Do You Trust Me - No Matter What?
Mark 5:21-43
ILL…There was a man who was lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry, about that time he saw a little shack in the distance.
He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small jug of water and a note.
The note read: "pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need". Now the man had a choice to make, if he trusted the note and poured the water in and it worked he would have all the water he needed. If it didn’t work he would still be thirsty and he might die. Or he could choose to drink the water in the jug and get immediate satisfaction, but it might not be enough and he still might die. After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire jug into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out he drank all he wanted, took a shower, and filled all the containers he could find. Because he was willing to give up momentary satisfaction, he got all the water he needed. Now the note also said: after you have finished, please refill the jug for the next traveler.” The man refilled the jug and added to the note: “Please prime the pump, believe me it works”!
Today we talk about trust. Jesus calls on two people to trust Him in different ways – but both are offered the chance to “prime the pump” of faith by forcing reliance on Jesus Christ.
• First, we have a public figure who must choose trusting Jesus over the jeers and doubts of his loved ones.
• Second we have an anonymous figure who has faith in Jesus but has not taken a public stand, acknowledging Him before the crowds.
Mark 5:21-24… When Jesus went back across to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. A leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, came and fell down before him, pleading with him to heal his little daughter. "She is about to die," he said in desperation. "Please come and place your hands on her; heal her so she can live."
Jesus went with him, and the crowd thronged behind. NLT
Jairus, belonged to the group of those who argued with Jesus about whether it was legal to heal on the Sabbath. He was part of the church leadership that did not accept the ministry and work of Jesus.
Now, through desperation he comes to Jesus. It is amazing how true need breaks through prejudice. People will mock Jesus and you for belonging to Him, but when a true crisis happens in their lives, they know that Jesus is the only real source of help.
As a synagogue ruler – Jairus was more like an administrator that a theologian. Nevertheless, he was a public figure and a well known and respected name in the community.
Coming to Jesus like this carried with it huge risks. I find it interesting that when it comes to theories we can find all kinds of arguments against believing in Jesus. However, Luke tells us that the girl was 12 years old – and was Jairus’ only daughter.
Put yourself in his shoes:
• At the end of his rope
• About to lose this precious gift
• Theories and arguments fall by the way side.
• Position becomes secondary.
Jairus asks Jesus to come and lay hands on the daughter.
Mark 5:25-29… there was a woman in the crowd who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors through the years and had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she was worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched the fringe of his robe. For she thought to herself, "If I can just touch his clothing, I will be healed." Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel that she had been healed! NLT
According to Jewish law this woman’s husband could not touch her and everything she touched became unclean. What a terrible life that was to lead. She had sought the best of what the medical care of the day had to offer and spent every dime she had – but to know avail.
For every year that Jairus’ little girl lived – this woman was in torment.
Note… In Jesus’ time, medical knowledge was scant. Often times the Pharisees went around claiming to be physicians. They would offer all kinds of strange superstitious methods of healing.
One method called for seven pits to be dug, with vine branches not yet four years old burned in them, and then the woman was to sit down by each pit and to say “Be free from thy sickness.”
Whatever the method – and I’m sure they had stranger ones than this – it didn’t work.
One of the reasons Pharisees got involved in healing is that many people believed that demons were a major cause of disease. Pagans would often go to temples where they would wait for a dream to tell them about the course of a disease. Or they would go to a hot springs like at Mishnah and bathe, hoping to be cured.
Now look at this – Jesus does not know what’s going to happen in advance – He senses it after the fact.
Mark 5:30… Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" NLT
No one told this woman to “touch Jesus garment”. There was no prescribed healing ritual here. All that mattered was that she reach out to Jesus in faith – and that’s all that matter for us as well.
I find it fascinating because there is no direct action taken on the part of Jesus. The woman reaching out to Him in faith obtained the power. Jesus did not just channel the power of God like some high guru. He wasn’t using the power of God, He IS the power of God.
Mark 5:31… His disciples said to him, "All this crowd is pressing around you. How can you ask, ’Who touched me?’ "
People were jostling back and forth and lots of people were touching Jesus, but only the one who reached out in faith got the healing.
Application… You can hang around Jesus all you want – but unless you reach out to Him and ask Him, you won’t get anything.
Mark 5:32… But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. NLT
Jesus ignore the logical argument of the day. Many were touching Him but one had touched through trust and received.
Mark 5:33-34… Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and told him what she had done. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You have been healed." NLT
It was important for her to not be an invisible healing. Jesus wanted her to acknowledge the source of the healing.
Paul in Romans says “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.” She believed that Jesus was the source of healing, but she needed to confess it with her mouth.
Jesus always makes time for a legitimate need. This woman was not important in society, especially compared to the synagogue ruler, yet Jesus stopped from an important mission because a “nobody” reached out in faith to Him.
When you cry out to Him in faith, putting your trust in Him, He will always make time for you.
1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
Remember that Jairus was chomping at the bit to get Jesus to hurry along to his house. His daughter was very ill.
Mark 5:35-36… While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from Jairus’s home with the message, "Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now." Nevertheless, Jesus ignored their comments and said to Jairus, "Don’t be afraid. Just trust me." NLT
ILL… Just Trust Me!... Since I was a little shy when I was in high school, I didn’t ask many girls out on dates. So my friend came up to me one day and said, “Hey, I’ve lined you up with a great date for Saturday night. It’s all set.”
“Who is it?” I asked. It turned out to be his cousin Doris. I had never met her. In fact, I had never met any girl named Doris.
“Oh, no,” I said, “I’m not going on a blind date.”
“Hey, don’t worry about this one,” my friend said. “Doris is a terrific girl. Just trust me—she’s a babe. But if you don’t believe me, I’ll tell you how to get out of the date if you don’t like the way she looks. Go to a girl’s front door to pick her up, and when she opens the door, check her out. If you like what you see, then great. But if she’s ugly, fake an asthma attack. I go ‘Aaahhhhgggggg!’ (Hold your throat like you’re having trouble breathing.) The girl asks, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I say, ‘It’s my asthma.’ And so we have to call off the date.
“Well, I don’t know...but okay, it sounds easy enough. I’ll do it,” I said.
So I went to pick up Doris. I knocked on the door, and within seconds, she was standing right in front of me. I took a look at her, and to my surprise, my friend was right. She was beautiful! I stood there not knowing exactly what to say.
She took one look at me and went, “Aaahhhhgggggg!”
Jesus said Just trust Me! How would you react? “Your daughter is dead,” they tell Jairus. It’s too late, nothing can help her now, don’t bother God anymore.
Jesus turns to Jairus and says two very important things.
• “Don’t be afraid.” Jesus heard what the men said – and actually interrupted them. It’s like He was saying “What you are hearing and sensing is likely to bring great fear into your heart – but I want you to disregard it.”
• “Only believe.” This is a command. In essence Jesus is saying to Jairus – “Do you trust Me, no matter what?”
Jairus had a choice to make:
• believe the environmental information around Him,
• believe the Word spoken to Him by Jesus.
Mark 5:37-40…Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter and James and John. When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw the commotion and the weeping and wailing. He went inside and spoke to the people. "Why all this weeping and commotion?" he asked. "The child isn’t dead; she is only asleep." The crowd laughed at him, NLT
Jairus and Jesus were surrounded by people with unbelief and ridicule. In those days there were professional mourners who came around to each family. They didn’t have any real stake in the situation – and so when hope arrived they expressed hard hearts. They’d seen it all – no one comes back from the dead – this situation is hopeless.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father, mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.
Mark 5:40-43… but he told them all to go outside. Then he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. Holding her hand, he said to her, "Get up, little girl!" And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! Her parents were absolutely overwhelmed. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone what had happened, and he told them to give her something to eat. NLT
The result was, those who trusted Jesus witnessed the miracle. When we refuse to trust Jesus:
• We miss the miracle.
• We miss seeing God change the situation.
Will He move?
Have you have prayed forever for a need but God never seems to answer? I’m sure that woman prayed and prayed over the twelve years of her sickness. However, for her, she needed to reach out to Jesus to find release. She needed to do more than pray and have faith. She had to trust.
Maybe for you, everything has gone pretty well. This “relying on Jesus” stuff does not affect you much. Your life is in good shape. You are more like Jairus not knowing that someday you will face calamity in your house.
• We have a pattern of life that we do not want to change.
• We are in a comfort zone and then the hard times come.
• At this point every thing changes.
• What was once important no longer is.
• What we once believed is no longer concrete.
Note… Jesus responds to faith through trust!
What Jairus asked for – Jesus granted. Later, a Centurion would ask for healing from a distance – and Jesus would grant that request too.
He responds to what we ask for and if we trust Him.
So, trust in Jesus, don’t limit your prayers, and also trust how the Father responds is in our best interest, even if the child dies!
Human efforts do little in the long run
The woman had availed herself of all the world could offer – and it only made matters worse.
• We will do anything before trusting in the Lord for our situation.
• We think by working harder and making more money, we will have satisfaction.
• We think that by giving in to sinful pleasure we will find love.
• We think that through secular psychology will heal the real hurts in our soul.
• We think by studying and espousing every philosophy created by man that we will find peace in our hearts
Only Jesus brings real healing, joy, satisfaction and peace. If you’ve run all your life trying to get ahead and find yourself further behind than ever – come to Jesus.
ILL… Meg Ryan… said all the fame and fortune accorded to her as a “star” was empty. The world’s stuff is really like cotton candy; it gives you a quick rush, but then leaves you flat.
Do you trust Jesus no matter what?
• What you see around causes panic, despair or anger?
• You pray out of your need and God seems to ignore it.
• You run out of money
• The loved one dies
• Some really important deadline passes
Jesus might have delayed just so the deadline would pass.
Then ask the question: “despite what you see, do you trust Me no matter what?”
2 Peter 3:8-9… But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Jesus never lets our time table determine His decisions.
