Pentecost
6
July
5, 2015
Mark
5:21-43
Redeeming
Words Rebuke Our Reason
In
the name of the Father and of †
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
It's
not hard to understand Jairus' urgent advice to Jesus:
Mark
5:23
My
little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your
hands on her, so that she will get well and live.
His
daughter was near death and Jairus had heard that Jesus healed
people. And since Jairus had never heard of Jesus raising the dead,
he really wanted Jesus to get to her sickbed before it became a
deathbed. Jairus was in a hurry.
Now
you might run the red light at Kimberly and Elmore at 80 miles an
hour if Jesus was in your back seat and your kid was at Trinity near
death. But if Jesus suddenly asked you to stop the car so that He
could talk to an old lady, you might be bewildered. And as the chat
with the old lady dragged on, you might become frantic.
On
His way with Jairus, Jesus did stop and talked to an old lady. This
is the middle chunk of the incident that our reading earlier left
out.
Mark
5:24-35
And
He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and
pressing in on Him. A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve
years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had
spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had
grown worse—after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd
behind Him and touched His cloak. For she thought, “If I just touch
His garments, I will get well.” Immediately the flow of her blood
was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her
affliction. Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power
proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and
said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him,
“You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched
Me?’” And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.
But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to
her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in
peace and be healed of your affliction.” While He was still
speaking,, they came from the house of the synagogue official,
saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”
And
so goes the rest of the story. Jairus and the old woman desperately needed help, both for 12-year old problems. One for her 12 years of
chronic bleeding; the other for his 12-year old daughter. Which one
was more important? Which one was more important to Jesus?
They
both were! Jesus takes His time with both of them.
In
His compassion He allows Jairus to give Him advice on how to heal his
daughter.
In
His compassion He allows the woman to go on and tell Him the whole
truth: 12 years of disappointment and loneliness and poverty. It
probably took her a while to tell Him the whole story.
And
what do you know? The very thing that Jairus was terrified of,
happened. They took too much time and his daughter died. Why did He
stop? Why did He take so much time? Why didn't Jesus treat this
life-and-death situation seriously? Isn't my little girl more
important than that old lady? Why didn't I leave earlier to find
Jesus? Oh, why and what if?!
What
did Jesus say to Jairus?
Mark
5:36
Do
not be afraid any longer, only believe.
And
Jesus went to the house and quietly got Jairus' daughter up from
death to life.
Pay
close to attention to what Jesus never said to Jairus both when they
began their journey and then resumed it. He never promised Jairus
that He would save his daughter. He simply said, "Only believe."
Believe what?
And
the answer is Himself, Christ Himself. Believe and trust Jesus Christ
is the answer to suffering and death.
By
God's grace the old woman believed. She had faith in Him and she
lived, not just without bleeding, oh wonderful joy!,
but with the Word of Christ.
By
God's grace Jairus believed and witnessed a profound victory on that
day, not just without his daughter, oh wonderful joy!,
but with the Word of Christ.
Dear
friends, some of our dearly beloved are dying today. Jesus may come
and restore health to them, but He probably won't. But His promise
comfort us in death and in life. He can raise a dead body to life
more easily than a parent can roust a sleepy child from bed. He's
that good. He's that powerful. He's that caring.
Even
when our reason says that Jesus isn't any of those things, good,
powerful, caring, His words redeem us every day. Honestly, our
opinion of Jesus isn't important. Rather, we listen to our Redeemer
and marvel at what He says and what He does. He says He cares for the
lowly, and He listens to the lowly, and He heals the lowly in body
and soul. The old woman and Jairus' daughter are so lowly we don't
even know their names. But Jesus does. And He knows yours, too.
Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
Alleluia! Amen!
Please listen to his thoughts here: http://welswwd.weebly.com/deutschlander-seminars.html
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