right way to respond to Jesus and his teaching. Are you responding to him the right way?

Elite, powerful, and influential people were afraid of Jesus.

When you read the Gospel of Mark, you sense that this is the case. The religious leaders repeatedly witness the miracles that Jesus performed and his popularity with the people. They were jealous of him for surpassing them in both these ways – in miracle-working power and in popularity. But their jealousy gave way to fear on yet another point – the authority of his teaching. This fear over his teaching reached a climax prior to his crucifixion and is something that Mark mentions three times.

The Jewish religious leaders – the Pharisees – were afraid of him because of the authority and substance of his teaching (Mark 11:18, 32; 12:12).

The teaching of Jesus rose above the petty, legalistic debates and speculations about ancestry that the Pharisees engaged in. He:

• taught based upon a full knowledge and mastery of the complete Old Testament,
• outwitted the religious leaders’ toughest questions,
• addressed the needs of the heart,
• and magnified the eternal, spiritual kingdom of God over Jewish cultural preservation.

As a result, his teaching captivated people, whether they believed what he was saying or not. Sadly, most of the religious leaders did not embrace his teaching, even though they could not disprove what he was saying. Rather than accepting him, they became afraid of him. The very teaching that should have inspired faith stirred up fear instead. The irony in this is that these leaders, by their role as religious teachers, should have appreciated what Jesus had to say. Instead, they were afraid.

A Gentile political leader – Herod – was afraid of John the Baptist because of his godly reputation; John was a follower of Jesus. (Mark 6:20).

Jewish religious leaders were not the only powerful people to be afraid of Jesus. Gentile, Roman political and military leaders were also afraid of him. In fact, they were even afraid of people who followed and identified with Jesus. Herod, for instance, was a brutal, corrupt, and powerful Roman politician. Yet he was afraid of John the Baptist, a man who taught people to follow Jesus and a man who had a godly, Christ-like reputation. The irony here is that Herod was not afraid of Jesus (and his followers) because they represented a political threat. Instead, they were afraid because followers of Jesus represent a moral threat, a perpetual reminder of their immoral lifestyle.

Do not be fooled. Powerful leaders of corrupt religious institutions and movements were afraid of Jesus. Likewise, powerful political leaders in America and beyond are also afraid of Jesus. They may behave as though they are in control and as though they have no concerns for Jesus or his teaching. Yet even so, they live with lingering doubts and fears about his ultimate authority over their lives. There is no one as powerful or having as much authority as Jesus. The Gospel of Mark makes this clear. For this reason, the powerful people of this world who have authority over us are themselves afraid of Jesus.

Regular, ordinary people were afraid of Jesus.

Powerful and influential figures are not the only ones afraid of Jesus.

People from urban and rural communities were afraid of him because of his power to free a man who had been oppressed by a demonic spirit (Mark 5:15).

Here was a man who had been physically tortured and psychologically oppressed by a demon for many years and a community who had been terrified by him the same amount of time. No one had been able to help him. Yet when Jesus sent the demon away and freed this man from his oppression, how did the people respond? Not with peace, relief, or celebration, but with fear and astonishment instead.

Do you see the irony here? Sometimes we witness a similar effect today. When a person believes on Jesus and he begins to change their life from bad to good, from oppression to sin to freedom from its clutches, the people who know him often respond with cynicism, doubt, and fear instead of with joy and enthusiasm.

• Rather than be glad that you have quit smoking, they roll their eyes.
• Rather than rejoice that you are committed to making your marriage work, they laugh that you would even care.

A woman was afraid of him because he knew that she had touched his robe in a crowd and called for her (Mark 5:33).

On this occasion, Jesus recognized this woman whom no one else would have recognized. In fact, people would have ignored her for at least two reasons.

• One, she was a woman and women received low-class treatment in those days.
• Two, she had a medical condition that would have classified her as unclean and untouchable, a detriment and blight to society.

But Jesus did not share this prejudiced, unfeeling mindset.

As he made his way through a tightly-packed crowd, he knew that she had reached out her hand to touch the lower hem of his robe – something no one else would have detected with all the people pushing against him. At moment she touched his robe, she was healed. What’s more, Jesus also called out to her, recognizing that he knew she had touched him.

The irony here is that when you would have expected her to be relieved and overjoyed, she was afraid instead. Knowing at once that Jesus possessed superior knowledge and power, perhaps she feared what he might say or do to her. Had she been presumptuous and done the wrong thing by reaching out to him? Thankfully, we learn that her fears were unfounded. In fact, Jesus approved of her actions, saying to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

His own disciples were afraid of Jesus.

In addition to people at large, the close followers of Jesus were also afraid of him on multiple occasions. This is a remarkable phenomenon, one that should cause you who follow Jesus to ask whether you are afraid of him as well.

They were afraid because of his power over nature, when he calmed the storm at sea (Mark 4:41).

When you read about this violent storm at sea and how Jesus calmed the storm merely by speaking to the wind and the waves and telling them what to do, you would expect these men to be relieved that the storm had ended and that their lives had been spared. Instead, they were afraid even more. Mark says that they fear greatly. Does this seem odd to you? By demonstrating his power over nature, he protected his followers from drowning. But they responded with fear instead of relief.

They were afraid again of his power over nature, when he walked on the water in another storm at sea (Mark 6:50).

Once again, the disciples experienced a life-threatening storm at sea, but this time they saw Jesus walking on the water towards their boat. He was not sleeping in the boat with them as he was in the previous storm. Once again, you would expect them to be relieved, especially since he had delivered them from a storm once before.

Yet here they were afraid again. In fact, Mark used a word here that means “troubled and disturbed.” Again, does this seem odd to you? In the moment when they should have ceased being afraid of the storm, they became even more afraid of Jesus who had come to save them. Do you ever feel this way about Jesus?

They were afraid of his heavenly glory when he was transfigured before them (Mark 9:6).

On a secluded mountain away from everyone else, God the Father showed Peter, James, and John the brightness of Christ’s divine, heavenly glory. Christ’s human appearance normally veiled this glory. But on this occasion, the Father allowed these three men to get a small glimpse of how grand and glorious Jesus was – he was more than just a human being, he was also the God of heaven, and this would explain why Jesus was so powerful and displayed unlimited authority over nature, demons, sickness, religious and political authorities, and death.

As you would expect, the disciples were afraid. In fact, Mark used a modified word to describe their fear on this occasion, a word which means not just afraid, but “extremely afraid.” In fact, this moment made such an impression on Peter that he referred to it in a letter he wrote to believers decades later (2 Pet 1:16-18). This is the one occasion in this book when you might agree that the disciples should have been afraid. Yet even here, the revelation of Christ’s deity in such a visual way was not supposed to push the disciples away from Jesus. It was given to strengthen their faith in him and to draw them closer to him instead.

They were afraid of his teaching about his upcoming death on the cross (Mark 9:32).

This occasion stands out because the disciples were not afraid because of something Jesus had done or something they had seen. Instead, they were afraid because of what Jesus was saying. He was telling them that he would soon die on the cross. Though his death would deliver them from sins and restore their relationship with God forever, they were not encouraged. They were afraid instead and this fear grew stronger.

They continued to be afraid of his teaching about dying on the cross and of the hardships they would face as a result of following him (Mark 10:32).

For the third time in Mark’s Gospel, we find Jesus talking about his upcoming death on the cross (Mark 10:32-34). In this conversation, he gave more details than before. He also emphasized the way that nonbelievers would behave towards anyone who identified with him after his crucifixion (Mark 10:28-31). Their families would potentially disown them, they would potentially lose valuable property, they would be pursued and persecuted, and they would be marginalized and demoted, pushed to the fringe of society.

This example of how the followers of Jesus were afraid of his teaching gets to the heart of our fear about Jesus. If Jesus is the divine Son of God who has power and authority over all things and who is the head over God’s eternal kingdom, then believing on him and following him will certainly have implications for our lives. On one hand, he will deliver us from the power of sin and evil, darkness and death. He will even exercise control over whatever storms I may go through in life. But on the other hand, I may also suffer for him just as he suffered for me.

The kingdom of God is a secure kingdom, governed by Jesus, benevolent, all-knowing, all-powerful person who is both God and man, yet following him may require me to change my priorities, admit where I’ve been wrong, and accept some suffering and loss. Are you afraid of this?

They were afraid from seeing an angel and discovering that Christ had resurrected from the dead (Mark 16:8).

This final episode of fear in Mark’s Gospel describes the way that some ladies responded to the resurrection of Jesus. From this we learn that “the resurrection does not magically dispel fear and cowardice, transforming fallible human characters into faithful disciples. Faithful discipleship consists of following Jesus, not contemplating doing so; acting courageously on his behalf, not standing on the sidelines and watching.”²

This instance shows that even the most devoted, faithful followers of Christ who know that he has risen from the dead may struggle with fear. Though we know that Jesus has defeated death and all that is evil, that he lives forever, and that he has demonstrated his power in the ultimate way (rising from the dead in his own power), we remain afraid to follow him. Having witnessed the resurrection, these women at first hesitated to tell anyone the good news. From other gospels, we know that they eventually spread the news, but fear prevented them from doing so at first.

Having traced the theme of fear throughout Mark’s Gospel, are you better able to answer the question of whether you are afraid of Jesus? Are you afraid of who he is or what he says?

Despite the way that powerful people, ordinary people, and even people who followed Jesus closely frequently responded to him with fear, is this the way that you and I should respond to him today? Was fear the right response?

Jesus does not want you to be afraid of him – despite his astonishing, divine power, knowledge, and teaching. Here’s how he himself says that you should respond to him:

First, Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mark 5:36). When he said this, he was not referring to being afraid of him. He was referring to being afraid of death, which you will probably agree is the leading cause of fear and is also the underlying reason for many other kinds of fear. (For instance, we fear flying in an airplane because we fear dying in a crash.)

In this instance, he was speaking to the ruler of a synagogue who was afraid that his young daughter was about to die from illness and there was nothing he could do to heal her.This man was influential and powerful in his community and he was very religious, yet he was still afraid of death, afraid of losing his beloved daughter to the power of death.

How do you overcome the fear of death in all its forms? By believing on Jesus. When you turn from all your other sources of confidence and admit that you need God to free you from sin and when you trust in Jesus alone instead, then you can fear death no longer. Don’t be afraid of death, but believe on Jesus instead. He alone has enough authority and power to shield you from death. Have you turned to Jesus to deliver you from sin and death and to be your God and Savior forever?

Second, Jesus encourages those who have chosen to follow him, “Take heart [be courageous]; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Mark 6:50). He said this as he walked to his disciples on the waves of the sea in a storm. This reminds us of ourselves when we are still afraid of things that come our way in the course of Christian life and service.

• Yet Christ’s authority and power over nature and over everything else is no reason to be afraid of him; it is a reason to run to him instead (just as Peter walked to Jesus on the water).
• What’s more, it is the reason why you should not be afraid to follow whatever he says and to put his words into practice in your life.

Yes, you may suffer. Yes, the waves may be large and ominous around you. Yes, you may get “the short end of the stick” in this life in various ways. But take heart and be courageous. Jesus is with you in your trials, and trials will come. But don’t be afraid to follow him. Run to him instead. His power and authority should not make you afraid; they should encourage you to embrace him, to rely on him, and to obey him even more.

Consider Hebrews 10:22-25. The people who received these words were facing many difficulties in following Jesus, the very hardships that Jesus had taught his disciples about (Mark 10:28-31) of which they were afraid (Mark 10:32). Because of these difficulties, these believers were either withdrawing from regular involvement with their church or being tempted to do so. To encourage them in the right direction and to correct their fear, the person who was writing encouraged them to draw near to God through Jesus (Heb 10:19). Then he encouraged them to demonstrate this newfound faith and confidence by participating together with their church more and more, not less and less – to not be afraid of taking this step (Heb 10:25).

Satan wants you to be afraid of believing on Jesus. He wants you to keep on living a life that is oppressed by sinful habits and hopeless feelings. Don’t be afraid. He is the Son of God with power and authority over all things. This is not a reason to be afraid of him. It is the reason to believe on him today.

Satan also wants you who have believed on Jesus to be afraid of following his teaching and calling throughout life. He wants you to be afraid of suffering, afraid of losing out on what this world offers, and afraid of drawing near to Jesus himself. But don’t be afraid. Whatever God is leading you to do next through his Word, you should do it without delay.

Thomas Overmiller serves as pastor for Faith Baptist Church in Corona, NY and blogs at Shepherd Thoughts. This article first appeared at Shepherd Thoughts, used here with permission.

1. Fear-related words such as φοβέω, φόβος, φοβερός, φοβέομαι, φόβητρον, δειλία, δειλός, δειλιάω, ἐκφοβέω, ἔκφοβος, and ταράσσω appear through this book 16 times in 14 verses, making this a significant theme throughout the book. See Mark 4:40-41; 5:15, 33, 36; 6:20, 50; 9:6, 32; 10:32; 11:18, 32; 12:12; 16:8. These references do not include other allusions to fear, such as the unnamed young man who fled from the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51-52). [↩]
2. James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 2002), 496. [↩]