#24: They Thought They Had Seen Everything
Series: Acts
Chuck Sligh
July 26, 2020
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TEXT: Mark 5:35-43 - "While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? 36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. 37 And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. 38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. 39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. 41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. 42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. 43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat. "
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – In 2017, after 50 Super Bowls, many Super Bowl games had gone down in history as great games. There had been a number of notable comebacks up to that time. By then, most fans thought they had seen everything…until Super Bowl LI, that is.
That game had it all! Prior to the game between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, most people viewed the Patriots as big favorites. But the Falcons came out strong, dominating the game on their way to a 28-3 lead. But Tom Brady had different plans, engineering the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, winning the game 34–28 in overtime, and securing his fifth Super Bowl ring, becoming the first quarterback to achieve the feat.
Fans thought they had seen everything, until Super Bowl LI in 2017.
I think the disciples must have felt this way in our story today. When they first met Jesus, they saw Him do and say things they had never seen before. He healed people; He had authority over and cast out demons; He taught—not like the Pharisees, but as one who had authority. Jesus did this time and time again until you get the feeling that the disciples were getting used to it.
Then in chapter 4, Jesus escalates the demonstration of His power. On the stormy sea, He says three simple words, “Peace. Be still,” and suddenly the wind and the sea and the rain instantly obey Him. Then He casts out not one demon, but a great host of them in one man, perhaps as many as 2,000 of them and sends them into a heard of 2,000 pigs, only for them to plummet to their deaths in the sea. In these incidents, Jesus exhibited a level of authority and power way beyond anything they had ever seen, nor would they ever have imagined them to be in Jesus’ power to do.
Then, just when they thought they had seen everything, Jesus tops even those extraordinary miracles in today’s story.
You’ll recall from last Sunday’s sermon that a ruler of the Galilee synagogue named Jairus came running up to Jesus, prostrating Himself before Him and begging Him to come to heal his 12-year-old daughter who was at the point of death. Jesus went with Jairus to his house without so much as a word. A crowd surrounded Jesus and Jairus as they wound their way through the narrow streets of Galilee, slowing down their progress.
Then Mark tells us of a woman who had had a hemorrhage of blood for twelve years. In faith, she thought that if she could just touch Jesus’ garment, she would be healed. She was able to touch Jesus’ robe and was instantly healed, but this caused Jesus to stop and ask who had touched Him—another delay for distraught Jairus! The woman came forward, and frustratingly “told Him the whole truth” for who knows how long. All the while, time was ticking on Jairus’s daughter!
That’s where we pick up the story now in Mark 5:35.
I. NOTICE FIRST, IN VERSES 35-36, JESUS REINFORCED JAIRUS’S FAITH. –
Verse 35 says, “While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house some who said, ‘Your daughter is dead: Why trouble the Master any further?’”
While Jesus was still speaking to the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage, some people came from Jairus’s house and told him the awful news of his daughter’s death. “Why trouble the Master any further,” they told Jairus—as though helping a needy child were a trouble to Jesus; as though maybe He could do some great miracles, but there was nothing He could do about death.
You can only imagine Jairus’s reaction to the new he received. His only hope had been to find Jesus and bring Him to his daughter. Why, oh why, had Jesus gone over the Sea of Galilee the night before when his daughter’s health was declining by the hour? Why, oh why, had the unruly mob crushed in upon them and delayed them? Why had Jesus stopped to heal this woman when time was of the essence? Why did she have to tell her whole story and why did Jesus have to hear it all when literally every minute counted? Now it was too late: his daughter was DEAD.
Now notice verse 36: “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not be afraid, just believe.’”
Jesus saw a look of utter despair and defeat sweep over Jairus’s face. But Jesus knew something about Jairus he did not even know. Jesus knew that it was faith that had caused Jairus to come to Jesus for healing in the first place. And Jairus had just witnessed a remarkable miracle in response to a woman’s faith on the way to Jairus’s home. Jesus knew Jairus would have the faith to believe the impossible.
Before Jairus could give full sway to his despair, as SOON as Jairus heard the news, Jesus reinforced that mustard seed faith he already had in Jesus. He said, “Do not be afraid, just believe.” Luke tells us the full statement Jesus made in Luke 8:50 “Do not be afraid; just believe, and she will be made whole.”
This was an unbelievable command made by Jesus. Sure, the dead had been raised to life a few times in the Old Testament scriptures, but nobody had seen it done for centuries. Death has a finality about it; people just don’t live again after dying.
But Jesus locks eyes on Jairus and says, in essence, “Despite the circumstances you see around you, TRUST ME.” Jesus was asking Jairus to believe that his child would live even as he stood in the presence of death. Somehow mustard seed faith grew within Jairus and he trusted Jesus’ word.
II. IN VERSES 37-40 JESUS REMOVED THE VOICES OF UNBELIEF.
Look first at verse 37 – “And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.”
Jesus refused to allow anyone from the bustling crowd or even other disciples to follow Jairus and Jesus into the house except for three chosen disciples, Peter, James and John. Jesus allowed these three to come because according to the Jewish law, two or three witnesses were required to establish truth.
Other than these witnesses, this was to be a private family affair. Jesus was no magician longing for a stage; He was no modern “faith healer” playing to an audience. This greatest miracle of all His ministry was to be done in private, away from seeing eyes.
Why?—There may be multiple reasons, including Jesus’ desire for Jairus’s faith not to be inhibited by the doubtful crowd. But I think the most logical reason is that Jesus was being considerate of Jairus’s grief. He didn’t want Jairus to feel he was being made a spectacle, to feel like he was a rung on Jesus’ ladder to popularity. Jesus was just being compassionate and considerate and loving, as was His nature.
Then in verse 38, Jesus encounters the mourners – “And he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw the tumult, and those who wept and wailed loudly.”
Jesus enters the death room, and there were the obligatory mourners. This seems strange to us today, but mourners were a professional guild in first century Judaism and were required at funerals. A famous rabbi (Rabbi Judah) said a century later, “Even the poorest person in Israel should hire at least two flute players and one wailing woman.” But Jesus did not come to mourn; He came to conquer death! Shortly, this was going to be a time for rejoicing, not for mourning.
Look at verses 39-40 – “And when he came in, he said to them, ‘Why make this commotion, and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.’ 40 And they laughed at him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the child’s father and mother, and those who were with him, and entered in where the child was lying.”
Jesus said that the child was not dead, but sleeping. Some have interpreted this to mean that she was in a deep coma.
But Luke gives us details that let us know that the girl was truly dead.
• First, in Luke 8:50, Luke says that “they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.” These professional mourners were experts on death. Their jobs depended on it and Luke clearly states they KNEW she was dead.
• Second, when Jesus raised the girl to life, Luke says in, “And her spirit returned and the child immediately arose and walked.” (Luke 8:55). Separation of the spirit from the body is the definition of death, so the fact that her spirit had left her is clear proof she was dead.
So why did Jesus use a figurative term of “sleeping” to describe her death? I think it’s because that’s the way God wants us who are believers to view death.
When the disciples brought news to Jesus that Lazarus had died, Jesus said much the same thing. In John 11:11 He said to His disciples “Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” Of course, when Jesus got there, Lazarus was, had been in the grave three days already and, as we say down south, he was “dead as a doornail” and had even already begun to stink.
Paul used the metaphor of sleep to describe the death of believers in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 when He said, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”
Jesus wants us to see death for what it is: a conquered foe; and that someday we will arise from the dead just as Jesus did, and just as this little girl did. One day we will close our eyes in death and then we’ll awaken in the presence of Jesus. That sounds a lot like sleep, so it’s an apt metaphor for death for believers.
Mark says when Jesus said the girl was asleep, the mourners “laughed at Him.” This shows how lacking in real compassion these mourners were—and how little faith they had in Jesus. So, Jesus responded to the voices of unbelief by kicking them out of the house.
Besides Jesus and the dead little girl, now it was just the girl’s mother and father and the three disciples in the room. But only one of them, the father, had the faith Jesus was looking for. Just one person of the five, and it may not have been very strong, but it was enough.
III. FINALLY, IN VERSES 41-43, JESUS RESURRECTS A CHILD FROM THE DEAD.
Verses 41-43 say, “And he took the child by the hand, and said to her, ‘Talitha cumi,’ which translated means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise.’ And immediately the little girl arose and walked; and she was twelve years old. And they were overcome with great astonishment.”
Jesus spoke to her in her native Aramaic, saying, ‘Talitha cumi,’ With just these two words this little girl’s soul was snatched from the jaws of death! Instantly, her pale cheeks reddened with new life, her eyelids fluttered, and the first thing she saw was the face of Jesus. Wonderful though it would be to us, she did not know that face, but she turned and saw Papa and Mama, so she just got up and walked over to them!
The phrase, “overcome with great astonishment” in the Greek literally says they were “astonished with great astonishment.” Mark seems to have run out of words to describe how great was their amazement!
When Jairus had witnessed Jesus heal others and cast out demons, he must have thought he had seen everything. Peter, James and John had seen all that many times over, but it was when Jesus calmed the storm and exorcised the demons from the crazy man that they thought they had seen everything. But this…THIS…this simply left them in open-mouthed astonishment! Just when they all thought they had seen everything, Jesus gives life to a dead body!
In verse 43 we read, “And he strictly charged them that no one should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.”
Jesus first strictly charged the parents and the three disciples not to tell anyone about what happened. This is an odd instruction since everyone would know that the formerly dead girl was now alive as soon as someone saw her walking around.
John Phillips saw it as a protection for the girl who had seen enough commotion and the last thing she needed was to be invaded by the sensation-seeking crowd asking a lot of questions.
But I think William L. Lane probably makes the best case. – He says that the five witnesses “received the privilege of a special revelation which they were not to share with others….. It is clear throughout Mark that Jesus revealed his messiahship only with reserve. It is appropriate to this consistent pattern of behavior that he was unwilling to make himself known to the raucous, unbelieving group that had gathered outside Jairus’ house.”
The FACT of the resurrection could not be denied, for everyone would see a live, waking and breathing little girl; but the details were to remain secret for God’s own purposes until revealed to us by the gospel writers.
And don’t you just love it that the story ends with Jesus saying that something should be given the child to eat? Everyone is standing there in open-mouthed wonderment, but Jesus is concerned about the welfare of the child. She was alive and well, so she needed food to eat, and I can’t help but love Jesus just a little bit more for his loving concern for the mundane things in our lives.
CONCLUSION
Wow!—We thought we’d seen everything in Mark until reading about this remarkable story.
You would think this would take the cake.
Well, Jesus performed two other resurrections later in His ministry, but there was one more resurrection that would beat them all when He Himself would rise from death.
As I look at Jairus’s faith and the story of his daughter’s resurrection I see two lessons:
• First, when you’re desperate, cry out to Jesus.
I can relate to Jairus’s desperation. There is nothing worse than seeing your own child suffer.
Illus. – I remember when Susan was teaching, we went to our babysitter’s house to pick our second son, Jon, who was one year old at the time. When we got out of the car, we heard him screaming like we had never heard before. Immediately, I raced into the house to find Jon on the couch with bright red burns on his legs. Quickly the babysitter said she had fallen asleep and Jon had managed to crawl up into the bathroom sink and turn on the hot water and couldn’t get out.
I picked him up and raced to the car and handed him to Susan, and as I did, his skin on one leg just peeled off in the most awful sight we had ever seen. Ultimately, he had second and third degree burns on that leg and first and second degree burns on the other leg. You cannot even begin to plumb the depths of the desperation I felt that day and the months afterward as Jon underwent skin grafts and surgeries.
Believe me, I understand what Jairus felt, and I know that when you face desperation, there is nothing left to do but cry out to God!
David said in 2 Samuel 22:7 – “In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God: and he heard my voice from his temple, and my cry entered into his ears.”
Illus. – I read about man on his first day of work at a large textile mill where he was to work running a loom. These were industrial looms where the shuttles flew at amazing speeds to create the cloth. His first day on the job, his supervisor came to him and said, “If the thread gets tangled, stop the loom, and call me and I’ll fix it.”
This new employee was mechanically minded, and he was pretty self-confident about his ability to fix the problem if it happened. Soon, his threads got tangled and he stopped the loom and tried to untangle them himself, but the more he did, the more of a mess he created.
The supervisor walked by and saw the tangled mass of threads. He reprimanded the new employee for his mistake. The man said to the boss, “But sir, I did the best I could to untangle them!”
The boss said, “No. The best thing you could have done was to have called on me the way I told you to. Do that again and you won’t have a job.”
How many times do we try to fix our messes rather than “trouble the master any further” as Jairus’s friend told him to do. God says in Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
• Second, when you receive bad news, keep walking with God.
After the healing of the woman with the 12-year blood hemorrhage, Jairus received the news of his daughter’s death. But before he could even express grief and dismiss Jesus, the Lord had a word for him: “Don’t be afraid. Just believe.” Jairus took this word and kept on walking with Jesus.
Bad news can come in many ways in our lives. It can come in an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night, or from a diagnosis in the doctor’s office. However bad news comes, don’t give up; don’t quit; don’t lose hope. Hear the words of Jesus: “Don’t be afraid. Just believe.
When you receive bad news, your first temptation is to fear and doubt. That’s why Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid. Just believe.”
Fear says, “Give up.” Faith says, “Keep walking.”
Fear says, “There’s no way.” Faith says, “Just believe.”
With the eye of faith, just keep walking with God as He takes you through the trial. He’s there to console and counsel you. Just keep on walking with God.
