Faith is Critical

 On of the early debates about Christianity was about the difference between the power of the Holy Spirit and gnosis. Gnosis is a Greek word that means mystical knowledge. In fact, for many years, there were additional books written about Jesus from a Gnostic perspective. You may have heard about the “Lost Gospels”, such as the Gospel of Andrew, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, and others. Actually, these books were never lost – they can be found on the Internet. Instead, they were rejected by the early church fathers for two primary reasons: First, they were mostly written at least 50 years after Revelation was written by authors who were faking their names and credentials, and second, they claimed a gnosis, or hidden knowledge of the things of Jesus.

Gnostic power is still looked for in the world. It is the philosophical basis of magic – the idea that if you say the magic words in just the right way, hold onto the proper eye of newt and piece of batwing in just the right way and the proper order, if you really knew the secret knowledge about Jesus’ sister and the name of Peter’s boat, you could accomplish all sorts of powerful magic. Throughout the centuries, people have maintained that secret knowledge is the key to power – and this continues even to this day. Even today, even in major universities like UNC Chapel Hill, in Harvard, at Yale, there are people who call themselves biblical scholars who are still searching for secret, hidden knowledge about Jesus so they can publish books, sell lectures, and become the man or woman who has the power to destroy Christianity.

A few years ago, following the Gnostic philosophy, Dan Brown wrote “The Da Vinci Code” about a hidden series of symbols found in a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, the famous artist. It became a movie starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard. The success of the book and the movie were followed up by a pair of equally fantastic sequels. It seems that many people wanted the secret but made-up knowledge provided by Mr. Brown – and this managed to confuse many people who were considering Christianity.

Besides this form of Gnostic-influenced Christianity, Gnostic influence is also all over television, with shows such as Lucifer, The Good Witch, and many shows and books about witchcraft and magic available. UFO’s have been the rage for years among some people, and conspiracy theories have been around since Lincoln and Kennedy were assassinated. It seems most people want “secret knowledge”, knowledge that most people don’t have, because that secret knowledge, even if it is looney and doesn’t stick together, it helps the people who buy it feel important, powerful, wise, …and dangerous. We can also see this philosophy at work in Scientology, in Buddhism, and in those who go beyond science as a way to understand the world around us and want to use science as the answer to all the deep, philosophical questions. “I can understand what most people don’t understand or recognize, because I am smarter and wiser than all around me.” the Gnostic says, for he or she believes that real truth cannot be simple enough to be on public display and understood by average people.

But the real books of the Bible, the books that were written by a disciple of Jesus or a close associate of a disciple, a man who met with and talked with Jesus personally or, in the case of Luke and Mark, a man who knew closely and talked with the disciples – in these real books of the New Testament, knowledge is rarely kept hidden – and when it is, such as the date of Jesus’ return, the claim is made that NO ONE knows until the event happens. There are no hidden spells passed on from disciple to disciple; no secret rituals; no deep dark secrets about Jesus that only pastors or bishops know. Instead, everything is in the open – even when Jesus told the disciples to keep a secret, they wrote it down later for the public to find in their Gospels. And today, we have such an example of Jesus telling the disciples to keep a secret – which Mark then wrote down for everyone to read after Jesus returned to Heaven.

And here, we are faced with another key difference between hidden, gnosis magic, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

In magic, have you ever noticed that the idea is always destruction, control, secrecy, death and damage? A person is turned to a frog, burnt to a crisp, forced to love another, forced to serve, turned invisible to commit burglaries, killed on the spot, or hideously disfigured? Life and beauty are destroyed by Gnosis.

But when Jesus acts – and later, when the disciples act, the power of the Holy Spirit heals, cures, releases from bondage, resurrects. Life and beauty are given by the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look at today’s episode. It occurs just after Jesus has sent the legion of demons from the possessed man into a herd of pigs. The man begged to go with Jesus and the disciples, but Jesus said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you.” The man did this in the region to the Southeast of Galilee, known as the Ten Cities, or the Decapolis.

So Jesus and the disciples take the boat back to the other side of the lake, and a large crowd gathered around him. A man named Jairus was a leader of one of the synagogues where the Jews gathered to worship. He had been successful in life and in the community. He was respected. But he had a problem he could not solve by himself, with all his friends, with the entire synagogue. His success would not help him. But he had heard of the miracles that Jesus had performed, so he came and saw Jesus, falling at His feet. He pled earnestly with Jesus, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” Such confidence in the power of Jesus! Such faith! So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pushed and shoved around Jesus. In the crowd was a woman who had been suffering from continuous, menstrual-related bleeding for a dozen years. This was naturally serious enough with the anemia it caused, but in the context of the time, it was also a spiritual problem, for by the Law given to Moses, the blood made her ritually unclean, and so she could not visit the Temple, she could not attend synagogue services, and she should not even be out in public.

Many times, a physical ailment or a disability keeps us today from church, and so the physical problem leads to spiritual problems. It is interesting to note that Jairus, a leader of the synagogue was present at this point. Is this to remind us that the leaders of the church should make every effort to help people who feel they cannot attend church because of physical issues, perhaps mobility issues or other issues which may cause embarrassment? At least today, we have Facebook Live – but, as we all now know, that isn’t quite a substitute for attendance in person, is it?

Mark tells her that she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors. You can imagine the various treatments of the day – things did not improve for her, but only grew worse.

But she heard about the power of healing that Jesus brought. And so she pushed through the crowd, snuck up behind Jesus, and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” And that is what happened, immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering, Mark tells us.

And we can imagine her smiling with joy, and beginning to turn away to head home, when Jesus stops, turns around, and asks, “WHO TOUCHED MY CLOTHES?”

The disciples are amazed at this. After all, there’s people pushing and shoving all around Jesus, and he asks, “Who touched me?”

But Jesus keeps looking around. The woman, embarrassed and ashamed, realizes that she will not be allowed to sneak away. Jesus doesn’t want her to sneak away, ashamed of what she has done. No, He wants her to explain to Him and the crowd gather nearby what has happened. He wants a public testimony, just as today, like the man freed from the demons and like this woman, He wants you to tell everyone what He has done for you in your life.

So she comes to Him and falls at His feet, trembling with fear, for women were not supposed to touch rabbi’s, teachers, and she was still ritually impure and would be for weeks, and so she had committed a social crime, a crime against the Law of Moses, a crime for which she would surely be denounced, embarrassed, and chewed out in public. It was the equivalent to being chewed out in open church by Billy Graham for being an adulteress or a secret drunkard or other sin.

But she told Him the whole truth, and then she cringed for Jesus’ judgement. And He gave it. “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

No condemnation. No harsh words. No demands she be stoned. Simply an announcement that her faith had healed her – and an announcement to her – and to the crowd - that she should go in peace and be freed from her suffering. And so she left. We should do the same for people who tell of being healed by Christ.

But there are some things that are very important in this statement of Jesus. First, did you notice that he does not take credit for this healing? He does not give credit to God. No, He says to her, “YOUR FAITH has healed you.”

Let’s put this in context. In the next chapter, Mark 6, Jesus goes to Nazareth, where people take offense at Him because they knew Him, and yet, He had this big reputation for being a prophet, healing people and doing other great miracles. They did not show Him any honor, the honor due the Son of God. In fact, they remind Him that they had seen Him growing up, working with Joseph in the carpenter’s shop. He shouldn’t get above His raising! And so, Jesus doesn’t do any miracles there, except “lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. Mark says Jesus could not do any miracles in Nazareth. He was amazed because of their lack of faith.  

So what is the deal about faith? During Jesus’ ministry, it was critical to Him that people eventually recognize Him both for His POWER as Son of God and for His CHARACTER as Son of God. The bleeding woman recognized that Jesus – even His clothing – had the power to heal her. But she had not yet recognized that His character wanted to heal her. And so He stopped and required her to speak her story, so everyone could see that God the Father’s love, flowing through Jesus, had healed her even without Jesus’ express wish. Her faith in Jesus and God had healed her – not Jesus’ command that she be healed. He had not performed magic – He just was Who He was and is – the Son of God, the God that wants healing and life and beauty!

But at Nazareth, He did very little healing and no other miracles because of His character. He had the power to heal – that was demonstrated. But His character kept Him from saying to the troublesome men and women of Nazareth, “You don’t believe? Watch this!” like a redneck who has just learned how to smash a beer can on his forehead. Jesus’ character meant that He had no need to show-off in front of a bunch of unbelievers who would probably think He had some hidden knowledge that He had learned from traveling magicians or demons. Sometimes, you see, it is when Jesus does not act that can teach us more about Him – and us - than Jesus acting!

Have you prayed for a new car loan to be approved? And it wasn’t? How about praying for Jesus to approve the car loan if it is good for us? For a new car loan adds $300 to $500 a month in expenses, every month, which you honestly may not be able to handle. When Jesus says “No.”, then you learn that you can live with the car you have for another year or two.

Have you prayed for a particular job? Once, about 15 years ago, I had taken an alternative certification program to become a teacher. In October of that year, I applied to WVU-P to teach courses. I didn’t hear back from them. In April, I applied to Williamstown High School for a physics and chemistry job. In May, I applied to Simonton Windows for a job as a financial analyst. In late June, I applied for a job in automation equipment with a local company that did that work and had an interview. I prayed on the way to the interview, “This should be a great job, Lord, The only thing better would be full-time ministry.”

After the interview, I got home to find an email mentioning that Parkersburg Catholic wanted a math teacher. I called, got the interview for Thursday. The first question was, “We are a Catholic school. Would you be comfortable sharing your faith and praying with the students?” DING!

The next day, Simonton called me for a phone interview. The money would be twice what Catholic could pay. On Monday, Catholic called me and told me I had the job if I wanted it. I accepted. An hour later, Williamstown called and asked me to come in for an interview – they had a new principal and that was the reason for the delay. Even though the money would have been more, I declined. An hour later, Simonton called me back for an in-plant interview. I declined. An hour later, WVU-P called me and asked me to teach two courses. “When?” I asked. 4 pm and 7 pm. I accepted and between Catholic and WVU-P, the money added up to what Williamstown would have paid. I never heard back from the automation company.

It gets better. The automation company laid people off in October. Simonton had a big layoff in December. In May, a bunch of teachers fled Williamstown because of the new principal. And a year later, at Catholic, I was able to start seminary and began to also preach at two small churches in Pleasants County. So have faith that God and Jesus are involved, even if they don’t give a reply like you might want. Trust that they are guiding you the right way, and learn to leave the details up to God.

Well, Jesus had confronted the woman and made her tell her story publicly, and He made His comment about her faith healing her. Remember, Jairus, the synagogue leader is watching all of this. And about that time, some people came from the house of Jairus, and spoke to Jairus. “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?”

Jesus overheard their advice, and told Jairus: “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” Jairus had just seen and heard the story of the bleeding woman, so he must have looked at Jesus with hope in an even stronger fashion than he had before.

So Jairus, Jesus, Peter, James, and John went to Jairus’ house. Jesus told the rest of the disciples and crowd to stay behind. At the house, everyone is crying and wailing. Jesus went in and said, “Why all the ruckus? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they just laughed at him. They laughed at the Son of God. Remember that when someone laughs at your faith.

So Jesus took just Jairus, his wife, and the three disciples into the girl’s room. The laughers would miss a miracle. He took her by the hand and said to her in Aramaic, “Little girl, get up!” And the twelve-year-old girl stood up and began to walk. Of course, all of the observers were astonished. He told them to give her something to eat – and not to let anyone know about this. Right! How long do you think they could keep the secret?

But the command tells us something else about Jesus’ character. Today, most people would present the girl, alive and walking around, to the crowd standing outside to astonishment and cheers. But Jesus told them to keep it quiet. Why? He had decided that those who laughed did not even deserve to be put down – notice that He does not rebuke them or rub the miracle in their noses. But He had also decided they would miss a blessing because they would not accept the blessing as the gracious miracle from a loving God that it was.

Several reasons present themselves. Perhaps the little girl had only fainted and Jesus recognized this faint for what it was, while the crying crowd who had laughed at Him had thought she was dead. If so, Jesus wanted to secure in the mind of the synagogue leader who he should trust – Jesus or the crowd. Who do you trust? Jesus or the crowd?

Perhaps Jesus knew that rumors can spread faster than proclaimed facts. For over the next few weeks, people would gradually have become aware that the little girl was still alive, and that news would have spread – along with the idea that Jesus was not a publicity seeker. The laughers would then realize their mistake and repent – or not. But they would never see Jesus as a revenge-seeking publicity hound.

Or perhaps Jesus knew that the little girl might be discriminated against, treated as a witch, or otherwise get in trouble just as Lazarus would a couple years later when Lazarus was resurrected, and so Jesus wanted to keep publicity away from the little girl and Jairus for as long as possible.

Or, perhaps, just as would soon happen in Nazareth, Jesus had no need to proclaim Himself to people who were so antagonistic that they would never believe.

In contrast, the bleeding woman had so much faith in the healing power of Jesus that she thought merely touching his robe would do the trick because He was so holy. She did not require His action. She did not require His speech. She did not require even His attention. But she got it through her faith. You see, it was her faith that Jesus insisted be talked about – not His “magic”. But later, the people of Nazareth were so demanding of Jesus, He decided not to perform for them like a sideshow act. And the same with the laughing people at Jairus’ house.

It is something to remember. There are people who delight in arguing with Christians, and it is often tempting to debate them back. But notice that Jesus never debates these people, never even shows them His miraculous powers. He answers the Sadducees and Pharisees when they put serious theological questions to Him, but He does not argue with random people who laugh and ask, “Who made you God?” Instead, Jesus ignores them and works near them – though, perhaps not in their presence. Remember, when you are tempted to get into a debate with someone who is anti-Christian – people are watching you. Your humbleness and kindness will do more for the Gospel than winning the debate with sarcasm and other attacks.

Many years later, Paul points out that Jesus was rich, yet became poor for our sake, so that through his poverty we might become rich. A statement that is bit confusing, yes, but sometimes it is absolutely necessary that Jesus allow us to temporarily fail in things so that we will learn to lean on Him.

It is similar to a father, whose teenage son asks him to buy him a computer. The father knows that he can afford the computer, but he also knows that a computer is often a luxury. So he tells his son that he cannot afford to buy him a computer, but he then gives the son several ideas on how he might earn a computer – a paper route, working at McDonald’s, etc. And the son becomes much richer because he has learned the value of hard work.

And so Paul points out that Christians should share with each other. Give what you can give, whether it be money, a bit of time, a special talent, or words of encouragement and joy. And then, expect that other Christians will share with you what they have plenty of – whether it be money, a bit of time, a special talent, or words of encouragement and joy.

And how does this tie together? Jesus shared what He had plenty of – the power of the Spirit to heal, to give life, to resurrect. He never shared destructive magic, hidden secret knowledge, like many people seem to want today. Only life-giving power of the Spirit. And we should do the same – let your words be words that give joy and life – never destruction. Let your actions lift other up, not destroy them. Point others to Jesus because you have been freed from suffering – and tell many, many people your story. Don’t keep it a secret.

Imagine. Your story contains the gift of life that Jesus gave to you. Share it with others, that they might have life. And then, one day, when you are feeling dark, lonely, and sad – they may come back and tell you words of joy and life.

Like many pastors, my son Andy has had a difficult time during COVID because he could not meet with many people. His churches had to completely close for months because they could not figure out a way to operate safely. Yet, he stayed in touch with many, with one man in particular, a man he knew had not yet surrendered his life to Jesus.

Last week, they took a walk on a trail together, talking about Jesus. About three-quarters of the way through the trail, there is a cross. The man knelt at that cross and accepted Jesus. Today, he is supposed to be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit which gives eternal life. And that, my friends, is what life is all about. My son called me, filled with joy. And any person here can learn to do the same for your friends, neighbors, and relatives.

Spread the Gospel. Heal the world with God. Make a difference.

Trust in God. God will be there. In His Time.

Post-Sermon Song: In His Time 2203

Benediction: May God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit fill you and guide you this week, that you may do the will of God. Be blessed!

5 Closing Song – Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus 462

Go and Praise God all week long!