When Things are Too Much to Handle Mark 5
Jeff Russell Friendship Baptist Church, Langenselbold, Germany
In my mind this morning is the picture of my six year old daughter trying to help us with the laundry. She picked up a clothes basket of wet clothes and tried to make her way up the stairs with them. She was making good progress until, at about the sixth step, her strength just gave out. Exhausting and huffing and puffing, she called out for me to help her. “Daddy”, she says, “This is just too much for me to handle!”
There are those times when life presents us with things that are too big for us to handle. We can become mired in the situation and there is no way out. Disease, death,
depression and debt. Sometimes it is not us, but someone we love and would gladly trade places with them if we could. In this story from the fifth chapter of Mark we will learn that we can trust Jesus for things that are too big for us, because nothing is too big for Jesus. Not only that, but He traded places with us. In our text, two very different people are confronted with problems that are far too big for them. First, there is a
synagogue official. Here is a man of stature in his community, a family man, a person
of means, confronted with something too big for him: his precious, twelve year old
daughter is deathly ill. Nothing they have done for her has helped. She is on the very
brink of death. Then there is someone else, a nameless woman. She has been
hemorrhaging for twelve years. Her problem has rendered her a social outcast-walking
pollution. She isn’t even allowed to enter in to that synagogue. Her theology is based
on superstition. She has no family that we know of, and no money; it has all been spent
on the latest remedies. She has tried everything, but this thing is too big.
Mark brings these two very different people together, because they each teach us
the same lesson: we can trust Jesus for the things that are too big for us because
nothing, not even death, is too big for Jesus. I want you to observe some things which
these two people teach us about trusting Jesus in these situations.
I. We trust Jesus by coming to Him despite the obstacles. Both Jairus and the
woman do something that is so obvious that we might miss it: they both come to Jesus.
Trusting Jesus means that we come to Him. Sometimes, however, that’s the hardest
thing for us to do, because certain obstacles get in the way. Let’s look at these
obstacles two very different people had face to face. As a synagogue official, Jairus
was part of the religious establishment, and Jesus and this establishment were not
getting along-to say the least. They were already plotting to destroy Jesus. And as
chairman of the board of elders in the local synagogue, Jairus would have wanted to
remain in good standing with the scribes and Pharisees. Perhaps it was even in this
man’s synagogue that Jesus had sparked so much controversy by healing on the
Sabbath. These men might have already gone head to head. But pain has a way of
bringing us to our senses. Jails overcomes his pride, and perhaps even his fear of
rejection, and comes to Jesus. He comes to Jesus publicly, as Jesus is surrounded by a
great crowd; coming humbly, falling at Jesus’ feet.
The woman faced obstacles too. By Old Testament standards, she was unclean.
She was supposed to keep her distance from everyone. But she overcomes her sense of
shame and fear that she might contaminate others. That’s why she tries to slip through
the crowd and comes to Jesus without anyone knowing about it. She is thinking, “No
one will see me. I’ll just touch His cloak.” Like others in her day, she was superstitious,
believing that a person’s power was transferred by the garments they wore. Yet she
comes, with her misguided faith, despite her fear and shame, and Jesus heals her. There
are two obstacles that can keep us from Jesus if we allow them to. Either we are too
important, like Jairus, or we think ourselves too unimportant, like the woman. For
some, it is a matter of pride-”I can handle this myself,” they say. As we saw with the
Babylonian king last week, its remarkable that such people seemingly live up to their
view of themselves. They make a good living. They have model families,. Their
children are accepted in all the right schools. They never get in trouble with the law.
Sure, they have problems and challenges like everybody else, but they always seem to
get through things relatively unscathed. Their illusion of adequacy and control never
really gets shaken, so they do not come to Jesus. But every once in a while something
comes along that we can’t handle. What do you do when your twelve year old
daughter, the joy of your life, lies close to death? Perhaps at that point we would want
to come to God, but we think, “it would be hypocritical for me to come to Him now.
I’ve always managed to do things for myself. Why change now? But that didn’t keep
Jairus away, and it shouldn’t keep us away, either. Jesus didn’t turn this man away
because up until this point in his life he had ignored Him. He didn’t say, “That’s right
Jairus, Come to me now that things are bad!”
Still others respond like this woman. They stay away from God out of a sense of
shame. They feel unclean, unworthy. They only feel safe with people who have similar
problems. For them, church is not a safe place, because everyone in the church looks so
good. They don’t even know how they are supposed to act in church. Like this woman
they might say something wrong. If that describes you this morning, then, be like this
woman. Even if you have to sneak up behind Jesus, come to Him anyway. Even if your
faith might be a little off-center, come to Him. When I was a kid growing up in the
sixties, my parents would always slick my hair down with the “greasy kids’ stuff. They
put it on so thick, maybe that explains what has happened to my hair. I tried to remind
my dad that the advertisement on TV says, “a little dab will do ya!” That is the way it
is if you want to come to Jesus -Just a little touch will do. And Jesus will cleanse you
and set you free. Jesus says that if you have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, that
you will say to this mountain, “be moved,” and it will. And you will find a host of
people who feel the same way as you. We trust Jesus for things that are too big for us by
coming to Him no matter what might be in the way.
II. The second thing we learn from these two people is that we trust Christ by
opening ourselves up to Him completely. Look at the actions of this woman. At first,
it looks like she will get away with her secret plan. She touches the cloak of Jesus, and
immediately feels her body respond. She knows the flow of blood has stopped. She is
healed. She probably wants to shout with joy, but she can’t risk it. She slinks away,
trying to get lost in the crowd. And then she hears the words, “Who touched me?”
Why did Jesus say that? The text says, “perceiving in Himself that the power
proceeding from Him had gone forth.” This may be a clue as to why Jesus got so
exhausted at times. Sometimes we forget the toll that his ministry took on Him.
Though he was God, and God’s power resided in Him, He wasn’t beyond feeling
drained as that power flowed out of Him. But we still must ask, why did Jesus ask this
question? Obviously, Jesus wants this woman to come forward and identify herself. But
why? Why call attention to what she has done? Why expose her to public
embarrassment? Why not a wink and a nod and let it go at that? The answer is, Jesus
cared too much for her to do that. He wanted to draw her out, to have her experience
Him to know that it wasn’t His cloak that had healed her, it was Him. He wanted to
mature her faith. He wasn’t a slot machine; He was a person. Healing wasn’t
mechanical; it was personal. But to learn all of this, the woman had to come forward.
III. We learn to trust in Jesus by persisting in our faith even when He delays.
Let’s focus on Jairus for a moment. He comes to Jesus with a desperate situation, and
Jesus listens to him and accompanies him to his home. Notice Mark mentions the press
of the crowd in verse 24, a first century “stau.” We can imagine Jairus, growing more
frustrated by the moment-wishing all these people would just go away. “Don’t they
know that my daughter is about to die?” Then to top it all off, Jesus stops to ask, “Who
touched me” What a strange thing to say! Who wasn’t touching Him? And He waits
for this woman to come forward while Jairus is biting his fingernails, pacing, “hurry up,
hurry up, hurry up!” Perhaps he was thinking, “Now wait a minute, Jesus, I was first in
line here! What is going on here? Has Jesus forgotten about Jairus? I doubt it. He
knows exactly what He is doing. This delay was purposeful. Besides showing His
concern for the woman, He accomplished two things. First, Jairus would learn
something about faith-from an unclean woman, of all people. He had asked Jesus to
come and lay His hands on his daughter, that she might “get well and live.” And then he
hears Jesus say to the woman, “Your faith has made you well.” Notice, the same word
is used. Jairu’ faith was about to be severely tested. He needed to hear this woman’s
story and see her faith, and he needed to hear Jesus affirm her faith as the very thing
that had saved her.
Secondly, the delay would allow time for the situation to get worse so that the
power of Jesus would be seen by all. As Jesus is blessing this woman, Jairus receives
news that his beloved daughter has died. The woman’s good news is Jairus’ bad news.
Her twelve years of misery are over-but Jairus’ twelve years of joy have come to an end.
But his moment of despair is Jesus’ moment of opportunity, for Jesus says: “Do not be
afraid, only believe!” That literally means, stop being afraid! Jairus had to persist in
faith when the situation was apparently beyond hope. Sometimes when we bring our
big problems to Jesus we pray fervently for help or deliverance or healing, but He
delays. What is He doing then? Has He forgotten about us? Consider the fact that He
may be trying to teach us something through the delay. Open your eyes. Are there
examples of faith that you can learn from while you wait on God? There may be
someone near to you telling their story. Faith is instructed in the delay. Things indeed
may even get worse before they get better. Your prayers might even backfire. But God
knows what He is doing. Garth Brooks has a song in which he sings about taking his
wife to a football game in his old home town and he runs into his old high school
sweetheart. He recalls how, back then, he prayed and prayed that “God would make her
mine.” But on the way home, he looks at his sweet wife and sings, “Sometimes, I thank
God for unanswered prayers.-just because He doesn’t answer doesn’t mean He don’t
care. Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
What is God doing? He is doing what He does with all His children, what the
Apostle Paul describes in these words from 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 “We were burdened
excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had
the sentence of death within ourselves, in order that we should not trust in
ourselves, but God who raises the dead.” My friends, faith persists, even when God
delays, even when things get worse, even when things become humanly hopeless. That
is time to trust Him even
IV. Inspite of what others do and say. Both these people demonstrated belief, in
contrast to others around them. The woman stands in contrast to the crowd, which
presses in on Jesus, jostling and pushing him down the street. They were looking for
excitement, curious to see a miracle at Jairus’ home. But the woman comes to Him for
a different purpose. She comes close because she knows that Jesus can meet her deepest
need. Some are like the crowd, following Jesus because it’s the thing to do, but real
faith arises out of desperate need.
This contrast is even more pronounced with Jairus. The messengers arrive and
say, “Don’t bother the teacher anymore, you daughter has died.” But Jesus says, “Don’t
be afraid, only believe.” Jairus has to choose: will he listen to the messengers or to
Jesus follow Him home? When they get to his house, the place is already surrounded
by professional mourners, a custom at the time. Jesus says to them, “Why make this
commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. He would soon raise her up.
But the professionals laugh at Him. Now that is weird. A moment before they were
weeping-can you imagine anyone so crass as to laugh at someone’s funeral? It shows
how much they really cared about this girl and her parents. They were the experts on
death. So Jairus has to make another choice. Whom would he listen to, the
professionals, or Jesus? Would He follow him into the room where his daughter lay
dead? It was that step of faith that allowed him and the four others to hear those
Aramaic words they would never forget “Talitha cumi!” little lamb, arise!” It was that
step of faith that allowed Jairus to see his daughter get up and even eat as proof that she
was real and not a ghost.
Don’t bother a bit about the so-called experts. There will always be people who
scoff at our faith. They will tell us to “get real.” Some of them will be so-called
professionals. They will know all the facts. Some so-called New Testament scholars
are now saying that Jesus could not have said even a fraction of what the New
Testament records He said. Some scientists say they an explain how life came into
existence; therefore creation is a myth. A doctor tells us we can pray all we want, but
when it comes to cancer, nothing will help but chemotherapy. A financial expert tells us
that giving away a substantial percentage of our income is fiscal suicide. Whom will we
listen to? The point isn’t to ignore reason, but sometimes faith will fly in the face of all
evidence.
To close this morning I want to say we can trust Jesus for things that are too big
for us because nothing is too big for Him. What are the things in your life that you are
having to trust Him for these days? Are you coming to Him despite the obstacles? Are
you willing to expose yourself fully to Him? Are you persisting in your faith when all
looks hopeless? Are you trusting Him despite what other people say and do? Some of
you may be saying you don’t have a thing to trust Him for. Well, you will before long.
That is how God works in our lives. HE gives us more than we can handle so we will
learn to trust Him. We have no guarantee of how things will turn out this side of
heaven, but we do know that in the end, not even death can thwart God’s good purpose.
In one of the low points of Martin Luther’s life, his daughter, Magdalena, barely
fourteen years of age, was stricken with the plague. Brokenhearted, Luther knelt at her
bedside and begged God to release her from her pain. When she had died, and the
carpenters were nailing down the lid on her coffin, Luther cried out, “Hammer away!On
doomsday she will rise again!” Even if the Lord delays until what Luther called
“doomsday,” nothing, not even death, is too big for God to handle.
