“Free To Believe”
Scripture Reading: Mark 5:21-43
Sermon Transcript for July 2, 2006
By Pastor Bob Coleman
We thank you, Joyce and I do, for the kind words and recognition that we were on vacation. Yes, we had a good time! Yes, we’ll set up a tour guide for you and tell you where you can go on Lake Michigan to Beaver Island, to Lake Huron and Drummond Island, and Isle Royale on Lake Superior. We’ll give you some contacts of good places to stay and what to do and to expect. It’s a beautiful location; we had a very restful time. And it is kind of hard to say that we were on a mission like many of these youth and adults are going to do a mission, but we were on a mission to relax, and to enjoy God’s creation which we had a wonderful opportunity to do. And I thank you for the privilege for being able to go on that vacation to be rested and renewed.
Its funny how you can go to a place like that and be aware that God is all around you and know that there are people that you come into contact with that don’t have a clue about what they are feeling and experiencing. You wish you could tell everyone that we visited and contacted with and shared with the wonderful good news of God’s creation. It was all around us. Now others may come and wonderfully enjoy the same thing we had, but had no awareness that they are in the presence of God’s holy creation. They just look around and say something about nature like “Isn’t nature wonderful.” It’s kind of a euphemism without God.
That’s kind of the joy of one thing that we have in this country; and Independence weekend has a segment about it where we are free to believe or not. We are not forced to believe anything. That’s part of the foundational pillars of freedom of independence in this country—that we are free to believe or not! We are free to have faith or not! Now some would like to turn the country into the very narrow, controlling, top-down, everyone needs to look alike and act alike and believe alike. But the church has to know that the church, regardless of the country that it’s in, the church is a church of Jesus Christ regardless of the authorities of the government around it. We prayed a prayer earlier about being free in this country. Free to have justice and mercy. There are many countries around the world that are not free to believe and yet Christians still believe in those settings.
There’s a powerful message that if we are to be true believers that we need to recognize that it is not something we construct on our own but is a gracious gift that God gives to us. A freedom to believe, whether we are at the top of our life or at the bottom of our life, we are free to reach out and believe and hope in things that the world says you can’t hope in any more. I’m going to read a passage from the Gospel of Mark and I want us to hear all of it but also know that it is preceded in this setting about the arriving of the storm where Jesus showed the disciples that a storm was not something to be a barrier. A storm is something that is under God’s control. And then the demon-possessed boy where Jesus chose that God had authority and power over even demons in this world. Storms, demons, but then there is also death and illness. There’s kind of like the four horsemen here apocalypse. Those things that we fear most—storms about us, demons and things we can’t understand and control, illness in our lives or even death.
The account from Scripture this morning is where Jesus responds to a synagogue authority, Jairus, about his daughter recognizing that this is a father whose child is sick. And what greater thing is there in a person’s life than their own children? And this little girl, maybe about the age of twelve, maybe the apple in her father’s eye, that relationship which is so strong. But Jairus, now to the end of his rope, he doesn’t know where else to go, and you’ll see how it’s portrayed in Scripture and what Jesus does in response. And then a woman, who has been under a serious illness for a dozen years, has gone to all the doctors and all the medical help that she can get probably anything else possible, and still no relief. We want to watch in this passage for the authority that Jesus has, the authority that is based upon helping people to see that out of the point of surprise and even to a point of utility, Jesus will bring all of them welcome relief because of the authority that God has. And the authority is based upon the freedom to believe. Jairus has to believe something beyond himself. The woman with the issue of blood has to believe in something beyond herself. So let’s listen to these words of Christ that were recorded.
“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 rulers named Jairus came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at His feet and pleaded earnestly with Him. ‘My little daughter is dying,’ he said. “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 that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she got worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought, ‘If I touch His clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped, she felt in her body that she was free 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 around 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. And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free from your suffering.’
While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from a house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. ‘Their daughter is dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother to teach her any more?’ Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, ‘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 ruler, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all of this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead; let her sleep!’ 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, ‘Tabitha Koum which means little girl, I say to you ‘Get up’. Immediately, the girl stood up and walked 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
They were free to believe, but it was out of a moment of surprise. Surprise that a synagogue authority, who was at odds officially with who Jesus was, would finally come to the point, our of desperation as a father, to kneel before this Jesus and seek the healing of his daughter not even questioning but in statement of, “If you will but touch her, if you’ll lay your hands upon her, you will heal her and she will be well. My little daughter is dying; please do that for me. Please come.” What a surprise to have that happen--to have someone recognize that he was free to believe beyond the structure of the synagogue or the church as we would say. And then the surprise of the woman that was plagued with sickness and it had been for so long. She had suffered greatly under many doctors. That’s a little bit of an editorial comment by Mark. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. But surprise at the lack of faith of the disciples that Jesus couldn’t even know if someone would touch his clothes. A surprise that comes with the truth that she is healed simply by touching the clothing, not that Jesus in this case has laid hands, but that by faith He responds to her. The surprise isn’t that Jesus brings the healing directly by some dramatic action. But He says, “Daughter, your faith has made you healed. Your faith has brought healing to your body.”
What a powerful statement of surprise and how truthful it is for people to go through this world when there is so many signs of God’s presence, of God’s creation, of God’s loving grace available in and through and around us. And yet people are surprised when these “surprise” healings take place. How often I have heard a doctor who will tell a patient, “Well, we were sure there was something there. But the x-ray is clear now. I can’t explain it.” But occasionally you will hear a doctor say, “Well, healing happens beyond us and the healing must be of God.” They recognize that there is a power greater than themselves. So when it comes to believing beyond ourselves, there needs to be an awareness of utility that we are at the end of our abilities that we are at the “end of our rope” as we would say. The woman and her health, at the end of what she could do or what anyone could do for her. A father for his twelve-year old daughter whom he loved deeply knowing that there was nothing else he could do; but he came to Jesus.
And then Jesus gets the opportunity to show authority. That God is available to us in so many ways that helps us to believe or not to believe. But the authority is that faith has healed you. Faith is not something we conger up. Faith is not something that we manufacture. Faith is not something by putting just the right words together. Faith is a gift that God gives us. When we say we have faith in our nation or faith in democracy or faith in Jesus Christ. And whatever word we use, it is a gift that is given to us. It is not something that we create on our own. The woman with the bleeding had faith to believe that she needed what Jesus could give to her and so did Jairus.
So the authority is presented. One in a woman healed from simply touching His clothing and being healed by her faith in Him and Jairus who sees the action of Jesus going forth into his own home, touching his child, and raising her from the deep sleep. Just so an awareness of side is that sleep here is used not as complete, utter death. It’s a different term in the Greek. So it means that sometimes when we think of death is not truly death as Jesus raises her from that deep sleep.
We live in a country that is so free that at times we take it for granted. And sometimes even in the church we will take for granted the freedom to be able to believe what we want. But in these cases, I believe we need to recognize God’s power takes us beyond ourselves. And that the authority of Jesus Christ is available to those who will simply say, “Lord, I can not do this any more. I can not solve this problem myself. I can not go on this work mission camp simply by my own planning or my own strength. I need you. I need you to do your authority to carry it out.”
Its fantastic how in each case of the ones that I mentioned earlier about the calming of the storm and the healing of the demoniac and now the healing of the woman and the little girl, that people were always surprised and overcome with grave amazement. But why should we be amazed at the great God Almighty, creator of all that there is with such power through Jesus Christ comes and dwells with us and among us? How and why should we be amazed at what God can do? You see, Mark in this passage and in so much of what he writes in this Gospel, is taking us to the outer edge of our own human experience where only God can make the difference. Too often we recognize by our own power that we are in charge when it is truly God that is in charge. Christ, Jesus the Christ, exercises His authority over any forces that we so often think we control.
In our land of freedom we do have the freedom to believe or not to believe. The question is for you this morning, “What do you believe? How much do you believe that God is in control? How much do you believe that God has the power and the authority through Jesus Christ to do these kinds of things? But ultimately, how does Jesus teach us in His prayer to us?—God’s will be done above all! Not just what we want. But do we believe that we are to be with God’s will? Our country sometimes fools itself because of the great resources that we have available to us. We think we are so powerful we can do what we want the way we want to. But it must be always according to God’s will whether it is country or Grace United Methodist or each one of us individually. This church will have some challenges as any church will next year or two. We’ve got some great plans here in place, but we can’t work with these plans with the only limitation, “Well, what can we do?” We must always ask, “What is it God wants us to do?” If it is God’s will, it is for our lives, God will provide the miracles to accomplish them.
What is it that you want to do? You are free to believe anything in this country. Will you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Will you believe as God, the miracle worker, as only God can do? Let’s take a moment of prayer as we consider these questions. “Lord, we are free. And sometimes we are too proud of that freedom and we take it too much for granted for we are free to believe what we want instead of what you will for us. Lord may be humbly bow before you like Jairus who was at the end of his rope yearning for his young daughter’s life, willing to give up the power of authority and leadership in the synagogue and to humbly kneel before Jesus, the Christ. Are we willing to humbly kneel before you and to apologize and to ask for forgiveness for being too much in control? Are we willing to be what you offer for us to be? That it is your will, and your grace, and your plan that is perfect for us. And as we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen”
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