Don't Be Afraid, Only Believe

Mark 5:21-43 New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman

21 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. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 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.” 24 So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 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. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

35 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?”

36 Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

37 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 leader, 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 began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

As you can tell from the sermon title, the phrase, “Don’t be afraid, only believe” has stuck with me.  Oh, the simplicity of such an expression! Those five words seem so incredibly simple to hear but so incredibly difficult to implement.  I want to focus our attention this morning on those five words because what motivates us is essential to understand because it changes how we act and react in certain situations.  Determining what drives us and why, may help shape the direction we are willing to take. Fear, and being afraid, play a pretty big part in our scripture for this morning in two different stories.  Our scripture starts off with Jesus being approached by a synagogue leader and then was told that a child is dying and then another miracle happened as they passed through.

Let’s begin with the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years... She had spent every dime she had to get healed up from the sickness that had consumed her life, and she was only getting worse.  She was desperate. She merely touched his clothing as Jesus walked by and was healed. Jesus was surrounded by people, like smothered, and yet he felt someone touch him because of the energy zapped from his body as the woman was healed.  In amazement and disbelief, the disciples asked, “You see the people crowding against you, and yet you can ask ‘Who touched me?’” A. He is Jesus... And B. He felt the exchange of energy that it took to heal that woman. Some translations say that dozens of people were touching Jesus as they mobbed him but what made this woman different?  Why did she manage to pull energy away from Jesus in a way that others weren’t able to? I think many saw Jesus as a spectacle and were drawn to him in that way, but she was different. She was different because of her faith. The woman finally approached Jesus, “trembling with fear.” She had to be elated that she was healed and yet she was scared of how Jesus would react to her.  Out of desperation, she touched his clothing... Out of fear, she fell at his feet... While fear and desperation are strong motivators at times, they should not be the only reason we reach out to Jesus. Sure, Jesus will be there for us in the moments, but he wants to be more involved than just in those rock-bottom moments. He desires “an everyday” kind of relationship.

Kind of like the disciples in the boat that I spoke about last week, what did she expect?  Yes, she was desperate, but at the same time, she believed she would be healed by merely touching Jesus’ clothing.  After feeling that her body was healed, she was nervous and fearful of how Jesus would react. She believed she would be healed and then she was but the whole transfer of energy made her fearful of what Jesus might say or do to her.  She expected the worst, and to her surprise, Jesus made her faith an example to others. Think about the lesson learned there. We are often nervous about asking for Jesus’ because of what he might say or do. I want to encourage you to have enough faith to reach out to Jesus. Reach out to him, but there is no need to be afraid of the results.

As he often did, Jesus used this experience with the woman as a teachable moment.  That is when the synagogue leader is brought back into the fold. At that moment, he finds out that his daughter has passed and there is no longer any need to bother Jesus with the matter.  That is when Jesus reassured him, “Don’t be afraid, just believe.” As they make their way to the home of the deceased girl, you can imagine the grief. Simply, Jesus asked, “Why all this commotion and wailing?  The child is not dead but asleep.” Their reaction caught me off guard. The scripture says, “But they laughed at him.” As the crowd approaches this somber dwelling, a moment full of grief and just after witnessing a miracle, they laugh and mock Jesus after he says the girl is only sleeping.  They didn’t realize the metaphor was playing out right in front of their very eyes. They were the ones sleeping, and Jesus was trying to wake them up through his teachings and displays of miracles, and they couldn’t even see it. They were only moments removed from a woman being healed, and the ignorance and blatant disregard for his teachings are so full of the calamity that it is funny.  I can hear the obnoxious guy in the back muttering something like, “Yea, she is just ‘sleeping’...Can you believe this guy?” Part of me wishes Jesus would have said, “Hey, you are the one that is ‘asleep’! Wake up!”

In such a somber moment, the crowd laughed at Jesus.  The same group that just witnessed the miracle of healing the woman.  The same crowd Jesus was speaking to after that miracle. I really can’t get past the fact that they laughed at him after recently seeing everything he had done and said.  Jesus then excuses the crowd and goes onto to heal the girl by ordering her to get up in a way that is familiar to those who have to wake a tired teenager. “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”  Part of me wishes the crowd would have seen the miracle of raising this young lady from the dead but Jesus didn’t work that way.

Much of our scripture this morning revolves around fear and being afraid.  Fear is the classic motivator. It is how parents get by, usually as a last-ditch effort to retain any sense of sanity.  In a few instances it’s necessary but not always. Jesus does not want us coming to him out of fear, or at a minimum, leaving his presence trembling in fear.  Fear should not be our motivation to be faithful because fear fades eventually. Love is to fear as light is to dark. Darkness is defined as the absence of light.  Much the same way, fear could be described as the absence of love. Imagine for a moment, if love rather than fear motivated all our actions and interactions. That is part of what a relationship with Jesus offers.  He gives us the opportunity to live out of love more so than fear. “Don’t be afraid, only believe.”