ONLY BELIEVE
“And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw Him [Jesus], he fell at His feet, and besought Him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray Thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him; and much people followed Him, and thronged Him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched His garment. For she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched My clothes? And His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth. And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. While He yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. And He suffered no man to follow Him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. And He cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. And when He was come in, He saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn. But when He had put them all out, He taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with Him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. And He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. And He charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.” (Mark 5:22-43).
It’s easy for us to trust in the Lord when things are
going well and our lives are rolling along on a smooth super highway; but what
about when we leave the beaten trail and find ourselves lost on some back dirt
road, and the car breaks down altogether.
That is when our faith is really tested, but that is also when we can
experience the most spiritual growth. In
the dark valleys of life, we find Jesus is the Lily of the Valley.
There was a man by the name of Jairus who lived at the
time of Jesus and was a ruler in his local synagogue. Jairus had a 12 year old daughter whom he
loved very much. This daughter had
become extremely ill, and the illness had progressed to the point where it was
life threatening. As her father fretted
by her bedside, he heard that Jesus was passing through his community. Being at his wits’ end, he went to Jesus and
fell down at His feet, pleading with the Lord to come and lay hands on his
daughter so that she might be healed.
Jairus had faith to believe that Jesus could make the difference in his
little girl’s life. Jesus, in turn, was
moved by this request, and He agreed to follow this man to his house.
We, too, know to go to Jesus when we have desperate
needs in our lives. Whether it is for
ourselves or for those we love, we know and believe that He can make the difference. Like Jairus, we are relieved to know that
Jesus cares and responds to our prayers and requests for His aid. What we aren’t often prepared for is the way
that Jesus sometimes chooses to answer.
As Jairus led Jesus through the crowd toward Jairus’
house, this desperate man must have felt a great sense of relief knowing that
Jesus – this miracle worker – was on His way to touch his daughter. This is where things began to unravel in his
mind, though. First, there was the crowd
itself. Everyone was pushing and
thronging Jesus, trying to get a glimpse, or even a touch of the Master. This certainly slowed them down and made it
difficult to proceed. Second, a lady in
the crowd, who had a serious need herself, touched the hem of Jesus’ garment as
He passed and was instantly healed of an issue of blood that had plagued her
for 12 years. Jesus, sensing that
someone had been healed, stopped to address this woman. This delayed their progress to Jairus’ house
yet further. It was what happened next,
however, that could have broken Jairus’ hopes altogether. As Jesus was still talking to the woman who
had just been healed, one of Jairus’ servants that worked in his household came
up and told him, “Thy daughter is dead:
why troublest the Master any further?”
Beloved, this is when many of God’s children lose
faith. When we have prayed and believed
God for an answer, and, all of a sudden, it looks like the entire possibility
of Him being able to do anything dissolves before our very eyes, that is when
our faith can die as well. When our
hopes and our dreams suddenly seem dead, that’s when it’s easy to give up and
think that God has not heard, or there is nothing God can do now.
Abraham may have been tempted to feel this way. God promised him that his seed would be as
the sands of the sea, and as the stars of heaven, in number; and yet, God
waited until Abraham was almost 100 years old before Sarah ever gave birth to
Isaac, the promised heir. His body was
already dead in a sense - it seemed the promise could no longer be
fulfilled. Yet, Abraham believed God,
and God gave him a son; and this story stands as a testimony forever to God’s
faithfulness, and to the fact that God often waits until all possibility of our
doing anything in ourselves is gone before He acts. He will be glorified!
Read the story of Lazarus in John 11 and understand
that Jesus deliberately waited until He knew that His friend Lazarus had died
before He went to help him. He knew what
He was doing. He knew that He was going
to raise His friend from the dead. He
wanted the believers to understand that He was the Resurrection and the Life,
and without death, there can be no resurrection!
As Jairus stood there, we can surmise that grief was welling
up in his heart as Jesus said to him simply, “Be not afraid, only believe.” To
“only believe” is not always so
simple though, is it? To God, death is
not the end, but merely a means to the end.
The things in our lives that we think that God has shut the door on, the
things that we have seen die, He can resurrect.
It may be that He has allowed them to slip out of our hands for a time only
to show us that they weren’t in our
hands in the first place. Jairus’
servant said to him, “Trouble not the
Master any further.” This is the
point in our story where we may believe that there’s no longer any point to
praying, or believing, or hoping any more for the thing that has died. We may be tempted to quit “troubling the Master.” I say to you, though, if you have heard from God and are praying for Him to move, and you see
your promise die, do not give up. You keep right on praying and believing God
for the thing that He has promised you, or given you hope to believe. Trust in the Lord and do not rely on your own
understanding. He will be faithful and He
will be glorified!
In the end, Jesus raised Jairus’ little girl from the
dead. This may have been something that
was previously beyond what Jairus thought Jesus could do. Not after that day, though! He knew from that time on that there was
nothing too hard for God. Oh, how we
need such faith today! He is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think.” We just need to set
aside all of our fears and only believe.
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