Where Do You Turn When Hope Dries Up?

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from Mark 5:21-43

Christ Rules! Gospel of Mark Series

OUTLINE

Focus:  All hope was drying up for a woman that no physician could cure, and for a man with a dying daughter.  In desperation they turned to Jesus and discovered that when faith connects with Jesus there is no hopeless situation. 

I.  Where Do You Turn When Hope Dries Up?

1.  Let Your Faith Connect

2.  Let Your Faith Open God’s Gifts

3.  Let Your Faith Take Action

4.  Let Your Faith Be Daring

5.  Let Your Faith Be Public

6.  Let Your Faith Grow

MANUSCRIPT

A recent survey at a meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians revealed the following:

   Percentage of family doctors who:

   --are convinced that religious belief can heal: 99

   --believe the prayers of others can help a patient's recovery: 75

   --believe faith-healers can make people well: 38 [i]

I.  Where Do You Turn When Hope Dries Up? (5:21-24)

Where does man turn when hope dries up?

The director of a medical clinic told of a terminally ill young man who came in for his usual treatment. A new doctor who was on duty said to him casually and cruelly, “You know, don’t you, that you won’t live out the year?”

As the young man left, he stopped by the director’s desk and wept. “That man took away my hope,” he blurted out.

“I guess he did,” replied the director. “Maybe it’s time to find a new one.”

Commenting on this incident, Lewis Smedes wrote, “Is there a hope when hope is taken away? Is there hope when the situation is hopeless? That question leads us to Christian hope, for in the Bible, hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise.”[ii]

Hope when things are hopeless

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. [iii]

Today we are going to look at two seemingly hopeless situations that were brought before Jesus.  The two key characters will find out that Christ Rules over Disease and Death.

Focus:  All hope was drying up for a woman that no physician could cure, and for a man with a dying daughter.  In desperation they turned to Jesus and discovered that when faith connects with Jesus there is no hopeless situation. 

The simple truth is:  No life is hopeless unless Christ is ruled out. 

Life with Christ is an endless hope; without him, life is a hopeless end.

Jesus succeeds where others failed.  Jesus has just exorcised a demon from a man that no one could control; now in the passage for this morning’s consideration we find that he heals a woman that no physician can cure and restores to life a girl when all hope is gone.  Both of these events are sandwiched together and should be considered as a whole.

Again in Mark we see the sandwiching effect of two stories with a common theme.  The common theme is brought out by the details Mark chooses to include.  Jesus raises a 12-year-old daughter and he heals a 12 year long hemorrhage.  Jesus power overcame the defilement of ceremonial uncleanness found in bleeding and a dead body.  The two main characters are Jairus, and an unclean woman.  One is upper-class, the other is destitute.  All are equals before Jesus.  The only thing that makes a difference with God is one’s faith.  It doesn’t matter what station of life, whether you are male or female, clean or unclean, rich or poor,  honored or dishonored, respectable  or not respectable.  They can both find help if they both exercise faith.

(Mark 5:21-24 NIV)  "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 rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet {23} and 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."

Mark Schultz has written a song I’d like to share with you.  It captures well the emotions of a father agonizing over the health of a child before God.  Mark Schultz writes on his CD [iv]: 

“On May 22, 1998, my friend John Baird’s 14-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia. I wrote this song during the middle of their triumphant year-long battle. I wanted this song to capture the pleading heart of a father dealing with his son’s illness.”

HE’S MY SON 

by Mark Schultz

I’m down on my knees again tonight
I’m hoping this prayer will turn out right
See there is a boy that needs your help
I’ve done all that I can do myself

His mother is tired
I’m sure you can understand
Each night as he sleeps
She goes in to hold his hand
And she tries not to cry
As the tears fill her eyes

Chorus:
Can you hear me?
Am I getting through tonight?
Can you see him?
Can you make him feel all right?
If you can hear me
Let me take his place somehow
See, he’s not just anyone
He’s my son

Sometimes late at night I watch him sleep
I dream of the boy he’d like to be
I try to be strong and see him through
But God who he needs right now is You

Let him grow old
Live life without this fear
What would I be
Living without him here
He’s so tired and he’s scared
Let him know that You’re there

Chorus

Can you hear me?
Can you see him?
Please don’t leave him
He’s my son

©2000 Mark Schultz Music/BMI

These are the feelings of Jairus as well. 

Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet {23} and 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."

He knows he has done all he can humanly do and it is not enough.  He knows his daughter is dying.  Yet he had heard about (or seen) Jesus healing people before.  He puts all of his energy into his last desperate hope.  He believes Jesus can help. He must see him.  He leaves his daughter’s side.  He runs!  He must make contact with Jesus.  Jesus must come. 

With the same earnestness,

1.  Let Your Faith Connect (5:24-28)

MAKE CONTACT!  Go out of your way to make contact with Jesus.  The way Mark tells it Jairus and the Woman have common stories.  Jesus is the last hope for these two “daughters” of Israel.

(Mark 5:24-28 NIV)  "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.""

Both Jairus and the woman believe that contact with Jesus is sufficient for healing  “put your hands on her” (5:23) “If I just touch his clothes” (5:28) 

When Faith Makes Contact With Jesus It Can Be Imperfect and Still Work

We see from scripture that faith can be imperfect and still work.  The faith of the woman, and the faith of Jairus was imperfect.  It was laced with fear.  It was halting.  Their faith was not doctrinal correctness.  They have no precise idea of who Jesus is.  Though her faith mobilized her it was still a hidden, secretive faith.  She was afraid to face Jesus himself.  She could not bear to go to him openly and talk about her problem in public, much less to him.  She figured if she could just touch him without him knowing it that would be enough. It was not a perfect faith because it bordered on ideas of magic.  This quasi-magical notion was not uncommon to her day.

It is the Object of Their Faith that Makes It Work

What makes their faith work, however, is that it makes contact WITH JESUS.  What saved this father’s daughter and this woman was that their faith was directed toward Jesus.  It is the object of faith that makes their faith powerful.  Their faith, as imperfect, and as weak, and as misguided as it might be, nevertheless, made contact with Jesus!  It is the connection made with Jesus that makes that faith work!

Maybe You’ve Come As A Last Resort to Jesus

Here is a woman who came to Jesus as a last resort;  having tried every other cure that the world had to offer she finally tried him.  Many have come to seek the help of Jesus when they came to their wits' end.  Maybe that is how you have come.  You may have battled with temptation until you could fight no longer and stretched out your hand crying "Lord save Me!" You may have struggled with some exhausting task until you reached the breaking point and then cried out for strength which was not your strength. Maybe your exhausting task was parenting. Or simply trying to hold a marriage together.  We wish that circumstances didn't have to drive you to Jesus, but many come that way.  Even if you have come out of desperation and with only very little faith, Jesus will not send you away empty handed if you make Contact

2.  Let Your Faith Open God’s Gifts (5:29-34)

(Mark 5:29-34 NIV)  "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.""

Your Faith Has Healed You (34)

5:34 “Your faith has healed [lit ., saved] you”.  This statement taken all alone might be misleading.  The operating power was Jesus.  Faith is the receptor, not the power.  Notice the power went out of Jesus.  The power didn’t come from their faith but from Jesus.

Power had gone out from him (30)

(Mark 5:30 NIV)  "At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?""

What Jesus felt fascinates me.   What do we make of that?  He felt power leave him.  What does that mean?  One thing we can say confidently is that the source of the healing was not faith, but the power that came from Jesus when faith made contact.  The source is God.  Faith is the connection.  These are God’s gifts that your faith opens as your faith makes that connection.

Maybe too much can be made of this statement that Jesus felt the power go out of him.   I want you to notice something.  Jesus wasn’t trying to heal the woman.  He was on his way somewhere else.  He was interrupted by the healing.  He was the source of the healing.  He was God’s presence among man.  Let’s proceed with caution as we examine this further.  From his strong body, he has felt the transfer of healing power to the woman's diseased shell.  Whatever it means, we know Jesus was sensitive enough to know the difference between the crowd that simply touched him, and the woman who made a connection of Faith!   

Health Care Costs

Let’s remind ourselves that this woman has almost become destitute spending all that she had on doctors that didn’t help. 

(Mark 5:26 NIV)  "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."

Her health Care Costs were tremendous and it didn’t help.  I want to ask another question.  Did it cost Jesus anything to heal that woman?  We are not given a definitive answer here.   We are told that he felt power go out from him.   Is that why he is sometimes so exhausted that he can sleep through a raging storm?  Maybe it always costs something of us when we truly help someone.  Doesn’t it cost us time, sacrifice, energy, or something when we help?  We know that Jesus poured out his life as a sacrifice for us.

Does the woman’s blood stop flowing because Jesus’ blood will flow for her later?  Isaiah 53:5 says "and with his stripes we are healed."   If it is at a cost that Jesus here heals the woman, the price paid here was but a down payment, the full payment was paid later on the cross.

3.  Let Your Faith Take Action

Faith expresses itself in Action that can be seen. 

Like the men digging through the roof to being their friend to Jesus. Belief about Jesus does not bring results, but faith in Jesus that takes action does.  It is not correct doctrine that does.  Neither the woman nor the man know who Jesus is precisely, they simply believe he can help.  It is faith in action that brings one’s faith into a personal encounter with Jesus.    

{28} because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."

It has been said that separating faith and works is like separating the heat and light from a candle. You know both are produced by the candle. You know they are not the same thing. You also know you cannot separate them.

4.  Let Your Faith Be Daring

Dare to believe.  In both cases here.  Faith had its risks.  They dared to believe and they were determined in their daring belief.  Let your faith be determined to the point of it being daring.  The woman dared to work her way through the crowd even though she is ceremonially unclean.  She dared to press through her own shame or fear.  She dared to touch Jesus. 

The synagogue official must disregard the sad announcement of his daughter’s death and ignore the laughter of the mourners.  He must trust Jesus.  His Faith dared to go forward in the face of mocking laughter.  Both the woman and Jairus dared to believe.

5.  Let Your Faith Be Public (5:30-34)

(Mark 5:30-34 NIV)  "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.""

Jesus did not let the woman remain anonymous.

Why does Jesus call attention to what she has done?  Has she not suffered enough public embarrassment?  Could he not let her go in peace with a silent wink?  Jesus does not allow us to secretly hold to faith.  Jesus doesn’t allow the woman’s faith to remain secret.  He brings that faith into the open for public testing.  The public embarrassment caused by singling her out signifies his individual care for her.  He doesn’t let her slip away.  He forces the issue so that when she goes away healed she goes away with more.  She will go away, knowing that the one who healed her knows her and cares for her.  She is a person who is worth taking time with and addressing.

In a sense the healing wasn’t free.  Jesus forces her to step out on faith and be identified.  She is asked to publicly acknowledge what Jesus has done for her.

6.  Let Your Faith Grow

Meanwhile, what was Jairus thinking?  Wouldn’t it be difficult to rejoice over her good news while he is worried to death over his own bad news?  Was Jairus irritated? “Why is he dawdling?  I was in line first; take care of my problem first?”  Little does he know his faith is being prepared for what is about to happen.  He also will have to decide to trust Jesus even when the worst possible news came.

(Mark 5:35 NIV)  "While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?""

Have you ever felt so hopeless?  Have you ever felt like saying, “Why bother God about it anymore?”  Have you already decided consciously or subconsciously that something in your life is impossible even for God to fix?  Maybe your faith needs to grow also.

7.  Let Your Faith Hold On

Faith is able to hold on in the face of death and suffering even when these are not miraculously removed.  Fortunately for Jairus, in this case, God answers with a miracle!

(Mark 5:35-43 NIV)  "While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?" {36} Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "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 ruler, 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. . .

[Have you ever taken the hand of a dead person?  Say at a funeral, or bedside.  I have several times.  I remember just before my mother’s funeral, there her body lay.  I remember putting my hand on her.  The overwhelming sense after feeling the cold, lifeless clay, was that she was not there.  That was just her lifeless body.  Jesus took that cold clammy gray hand. . .]

 and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). {42} Immediately the girl stood up and walked 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."

Knowing that God has conquered death in the resurrection of Christ helps us face death.  The little girl is spared death for now but she died later.  How much later is anyone’s guess, but she was not given a total reprieve from death.  So also the woman has been healed for now, but she will face new ailments as she grows older.

Although it is true, nothing is impossible for God, We must be sensitive to the reality that no matter how genuine or desperate the faith, all are not healed or saved from death. 

Evil, sickness, and the death of little children continue to exist in our world. Not every touch heals, and those with faith still hear the dreaded word from the doctor, “your little girl is dead.”  This passage does not offer any explanation for why a loving God allows evil to continue to exist or why the inexplicable still occurs.  It does affirm that God cares.  Just because a miracle does not occur in every disaster, doesn’t lessen God’s power to save.  We must be sensitive to the reality that no matter how genuine or desperate the faith, all are not healed or saved from death. 

One must look beyond the moment of suffering to the eternal significance of Jesus’ power. 

That power is related to the kingdom of God, which is present but which is yet to be fully manifest.  In the meantime we will suffer from maladies and death.  Our faith is in God’s power to conquer death, not simply to restore things as they were.  We can face the tragedies of everyday existence with confident faith that God is not through with us.

It is often in our darkest times that God makes His presence known most clearly. He uses our sufferings and troubles to show us that He is our only source of strength. And when we see this truth, we receive new hope.

Are you facing a great trial?  Take heart. Put yourself in God’s hands. Wait for His timing. He will give you a “song in the night.”

“Hush Child, God Ain’t Dead!”

In the book, When God is taken Captive, James DeLoach is quoted.

“I am not a connoisseur of great art, but from time to time a painting or picture will really speak a clear, strong message to me. Some time ago I saw a picture of an old burned-out mountain shack. All that remained was the chimney...the charred debris of what had been that family’s sole possession. In front of this destroyed home stood an old grandfather-looking man dressed only in his underclothes with a small boy clutching a pair of patched overalls. It was evident that the child was crying. Beneath the picture were the words which the artist felt the old man was speaking to the boy. They were simple words, yet they presented a profound theology and philosophy of life. Those words were, “Hush child, God ain’t dead!”

That vivid picture of that burned-out mountain shack, that old man, the weeping child, and those words “God ain’t dead” keep returning to my mind. Instead of it being a reminder of the despair of life, it has come to be a reminder of hope! I need reminders that there is hope in this world.

In the midst of all of life’s troubles and failures, I need mental pictures to remind me that all is not lost as long as God is alive and in control of His world.” [v]

Father, we come before you this morning desperately wanting our FAITH TO CONNECT.  We want to MAKE CONTACT with you in a life transforming way.  We too want to OPEN ALL THE GIFTS you have for us by faith.  Where our faith is lacking, Lord, help us to GROW.  Where our faith is still, help us to TAKE ACTION.  When we have fears HELP US TO DARE to come before you to make contact in the face of those fears.  Lord, allow our faith to be so thoroughly defining us that whether in public or in private our faith in you is real, noticeably defining our lives.  And Lord, when we face life’s unexplainable challenges and we feel discouraged help us to remember nothing is impossible for you, and that you have already won every battle.  Help us to HOLD ON as we trust you for your great power, and your timing, for the eternal good gifts you will give us.