In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I found this one story of a study in elbows and fingertips. It is the story of how God understands the difference between elbows of unconcern or casualness and fingertips of faith.
The story is the setting of our Lord returning from some time of rest and relaxation way up north in Caesarea Philippi. Just as the boat hits the shore, there are people waiting for Him. As He is teaching them a man named Jairus does something that I am quite sure he had never done before in his life.
Jairus was a man who was most respected in the community. He was both a religious and civic leader. He was probably the wealthiest man in the community and a man with high moral values or he wouldn’t have been in the position he was in.
Jairus never interrupted people, but he came and interrupted Jesus that day as He was teaching, because there was something deep on his heart. His twelve-year-old daughter was dying. He came to Christ as soon as he heard He had arrived back in town. Christ read the panic and pain in his face, and He went with him immediately.
All of the people He had been teaching went along, too, and the Bible says they were so close together that they "almost crushed Him." All of a sudden, Jesus stopped in His tracks. People bumped into each other like railroad cars. Jesus said, "Who is the one who touched Me?" The apostles said to Him, "Lord, what do You mean who touched you? Everybody’s touching everybody. We’re packed in here like sardines." Jesus said, "Someone did touch Me."
It wasn’t just the elbows of being there. It was the touching. Every time someone reaches out to touch Jesus, He knows it, and they know it, too.
A woman came out of the crowd and told a very difficult story. She told of being an outcast, of having an illness which her society decided made her unworthy of living with her family. She couldn’t go to church with her friends. She could not be seen in a crowd. It was required that, whenever someone got close to her, she must call out, "Unclean! Stay away from me!" She spent all of her recent years and all of the money she had trying to find a cure for her disease. Now she was penniless, helpless, and hopeless, and she decided if she could just touch the hem of the garment of Christ, she would be made well.
And that is exactly what she did. It was a hard story for her to tell, because you see, it was illegal for her to be in that crowd. I think probably, Jesus said the first kind words to her she had heard in many a year. He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." At that very same time, a messenger came from Jairus’ house and said, "Your daughter is dead ... Don’t bother the teacher any more."
It’s amazing when you see Jesus Christ as only a teacher how much you miss.
He was saying, "Don’t bother the teacher. There’s nothing he can do. The girl is dead. This is a problem beyond his abilities." Jesus whispered in the ear of Jairus, "Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she shall be made well."
Then Jesus dismissed the rest of the crowd. He dismissed all the people who were excited about a miracle they had just seen and about what was going to happen.
He said "You stay here. You can’t go." He chose Peter, James, John the brother of James and said, "We four will go with this father to his house." He didn’t want that excited atmosphere around. When Jesus is about to do serious work, He doesn’t do it in a circus atmosphere.
Did you ever hear about the little boy who saw a tent and thought it was a circus. He slipped under the tent and found himself in a revival meeting ... such a terrible thing to think you’re going to a circus and find yourself in a revival meeting.
But I will tell you something a thousand times more terrible. That is to go to a place where you think there may be a revival meeting and find nothing but a circus. Jesus said, "I’m not going to do My best work in an atmosphere like that."
He took those four believers with Him, along with the father, and when He got there, there was a crowd at the house, too. They were moaning and wailing.
They were in the grieving process. Jesus said, "Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep." They not only laughed at Him, but they scoffed at Him.
They called Him names.
What would you have done? I think I would have said, "Sit there for a minute, folks, and let me show you something. Let me show you what I can do, you who are laughing and scoffing at me." But He didn’t do that. He asked them to leave. He said, "Would you get out of here?"
Everyone who didn’t believe was dismissed from the room, and now there’s just Jesus, the three apostles, Jairus, his wife, and the dead girl in the room.
Jesus looked at the girl and said, "Child, arise!" And she did. Then Jesus gave them strict orders: "Don’t tell anyone."
You know, sometimes we get the idea that Jesus went around doing miracles so people could say, "Isn’t He great? Isn’t He powerful? Isn’t He wonderful?"
When you really look at the Word of God, Jesus went around doing miracles, because He loved people. He didn’t feel like He had anything to prove to anybody. In this case, He loved this little girl so much that He healed her.
And He removed the healing from the crowd. I think He was saying to the parents, "I don’t want this little girl to be the freak in this community. I don’t want her to be the one that was dead and is alive again and have all that baggage to carry with her through her adolescent years. I want her to live a normal life."
So He said, "Give her something to eat. She’s hungry."
The Ingredients To God’s Power
Now in this episode, I believe we can find the ingredients that apply to every case where God’s power can work in our lives.
Abounding Love of God
Abounding love is always present around Jesus. Christ loved people so very much, and we see in this case He was a last resort for these people. The woman had spent all these years of her life being sick. She had spent every penny she had.
She had done everything she could do. Now she had nothing left and nothing to offer but her belief and herself. She came to Jesus as a very last resort.
This man with the sick daughter ... I’m sure he had used everything at his disposal. He had done everything he could do. When it got hopeless and he was helpless, then he came to Jesus.
Do you like being the last one chosen? How do you feel when you’re the last resort, when people try everyone and everything else before they come to you?
Do you like that?
I can’t tell you how often I get a phone call from someone who says, "We have tried everything we can think of, and it seems as if there is no way out of this situation. So now, you trot your God out here and let’s see Him work a miracle and if He can’t then I’m not going to have anything to do with you or your church."
It didn’t seem to bother Jesus that He was the last resort. He always accepts our frailty. He accepts us just as we are when we come to Him, at whatever point in life. We sure would save ourselves a lot of problems if we would come earlier. But isn’t it wonderful to know that if we come late, He still wants us and still cares with the same kind of love and grace?
It’s amazed me how Jesus accepts our frailty. He never condones our sins, but He accepts us. He never told people, ’It’s okay. Your sin is fine."
He never said that, but He always accepted the sinner with great grace. All sinners look the same to God. The Bible says there is no difference. But have you ever noticed that in the Scripture, even the most pitiful sinners, by our standards, felt comfortable in the presence of Jesus. His goodness never threatened them. I’m around some people who are so goody-goody that they make me nervous, but Jesus never made anybody feel that way.
Accepting Grace of God
This brings us to the second point of what happens when God is really at work in a situation: The ground is always level around Jesus. There’s always that accepting grace. Everyone’s the same. He receives everyone in the same way.
These two people couldn’t have been more different.
Here was a man on one end of the economic scale ... probably the wealthiest man in his community, probably the most respected man. He was a lay leader of the synagogue. He was a man who was probably one of the leaders of the community, an outstanding man with high moral values. He was quite likely the most loved and respected person in all his community.
Then there was this lady who was the most outcast in all of her society. It wasn’t her fault, but she was. She couldn’t go to church or live with her family. She had to tell everybody, "I’m unclean. Stay away from me. Don’t get close to me." That was the law. She had to do that. She had no money. Everything was gone. She was totally broke.
Yet, the Lord treated both of them exactly the same. He had the same kind of love, acceptance, and grace for both them, because the ground is always level around Jesus.
In another place at another time, a small group of people (and they were small in many ways), had an upset in their church. They were outnumbered by a new group that came into the church and the new group was interested in growing and not perpetuating "The Good Ole Boy Club." So this group of people got mad and went to another small church where they could be in power. They initiated a membership committee and anyone wishing to join the church had to attend for six months, and be reviewed by the membership committee. The new members were not allowed to serve on any committees because they would lose control of the church. Eventually, God got tired of these people calling themselves a church, and He allowed a new group to come in and gain control of the new church.
And you guessed it, those same people bailed out again because they lost control. When I went to the church, the new group didn’t know enough to remove the signs in the parking lot that said, "Membership Parking Only."
When I got there and saw that, my "flabber" was "gasted." I waited about a month before I suggested we remove the signs, and thereby remove the unspoken message that went with the signs, "Membership Parking Only, All Visitors Can Go To Hell." I told them, "I don’t think we have the right to decide who comes to the Father’s house." After all, didn’t He say "Whosoever will may come." I never heard another word about it.
Many of us have been praying that God would do something miraculous and bring revival to our church. I know there are people praying right now, "God, do something that’s so great and so wonderful that only You could be praised for it."
In many, wonderful ways, He’s answering those prayers. Do you know what the conditions are for revival? II Chronicles 7:14 says,
"If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
You know we all know that and yet, it seems as if revival doesn’t come. You wonder what is it going to take. I think sometimes we aren’t really and honestly humbling ourselves. I think we aren’t really seeking His face. I think we aren’t really turning from our wicked ways.
And we stumble around and we wonder, "Why doesn’t revival come?"
Perhaps it is something that only God controls and we cannot manipulate it. I think it’s what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3. He said, "Nicodemus, the Spirit of God is like the wind. The wind blows wherever it wants to."
Perhaps all we can do is just set our sails and say, "Please, Lord, blow with Your wind. We’re ready for it."
But it’s going to be up to God. Revival comes when He decides it comes.
I read recently about a church that experienced revival. It was a church without much in the way of commitment and advantages. For a period of two and a half years, seventeen hundred and fifty people were baptized. Week after week, Sunday night after Sunday night, twenty-five people were baptized. That church had been going down for twenty years.
I don’t know what caused it except just the spirit of God, but I do know this:
The one rare thing about that church was that there was not anyone made in the image of God ... clean, dirty, or whatever ... that was not welcome to join and to serve in any capacity in that fellowship. The ground is level around Jesus Christ.
Our Total Faith
Abounding, trusting faith is always there when Christ expresses and displays His great power. There has to be faith. To the woman, He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." To Jairus, He said, "Do not be afraid any longer; only believe, and she shall be made well."
There will be trusting faith.
In Hebrews 11:6, it says, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." I like the way the NIV renders that passage: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
The greatest need we have is faith.
I hear a lot of folks today saying things about Christian values and how we need to return to those. That’s a good word, but it’s got some dangers in it.
Because you see, you can’t have Christian values unless you have Christian faith and power. You can’t live like Christ unless Christ is living in you, and I’m afraid we have invented, in our land especially, a religion that talks about what we do and not what we are. We’ve lost the fact that we are not a nation that simply is setting up a religion; we’re a nation of people who need to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, and no one can be powerful without that relationship.
No one can be powerful without the kind of faith that says, "Jesus Christ is not someone about whom I know. He is someone who walks with me and talks with me. He is my Lord and Master, and I follow Him."
I think it was Browning who said, "Every common bush is aflame with God, but only those who see take off their shoes. The rest just sit around and pluck blackberries."
We need to pray for the ability to see, to have faith, to trust that God keeps His promises, to trust that He never leaves us or forsakes us, to trust that He will make us the people He wants us to be. But, and listen to this very closely because too many people disregard this ... it starts with relationship, it continues with relationship, it ends with relationship ... not rules, not religion, not ritual, with Jesus Christ. That’s where it’s found.
The Apostle Paul, in explaining himself, said, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come." The key word that our Lord has to say to you and me is He doesn’t offer us something new to think, He doesn’t offer us something new to do,
He offers someone new to be. That happens when you begin your personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some have stopped walking with Jesus and started trying to do church --
it will never be successful because Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing." Isn’t it time we got our hearts and our minds and our church in line with His Word? When we do that, we will be in His Will. And then we will see great things, things that boggle the mind. Do you know where it begins? It begins with you and with me. If we don’t get our hearts right, if we don’t practice what we preach, if we are not being God’s people, then we will not accomplish God’s Will.
As a matter of a fact, we won’t even have an inkling what God’s will is for us.
