Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 5:21-24, 35-43
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  July 1, 2018

If I were to tell you to picture in your mind going down to the lake, for most of us a smile would automatically cross our faces. Our shoulders would relax. Our stress would go down. For us, going to the lake means recreation or relaxation. Going to the lake is our goal for working hard during the week. I can’t wait to go to the lake in a little over a week on my vacation. But, not for Jairus. Jairus did not have thoughts of relaxation and recreation on his mind. His daughter was sick. She was dying. She needed help, immediately. And he knew the one man who could help was down by the lake. And so he went to the lake in desperation.

So who is this Jairus? Mark calls him a synagogue ruler. He’s like the president of a congregation. His responsibilities ranged from taking care of the practical details of the synagogue, to lining up the readers and teachers, to making sure what they were saying was true. And so it’s somewhat shocking to see a man of his position falling at Jesus feet. Literally, the Greek says: “He begged him with many words.” We’ve seen that picture before, when someone is so fraught with emotion and grief that they just keep talking, saying the same thing over and over again. That’s Jairus right here. He a faltering father. He’s on his hands and knees. He’s begging: “My daughter! My daughter! She’s dying! She’s dying! Please come and heal her! Please come quickly! And Mark in his short, blunt style, almost nonshalontly tells us: “Jesus went with him.”

Can you imagine the emotional roller coaster Jairus is riding? His life is generally good. He’s a believer. He’s a church leader. He’s respected. But then his daughter gets sick and not just a cold, but near death sick. Then he goes to find Jesus and he agrees to come. And then…

Perhaps you noticed when we read the Gospel the first time earlier or maybe you noticed when you saw the sermon text, but there’s a big chunk of verses missing. We skip from 24 to 35. We get that hint in verse 35 when Mark tells us, “While he was still speaking…” Speaking to whom? If you remember from a couple sermons ago, Pastor Schlicht talked about a story sandwich, where you have the two pieces of bread that are really the same story and then this other story stuck in the middle. Well, that’s exactly what we have here. As Jesus is on his way to go with Jairus, he’s interrupted by a woman who had been suffering with bleeding for twelve years…interestingly the same age as Jairus’ dying daughter. This woman clings to Jesus’ cloak and is healed. Jesus stops when he feels that healing power leave him. He talks with the woman. And you can just picture Jairus, can’t you? He’s convinced Jesus to come and now this delay. Every second that ticks away is a second closer to death. “While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue ruler’s house arrived, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher anymore?”

As if the roller coaster plunged off the tracks, some people from Jairus’ house arrive. “Your daughter is dead.” Where’s the tact? Where’s the sympathy? Couldn’t they have broken it to him gently? No. She’s dead. Talk about a dagger to the heart! All that effort to outrun death and death won.

It doesn’t matter if you run ten miles a day. Death is going to outrun you because you’re a sinner. Doesn’t matter if you workout every day. Drink only vegetable smoothies. Sleep eight hours a night. Death is going to win. Death is going to overtake you. Because you’re a sinner.

“Why bother the Teacher anymore?” Why bother? He’s just a teacher! Maybe he could heal the sick, but raise the dead? No way! Why bother. What’s a teacher going to do now? Do you see that if we only see Jesus as a teacher, you won’t think he can do very much, at least not when times are really bad. You don’t call your favorite teacher when you’re sick. You don’t call them when you’re dying. You might call the pastor, but he’s just a man. Can he heal the dying, raise the dead? Come on!

Well, we have doctors and medicines and pills and chemo. They’ll take care of us. But Jesus? Maybe a nice guy. Maybe a good teacher. Maybe a quick prayer or two. But why bother him? We have the best medical care in the world. Why bother Jesus?

With a dagger in his chest and the recommendation from his house, Jarius was about as low as you can get. And it’s here that Jesus’ reaches out to him. Of all the people in the crowd, Jesus speaks just to him: “Don’t be afraid.” Nearly 100 times the Bible says these exact words. “Do not be afraid.” “Don’t be afraid” From the angels who announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds to the angels who told the women at the tomb that Jesus had risen, to Jesus himself to his disciples and here to Jairus; the Bible’s consistent, repeated message to us is the Gospel imperative: “Don’t be afraid!” Why not? Because Jesus has defeated death. Because Jesus rose from the dead. Death didn’t outrun Jesus, but Jesus outran death and conquered death. Jesus defeated death by his own death. As surely as Jesus lives, you will live. “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.”

“Believe what?” Isn’t that what had to be running through Jarius’ mind? What am I supposed to believe? She’s dead. What hope is there now?

I know that I’m asking a lot, but do you remember what Pastor Schlicht said about story sandwiches? He said it was the middle part that explained the outsides, the bread. We really skipped over that middle part. But I want to bring it back now because it’s going to help us understand Jesus’ words. You remember the woman with the bleeding? She had tried everything, exhausted every medical option. Spent all her money, but instead of things getting better, they got worse. She believed Jesus could heal her. And here’s the key verse, “She said, ‘If I just touch his robe, I will be healed.’” And she was. Immediately. And when she tells Jesus what she had done. Jesus responds by saying, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace…” This woman realized that to be healed, she needed only cling to Christ.

Jesus didn’t answer Jairus’ internal questions. Instead, he’s going to show him. He goes with Jairus and when he gets to the house he takes Peter James and John with him. And he enters the house and it’s quite the scene. There’s a commotion. Uproar. Crying. Wailing. Probably professional mourners. The louder the people wailed, the more that showed love for the one who had died. It’s so loud you can’t even think and so emotional and just noise. That Greek word for wailing is literally pronounced, “alalala.” Just imagine what that must have sounded like. We tend to weep in silence, they chose noise. We whisper. They wailed.

But then Jesus walks in and he says something so startling, the weeping turned to laughing. “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” With the exact same word that had been reported to Jarius, “dead,” Jesus uses that same word, only with a negative. She is not dead. Except she was. Everyone there knew it. These mourners knew. This wasn’t their first funeral and you don’t have a funeral for the living. But what they didn’t know is that there is really only one who knows. The only one who is all knowing. The Son of God and the Savior of the world was saying, “The child is not dead.”

“But sleeping.” Is Jesus just trying to be tactful? Is he just trying to soften the blow for an already beaten down Jairus? No. Jesus is calling it exactly like he sees it. In his eyes, in his knowledge she is only sleeping. Because sleep is temporary. Her physical death is only temporary. Sleep is a condition that is easily changed. It’s why the Bible often refers to the physical death of a believer as but a sleep, a temporary easy to change condition for Jesus! It’s why we can sing at a funeral, “Asleep with Jesus, blessed sleep.”

The crowd, they laughed at Jesus. But wouldn’t you have laughed too? Would you have been so quick to believe? If that was your child lying there, wouldn’t you have been afraid?

But the last laugh belonged to Jesus. “After he put everyone out, he took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Grasping the hand of the child, he said to her, “Talitha, koum!” (When translated, that means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”) Immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk around. (She was twelve years old.) Such is the power of Jesus’ word! It raises the dead. His Word gives physical life to the physically dead. His Word gives spiritual life to the spiritually dead. And look at the result. Immediately, the girl stood up and began to walk around. No therapy. No recovery time. Better than new. No one was laughing now. Instead, “They were completely and utterly amazed.”

In the face of insurmountable odds and evidence, all Jairus had left was to cling to Christ. All he could do was put aside his fear and believe. Friends, here’s our application. Whatever trial comes our way, whatever grief befalls us, when death is ready to outrun us, there’s nothing we can do but cling to Christ. Listen to what he says. Listen to his voice above the commotion, above the uproar, above noise. Focus on his words despite what your eyes might show you, what others might tell you. And when all seems impossible, hear Jesus say again, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.” Cling to Christ, today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen