Desperation

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast. A podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

! I saw a video a couple of days ago. It's a husband and wife driving to the hospital going about a hundred miles an hour because his wife was about to give birth to their baby. Things had gone much more quickly than they expected and they found themselves in quite a bind.

Police who had no idea what they were doing. They just saw that here in the middle of the night was a car going about a hundred miles an hour down the interstate. Turned on their lights and siren again in hot pursuit of this vehicle.

The husband calls 911 and says, I don't know what to do. My wife is about to give birth to a baby. She is scared. I am scared. We've got police chasing us. I don't know what to do.

And some moments of confusion ensued and trying to figure out what do we do as more police began the chase. They were not aware of what was happening.

The husband was petrified. He ended up making the decision to pull over. By this point, he had been as far as the policeman knew, running from them at a very high rate of speed for quite a while. And so they were wanting to get him restrained. And they had him get out of the car and lay down on the ground. And meanwhile, you can hear the screams and cries of his wife who is just moments away from giving birth.

As I watched that video, it took me in my mind to think, what would I have done in that moment? Do you keep driving? Is there a way to alert the law enforcement behind you who are just doing their job and trying to keep others safe?

And what do you do as a husband when you're trying to do what's best for your wife and your soon-to-be-born baby yet trying to not do anything to get yourself or your family any more trouble?

Others of you maybe have been in a very similar situation where you're trying to get a loved one to the hospital or you're trying to get to a loved one who is sick. Or maybe you've received a phone call that some of your family has been involved in.

an accident of some kind and you're trying to rush to get there to find out exactly what is happening. In those moments, we feel so helpless.

In those moments, we want desperately to know that everything is going to be okay, but the truth is, at least from a human perspective, we don't know. We don't know if the story is going to end well or not.

In Mark chapter 5, verses 21 to 43, we are given a front seat view to such a story.

It's actually two stories mingled together about two very different people. one a man, one a woman, one a respected leader, the other an outcast, one wealthy, the other with no money left at all.

And we come to the story here in verse 21. And it says that when Jesus crossed again in the boat to the other side, they'd gone from the eastern side back to that northwestern side near the town of Capernaum.

A great crowd gathered about him and he was beside the sea. Remember, at this stage in the life and ministry of Jesus, it's a very interesting time. The religious leaders have already gone on record as saying they don't believe in Jesus.

They don't believe he's who he says he is. In fact, they've gone further. They've gone on record to say that the only power that Jesus has to do any of his teaching, work, or miracles is by the power of the devil.

And yet, in spite of that, because he is still doing miracles, many people still surround him. This is still a time when there are extremely large crowds that gather everywhere he goes.

There's a fascination if not even with who he is, at least with what he does. Verse 22, then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet.

It would be hard for us to fully grasp just how unlikely this setting is. We meet a man named Jairus.

He's a synagogue ruler. It means he's in charge of the public services. He's in charge of the care of the facilities. It would have been his role to appoint people to pray.

His job would have been to read scriptures and appoint people who would read them and appoint those who would come in and teach in the synagogue. He would have been a man of great reputation.

He would have been a man of wealth. And it really is an amazing thing that here is a ruler of the synagogue who was bowing down at the feet of Jesus, a man that the religious leaders of the day have said, all the miracles he does, he does by the power of Beelzebub.

I cannot overstate to you how much Jairus is risking by publicly bowing at the feet of Jesus. He's risking everything.

His reputation, his income, his career, his friendships, his standing in the community, his influence.

Everything is put on the line. when he sees Jesus and he comes and he falls at his feet.

Now, what in the world would drive a man of religious clout and such reputation in the community?

What would make a man risk everything that he has? Verse 23, Jairus implored him, implored Jesus, earnestly saying, my little daughter is at the point of death.

That will do it. That would do it for every father in this room. If you had a little girl, near death, there's not a parent in this room that wouldn't give up your job in a heartbeat for her life.

You'd give up your income. You'd empty your life savings. You would say goodbye to every friendship you had.

If need be, you would lose your house. You would give up your car. You would give up everything, including your own life. Every parent in this room would do that.

When your child is sick, it makes you desperate. When your child is near death, it can make you hopeless. He's imploring Jesus, saying, my little daughter is at the point of death.

Come and lay your hands on her that she may be made well and live. The language here suggests that he was begging him continually over and over, similar to as we looked at last week with the man who wanted to get in the boat with Jesus.

He kept asking, he kept begging, can I go with you? Can I go with you? Can I go with you? That's the same language used here to describe how Jairus is begging Jesus, please, please come, please come.

My daughter is at the point of death. She's about to die. Every second is precious. Please come. He's begging. He's entreating.

He's pleading. My little daughter is at the point of death. She's at her last days. I don't know what this feels like.

Some of you in the room, you know exactly what this feels like. I've had children that were sick. I've had children that concern me.

I've not had a child who I had the fear of they were going to die. We had a scare at the birth of one of our children.

We had a few moments at the birth of one of our sons that was quite scary. But after that event, I never had a situation where my child was to the point of death, at least not were able to speak and tell us just how bad they felt.

But Jairus did. Jairus had seen how bad his daughter was getting. He had heard her describe how much pain she was in.

He was able to watch the slow effects of whatever she had that was threatening her life, so much so that he knew she's in her last days.

It's the literal language he uses here. She's in her last days. And Jairus got to a place where it wasn't about his career anymore and it wasn't about his reputation, wasn't about his income, wasn't about his standing.

He would gladly give it all up if his daughter could be made well. He's desperate and his only hope is this man named Jesus from Nazareth who has been known with nothing more than a spoken word to open eyes that have never seen, to open ears that have never heard, to command legs that have never walked to rise and walk, and even to interrupt a funeral and cause the dead to live.

Jairus goes and begs and pleads. My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay hands on her that she may be made well and live.

And in verse 24, an amazing thing is stated here, and he went with him. Jesus said, okay, amongst the huge crowd, amongst all the people who are trying to get to him and talk to him and listen to him and interrupt him and test him and express their anger at him or express their devotion to him, trying to see if he'll perform a miracle, all the different motives that are no doubt present, Jesus says to Jairus, I will go with you.

But now, they've got to try to march home, and you've got to march home through the crowd. The crowd of people who don't know what's going on, who don't know the situation, and these people, some of them, have no doubt traveled a distance to be there, and if they're there, they don't want to be told to get out of the way.

They've come to see him. I try to think even this week, like what's the closest I can get to even imagining this kind of a scene, and my mind went to a day, it's been many years ago now, I was on an airplane flying to Phoenix for a conference, and I just happened to be seated next to a grandmother who, while I was sitting next to her on the plane, she just shook the whole time.

She just shook non-stop. And I finally said, you know, ma'am, what's going on? What's happening? And she told me that her daughter had passed away, and she had custody of her granddaughter, and her granddaughter had been kidnapped.

The granddaughter had been found in Phoenix, Arizona, safe with the authorities. They'd gotten in touch with the grandmother and said, we're flying you here, you can come be reunited and pick up your granddaughter.

Can you imagine, grandparents, what that flight, how long that flight must have felt for her? And when we were landing, it was a full flight.

We were near the back of the plane, and she was just sobbing, just anxious to get through the crowd of people to get there. people that were there. People that were there on the plane don't know what she's facing, and some of them are trying to get to their family for other needs, and some are trying to make connecting flights to go off to vacation, whatever it may be, and she's just beside herself.

And the only thing I could do was try to stand up when the plane landed and just try to yell out to people as best I could what was going on to try to convince hundreds of people to stay in their seats to let this grandmother be the first one off the plane to be able to go and to be with her granddaughter who had been stolen from her.

And though I experienced sitting next to her and trying to help lead her through the crowd of people, I still can't begin to understand or to feel just what she felt on the inside.

Knowing that there are so many people in the way of what she's trying to do to get reunited with her granddaughter. That's as close as my mind and heart can go to thinking of what Jairus is thinking.

He's got this incredible need because his daughter is at home dying. He had to get to Jesus. He made it. He's got to be able to speak to Jesus. He did. He's got to get Jesus' attention.

He's got it. He's got to ask him to come. Jesus has to agree to, and now he has, and now they begin the march from wherever they are to wherever Jairus lives. But the problem is there's a huge crowd of people that are there.

He's got to somehow get through the crowd. And it's not as if they can get on a public address system and say, we've got a little girl who's about to die. Everybody clear the path.

They're just having to do the best they can going through the hordes of people. They're trying to scoop people aside one at a time. And don't you know with every person who sees Jesus or asks what's going on or says, excuse you, why are you bumping into me?

And why are you crowding me? And don't step on my toes that Jairus is just dying on the inside knowing how precious every single second must be in this case.

But he's got hope. He's got hope because Jesus is with him. He's desperate, but it's a desperation with hope because Jesus said, I'll go with you.

And we get a little bit of good news here because verse 24 says, he went with him. And so we're hopeful they're going to make it in time and that the little girl can live.

And verse 24 in the second part reminds us that there was a great crowd that followed him and thronged about him and the great crowd is a huge problem for Jairus.

If you were trying to run to the hospital for someone that you love that was in a serious situation and it was bumper to bumper traffic and you can't go to the left and you can't go to the right and there's no room to pass on the shoulder and you're just stuck in traffic.

And you're checking your phone to see how long does this traffic jam last and you're looking all around is there any way I can weave in and out? But there's just too much. There's just too many people, too many vehicles. You don't have anywhere to go.

That's the picture we see. And while Jairus is a man that was desperate with hope, we secondly see a lady and she's destitute.

We're introduced to her in verse 25. There is a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. And she had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but grew worse.

Some of you have walked this path. Maybe you didn't walk the first path of Jairus but some of you have walked this path.

Yourself or someone you love who was sick and they go doctor to doctor to doctor and scan to scan and medication after medication and they're getting worse.

for this lady it would have not only been physical pain it's more than that it's deeper than that.

According to Leviticus 15 she would be perpetually unclean which means she was not able to be a part of Jewish religious life. She doesn't have normal social activity.

She can't go to the temple. She can't gather in the synagogue. She's not going to be touched by people. And verse 26 told us she had spent all that she had.

There's no money left. After she paid the doctors and tried the potions and whatever else other people might say she should try.

I read this week as many as 11 or 12 kinds of remedies in that day were known to be prescribed. Some of them with some medicinal value.

Others that were just downright superstitious. Some that were just strange and even embarrassing. But when you're desperate you'll try anything.

you'll go anywhere. What option does this lady have? Jairus' little girl is about to die but as long as she's been alive this lady has had this condition.

She doesn't have money to eat. She doesn't friends won't hug her it would make them unclean. She's gone to every doctor she knows.

She's heard people give her advice on you ought to try this or you ought to do this or you ought to eat that or maybe you ought to try this superstition you name it she's tried it if it's for sale she's bought it and now she has nothing left.

The only thing she has left to try is to get near Jesus. Verse 27 she had heard the reports about Jesus what reports?

Reports like some guys who had a friend who couldn't walk and they couldn't get to Jesus until they cut a hole in the roof and put their friend on a pallet and attached ropes to it and lowered him down until Jesus saw him and Jesus healed him and a man who couldn't walk was told to rise and walk and he did.

She'd heard about that. And she thought Jesus can do for me what no doctor can do. And Jesus isn't charging for his miracles and that's good because she has no money left to pay somebody anyway.

She had heard the reports about Jesus and so she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. And what we know from the ancient world is that when men were in a hurry they would customarily pick up a part of their robe that was long and throw it over their shoulder to allow them more freedom of movement.

Why would that be the case? Because Jairus has Jesus by the arm and is grabbing him and saying let's go, let's go, let's go. We were at the airport going to on our Israel trip a few years ago and we had trying to connect a flight in London and we had some people that were on the plane, some others coming from other planes to join us there and long story short at the end of it we had a few people about to miss the flight and I had gone to the security gate told the situation and begged them please don't shut the door, please don't shut the door, I'm going to go get our people, I'm going to bring them here and I had Marcy stationed there to try to help persuade them to not leave without us and I went and found the people we were waiting on and I'm running beside them saying hurry you got to pick it up, you got to pick it up, we're going to be left, we're going to be left, you got to go, you got to go, you got to go, that's jyrus to

Jesus, we got to go, we can't stop and talk, we got to go, when I left my daughter at home she was about to die and I had to come find you, I don't even know if she's alive right now, we got to go, we got to go, so they've taken their robe and they've put it over their shoulder so they can have ability to move more quickly and this lady sees Jesus and she sees most likely this part of his garment that has been slung back with the tassel hanging off of it and she said in verse 28 to herself, if I touch even his garments I will be made well.

if I can just clutch and grab his garment. She somehow makes her way through the crowd and gets right to where Jesus is, verse 29, and immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Instantly. she believed that Jesus could do this. She believed he could do what no physician could do.

He could do what no medication could do. He could give her freely what no amount of money could buy and if she could just get to him and if she could just touch his garment, she believed she could be made well.

She made it. She touched him and immediately she is healed. this is a lady who is going against the customs of her day to even be out in public in this way.

She hasn't been to worship. She hasn't been hugged. She's been an outcast in every way. and in one act of faith, in one instant, she's healed.

Verse 30, Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you, meaning there's so many people here, and yet you say, who touched me?

In other words, the disciples say, Jesus, how can we begin to tell you who touched you? Everybody around you is touching you. It gives you a sense of just how crowded it was. How would we possibly know who touched you?

There are as many people here as we can imagine, and everybody is in one space because everybody's trying to get near you, to see you, to touch you, to have a conversation with you. How do we know who touched you?

And yet, Jesus distinguishes between the accidental touch of the crowd and the faithful touch of desperation.

Verse 34, the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

she is consumed with a holy fear. She's in the presence of deity and she is trembling.

Do you notice that everywhere Jesus goes that seems to be the common response? when Jesus displays his power, it's fear and trembling.

And you've heard me say while we've been walking through this book these number of months, but let me just say again, the way that we worship says much about what we really believe about Christ.

what you don't see is this indifference, this casualness, this I can take it or leave it.

What you see when people encounter Christ and see a glimpse of who he is in reality, they are undone. They are bowing at his feet.

They are in fear and trembling. They're not coming late. They're not leaving early. They're not distracting those. they're not thinking about what they've got to do that afternoon. I mean, everything about their mind is completely fixed on Christ and nothing else matters.

Everybody who encounters the power and the miraculous work of Christ, they are just in fear and in trembling and they are in worship and they are undone and nothing of this world matters at all, not when they have seen who Christ is.

verse 34, Jesus said to her, daughter, incidentally, I think this is the only time in the Gospels Jesus uses this word.

Daughter, your faith has made you well. well, go in peace and be healed of your disease.

Your faith has made you well. Same word is translated often as saved. And I think both are in view here. I think there is a physical salvation and a spiritual salvation.

salvation, go in peace. If there is one thing this lady has not had for twelve years, it is one second of peace.

How could she? Every step she takes, she hurts. And every Sabbath when others would gather to worship, she can't go.

And no one's touching her. They can't. And when somebody says, you know what, you ought to buy, you might try to buy this medication.

It could help. At this point, she can't buy it. If she wanted to, there's not a penny left to her name. She hasn't known peace physically. She hasn't known peace religiously.

She hasn't known peace in her family. She hasn't known peace in a societal sense. She has no peace at all for twelve years.

And now, in one second, through her faith, she has been healed, she has been saved, and in Christ, she has been granted peace.

This is an amazing miracle. one second, except for one thing, Jairus.

I trust Jairus is glad that the lady was healed. I trust he is genuinely excited that she has been given peace and healing for the first time, but not if it comes at the expense of his daughter.

I mean, I trust if you asked Jairus, do you feel compassion for this lady? I trust he would have said, sure, I do. If you said you want her to be healed, I think you would have said, sure, that would be wonderful, but if you said, are you willing to give up your daughter's life so this lady can be healed, I think you would have said, no chance.

She's not on the brink of death. She may be miserable, but she's not dying. My girl is dying. And with every conversation and with every sentence and even in the case of the lady, with every word of worship, though it may be pleasing to the Lord, it's got to break Jairus' heart.

Because every second counts. And while this whole scene is going on, Jesus is talking to the lady, the lady's talking to him, he's talking to the disciples, the disciples are talking to Jesus, and Jairus has to be looking at his watch going, there's just not time for this.

And sure enough, verse 35, while he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house someone who said, your daughter is dead.

Why trouble the teacher any further? The delay proved deadly.

And here came a messenger who had to tell Jairus, it's too late. I don't know if you've been there, I've been in this case many, many times.

Some in my role as pastor, some in my role as volunteering to help our local police department, I have made a number of death notifications, and every single one is brutal.

I've knocked on doors of strangers, people I've never met, to tell them that their loved one has died. It's awful.

I've told people that their spouse has died, I've told people that their parent has died. Nothing breaks your heart like telling someone their child has died.

So when I read that verse, I feel that pretty deeply. I don't know what Jairus felt.

I do know what the messenger felt. Jairus, your daughter is dead. Don't trouble him anymore. Verse 36, but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, that's Jairus, do not fear, only believe.

The best way to hear that in English would be stop fearing, keep on believing. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James, and they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.

Understand, funerals in their day are very different than funerals in our day. If you've ever been at the house right after someone died, in our culture it's very quiet.

Nobody wants to speak above a hushed tone. People gather and sit in silence. wail loudly. And if someone is overcome with emotion, they generally will excuse themselves to leave and go outside or to a room so that they're not wailing and sobbing in front of everybody.

It's not how it was in the culture that Jesus walked. It was actually quite the opposite. Funerals were loud. People would wail loudly.

You would actually hire people to come in and wail. It was a way to have people express what you're feeling on the inside. You would hire people to come and play the flute.

It was loud. It was noisy. It was a commotion which is exactly what Mark tells us. Jesus got to the house and there was a commotion because people were weeping and wailing loudly.

Why? Because she has died. I don't know how far the walk was for them. I don't know all the precise details of it. Mark doesn't tell us all of that. It's enough time that she has died and they've been able to gather people together and the mourning process has begun by the time they get there.

Verse 40. They laughed at him. Why? It's because of what Jesus said when he showed up at the funeral at the end of verse 39. The child is not dead but sleeping.

Why does he say that? I mean at this point the doctor's been there.

There's no heartbeat. The people who were there have been watching her struggle to breathe. You, if you've been with a loved one that's been through this, I've been with countless numbers of people as they took their last breath, you know when it's over.

She's not asleep. She's dead. The body very quickly goes into some obvious signs that let you know that the person has died.

That's happening here. And the only words we have of Jesus record of what he says to Jairus the father, do not fear, only believe.

And then he says the child is not dead but sleeping. Now sleep is a temporary condition. It's not permanent. Sleep is not painful.

Sleep is not frightening. And that's why he uses the term. Her condition is temporary. Like taking a nap and waking up and you felt like you just closed your eyes and it's been a few hours and it wasn't frightening or scary or painful at all.

It was just a temporary condition. So Jesus says her condition is just temporary. But to the people there, the words sound ridiculous. Maybe even to them, cruel.

She's not taking a nap, Jesus. She's dead. You don't think we know that she's dead? Feel her wrist. There's no pulse. She's not breathing.

Her body is turning a different color. She's dead. She's not sleeping. But what they don't know is that her condition is just temporary. And in that sense, it is sleep.

So what does Jesus do? Verse 40, 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.

So it's Peter, James, and John, mom and dad and Jesus. Nobody else gets to go in and see this. Verse 41, taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha kum.

Mark lets us know the literal words that come out of his mouth. The Old Testament written in Hebrew, New Testament written in Greek, but the common language in Jesus' day would have been Aramaic, which is the words that he would have spoken, which are the words that Mark records for us, Talitha kum.

Little girl. Also would be used to describe a small lamb. I think the closest we can get to hearing in English what Jesus said that day would be little lamb, wake up.

Verse 42, immediately the girl got up and began walking for she was 12 years of age. the same voice that spoke and the planets filled the sky in Genesis 1, the same voice that spoke and calmed the storm in Mark 4, now says, little lamb, wake up.

and she wakes up. Verse 42, they were immediately overcome. Now, Mark is writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so he's recording exactly and precisely what the Lord means for him to record, but the biblical authors still use their own personality, they still are writing as themselves, and I don't know what all went through Mark's mind as he records this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but how would you begin to describe the response of a mom and dad who saw their little girl deceased brought back to life?

He doesn't load it up with a bunch of adjectives. He just says one word, they were amazed.

I don't know how you can begin to describe it. They were amazed. the word actually literally means they were standing outside of themselves.

It was as if their bodies were here, but they were here looking down upon what was happening. It was so unreal. It was so amazing.

It was so other than anything they'd ever experienced. It was as if they were beside themselves, the language says. I mean, how could you possibly put this into words? Verse 43, and he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat.

Now, a couple of things here in verse 43. Two commands. One, give her something to eat. Two, don't tell anyone about this. Let's start with the first one. Why the command to give her something to eat?

Well, that one's really simple because living beings eat and she is fully alive. Amen? She's alive. And if she's alive, she's hungry.

And if she's hungry, give her something to eat. This is Jesus saying she is fully, completely restored. She needs to eat. But what of the first command?

He strictly charged them that no one should know this. I struggle with that because everyone's going to know.

They're there because of the funeral. If you were having a funeral for your loved one and everybody showed to the church for the funeral and somebody came and said, hey, I need everybody to leave the room.

Everybody leave the sanctuary for just a minute and it was just the family and the deceased in the coffin and something happened and the deceased person was brought back to life. If you said, don't tell anybody, what do you do with that?

Everybody's going to know the funeral's canceled. Well, there's something here. It's not that they're not going to know she's alive.

Of course they're going to know she's alive and of course they're going to know she has gone from death to life because the wailers stop wailing and the people play the flute, quit playing the flute and the people who are there screaming and crying and carrying on a commotion are going to go away and the parents who are heartbroken are now rejoicing.

They're going to know she's alive but what they're not to do is go and tell everybody how it happened. That's so interesting to me because in the first part of Mark 5, we looked at last week when the man was cured of the legion of demons, Jesus said, you go and tell everybody what the Lord has done.

But in this case, he strictly charged them, you don't tell all the details. And I think the reason is because Jesus did not want to be known simply as a healer of bodies but as a savior of souls.

The great story in Mark 5 is that Jesus can forgive sinners.

That's the great story of Jesus in every text. And what people will latch onto is Jesus can give me what I want and that's not the reason they're going to do and it's interesting because that was 2,000 years ago.

In our world today, there are people in church buildings all over this world today, not out of worship but hoping they can manipulate God into giving them what they want.

Does God give good gifts? You bet He does. You're sitting next to some of the best gifts He has given you. But His greatest gift was forgiving your sin.

And Jesus does not want people following Him as a means to an end. He is the gift.

You get Jesus. That's the great gift. And so, what we learn today is that desperate people need to run to Jesus.

Desperate people need to run to Jesus. Do you feel desperate today? Run to Jesus. Whatever your need is.

With your physical needs, with your spiritual needs, with your family needs, with your financial needs, run to Jesus. With your marriage that's on the brink of splitting up, with your children who are going wayward in their faith, with your friendships that have exploded, with your loneliness, with your isolation, with your fear, with your diagnosis, with your anxiety, run to Jesus.

Jesus has compassion on those who are hurting. And with Him, nothing is impossible.

You may identify with Jairus or the lady or the messenger or maybe you identify with a crowd thinking everybody's got all these exciting things going on in their life and I'm just lost in the crowd.

However you feel today, run to Jesus. Desperate people find hope with Jesus.

Lord, we thank You today for Your Word. Desperation and hope. Destitution and help.

Death and healing. What they all have in common is that You are the One that gives what we need.

Lord, may we run to You even this morning. Amen. Amen. Amen.