Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.18 – May 2000

 

Just Believe

 

A Sermon by Rev S Bajema

on Mark 5:36

Scripture Readings:

Mark 5:21-43; also Heid.Cat. Q&A 20-21

 

Congregation...

There is a very effective advertising campaign run for a brand of sporting clothing.  There are only three words used.  And yet these three words speak heaps to a whole generation.  They capture such a feeling that instantly there's a connection – JUST DO IT!

Now, for someone of an older generation, there may be no understanding of this at all.  “Just do what?" they would probably ask.  And for someone from a different culture altogether there would be even more misunderstanding.  For them even a simple understanding of English language only confuses this phrase.  The word "just" in front of a clause can make what follows less important.

For example, "Maybe if I just...” means it's something that you do as a last ditch effort.  So it would mean that “Do It” – whatever that was – is something a lot less than other things you would do.  I'm pretty sure the ad campaign isn't meant to present something less than anything else!  But for so many of our western youth, raised in the era of doing their "own thing", where personal freedom has become taken for granted and money is no object, to say JUST DO IT hits the spot!  In an age where satisfaction is expected to be instant, it's “right on!"

In the same way what Jesus says in our text was also instantly recognised by Jairus.  For him there was no doubt about what Jesus meant, because of what he already knew.  It's what he already knew which makes up our first consideration this morning.

That is... FAITH IS ABOUT BEING BROUGHT TO A POINT.

This becomes clear already at the beginning of our reading.  As soon as Jesus has come across the lake, and the word gets around that he's in town, no one other than a synagogue leader himself is there, desperate for his help.

And desperate he must have been, for Jesus certainly wasn't 'kosher' – He wasn't recommended at all with the predominant religious grouping, the Pharisees.  Nor, for that matter, was Jesus liked by the powerful political party of the Herodians.

Jairus is willing to risk being ostracised for what he's about to ask.  His daughter is dying!  There's no one else to whom he can turn!  Then he falls at Jesus' feet!  Whatever else is happening, there's suddenly more than the distinct recognition that Jesus is one man who can help.  Jairus shows that Jesus is the only one who can help!

It's to this that Jesus lovingly responds.  This man knows about Him.  And this man really feels that Jesus can help him.  And what Jairus knows and feels is confirmed by what happens on the way to his house.

You see, everyone has heard about Jesus.  Their word of mouth as communication was just as effective as any newspaper or television today.  It was probably even more accurate!

It's the news about Jesus which has got around, and everyone has come to town.  Jairus is only one of thousands.  And while many of those have simply come to see the man everyone's talking about – the 'famous' teacher – there are many who need much more than that.  This woman with the continual haemorrhage is one of them.

I like the way Mark describes her previous medical care: “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors..." (vs.26).  Luke, in his gospel, doesn't touch on this.  But then he was a doctor!  Mark, though, expresses in this phrase a long period of pain.

Especially for a woman then, with this condition, there was the Law of Moses which would have meant her social life was non-existent.  In fact, she shouldn't have been here at all, with other people.  Her uncleanness, because of the bleeding, meant she wasn't allowed contact with other people at all.

William Hendriksen says that she shows this by only touching his clothes.  He says that she was careful not to touch Him bodily.  Looking back in Leviticus, though, the emphasis is strong on even anything she touched being unclean.  It says there in chapter 15, “When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge...".  (vs.25).  If anything, she should have been isolated from others altogether!

All that is far from Jesus' mind however.  He knew the Law – He was the One who gave it!  But He also knew what the real heart of the Law was about.  He had already showed that three chapters earlier in Mark with the debate on the Sabbath with the Pharisees.  Then He showed that the Sabbath, as with the whole Law, was made for man's good, not man being caught in a system of rules and regulations.

So, as He's travelling back with Jairus, notice what Jesus says.  He asks: “Who touched my clothes?" (vs.30).  Well, what could the disciples say to that?  The crowd was a multitude.  Thousands were all pushing and shoving around him.  He would have already been touched by hundreds.  What kind of question was that?

Congregation, it's the kind of question which searches you out.  It doesn't accept what's on the surface, but it looks at what's on your heart.

Jesus begins looking.  He who knows all things certainly knows what His power has just done.  Because of who He is, He could have simply picked that woman out of the crowd.

But, then, while our first consideration is...  FAITH BEING BROUGHT TO A POINT, it can never be complete until, secondly...

FAITH IS SEEING THE POINT.

That's what the woman shows.  She knows it's her.  Actually, this is more than a knowing or a feeling.  She has had that before.  Because that can also become superstition – and she had some of that in touching Jesus' clothes.

Now she has the healing!  The healing which occurs because of faith.  The healing that has touched her deep down.  That's why Jesus preaches about the Kingdom having come.  He is about to claim His throne – and He proves it is His own!  The healing authenticates His claim.

The woman believes.  The angels in heaven rejoice, while none other than their Lord on earth declares it is so.  “Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be free from your suffering” (vs.34).  That's the pardon of a king.  The declaration of the King of kings.

Still, we know that even having the Son of God on earth itself didn't mean everyone would believe.  There are verses in the next chapter telling about a whole town which just wouldn't believe.

For Jairus walking there alongside Jesus it did not necessarily mean the same.  And more so when the tragic news came from his home that his beloved daughter had died!  If... FAITH IS SEEING THE POINT... then he would have had so much trouble seeing through the dark cloud of grief now descending!  And in amongst human anguish that can seem to happen.

Someone once described his severe depression as a time he just couldn't see God.  His life was so devastatingly dark!  Yet that darkness is our own.  The clouds of deep unhappiness have come because of our human situation.  If it wasn't for sin they wouldn't be there!

The Lord Jesus knows this.  Hebrews 2 says this about Jesus Christ, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (vs.14f).

That's why the Lord says to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe."  He calls him to faith by telling him to shake off what holds him back.  The words of Isaiah come true: “Say to those who are frightened: Be strong, fear not!  Here is our God, he comes to save us” (Is.35:4).

Jesus tells Jairus in the strongest way possible that while for him so far... FAITH IS ABOUT BEING BROUGHT TO A POINT... it now has to be that... FAITH IS SEEING THE POINT!

As someone once said, "Faith is not an effort, a striving, ceaseless seeking, as so many earnest souls suppose, but rather a letting go, an abandonment, an abiding rest in God that nothing, not even the soul's shortcomings, can disturb.”

Congregation, this is the deep-rooted assurance the Holy Spirit creates, through the gospel!  It will never make sense as this world sees it.  In fact, it will often seem so full of contradictions!  As it was in our text for Jairus.

If Jesus was so powerful and loving, shouldn't He have hurried up a bit?  What use was all the stuff He talked about, if there was no one left to tell it to?

The response of those men from Jairus' house shows us a lot about how many people see Jesus today.  They say, "When it comes to the crunch – when life is really down and out – believing in something doesn't help.  Then you have to face facts!".

Well, my friends, Jesus defies the facts!  He ignores what those men have just said.  That's how strongly Mark records it, and for a purpose, too!  The same reason why we have to ignore the latest television programme or newspaper article which challenges who Jesus was or what the Bible says.  The same reason why we must be careful not to place our faith in man-made theories, however much they may claim to prove the Bible is true.

God doesn't need us to prove He's there!  He's the one who puts His Spirit in here - in our hearts!  And then we more than know it's all true!

The original word for “believe” is a present imperative.  It calls for a believing that keeps on going.  This faith is no passing phase – it's a continuing attitude.

And, congregation, it's in Jairus!  That's why they continue on together.  That's why Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of those people mourning.  That's why Jesus only takes a few in with Him as He brings the girl back to life.

In that moment of the Lord's challenge for Jairus...FAITH IS SEEING THE POINT.  Then it was no longer something which had happened to the bleeding woman or to anyone else he had heard or seen.  It's me!

The Messiah - Jesus Christ – is everything that the prophets of old said he would be.  He's inside me – and I in He!

But now, dear friend, can you say the same?  Perhaps for many years you have heard and seen much about this Jesus.  You may even know your Bible very well!  Or are you someone who's only recently heard?  Maybe it's been a few years ago, a few months, or even today!  You know there's something here.  And you know it's not what the people here have got – it’s who has got them!

Has He got you, too?  Has He said to you.. .JUST BELIEVE! ?

Amen.

PRAYER: Let's pray...

O Son of God, It is you who has brought us to this point.  And what's more telling yet is that it is you who have worked by your Spirit in our hearts so that we see you have bought us, too.  It was the price of your doing and dying which has made us truly see.  O Saviour, please make that faith to keep working within.  Help us to realise you more and more as the Lord, too.

Amen.