Holding On based on Mark 5:36

Holding On

based on Mark 5:36

Pentecost 6 – July 16, 2006

Pastor Richard Mau

Immanuel Lutheran Church – Des Plaines, IL

Today’s Scripture:

Psalm 121       Lamentations 3:22-33 2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-14   Mark 5:21-24a, 25-43

            Mark 5:36 “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

            Faith. What is your faith? What do you believe? What are the things you believe in? My father believed in a couple of things. He believed in Ford cars and the long green line of John Deere farm tractors and equipment. He was confident that as long as he stayed with the products of those two companies, he would be well served   He had faith in them because of what he had experienced in his life.

            Faith? What is your faith? What do you believe in? Cubs fans always have faith in “next year.” We can laugh, but that is a very good example of faith. Trusting year after year no matter what the present season does not bring, that the next spring training, the next opening day, the next playoffs and World Series will see the ultimate victory. Cubs fans faithfully fill the stands, listen to and watch the games on radio and TV, and follow the box scores and articles in the papers having the faith that this day will come. SOX fans know the same frustrations but have not filled the stands with that faith until after they have seen “the miracle” and now hope to see it again. We have both of those examples of faith in today’s Gospel account.

            Faith. What is your faith? What do you believe in? Again, the same verse we read from Hebrews last week and is good to review regularly, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see,” [Hebrews 11:1]. Eugene Peterson writes it this way, “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.”[1]

            Faith is what we see in the synagogue ruler (Jairus) who came to Jesus. Faith is what we see in the crowds that thronged to Jesus as he returned from the far side of the Sea of Galilee. Faith is what we see in the “missing” part of today’s reading, the Phoenician woman who, in her continuing bleeding state, grasps the hem of Jesus’ cloak trusting that even just that will give her healing. That lady held on in faith. Now, Jesus tells Jairus, “Hold on to your faith,” as his servants bring the news that his daughter has died and urge him to leave Jesus alone.

            “Hold on to your faith,” is what God says to you and me daily when we too are approached with those messages that are contrary to his unchanging word to us. “Hold on to your faith,” is what God says when it seems the team is losing again.

            “You will see,” was the message native people gave to an adventurous young man sent to serve them as he asked many questions about their lives and lifestyles. It was a message to have faith that nothing will happen that you cannot handle. You will only know it when something happens. It was a message that they would faithfully lead that man through the different events and circumstances that would come up day by day and season by season. It was a message to him to have patience as one does not need to know everything all at once, and that things will work out. “Hold on to that faith.”

            Psalm 121 begins with faith as we look to the hills, the fancy and glittery and promising things of this earth. But those high points of this earth seem to let us down again and again. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Yes, God has placed us in this world to take care of it for him [Genesis 1]. In that we deceive ourselves and think that we are in charge until we remember again that it is God who made us as well as all things and holds all things in his hands as we observed last week with Jesus’ calming the stormy waters on Galilee as he calms the stormy waves in our lives.

            He will not let your foot slip…he will keep you from all harm…he will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

            Jairus was a very well known man. He was a synagogue leader. If he was not the president of the council at the Synagogue, he was one of seven men who oversaw all of the teaching and services and events of the Synagogue. This man who oversaw all worship and teaching, who scheduled the rabbis who attended there, now throws himself in all humbleness at Jesus’ feet. He is at Jesus’ mercy. And that is what Jesus comes to bring, God’s mercy to all of his people. The writer of Lamentations reminds us that we are not consumed, used up by the things that happen in this world. God’s compassions never fail. Great is his faithfulness [3:22-23]. That is the faith Jairus came to Jesus with. That is the faith Jesus told Jairus to hold on to. That is the faith God tells you today to hold on to. His compassions, his love and mercy to you, never fail.

            When they arrived at the house, the people gathered there mourning and weeping out loud laughed at Jesus when he said the daughter was not dead but only asleep. Asleep in Jesus is a term that we use for those who die in faith beginning with the disciples through today. We know that these earthly bodies will die an earthly death, but be raised again at the last day. In his sermon to the people in Pisidian Antioch Paul spoke how David “fell asleep and was buried with his fathers,” [Acts 13:36]. “Falling asleep means you are going to wake up again. Paul writes to the Thessalonians and Corinthians how the faithful have “fallen asleep,” [1 Cor. 15:6, 18; 1 Thess. 4:13-14]. “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” [1 Thess. 4:14].

            Jesus quietly takes Peter and James and John with Jairus and his wife to the daugher’s death bed. He takes her hand and says, “Get up.” As with all else, it is the power of Jesus’ word that works the miracle. It is God’s word alone that has power over death. That is God’s great love for you. That is God’s great compassion for you. That is God’s great mercy for you. He does not want you dead, but alive in him. He does not want you forever in your sinful state. He wants you alive in the glories of his image again. He does not want Satan to have any part of you, but that you live in the freedom knowing that you have the victory over death and the grave in Jesus. Hold on to that faith!

            At a Christian funeral, the strongest moment of faith is at the graveside. It is then that we commit our loved one to the ground holding on to that faith that Christ will come again, all the dead will be raised, and all believers will be taken up with him. Hold on to that faith just as Jesus told Jairus to hold on to his faith. It is because that promise is for you. It is because you were marked with that promise with the waters and miracle in baptism. It is because Jesus gave up his sinless body to pay the price to purchase your sinful body to be his own and live in his kingdom.

            Hold on to your faith. In Jesus’ undying love. Amen.