Scripture: Mark 5: 21-43
Video of the sermon here (from around 35 minutes 30)
Audio of the sermon here
Once upon a time, an army of frogs decided to hold a competition. They would have a race to see which could reach the top of the Eiffel Tower first. There was great anticipation for this event and crowds from all over Paris gathered to see the spectacle.
The competition began, the frogs started to climb, while a crowd below cheered on their favourites.
A moment later though, someone shouted The Tower is very high. They can’t possibly do it! When they heard this, some of the Frogs collapsed almost immeidately, but others continued to climb.
Then another voice joined in You’re right – it’s hopeless. No one will make it!
And gradually this chorus of doubt began to spread amongst the crowd. And as they made more and more noise, more and more of the frogs began to drop out of the race.
This went on until all but one Frog was left climbing the tower. He made it to the top somehow despite many in the crowd shouting he cannot do it.
Everyone wanted to know how this one Frog succeeded while others failed.
It turned out that he was deaf. He couldn’t hear them.
Turns out in life, people can encourage or discourage you. But they cannot draw the boundary lines of your faith if you refuse to listen to them. So much of life is a matter a choosing the right voices to listen to.
We’re continuing our series of meeting Jesus in the pages of Mark’s Gospel. We’re picking up on the same passage as we considered last week. You might remember I talked about how sometimes Mark likes to link two stories together by putting one inside the other, like literary Russian dolls. That’s what he is doing here.
Last week we looked at the inner story, where Jesus healed the woman with a bleeding condition which she had borne for 12 years. She reached out and touched the hem of his robe and was healed. But Jesus stopped to find out who it was before assuring her of her healing.
This happened when Jesus was on the way to do something entirely different, to the bedside of the dying daughter of a synagogue leader called Jairus. The incident of the woman with the bleeding issue heightens the tension of what is going to happen here. This outer story is where we’re going to focus our attention today.
But in some ways it’s not really a story about Jairus’ daughter as such. Sure, she is the one healed and raised, but it kind of just happens to her and around her. We don’t even know her name. Other than Jesus, the main character in the story is Jairus. He is the one who begs Jesus to come heal his daughter. He is the one who, when he is told Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore, Jesus urges Don’t be afraid. Just believe.
Like the frogs in the story he is the one being told it’s hopeless. It’s impossible. It’s too late. It can’t be done. And he is the one who is having to silence all those voices and keep his ears trained on Jesus, keeping his faith on Jesus, when all around are telling him there’s no point.
Jesus has got crossed the sea of Galilee. Mark doesn’t specifically tell us where he lands, but Matthew tells us it is Capernaum. Although Jesus was raised in Nazareth, it seems Capernaum was where he based himself, certainly during the period of his ministry.
Capernaum has been an important centre for Mark’s Gospel so far. It was the same area where Jesus met and called his first disciples and where we have seen some of the stories of healings.
No sooner has he arrived, than the local synagogue leader, a man called Jairus, comes and throws himself at Jesus feet. You’ve got to help me, he pleads. My little daughter is dying. But come to my house and put your hands on her so that she will get well and live.
Now it’s worth taking a moment to highlight who Jairus is and what a synagogue ruler was. He wouldn’t have been a teacher, rabbi or whatever. He was what we might call a lay person. But he had an important job within the faith community. He was responsible for supervising the services at the synagogue. He was the one who kept order. For example he would decide who was allowed to come along and speak. He had quite a lot of status within his own community, but he would also have had people above him keeping an eye on him that he was doing a decent job, keeping the community on track. Not giving prominence to the wrong sorts.
That adds an extra dimension to the narrative. You see, this is not the first time Jesus would have encountered Jairus. Jesus had already been at his synagogue.
And, shall we say, it hadn’t been without incident.
We read about it early in Mark 3. When Jesus went to the synagogue there was a man there who had a withered hand. Jesus was already building up a degree of opposition, be it for announcing the forgiveness of sins to a paralysed man; or eating with dodgy sorts like tax collectors and sinners (even calling one to be his disciple!); or a seemingly rather lax approach to sabbath keeping.
So in the congregation that day there were a few watching him closely. And Jesus knew it. And chances are, whatever he thought about Jesus, Jairus knew it. But Jesus wasn’t having them tell him what to do. He called the man out on front of everyone, asked him to stretch out his hand and healed him.
Which you’d think was pretty amazing. Everyone would have been thrilled. Except those with a bit of knowledge and influence were very upset about the fact that he had done it on the sabbath.
That particular section ended in a rather ominous fashion. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
I wonder if Jairus had got a telling off that day. What kind of show are you running here, Jairus? Do you not know what he’s like? Have you not heard some of the stuff he’s up to, who he’s hanging out with, what he is saying. The boys upstairs are not happy. And you don’t want word of this getting out to Herod and the like. You know what he’s like when he gets nervous. You’d better sort this…
Those were the voices trying to influence Jairus. This Jesus was a heretic, an imposter, an outsider, someone best avoided, not encouraged. For all we know, Jairus himself may even have had his own misgivings about Jesus.
Then there was his own dignity. Jairus was a man of status, even if only within this small community. He was what we sometimes say in English a big fish in a small pond. People looked up to him, respected him. This was a culture where status really mattered. You didn’t make a show of yourself in front of someone of lower status.
Those were the voices telling him all the reasons why he couldn’t, or shouldn’t, go rushing to Jesus. But faced with the hard realities of life, none of that mattered. This was his young daughter. Only 12 years old. All her life ahead of her. Sickness, tragedy, even death is no respecter of hierarchies. Jairus is powerless in the face of what his daughter is suffering. And, whatever else he thinks about Jesus, and no matter what others are saying about him, he knows this Jesus has a reputation for being able to heal.
And so he silences the doubting voices both within and without him. He pushes aside any doubts and uncertainties about this maverick rabbi. He risks people in the community looking down on him, perhaps sniggering at the local big wig kneeling before and begging the guy who all his superiors are furious about. His daughter is more important than what scribes and Pharisees and local villagers might think. He throws himself at Jesus’ feet and begs him to come heal her.
As the crowd gathered around Jesus, all of this would have given an extra little edge to the encounter. How would Jesus react? Would he help this guy? Or would he tell him to ger lost? Would he make a point of telling him oh, need me now, do you? Weren’t so keen on me when I was in your synagogue, were you?
Jairus himself may have had some doubts about what Jesus would say.
But in Jesus, Jairus discovers that days that there are no boundaries to the love of God. No-one is beyond the reach of the compassion and help of Jesus. Past record is irrelevant. All they need to do is reach out or call on him. Jesus simply picks Jairus up and starts walking with him.
As I said last week, it wouldn’t have been a massive journey. Capernaum wasn’t a massive place. But then there is the interruption. As they are walking along Jesus stops and says who touched me.
As his disciples protest about the crowds who are gathering round, how people are jostling for position, all keen to get a closer look or to hear what’s going on here, surely someone would have touched him, is Jairus thinking are you kidding me. My daughter is dying here.
Does the woman’s story seem to take an age? But Jesus seems in no rush. Does Jairus think Jesus is distracted? Does he feel the temptation to ask the woman to get to the point of her story, to move Jesus along.
And in the delay, comes the news he is dreading. It’s too late. Your daughter has died. Don’t bother the teacher any more.
Might he even feel a sense of anger towards the woman who touched Jesus’ robe. Was it really that important that she had to do it now? Could she not have waited til Jesus was finished with him? She’d been waiting 12 years. Another couple of hours wouldn’t hurt. Could Jesus not have waited? Surely it wouldn’t have been that hard in a small community to find out who it was.
And in that short time his daughter has died. The worst of his fears had happened. His hope was extinguished.
Except Jesus looks him in the eye, looks right into him, like he can truly feel all that Jairus is experiencing and he says those words.
Don’t be afraid. Just believe.
How hard must that final bit of the journey been? It was one thing to believe in Jesus for healing. He had seen that so often in this community of late.
It was another thing altogether to believe in the face of death.
But on they go, til they reach the house. The mourners had wasted no time in getting there. Our culture is normally quite reserved in these circumstances. We chat quietly over cups of tea. Not every culture is like that. They let it out. There are some cultures where wailing plays a big part in the mourning process. If two people meet for the first time after one of them is bereaved they will embrace and wail, often even if it has been a considerable period since the bereavement.
And already the mourning is in full swing. As Jesus, a few of his disciples and Jairus walk into the home, we’re told there is a right commotion. But Jesus is having none of it. What’s all this commotion and wailing – the child isn’t dead. She’s asleep.
And the wailing turns to mocking laughter, but Jesus just shoos them out of the house, like he’s evicting all the doubting thoughts. The only ones he allows to stay are his few disciples and the girls parent’s.
What follows seems so… well, ordinary. Jesus simply walks across the room, to where the young girl lies. He takes her by the hand and says two words. Talitha koum.
Quite literally Jesus says Get up, kid.
It’s interesting. Those two words are kept in the Aramaic which Jesus would have normally spoke. Not translated into Greek for writing. Some say it was to stop Jesus being accused of sorcery in raising her. Maybe it is just it stuck with those who heard it.
Whatever the reason, she did it. She got up and started walking around. But as if to prove she is real and alive, Jesus says give her something to eat.
Faith wasn’t easy for Jairus that day. He had so many voices telling him it was pointless, it was useless, it was impossible. Some of those voices were outside him. This Jesus wasn’t to be trusted. He was trouble. Best stay away from him. Some where within him. His own doubts, his own perceptions of Jesus and what he was like. Then there were the crowds of those around him saying stop hassling Jesus. It’s not worth it. It’s too late. It’s hopeless. She’s gone.
And those voices had to be silenced and ignored in the face of the one who says Don’t be afraid; just believe.
And in doing so, he discovers three things.
One was Jesus’ grace and compassion extends to all. Jairus may have had good reason to wonder if Jesus would help him. At best he was associated with a lot of people who had wanted nothing to do with Jesus. Jesus wasn’t bothered. His grace was for all who called on him.
A second was that Jesus’ power extends even beyond death. Even there, Jairus’ daughter was not out of reach.
And thirdly that Jesus can be trusted with what is most precious to him.
Maybe some of us need to hear those kinds of lessons this morning. We live in a fairly sceptical age, and can breathe can air. Not even necessarily in voices which are actively hostile to Jesus or the Gospel. Just in the sense that he does not even figure in so many people’s thinking. It can dim our sense of expectation, anticipation, even our sense of hope that things might be different. Perhaps time, experience, previous disappointment have had that affect on us.
We will be influenced by the voices we give credence to. And they’re not just out there. They’re inside us, shaped by the inner dialogue we have wit ourselves all the time. And often that inner dialogue is harder on ourselves than others would be, harder on ourselves than we would be to others. The voices of doubt and hopelessness can seem so strong and loud in the face of a still, small voice, whispering within us. Don’t be afraid, just believe.
Don’t be afraid – just believe – I can cope with your past. Jesus’ grace extends to all of us. On one hand Jairus was an insider. A respected member of the community. On the other he was part of a community that was proving increasingly hostile. But Jesus did not turn him away. His grace extended to Jairus, his daughter and the woman we thought about last week equally. His grace extends to all of us. No exceptions. All we have to do is ask.
Don’t be afraid – just believe – it is never beyond hope with Jesus. We are never beyond the reach of Jesus. This table reminds us of that, as here we are reminded that Jesus was prepared to enter into death itself. But God raised him to new life. There is no depth to which we can do that he cannot reach us. Nowhere we can do that he is not been there before us. When those voices come from within us and outside us saying it’s hopeless, it’s done, it’s finished… God’s not done. He asks us to listen for that whisper amongst the clamour… Don’t be afraid… just believe.
For Jesus can be trusted with what is most precious to us. One of the privileges we have is that we can pray of behalf of those who can’t or won’t pray for themselves. It wasn’t Jairus’ daughter who came to Jesus begging for help. It was Jairus.
I am grateful for those who have brought me to Jesus in prayer down through the years. And I probably only know a fraction of the prayers uttered and how those prayers have been answered. But they have been many.
And there are many things I have prayed for that I still yearn for. I don’t know what, if any, difference those prayers have made. Perhaps you have prayed for years and seen little result. Perhaps that voice is within you saying If God was going to do anything about that, he’d have done it by now.
And we need to hear that voice once more… Don’t be afraid. Just believe. It’s never beyond Jesus. He is always at work. Ad he can be trusted with all that is dear to us.
Many will hear the voices of doubt and give up.
But we have another choice, just as Jairus did. We don’t know what he thought as he took each step with Jesus. But he did and Jesus proved faithful.
May we be able to trust him and may we too find him faithful to us.
paper dolls 