Mark 5:21-43: “Do Not Fear, Only Believe”

INTRODUCTION

It happened at Capernaum, a city on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was the hometown of Peter and Andrew, two of Jesus’s first disciples.

Jesus also spent time there and had become somewhat of a celebrity because of the miracles of healing that he performed there.

On the day I’m going to tell you about, Jesus was surrounded by a great crowd. They were following him, watching him to see what he would do next.

We don’t know what his plans were for that day, but whatever they were, they were interrupted when an important man in the city, Jairus by name, ran up to Jesus, fell at his feet and told him that his little daughter was at the point of death and begged him to come lay his hands on her, so that she might be made well.

So Jesus followed, surrounded by the crowd of curiosity seekers.

But there was an interruption. That is the story we talked about at our last meeting—the story of the woman with the flow of blood who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’s garment.

While Jesus was speaking to the now healed woman, explaining to her that it was her own faith that had allowed God’s healing power to flow into her body, people came from the ruler’s house with the terrible news that Jesus was too late: the ruler’s little girl had died.

Jairus’s friends thought they were being helpful when they said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”

But Jesus, ignoring what they said, told Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe.”

I want to talk about that saying, “Do not fear, only believe,” but first let’s watch what happened when Jesus got to Jairus’s house.

Mark 5:37-43

And Jesus allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, Jesus saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly.

And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.

But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was.

Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi”; which means, “Little girl, I say to you arise.” And immediately the girl got up and walked; for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

I. Let’s take ourselves in our imagination to the house of Jairus, his wife, and his little girl.

A. Evidently, the girl had been so gravely ill that the family had prepared for her impending death and had already hired mourners to help them express their grief.

In that country people didn’t believe in holding their grief in when a loved one died. They wept and wailed; they let their feelings take over.

And they hired professional mourners to come to help them let out their grief.

These were the people who laughed when Jesus solemnly announced, “The child is not dead but sleeping.”

B. So Jesus then put all of these outsiders out of the house, and taking only the child’s father and mother and the three disciples went into the bedroom where the child was lying.

I think Jesus limited the witnesses to those five because the bedroom was small, and when the little girl woke up she didn’t need to see a room packed with gawkers.

Also, Jesus didn’t crave the publicity that spectacular miracles brought him. It was more important that people listen to his words than that they would marvel at his deeds.

C. Jesus healed people in many different ways—sometimes with a word, sometimes with a touch, sometimes at a distance, sometimes by giving them something to do.

But this time Jesus—with great tenderness—took the little girl’s hand and said these words, “Talitha Cumi”: which means—in the Aramaic language Jesus spoke—“Little girl, get up.”

At that, the girl got up and walked around the room. She was really well and strong—no convalescing needed.

D. Then we read, “They were overcome with amazement!” I can imagine the astonishment of the three disciples and the tears of joy of mother and dad as the child got up and began to take steps around the room. She was as astonished as anyone.

But Jesus told them not to make a big deal of this event. “Don’t talk about it. Just give her something to eat.”

Of course the next day the child would be outside with her friends. People would know that she was the one who had died. But Jesus wanted to keep the excitement down. He had other important work to do besides healing the sick.

His miracles were signs for those who believe, not spectacles to amaze the unbelievers. Jesus had learned by sad experience that people could even watch miracles with their own eyes, and find some other explanation for what they saw. Miracles didn’t so much inspire faith as confirm faith in those who were ready to believe.

II. I want to pause here and talk about the part of the story that puzzles me. Jesus said to the distraught Jairus: “Do not be afraid, only believe.”

A. Now that saying works for Jairus, because Jesus says it. And Jesus knew what he was going to do. Jairus could rest his faith in Jesus, without fear of disappointment because the Miracle Worker was standing beside him.

But those words are often used to assure suffering people that they don’t need to be afraid—because if they just believe hard enough everything will just turn out just fine.

But you know and I know that faith is a struggle. Things don’t always turn out just fine. We have no guarantees. No matter how long we have walked with God, we always run the risk being disappointed.

I pray every day for friends with dire problems in their lives—grave illnesses…failing marriages…joblessness…relationship problems.

I pray with as much faith as I can muster, but I still fear—because experience teaches me that we don’t always see happy endings.

Sometimes the remarkable answers to prayer—miraculous healings and such—actually make it harder to accept the tragedies that happen to our loved ones. We wonder: Why does God work a miracle with this one and not with that one?

Several weeks ago at church we had a testimony from a man who had had terminal cancer, but God had healed him. It was an impressive miracle he told us about. But as I listened I wondered: How are people taking this who have lost loved ones they also prayed for—but no miracle?

If prayer works, why doesn’t it always work?

Why is that sometimes people with strong faith still experience tragedies?

B. Let’s talk about faith and its opposites. Faith has three opposites:

1. The first opposite of faith is unbelief. Sometimes people don’t want to believe. When Jesus came to his hometown of Nazareth, we read, “He did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).

2. Another opposite of faith is doubt. Sometimes people want desperately to believe, but can’t. When they told Thomas, “Christ has risen,” he said, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 2:25). Thomas desperately wanted to believe, but he couldn’t.

3. The third opposite of faith is fear. Jesus said to Jairus, “Do not fear, only believe” (verse 36).

III. I will tell you my experience with fear.

A. I was in Korea during the war when one night the Chinese broke through our front lines and overran our position. I was lying on a hillside watching the shooting in the valley below. I thought there was a good possibility that that would be my last night on earth. But I wasn’t overcome with fear, because I knew the God was with me.

B. But many years later I had an experience that frightened me so much that I wondered if I could keep believing that God was real

It happened in 1972; I was 42 years old. Susan and Peter were in junior high school and John had begun high school. I had taken Charlotte to the hospital for some fairly routine surgery, but it had gone wrong—not one thing, but several things.

Just after the surgery, she was near death. It was a trying experience, but I felt strong in my faith—for the first week.

But the ordeal went on and on—week after week. She was in intensive care for a month. Day after day, I could visit her for five minutes every hour.

As I watched her grow weaker and weaker, I was sure she would die. One night I came home from a visit and was so sure that she would die during the night that I sat down and wrote out an obituary. I thought, At least I can get that out of the way.

I even prayed that she would die, since I knew she couldn’t get well.

Added to the anxiety about her sickness, were the mounting hospital and doctor bills. In those days teachers didn’t get health insurance from their employer, and we had no insurance. Our medical bills had always been manageable.

But I could only imagine the thousands and thousands of dollars this was going to cost.

I remember well the day when I was called to the hospital business office. An accountant opened a big book and showed me all the numbers. She asked, “What are you going to about this?”

The bills were approaching my yearly wage from teaching. And for all I knew Charlotte could be in the hospital for years and years. I could never make enough money to pay for all of this.

My faith was growing weaker by the day. I began to wonder whether there was a God or not. I had thought I was a mature Christian. I had taught Sunday school. I had preached sermons. But now I was having strong doubts.

If someone had told me, “Don’t fear, only believe,” I would have told them they just didn’t understand. How could I help being afraid? I was terrified.

I felt my faith ebbing away.

I thought to myself: Maybe there’s not a God. Probably there’s not a God. I’ve built my life on something that isn’t real!

But I also thought, Even if there’s probably not a God, there’s still the possibility that God is real. I’ll hang onto that.

We belonged to a loving, faith-filled Free Methodist church. Our friends were praying every day. They even made a schedule for praying, and some of them were rising in the night to pray for Charlotte.

They brought supper every evening for two months.

I was hanging on, more to their faith than I was to my own.

Sometimes I couldn’t pray, so I just repeated The Lord’s Prayer over and over.

I kept teaching my Sunday school class. I kept up my tithing. I acted like I had faith. I kept telling myself, “Maybe it’s true. I’ll hang onto that.”

After that month in intensive care, they moved Charlotte to the regular part of the hospital. The children were allowed to visit her for the first time since her admission.

And after two months she was well enough to come home.

We thought she would have a permanent disability. But we were rejoicing. Our friends from church were talking about a miracle.

And my faith came back.

In fact, I treasure that experience because I have come to believe that of all time times in my life, that was the time when God was most near.

I know that all of you have experienced troubles as fearful as mine. And many of you have not had happy ending I experienced. But my experience taught me a bit of what it’s like to almost lose my faith.

CONCLUSION

So let me tell you how I take Jesus’s saying, “Do not be afraid, only believe.”

Experience teaches me that no matter how much I pray and try to believe, sometimes the thing I pray for doesn’t happen. And I can’t always understand why.

I pray for my sick friends, and I always pray that they will be healed. I’ve had some remarkable answers to prayer, but sometimes I don’t get what I ask for.

But here are some other ways to pray with faith—even with no guarantees.

1. Whenever I pray, I pray I believe that God hears me, that he loves me, and that he will do what is best for me—and for the one I am praying for. Just to know that God is near helps to banish fear.

2. Whenever I pray a desperate prayer, I can take heart in knowing that God can make it come right in the end. God has all eternity to make things right. I have enough faith to believe that.

3. When I am afraid, I try to act on the faith I have. When I thought my faith was almost gone, I still tried to live as if I had faith. I kept going to church—giving and serving. In my doubting I kept trying to live for God.

4. One thing I learned from my trouble is that I’m not as strong as I thought I was. Knowing how weak I am, I try, by all means possible, to live as close to God as I can, so that when trouble comes again I will cling to God.

Margaret Hayes was a missionary nurse who was in the Congo during the terrible war of 1964-65. She was captured by the rebel Simbas and saw dozens of her fellow missionaries tortured and killed. She was in captivity for seven months. Every day she lived thinking, This may be the day I will be killed.

But one day the Lord gave her this verse, Mark 5:36: “Do not be afraid, only believe.” She said, “I knew that whether I lived or died, the Lord had everything in hand.” Those words made the difference.

Finally, United States and Congo forces rescued Nurse Hayes and the surviving captives. But even if she had had to die for her faith, she would have known that God was with her.

Let’s take those words with us as we face the troubles that await us. “Do not fear, only believe.” They don’t promise answers to all our prayers. They don’t promise that we won’t feel overwhelmed sometimes.

They don’t promise that we’ll have all happy endings as far as this life is concerned. But they promise that God is always with us—that when we walk through the dark valley, he will be at our side. And we can prepare for those times by walking through every day just as close to Jesus as we can.

(Another message on this text was posted 1-18-2010)