When hope is lost, draw near to Christ because he can still save

I bet it hasn’t been too long since you’ve had “one of those days”. You know the days I’m talking about. The days where things keep happening wrong over and over. Not just big things, but little things too. If you’ve experienced one of these days it goes from frustration to anger to astonishment. How could this many bad things happen in one day? When things go terribly wrong back to back for me over and over, after the astonishment stage I actually get to the humor stage. I might laugh. “Oh now we have a flat tire. Ha. Of course we do.” If you happen to encounter a friend at this point, you probably start relaying to them the whole story of everything that happened. “First my alarm didn’t go off. Then we ran out of milk. Then the next thing. Then another thing.” If you’re the friend listening to this person, don’t try to tell them it’s not bad. Don’t try to tell them you’ve had it worse. Just listen and sympathize by saying things like “Oh that’s horrible.” This is pretty good marital advice too, men.

Usually at the end of the day you say something like, I’m just ready for this day to be over. Because after you get some sleep and the sun goes down and comes back up, things have been reset and you can put all of the bad stuff behind you.

But in a very not humorous way this can be drawn out over the course of our lives. It can be things that are not small and forgotten in the morning, but things that you can’t escape from. Difficulties that can’t be done away with through a reset. In this instance you move from anger to astonishment to being crushed and broken. There won’t likely be a recovery from this at all. It seems as if all hope is lost. In our text, we’re going to meet two people who had lost all hope. But by drawing near to Jesus, they were still able to be saved.

Main Point – When hope is lost, draw near to Christ because he can still save

Text – Mark 5:21-43 , which can be found in your pew Bible on page 800

Prayer

What we have here in this text is our second Markan sandwich. I introduced these some weeks ago. But Mark has a tendency to tell a story, interrupt that story with a different one, and then complete the original story. This is called the Markan sandwich. And typically the center part is helpful in interpreting the outer part. In this passage, we have a story about a man named Jairus whose daughter is sick and ends up dying. He comes to Jesus and Jesus miraculously revives his daughter, but in the middle of this story is told another. This middle part is the woman who has a discharge of blood. And she is also healed. We’ll be looking at both of those stories side-by-side today and hoping it explains to us why “when hope is lost, draw near to Christ because he can still save.”

Point #1 – Hope will be lost (vs. 21-26)

This is probably a downer of a point already. I’m sure you weren’t hoping to hear this message when you woke up this morning. But it’s realistic. It’s something that we all intuitively know, but prefer not to think about. And there’s no escaping it. That’s a bit of a modern myth we’ve bought into.

We’ve been able to keep so much suffering and troubles at bay with modern technologies and interventions, that we’re tempted to think maybe we can keep all suffering at bay.

Or perhaps instead of hoping in medical advancements to keep your problems at bay, you’ve placed your hope in your wisdom and good character. You know in Proverbs 12:21 it says “No ill befalls the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble”. Fortunately, I’m righteous. Fortunately, I’m very wise. This means I won’t have any troubles right?

Or maybe you hope in what God “owes” you. There’s a subtle unspoken thought in each of our hearts that if we work hard to serve God then he needs to take more special care for us and we should experience less difficulties. This is when you hear people saying, “What did I do to deserve this?”

But the hard truth that we all need to reckon with is that despite what technological age you live in, despite how wise and well-behaved you are, and despite how much work you do for God, it is impossible to avoid the struggles and pains of living in a sin world.

Let me show you this in our passage.

READ VS 21-24

So we have a man named Jairus here who is a ruler of the synagogue. What does that mean? He wasn’t a pastor as in someone who was responsible for preaching each week. But he was more like the groundskeeper and the worship service coordinator combined into one. The synagogues were meeting place where Jews could meet for worship, singing, prayer, and reading the scriptures. And the Jews would meet in them each Sabbath day. There was a synagogue in most towns in the area and each had its own individual ruler. The ruler was responsible for caring for the building and making sure it was in good shape. But he also planned out what would be done each Sabbath day. Who is going to be speaking this week? Do we have someone to read from scripture for us? Do we have a copy of the scriptures we’ll be reading this week? Who is going to be leading us in prayer?

This is not his professional career like the scribes or the Pharisees. He is an appointed official. He works another job. He is respected among the elders of the town. Everyone knows he has a great love for God and he has demonstrated commitment to God and to the Scriptures and to the synagogue. We often hate on the Pharisees for being hypocritical religious snobs, but Jairus is the real deal. There is everything to appreciate about him.

But what happens to him? His 12-year old daughter who is supposed to be in the prime of her health is sick and is dying. This is worst-case scenario for any parent. You are not supposed to see your children die. Jairus’ daughter is on the very brink. He abandons all standard social conventions. And a man who is used to being civilized and respected is now pitifully groveling in the dirt for the sake of his daughter. I’m sure he wanted to ask, “What have I done to deserve this?” But trials come for everyone indiscriminately. Each of us comes to the point where hope is lost.

There’s a second character experiencing difficulties, let’s meet her in verses 25-26.

READ VS. 25-26

This woman has a bleeding issue, no doubt some sort of menstrual bleeding, and she has suffered from it for 12 years. She has gone to every doctor imagineable. She has spent every bit of her money. But it has not resolved the problem. Now there’s another matter that isn’t mentioned explicitly here but would be an enormous problem. If a woman is bleeding she is considered unclean according to Jewish laws. She cannot go to the temple. Anyone she touches becomes unclean. Anything she sits on becomes unclean and makes anyone else who sits on it unclean also. While her condition isn’t contagious like leprosy, she may very well have been cast out from society in the same way.

I can’t imagine the despair she feels because her condition never gets any better, but rather continues to get worse. She has been deteriorating for 12 years. Only someone who has experienced chronic pain can sympathize with how grim and demoralizing this must be.

So here we’re introduced to two people on opposite ends of the social spectrum. One is a highly respected man who likely has a good job, a good reputation, and a good income. The other is a suffering woman, who has lost all of her money, has lost respect, and who people have ostracized. But it doesn’t matter what their credentials are, suffering does not care. Failure does not care. So long as we live in a fallen world, suffering is coming and it’s only a matter of time.

If it’s true that we can’t avoid this then what should we do? You should plan ahead of time. If you knew that an enormous hurricane was going to hit your house in precisely one year what would you do? You’d start planning to protect your things! It’s important for Christians to develop a theology of suffering before you are suffering. It’s much easier to build a strong house when the weather is good than it is to try and fortify it in the middle of the hurricane. Study what the Bible has to say about suffering. Read books that have to do with suffering. Because when the day comes, and it most certainly will in a way that you do not expect, will you be ready? Hope will be lost. What will you do when it happens?

When hope is lost in the lives of these two, they both respond similarly, but not exactly the same.

Point #2 – Faith draws near to Christ (vs. 27-36)

When Jairus’ daughter is sick he says, “I’ll go to Jesus for her to be healed”. When the woman learns of Jesus she also says, “I’ll go to Jesus so that I can be healed”. And they both do just that. They go to Jesus. But there’s some distinctions in their strategies. Look at Jairus in verse 23. He goes straight to Jesus’ face and asks him to lay his healing hands on his daughter. But look at the woman in verses 27-28.

READ VS. 27-28

Unlike Jairus who goes up to his face and requests a touch from his hands, the woman sneaks up behind Jesus and steals a touch from his garment. Both of them are desperate, but the woman seems to be the one who is more aware of her unworthiness. But they both are urgently trying to reach Jesus. And what happens when the woman reaches Jesus? Now pay attention because this is the center of our sandwich and it’s going to help us understand what comes next. And also note that Jairus is watching all of this take place.

READ VS. 29-33

Jairus is in a hurry. They must get to his daughter before it is too late. But Jesus stops, turns around and addresses the crowd. The disciples try to urge him to keep moving, but Jesus persists. This is important. The woman falls on the ground before him and tells him the whole truth. She opens up about every embarrassing aspect of our illness. She shares about the years of suffering she has been through and the failure of all the physicians. She confesses that though she was unclean she probably just touched scores of people on her way to Jesus. And Jesus waits and quietly listens to all of it. He’s not in a rush. He responds in gentle, beautiful words.

READ VS 34, But then we’re snapped back to the story of Jairus and his daughter.

READ VS 35-36

There were two significant words that were mentioned in the account of the woman and in the command to Jairus. Fear and Faith. Did you see that? The woman falls at Jesus’ feet in fear and trembling and Jesus says, “your faith has made you whole”. Then Jesus turns to Jairus and says, “Do not fear, only believe”. The relationship between faith and fear here is a bit confusing. We tend to think of it as simply faith is good and fear is bad. But here the woman comes to Jesus in fear and he commends her because it’s an expression of faith. Then he immediately turns to Jairus and says, “Don’t fear”. So is fear a good thing or a bad thing?

Mark has brought this up a few times already in his book. In chapter 4, the disciples are afraid of the storm at sea and Jesus says, “Why are you afraid, have you still no faith?” And after that, they become more afraid. Then in the beginning of chapter 5, after the man with the legion of demons is healed, the people go from being afraid of the man to being afraid of Jesus and they reject him and run him out of town. So it seems like fear is bad. But again, the woman here is afraid and is commended. So what are we to make of this?

Whether fear is good or bad depends on where your fear drives you. Fear is a vehicle that gets you moving. It’s an emotion, like sadness or happiness or anger. And it hits you whether you want it to or not. When you encounter a bear in the woods, God is not disappointed in you because of your horrible sin of feeling fear. No. Fear is a natural emotion. It’s an emotion that tells you, it’s time to move. I need to be somewhere that is not here. It’s a vehicle. But the question is where will that vehicle take you.

And that’s where faith comes in. Faith determines the destination you run to when you’re afraid. Where are you going to drive this vehicle? The woman experienced fear through her disease. She experienced even more fear when she was immediately healed. But in both instances she ran straight to Jesus. Her fear got her moving and her faith moved her towards Christ. But for Jairus the temptation was to let his fear drive him away from Christ. The messenger from his house said, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t bother Jesus anymore. Leave Jesus be and let him go somewhere else.” But Jesus’ reply is “Don’t let you fear drive you away from me. Have faith and draw near to me.” And in the rest of this story Jairus doesn’t do a single thing. All he does is stay next to Jesus. His faith keeps him close to Jesus and just watches him do his work.

I think it’s fair to say that either you’re afraid of something right now or that you’re going to be afraid of something pretty soon in the future. But I don’t think it would be fair or biblical to tell you to simply stop being afraid. “Are you scared of something? Well cut it out!” Rather, I want to ask, “Where is your fear driving you?” If you are suffering in some way like this woman, you’re going to feel afraid. It’s a very natural emotion. But where does that fear take you? Do you say, “Why bother the teacher any more?” and turn away? Or do you say, “I must go to him, because if I touch even his garments I will be saved”?

Fear is going to get you moving and say, “I need to be somewhere that’s not here”, but your faith must direct you straight towards Jesus. Don’t sit and think of all the terrible things that could happen. Maybe this will get worse. Maybe my kids will suffer. Maybe I’ll lose all the things dear to me. Maybe I’ll become unhappy. Stop letting your fear drive you in all those directions. Steer it back to Jesus. Pray. Rehearse the things you know to be true. Jesus is faithful. He is trustworthy. He is in control. Though I am weak, though I am sinful, I am the type of person he delights to save. If I come to him, I will find rest for my soul. Oftentimes you’re really going to have to fight with that vehicle, the road will get rougher and your fear will increasingly become difficult to direct. But fight to steer it towards Christ. In faith draw near to Christ.

Then if you do successfully steer the vehicle to Christ, what happens next? Is he able to deliver?

Point #3 – Christ saves to the uttermost (vs. 37-43)

READ VS 37-38

This is the first time in Mark, Jesus singles out these three disciples whom we often consider to be his “inner circle”. There are going to be multiple other times throughout the book where Jesus takes these three specifically aside from the others. It’s not clear why, but Jesus separates himself from the crowd and the rest of the disciples. Maybe the other 9 were on crowd control keeping everyone out of the house. I don’t know.

But they arrive at Jairus’ house, and there are all these people weeping and wailing loudly. This is a little bit of a different scene than we might be used to in a western context when someone dies. If someone dies here, we tend to be somber and quiet. People will cry, but it’s usually done softly and privately. In fact, our culture might view someone who is wailing loudly as perhaps understandable, but at the same time a bit embarrassing. That’s not the case for the Jewish context. These people are hired mourners. They are professionals at crying and wailing. And it was common for them to be summoned to the site of one who has died to begin their weeping. The goal is for them to draw people into the grief so that they grieve with the family and the entire home becomes an atmosphere of sadness where no one is aloof. But Jesus is not drawn in.

READ VS 39-40

Jesus, almost insensitively, tells them that their crying is inappropriate. Can you imagine doing that? Walking up to someone who is crying in the home of a dead 12 year-old girl and saying, “You need to stop your weeping.” But he doesn’t just say, “Stop crying,” he also says something ridiculous. “The child is not dead, but sleeping”. This is absurd enough to cause the professional mourners to break character. They stop their crying and instead start laughing. Why would he say she’s sleeping? Is Jesus ignorant? Is he blindly hoping that maybe everyone was wrong about her death? Is he making up a story that people wish was true just so that they can feel better about themselves? No. None of these. Rather, Jesus knows something that everyone else doesn’t know. When Jesus arrives there is no such thing as a disease that is terminal. Not even death itself is terminal. It is only temporary. It will end and be undone. Her condition right now is a lot more like sleeping, where she is down for a moment, but will rise in time. It is not like death as these people think of it. It is not final, irreversible, and conclusive. She is in fact, not dead. She is sleeping.

Jesus kicks the mourners out. There will not be an atmosphere of defeat in this home. Their services are no longer needed. And Jesus with the three disciples and the girl’s parents, goes to the sleeping girl.

READ VS 41-42

He takes a girl that is dead and he raises her up and then Mark includes a little detail for all of his readers. He says the girl is 12 years old. Why say that? Why mention her age? Because he’s trying to point out the connection for us. How long was the woman suffering from her bleeding? For 12 years. She suffered for 12 years. This girl’s age was 12 years. Mark’s staring at his readers nodding. Do you get it? Do you see the connection? The woman thought all hope was lost. Her suffering continued to get worse and worse. And when she was in her lowest state, Jesus saved her. Now for Jairus things were getting worse and worse. He reached the absolute bottom of the hopeless barrel. She was dead. No one could even conceive of a solution, but Jesus says, “Did you see what happened for the woman? It will be no different for you if you persist in faith. If your faith continues to drive you towards me.

And because both the woman and Jairus descend to the deepest amount of suffering possible and Christ saves them from that deep suffering, he gets incredible glory. He’s not a God who is only able to solve small problems. He can save to the uttermost. There is no problem, no struggle, no sin, no suffering that is so deep that Jesus can’t reach in and resolve it.

Our understanding of how Jesus is supposed to save us from suffering involves a very little amount of suffering. We think, “Ok Jesus, you can allow me to suffer for a few weeks and maybe even months through some hard struggle, but then you’re supposed to swoop in and save me from it before it gets too bad.” But when the Lord allows your suffering to persist when they don’t get better, but like the woman rather they grow worse we think to ourselves, “Wait a minute. This Jesus thing isn’t working. He’s supposed to stop this suffering before it gets to the real bad part.” But Jesus never makes that promise. Instead he promises that those who persist in faith will be saved. When? I don’t know. How? I don’t know. How deep will the struggle go and how long will it persist? I don’t know. But I know that Jesus can save even to the uttermost.

Perhaps you think to yourself, this is a cruel Christ. Why would he allow these horrible things to happen just so he can get more glory. He sounds like a vain and wicked tyrant. But there’s one more verse we haven’t read yet.

READ VS 43

I think the food comment is added just to show how tender and caring Christ is, but what’s really noticeable is the request to not tell anyone. Jesus raised a girl from the dead and he says, “Don’t tell anyone about this”. We’ve seen this before! He healed a leper in chapter 1 and said don’t tell anyone. He casts out demons later and prevents them from making him known. He wants to keep his identity a secret. Why? Why would he do that? If you’ve got all the power and authority, tell someone. Do you remember our outline of the book of Mark? The entire first half is Jesus’ displaying his authority, but now he says don’t tell anyone? It doesn’t make any sense.

But it does. Jesus doesn’t want the people to spread the news about half of who he is without spreading the news about the other half. Yes he is in charge. Yes he is the Messiah. And yes he has all the authority. But what is the second half of the book of Mark about? Jesus suffers. The other half of the book is about Jesus suffering. He doesn’t want you to think of him as a powerful tyrant Messiah. He wants you to know him as he truly is. A Messiah who uses his authority to suffer on behalf of the people he loves.

It’s true. Jesus may allow you to descend into deep suffering so that he can receive great glory. But he will never ever let you descend into deeper suffering than he himself endured on your behalf. He suffered to the uttermost, all the way to death itself, so that he could save to the uttermost.

Church, I want you to develop a proper theology of suffering. Because if you’re not suffering now, you no doubt will be at some time. When hope is lost, draw near to Christ because he can still save. Suffering doesn’t discriminate between rulers or outcasts. And when it arrives your fear will prompt you to move. Move towards Christ. And I promise you, that regardless of how deep you descend into your suffering, it will not be deeper than Christ can save, and it will not be deeper than Christ himself suffered, it will not be deeper than his love for you took him.

Prayer