Title: The Faith of Jairus
Text: Mark 5:21-36
In this text we read about a religious leader named Jairus. His daughter was lying on her deathbed and so Jairus goes to Jesus and tells him about his situation. Notice that as soon as Jairus spoke his faith, Jesus was attracted by that faith and went with him to heal her. As He and Jairus and the disciples were making their way through the multitude, a woman came up behind Jesus and secretly touched the hem of His garment. This was a touch of faith.
Jesus turns and asks, “Who touched me?” His disciples said to Him, “Lord, You see this huge crowd of people that is pressing against You on all sides, so how can You ask who touched You? Everyone is touching You!” But Jesus said, “This touch is different, because I felt virtue go out of Me.” Someone paraphrased it by saying, “Someone has made a demand upon My ability.”
Now put yourself in Jairus’ place. He has desperately made his way through the crowds to Jesus to beg Him to come and heal His daughter who is at death’s door. Obviously, he wants Jesus to hurry up and come as quickly as possible because there is not a moment to lose. She could die at any given moment.
Then on the way, some woman sneaks up behind Jesus and by an act of faith makes a demand upon His ability. As Jesus stops to minister to her, Jairus is left standing there to watch the scene and think within himself: “This isn’t fair. This woman has been sick for twelve years, but my daughter is dying right now. I came to Jesus first. He should come with me and heal my daughter, and then He can attend to this woman. Besides, since she is unclean, she doesn’t even have a right to be here.”
At the time the Levitical law stated that because this woman had an issue of blood, she was ceremonially unclean. By law, she could have been stoned to death just for going out in public. Here Jesus was taking up precious time with this social outcast when it seemed that He should have been dealing with the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue.
This story is evidence that Jesus is no respecter of persons. He will minister to the highest-ranking official, and He will minister to the lowest outcasts of society. He had started going along with Jairus in response to his faith, and on the way He stopped and ministered to this poor woman in response to her faith. This demonstrates the fact that the Lord is not looking for those who have wealth; position or power, all He is looking for is someone with faith. Faith always gets His full and undivided attention. There are couple things concerning the faith of Jairus that we need to remember.
HE DIDN’T PANIC
As Jesus is talking with the woman, messengers come from Jairus’ house to tell him that his daughter has died, so there is no reason to “trouble” the Master any further. Jesus hears what the messengers told Jairus about his daughter being dead. Immediately He turns to Jairus and says to him, “Be not afraid; only believe.” In other words, what Jesus was saying is: “Don’t panic!” He was telling this man to act just as he had been acting before he received this bad report.
As far as Jesus was concerned, death was no greater a challenge than sickness. He knew that if He had the power to restore health, He had the power to restore life. That is why He told Jairus not to panic.
Let me give you a dictionary definition of the word panic: “a sudden, unreasonable, overpowering fear.”
Since panic is unreasonable fear, it is groundless fear, which means there is no factual evidence to support it. Some may say, well there was factual evidence. Based on what! Jesus, the Messiah is right beside Jairus, trust me, there is no factual evidence that she is going to be dead. When Jesus is walking with you, there is no reason to fear no matter what the report may sound like. When you are hand in hand with Jesus, there is no report bad enough that should cause us to panic. We are walking with the Master of the Universe. We are walking with the One that rose up from the grave Himself, if He can raise up from the dead after being dead for three days, please, tell my why He cannot handle your problems.
If you are in panic, then you are operating in groundless fear. Fear of any kind negates faith. Faith and fear are mutually exclusive. They cannot exist at the same time in the same person. Either you have great faith or you have great fear, one or the other. Satan knows that if he can drive your faith out of you by fear, he can bring to pass in your life the very thing that you fear. But if you keep faith in your mind and heart, God will bring to pass in your life the very thing that you are believing.
This is why Jesus is telling Jairus not to be afraid. Only believe. Obviously Jairus’ mental and emotional attitude had a great deal to do with what was going to happen next.
The same is true with us. When the Lord tells us not to be afraid, not to panic, He is not saying that the negative situations we are facing are not real. They are real, just as the situation of Jairus’ daughter was real. His daughter was dead. That is about as real as it gets. Jesus did not deny the reality of the situation, but He did indicate by His words and actions that it was not the ultimate or final reality.
He went right on towards Jairus’ house just as He had been doing before the bad report came. He had started out with Jairus in response to his faith and He didn’t intend to stop now just because the physical circumstances had changed.
Jesus did not tell this man, “Too bad, Jairus. If this woman hadn’t stopped me, we might have made it in time. It must not have been the will of God that your daughter be healed. If it had been His will, she would have lasted until we arrived on the scene. I’m real sorry, but it is just too late for Me to do anything about it now, so I may as well be on My way.” That is not what Jesus said, and it is not what He did. He went right on toward Jairus’ house just as if nothing had happened. As long as we have the kind of faith that doesn’t panic and holds on no matter what, that is the way that Jesus has always operated and always will.
When Jesus starts fulfilling His promises to you and starts answering your prayers and starts walking towards your house, He doesn’t care what storms arise along the way. As far as He is concerned, he is going to continue in your direction until you get your miracle, if you won’t let go of your faith. If you hold on to your faith, your answer will come no matter what the situations are telling you at this present time. Jairus didn’t panic when things didn’t go as planned, also:
HE DIDN’T LET GO OF HIS FAITH
Mark 5:37-42; “He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.’ 40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, ’Talitha koum!’ (which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.”
Here we see the end of the story about Jairus’ daughter. Jesus walked into his house, took her by the hand and said, “Little girl, I say unto you, arise.” And she did!
I want you to know that if you refuse to panic in the times of adversity and in the times of storms, and if you refuse to let go of your faith, Jesus can not only resurrect your daughter, or your son, or your spouse from that old sinful condition, He can also resurrect your physical body, He can resurrect your marriage, He can resurrect your finances, He can resurrect anything that the world says is dead. It may be dead, that may be a reality, but it is not the final or ultimate reality. Jesus has another plan for you and your family. It may be dead right now, but when Jesus arrives on the scene, so does resurrection power! There is nothing impossible with the Master of the wind. He will show up on the scene if you hold on to your faith. Don’t panic, don’t give up, Jesus is on His way. It may seem like He got a little sidetracked because it is taking so long, but you can rest assured tonight, that Jesus always shows up on time.
When Jesus set out for the home of Jairus, why did He take with Him only Peter, James and John? Once there, why did He put out everyone from the room but these disciples and the parents of the girl? It was because He wanted around Him only those who had faith. Jesus is looking for faith. The question is: Will He find it in you?
