Mark 5: 21-43

Theme: Faith

Most of us operate out of tradition and habit. Faith comes into play in the uncertainties of life, in those times when we take a risk. I am not sure we can be called people of faith until we have faced the darkness and kept on going because we believed that God was on the other side. If you have not taken the risk to live, you can only talk about faith or what it might be to have faith.

Faith is about uncertainty, seeing through the glass darkly. It is about trust in God even when we don’t have all the facts. It is evidence not seen. It means going on when the whole world tells us we are fools but we know that God does not lie. And we trust him and we follow him. It means that we follow Jesus because there is no other hope, no other place to go.

These stories are about faith. We can feel the pain of Jairus. His daughter was dying. This man loved his daughter. She was his monogenas, his only begotten daughter. She was 12 years old and in first century Jewish society, she was about to enter womanhood. But now she was dying.

As the ruler of the synagogue, he knew who Jesus was. Jesus did not have the best reputation in the world with the leaders of the established church. The rabbis considered Jesus to be a heretic. Jesus upset the social order by constantly attacking the scribes and the pharisees. But there was also one other fact that Jairus knew about. Jesus healed the sick and it was real. Jairus believed this and he sought him out because there was no other hope. Jairus forgot his power for he was a powerful man. He forgot his dignity, for he was prominent in his society. He forgot his pride for he was rich, and flung himself at the feet of Jesus and begged him to come to his home and heal his little girl.

Jesus always responds positively to faith. We get the impression that Jesus got up immediately in the middle of his teaching and went with Jairus. And as he went, the crowd followed him, they wanted to see a miracle.

Even as they spoke, another drama was taking place. This one involved an unnamed woman who was an utter outcast from Jewish society. She apparently had a gynecological disease. According to Jewish Law, her problem made her a complete outcast from society. She could not take part in any religious proceedings. She could not enter the temple. She could not touch another person for she was considered unclean. She even had to be separated from her husband if he was to be able to worship and participate in the life of the community. This woman's life must have been miserable and this had gone on for twelve years. Mark says that she spent a great deal of money on doctors and they did not heal her, only caused her a great deal of pain and made it worse and took her money. By the way, Luke, the physician, left out that detail in his account.

There is a lot of difference between Jairus and the unnamed woman. One was rich and one was poor. One was important and prominent and the other unimportant and obscure. Both, however had needs. Most of us can't identify with Jairus. Few of us run in the same circle as the rich and famous. But we might know what it is like to be obscure or poor or lonely.

As they walk toward Jairus's house, this unnamed woman thought to herself, "if I can just touch his garment, I know that I will be healed." So this unclean woman slips into the crowd and inches her way toward Jesus. She sneaks up on Jesus and she falls down at his feet and she does it! She touches the hem of his garment and instantly she feels her body change, she was healed.

Jesus stopped immediately and asked, "Who touched My garments?" What a statement. The disciples said, look at how big the crowd is, they are pressing in on you from every side and you ask who touched my garments? But Jesus kept looking around the crowd, he had felt that power go forth from him. Suddenly this frail, little woman stepped forward trembling with great fear, like someone who had taken something that wasn't hers and she fell down into the dust, at the feet of Jesus. Jesus knew who had touched him and why. Many scholars point out that this woman's act was part faith, part superstition and Jesus was not about to let this incomplete faith go unnoticed or uncorrected. But is that not the same with us? How many of us came to Christ and knew everything there was to know? We only knew that we needed Jesus and our faith has since then grown.

"Daughter your faith saved you." Jesus does not call anyone else daughter in all of the gospels. What a sense of belonging she discovers. And the Greek word literally is "saved," your faith has saved you. We can assume that from that moment on, she was a follower of Christ. She thought what she needed most was healing. What she needed most was salvation. Jesus told her to go in peace and to be healed from her affliction.

They proceeded own toward Jairus's house when the servants came out and told them what he did not want to hear, "Your daughter has died, why trouble the teacher anymore?" But Jesus said "do not be afraid, only believe."

When they got there, they found the professional mourners already on the scene. They laughed at Jesus when he suggested that she was asleep. He ran them all out. Jesus went over to the little girl and took her hand and in a soft voice said in their native Aramaic tongue "Talitha cum," little girl arise and she got up from her death bed.

The act of faith is a mystery to me. We can define faith as a practical trust in God. Yet, the event of faith is beyond understanding. The fact is, if we are to come to God at all, it must be by faith. The raw desperation in the lives of Jairus and this unnamed woman explain why this is so. They had no where else to go. They were blind to any other avenue because there were none. God drove them into a corner and they had nothing left but to trust Jesus. This is why it is that people in crisis situations often come to Christ. That moment of crisis is clarifying. We come to realize that the answer resides in a place that we cannot see. We can only trust the witness of the One who comes to us. That is the nature of faith. Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." And in fact, faith becomes a way of life for the Christian. Near the end of Paul’s life he reminded his brothers and sisters to take courage in the darkness of life, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

Jesus healed the sick, but the most important thing is he turned fear into faith and brought salvation to troubled souls. We all need to be touched by Jesus. We are often like trembling sheep being stalked by a wolf. Jesus is the great shepherd who touches us and restores us. God might not make the big plays in our life. But remember that is not the most important thing. We need the touch of salvation that Jesus can bring. Yes, but what about the woman and the little girl. Both of them got sick again and both of them died. That was not the promised resurrection. We receive the promise of resurrection the moment we place our faith in Christ. When that happens, nothing else matters. The fallen world can throw it worst at us and it does not matter, for we have come to faith in Christ and we have resurrection in our souls.

Jesus turns our fear into faith. It is the kind of faith that God gives us through his Holy Spirit. When we have real faith, we can take the risk to live, to witness and love.