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| Faith vs. Fear (Mark 5:21-43) |
| Written by Pastor Kuder | |
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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. When I was much much younger, I thought that my father could do anything. He knew all sorts of stuff about various animals and plants. He was really strong. He could do all sorts of martial arts. He could throw an ax. And He was great at building just about anything And as I grew in size and age … I can remember getting my first training-wheel free, bike. And yes, that bicycle was a Space Invaders bike. After my father had assembled the bike for me … we took it out on our quiet street. And after my father had done a bit of coaxing with me … we started off down the street. At first my father was holding on to that banana seat, pushing me along. After a while though of pushing me along, he told me that he was going to let go and that I was going to have to take over. If you can’t guess, I wasn’t too excited about this but I knew I had to do it. However, I was a bit scared of the fact I wouldn’t be able to look back and see his hand holding on to that banana seat. My father did let go and remarkably, I was able to keep going without falling. What I wasn’t aware of was the fact that even though I couldn’t see father’s hand on the back of my seat … he was actually running alongside of me. Today’s Gospel reading from Mark is quite an incredible story of faith, fear, and doubt. But there’s a lot of color to it that gets lost sometimes when one just reads it. In today’s Gospel reading we are introduced to Jairus who is one of the rulers of the synagogue. Now Jairus, he has a daughter who is deathly ill. And he’s heard of Jesus and the miracles that He has done all over the place. So he goes to Jesus and pleads with Him to come to his house and heal his daughter. Now, Jairus doesn’t just ask Jesus to come heal his daughter … he falls at Jesus’ feet and pleads with Him to come and heal His daughter. And this is no small deal. Jairus is a leader in the synagogue. There’s a good chance that he worked with and knew some of the very people who were out to get Jesus. By doing what he’s doing, he has to put aside his dignity and his pride as well as his own reputation amongst his peers. So he obviously has some faith that Jesus can do what he’s heard about. So Jesus and His disciples begin follow Jairus to his house. And it’s no doubt that Jairus must have had a sense of urgency about him. Wanting to get Jesus to his house as quickly as possible. Along the way though, Jairus has his patience tested … not once … but twice. First, as they are going along they encounter a crowd. They must have known that Jesus was in the area, and this crowd is pushing in on Jesus. All of the people wanting to just be near Him. And so they slowed down Jairus as he was trying to get Jesus to his house as quickly as possible. Then something else happens to slow down their travel even more. A woman who had not been able to find a way to stop her very own bleeding for years comes up behind Jesus and in faith reaches out and touches Jesus’ garments. And in her faith in Jesus, she is healed from this condition that had been going on for some twelve years. And because of this Jesus now stops all movement and talks briefly with this woman … this woman who reached out to Him in faith. And after He tells her to “go in peace,” they set off again following Jairus to his home. Now all of this must have tried Jairus’ patience a bit. And if you can imagine, he must have been thinking to himself, “Come on God. I put my dignity and my pride and even my very own reputation aside to come to you. I even fell at Jesus’ feet and pleaded with Him to follow me to my house so He could heal my daughter. And then, as we started off, You let that crowd slow us down because they wanted to see Jesus. And then on top of all that, we get stopped by that woman. Now, I understand that it was important for You to do that miracle and heal her but please, don’t let my daughter die because of all of that. I’m doing everything that I can” And then it happens. When they got closer to Jairus’ house, someone from his house came and gave him the news. “Your daughter is dead.” And then that person adds a bit more fear and doubt to Jairus’ already struggling emotions. This person from his house says, “Why trouble the Teacher and further?” And without missing a beat … Jesus steps right next to Jairus and very calmly says to him, “Do not fear, only believe.” And then, Jesus takes Jairus, Peter, James, and John and they go into the house and get Jairus’ wife. They then go into this young girls room who they were just told had died. And Jesus then takes this young girls hand and tells her to get up … and she does. What an incredible moment that must have been to be there and experience that. Mark, in fact, tells us that they were immediately overcome with amazement. For many of us we have times when we think that God isn’t there with us. Or that He let us down in some manner, because He isn’t doing things the way that we think that He should be doing them or in the time frame that we think He should be doing them. When we don’t see His hand on our proverbial banana seat and we think that He has left us when in reality He’s right there next to us. He’s right there telling us, “Don’t fear, only believe.” If Jesus came down, suffered and died and three days later rose from the dead to pay for our sins … He is not going to leave us all alone when we are in crisis or when we are in need...let alone any other time. There’s an old saying that I happen upon every so often. That saying being, “When God closes one door, He opens another.” Now there are a whole bunch of variations on this saying. However, there’s one that one of my friends said to me that I like the best. “When God closes one door … He opens a window.” The fact is … that He doesn’t always do things in the manner that we think He should or in the time frame that we think He should. But He is always there with us, no matter what. In His most precious name we pray. -Amen |