All dies. Why? How it is and what it is? Death is power over
humanity. It swallows up everything--vitality, liveliness, strength, energy,
life. It is scary, unknown, mysterious realm for man. All dies, so has to face
death sooner or later. It is a reality and truth. There are so many different
theories and studies on death and after death. One popular thought on death is
“Let’s eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” It is a greatly
fatalistic and empty view on life, thinking that death is the end and no more. It
is not true and a lie, the deadly and poisonous lie. In the story of a little
daughter who is dying and a woman who is subject to bleeding for 12 years, Jesus
tells death is like a sleep, which means after death there is resurrection.
When we see someone sleeping we are not alarmed, nor call 911 because we know
that he or she will wake up after the sleep. By touching Jesus, the bleeding has
stopped immediately. Not only healed and cleansed, but she has been highly
regarded as “Daughter” and a woman of real faith which has reached to heaven. Furthermore,
she has been released from the terror of separation from God, being called as “Daughter.”
Jairus is the man who has encountered the facts that he cannot turn to no one
and no where to go and get help. He is lost and poor because he has no options left
in an attempt to cure his dying daughter. He is terrified and sorrowful and
even powerless to do anything. This is the moment for him to turn to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he takes a decisive action to plea to God. His terror is released
when Jesus gently tells, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” We are doomed to succumb
to the darkness and power of death. However, when we reach to the point of
death, there is the Lord Jesus who can raise the dead. Even when we fail again
and again, there is Jesus our Lord who cares and helps us out repeatedly by
raising us up from the dead.
“When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side
of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then
one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he
fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, ‘My little daughter is dying.
Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.’ So
Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman
was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a
great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet
instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came
up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I
just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and
she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus
realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked,
‘Who touched my clothes?’ ‘You see the people crowding against you,’ his
disciples answered, ‘and yet you can ask, “Who touched me?”’ But Jesus kept
looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had
happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him
the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in
peace and be freed from your suffering.’ While Jesus was still speaking, some
people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. ‘Your daughter is
dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother the teacher anymore?’ Overhearing what they said,
Jesus told him, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe.’ He did not let anyone follow
him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. When they came to the
home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and
wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and
wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.’ 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. He took her by the hand and
said to her, ‘Talitha koum!’ (which means ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’).
Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years
old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let
anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.” (Mark
5:21-43)
First, a father’s plea for his daughter’s sake. Jairus terrorized
by the daughter’s sickness calls 911 and rushes to the emergency room in a
hospital and learns that the doctors are struggling to figure it out what is
the cause and how to cure. After a while, the father hears a deeply sad news
that they can’t do anything for his little one. As a father he desperately runs
to Jesus of Nazareth. When he sees him, he fells at his feet and pleads with
him, chalking his voice and saying with tears, “My little daughter is dying.
Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” What
makes Jairus so desperate that he has to plead earnestly with Jesus? The terror
of death is overwhelming his whole person, body and mind and spirit. The moment
of death is coming nearer, ticking loud and loud as his little one is dying.
The power of death terrorizes the unfortunate father as his little daughter is
losing the battle to fight for life. Jairus reaches to the moment of no other
option but going to him, the Carpenter of Nazareth.
Why is it happening to this man? Is he deserved to get this
terror? What might he have done to be put into this kind of horrible situation?
No, it is just his turn. No other reason can explain the human misery but it’s
happening for every man. The Scripture says, “No temptation has overtaken you
except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be
tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) There may
be thousand and one different reasons to think about why it’s happening. But an
unarguable reason for all trials and miseries is God. He is the ultimate
authority to allow these things to occur on mankind, not because he delights
human sufferings but because he loves them with inexpressible compassion and
mercy. God knows man because he made them in his image. Through trials and
sufferings man is being purified and drawn nearer to God when we listen carefully
what he is trying to say in the midst. Apostle Peter encourages the scattered
Christians in the first century and us as well. “In all this you greatly
rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all
kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your
faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1
Peter 1:6-7) In the end, God wants us to learn the truth that everything coming
from him and nothing coming from us.
Second, “Who has touched my clothes?” Jesus agrees to go
with Jairus. While he is going with him, a woman comes and touches Jesus’
clothes in the back, thinking “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
Immediately the bleeding has stopped and she feels that the suffering is over
now. A large crowd is following and pressuring around Jesus. It has happened in
the midst so stealthily and invisibly. But our Lord Jesus knows that power has
gone out from him. So, he searches who has touched him until found. The disciples
are irritated by Jesus because a large crowd is pressing around him. However, the
woman is trembled and terrified in fear because she knows what has happened and
tells him the whole truth. Surprisingly enough, she is highly commended by the
Lord Jesus who tells her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and
be freed from your suffering.”
Why does she have to come to Jesus in secret? Being subject
to bleeding makes her “unclean” by law. She has spent a lot of money for the
doctors but to no avail and her suffering grows worse. She has been stripped of
all rights as a daughter of Israel since the suffering of bleeding. Why is it
happen to her? We do not know. But it is designed and planned by the Father God
who is the beginning and the end, knowing all things. During those twelve years
of suffering, the woman might have tried all possible means to get out of the
mess. Families, friends, neighbors, communities have probably been working together
to help her out. Unfortunately, nothing works out at all. Rather, it’s getting
worse and worse. People are gradually distancing away from her because she is
getting to be more burdensome and difficult than they can bear. Finally, she
comes to the Lord Jesus, thinking only if she touches his clothes. The disease
is subject to losing blood. She is losing and draining away her life and
energy. She is literally dying not only physically but in soul and mind for she
has lost all access to God. What a terror! What a waste for her! She has never
thought about this kind of life, but it is real and she must accept it. The
last resort for her is God who is loving and compassionate as far as he knows. She
has found Jesus who is caring and merciful to the poor and the needy. God has
drawing her nearer and nearer in the midst of suffering. Now, she is responding
to the call of the Father in heaven through presenting herself just as she is to
the Son of Man even secretly. She cannot make herself presentable in public to
the Lord because of her uncleanness. It might be the only way for her to come
to Jesus.
Jesus does not condemn her and the unorthodox deed in coming
and touching him as an unclean. Rather, our Lord searches her until found and
commends her faith by calling her “Daughter.” She would have wished to appeal
and present herself before Jesus in public. But she cannot. She just wanted to
get healed and leave without a trace left behind. Why does Jesus search for her
until found? Of course not he is giving a hard time for her. Neither to
condemn. Far be it so. Jesus wanted to bless her faith which has reached to the
Father in heaven. Why does her plea get a full attention of heaven? Because God
is looking for such a worship in spirit and in truth. She has no where to go, no
one to turn, nothing to depend upon. Instead of throwing bitterness and resentment
against God, she admits that she is indeed in need and turns herself to God, asking
and pleading for his mercy and compassion. God remembers the cries of his
children! Not only Jesus sets her free from the suffering of bleeding but he
restores her access to God. Coming to God is the way to live. Coming by faith
is the way to come unto God. She obeyed the call of the Father, and more has
been given. The Son of Man Jesus calls her dearly, “Daughter.” Jesus delivers
her the loving message of the Father in heaven, saying “You’re accepted even
way before you come.”
Third, “The child is not dead but asleep.” A tragic news has
arrived from Jairus’ home that his daughter has died even before Jesus’ coming and
further they say no more bother for Jesus to come. Because the daughter just
died. Is that it? No, it is not it. To humans, yes it is it, but not to Jesus. It
is hard to understand Jesus has deliberately delayed coming to Jairus’ house by
intently searching for the woman who touched his clothes. Did Jesus intently
delay? We do not know. The Lord knows. Jairus had already been terrorized by
his daughter’s dying sickness. Now it gets deeper in sorrow and desperation. The
unfathomable depth of sorrow overwhelms his mind and body. Tears never run dry
in his eyes. Loud moaning and grieving noise augment his emptiness and
desperation. All the efforts and pleas have turned out nothing but
disappointment, contrary to his ever wishes. As a father, he is so sorry and guilty
for 12 year old daughter because he could not make it.
Is it not the moment to which God truly wants for man to
reach? It is a hard question why God let this thing happen. But it is not the
end of story. When we get to there, God begins his work with power and might
which we cannot even imagine. Jesus tells him, “Don’t be afraid, just believe.”
It isn’t an empty word. Jesus further reveals the truth that the child is not
dead but asleep. It is a revolutionary thinking regarding death. No man thinks
that way. But Jesus knows and proclaims the truth for man. Now, Jesus
demonstrates how true his word is, speaking to the girl, “Talitha koum!” (which
means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”) Immediately, the girl stands up and
begins to walk around. No one there in the room couldn’t believe what’s
happened to their eyes. Jairus again maybe in many tears not because of sorrow
but because of joy and thankfulness given from heaven above. Not only released
from the terror of death, but he has the Lord Jesus who is the life and the
resurrection in his heart.
Prayer: Thank Jesus Christ who is the life and the
resurrection. In his name. Amen.
August
17, 2018
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2018 David Lee Ministries – All Rights Reserved.
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