Mark 4:39

And he awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

And he awoke ... It is not even stated here that Jesus arose, but Matthew supplied that detail (Matthew 8:26).

He rebuked the wind ... In the words of Trench:

To regard this as mere oratorical personification would be absurd; rather there is here a distinct tracing up of all the discords and disharmonies in the outward world to their source in a person, a referring them back to him, as to their ultimate ground; even as this person can be no other than Satan, the author of all disorders alike in the natural and in the physical world.[46]

In this situation, Jesus appeared dramatically as the antitype of the first of the prophets, Jonah. Both were asleep on a ship at sea in a storm; both were awakened; both were vital to the safety of their vessel, Jonah being a danger to his and Christ the security of his; both produced a great calm, Jonah by being cast overboard, and Christ by fiat; the calm was instantaneous in both cases. For a more detailed development of this thesis, see the Commentary on John, pp. 210-211.

Peace, be still ... These are the same words used by Jesus in casting out the demon (Mark 1:25), harmonizing with the view expressed by Trench.

Many of Jesus' miracles, if indeed not all of them, were also parables with extensive application to the spiritual life of Christians; and from very early times, this one has been a favorite. Dummelow has recorded the following:

Augustine (400 A.D.) says, "We are sailing in this life as through a sea, and the wind rises, and storms of temptation are not wanting. Whence is this, save because Jesus is sleeping in thee, thy faith in Jesus is slumbering in thy heart? Rouse him, and say, Master, we perish. He will awaken, that is, thy faith will return to thee, and the danger will be over." Tertullian (200 A.D.) says, "But that little ship presented a figure of the Church, in that she is disquieted in the sea, that is, in the world, by temptations and persecutions, the Lord patiently sleeping, as it were, until roused at last by the prayers of the saints he checks the world, and restores tranquillity to his own."[47]

[46] Richard C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Jesus (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1943), p. 156.

[47] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 655.