chris cobb

Mark 5:21-43 is an interesting text. It is two events rolled into one. The larger story of Jesus being called upon to heal Jairus' daughter is broken in the middle with the account of Jesus healing the woman with the flow of blood (5:25-34). The arrangement is not incidental. In this case, because of several links between the tales, it is apparent that in terms of actual historical events the two accounts happened in the order presented. It was not merely a literary decision that caused Mark to nest these two stories together.

In both accounts the role of faith is prominent. It is belief in Jesus' healing power that drives both to Jesus (Jairus, v 23; the woman, v 28). Both are told that faith is a decisive factor (Jairus, v 36; the woman, v 34). In both accounts, healing is forthcoming (Jairus' daughter was actually raised from the dead, v 41-42; the woman, v 29). In both accounts, the Greek verb sozo appears (Jairus, v 23, 'she will get well'; the woman, v 28, 'I will get well'; see also v 34). The common use of sozo frequently indicates the meaning of physical healing, with no spiritual subtext. However, this is also the verb used when spiritual salvation is the clear meaning (such as Romans 10:9, 13). Its use in this story is at the very least suggestive, that the reader is to find more than mere healing in response to faith in Christ.

Can you imagine what Jairus thought when he had finally found Jesus, persuaded Him to come, and had started on their way to his home, only to have the woman with the flow of blood delay them? In Jairus' mind, time was of the essence. His daughter was dying. He knew that Jesus could heal. He probably did not know that He could, or would, raise the dead. He had this one shot for his daughter who was at death's door.

We fast-forward the story, because we can read the whole thing in sixty seconds. We know how it is going to turn out. Jairus did not. There was no fast-forward for him. He experienced every agonizing second of the delay as Jesus scanned the crowd, looking for, . . . what? Someone who had touched Him? You're kidding! You are surrounded by a crowd, they're all touching you! Let's go, let's go, let's GO! My daughter is DYING!

But the delay stretched from seconds to minutes. Jesus finally finished dealing with the woman, and as He was ready to resume His (slow) progress toward Jairus home, a messenger appears. "Your daughter is dead." Freeze-frame here. Press Pause, not Fast Forward. You're Jairus. What do you do?

Probably dissolve into grief. What will you (or perhaps, did you?) do if and when you are confronted by such news? There is no fast-forward on grief! For all Jairus knew, it was over, finished. His daughter was dead. The messenger certainly thought it was over: "Don't trouble the teacher any longer." No need for a healer now. No, we need the undertaker, not a healer.

Jairus was crushed. We can see that fact in Jesus statement, "Do not be afraid." Can you imagine the if onlys that are coursing through Jairus' mind at this point. Probably the same ones in Martha's and Mary's minds in John 11:21 and 32: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."

If only I had found Jesus sooner! If only that crowd had not been surrounding Him! If only that woman had not stopped Him! If only He had hurried!

There are many other interesting details in this double account, but I want to tease out just one application. Here is a simple lesson from this pericope: disappointments are divine appointments. Jairus was crushed with disappointment and grief at verse 35. What he did not know was that Jesus had a divine appointment with his daughter to glorify His heavenly Father by raising her from the dead. Even though you and I know that Jairus' grief lasted no longer than it took for them to walk to his house, Jairus did not know it at the time.

I want to suggest to you that for Christians, disappointments are in fact divine appointments. We know that God is sovereign (Daniel 4:35), that He is good (Psalm 119:68), and that He has committed to working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28). He is relentlessly forming us into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29, Philippians 1:6) by the events, and yes, the disappointments of our lives.

Jairus did not get to see Jesus heal his daughter. Instead, he got to see Him raise her from the dead! The divine appointments behind our disappointments will not always be so obvious, nor will they necessarily follow in such quick succession. They will not always be what we ourselves wanted or desired. They will often be accompanied by pain. They will often require a quiet, submissive heart. But they will always be there, and they will always be better than our desires, because these divine appointments will always bring glory to God. Disappointments are not pointless, nor are they random. They are divine appointments.

Posted by chcobb at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Okay. first, true confessions. I am doing a lousy job maintaining this blog. I know. No excuses. No promises, either. But confession is good for the soul. Now, onward...

All this stuff I have been blogging about the church is actually going somewhere. [To pick up the thread, see here, here, and here.] Are you offended yet, by my posts regarding the priority of the Church? No? Let me try again... Yo! Young singles, out of high school. I'm talkin' to you! Yo! Young couples, I'm talkin' to you! Read carefully, because I may actually say something that has the potential to impact your life.

Let's wrap up this consideration of the Church by talking about. . . . classical physics. If you are in your late teens to early thirties, let me invite you to consider the humble lever. Now, let's not get too deeply into levers, such as talking about mechanical advantage and what classes of levers there are (for purposes of this illustration, it is, by the way, a 'first class' lever to which I refer). I am more interested in the phenomenon regarding the differing distance either end of the lever moves. If you are a real physics geek, you'd probably call that 'displacement'.

Perhaps a drawing would help. Your life, young person, is represented by the solid black line below; the lever. The length of the line represents the total length of your life. The fulcrum, or blue triangle, represents where you are right now in your life. If your life is going to be say, seventy five years long, then the fulcrum in the drawing is positioned about where you are at age twenty. You are regularly making decisions, as a twenty-year old, represented by the long black dotted line. These decisions change the course of your life in ways you can not now see. Just a tiny decision that changes your life pattern (the blue dots) as a young person yields a huge change at the end of your life (red dots).

 What I am trying to say is that decisions made as a young man or woman or young couple, leverage the course of your life in huge ways, ways that are not immediately apparent to you. One of the decisions that has the most dramatic impact on your life is your choice of obedience (or disobedience) to the Word of God, particularly as it speaks concerning your relationship to the local church. That decision will have a huge impact on your life.

Being committed to a local community of believers will impact your growth in Christ, your growth in personal holiness, and will influence every other decision you make. It is likely to be the decision that determines whether or not you stay married. It will probably be the decision that has the most impact on how you discipline your children (and therefore has gargantuan impact on their lives). It will impact your commitment to financial responsibility. The list is endless.

And if you are curious, and want to know what the impact is of waiting until you are at the other end of your life to get right with God regarding this matter of the church (ie, fulcrum way over to the right), just ask an older individual or couple who came to Christ late in life, or who got serious about Christ later in life, what their regrets are. Bring a chair with you, and get settled in, because they will have a long list of bad decisions, broken relationships, kids (and grandkids) who have nothing to do with God, personal habits that destroyed their health, wasted their money, squandered their time, etc. Ask them about the agony of watching their children and grandchildren perpetuate the same bad decisions, and live the same godless life. Ask them about the sorrow they feel, knowing that they themselves set the pattern of ignoring God that their loved ones are now imitating.

And then put yourself in their shoes. There is nothing particularly good about you that will somehow magically protect you from the same tragedies, if you reproduce the same disobedience to God in your life. Your parents' faith will not protect you anymore than their lack of faith will damn you. You are responsible to live your faith, not theirs.

But enough about levers. Let's think about inertia. Inertia is that property of mass that resists changes in motion or direction. When you establish habits, you are establishing a personal inertia that will tend to resist change (positive or negative). When you have set a life-pattern, a habit, of disobedience to Scripture in the area of your relationship to the local church, don't think that particular sin can be easily broken. It has a certain inertia. And since you have set a direction in your life that is committed to rebellion against God's Word, Christian (?), don't think you can confine your rebellion to the matter of your commitment to the local church. This rebellion will sooner or later show itself in areas such as unfaithfulness to your spouse, or his/her unfaithfulness to you, your inability to resist life-dominating sins, and more.

By the same token, if you establish inertia moving in the direction of obedience to God's Word in the matter of your church relationship, obedience becomes easier in every other area of your life. Not only are you establishing a habit of obedience, but you are rubbing shoulders with others who can help you, pray for you, fellowship with you, comfort you in trial, advise you in trouble, etc. You can begin serving God in both disciplined and creative ways. You can begin giving of yourself to others.

Bottom line? If you can not be convinced to obey Hebrews 10:24-25 simply because it IS GOD'S WORD, perhaps a pragmatic vision of the long-term consequences of this most serious area of disobedience will draw you up short, young person. It is a matter of cause and effect. The cause of disobedience to God will have effects, negative ones, that you can not now even imagine. Before you find yourself bearing BOTH the trauma of suffering, and the guilt of knowing it was self-inflicted suffering, repent in this matter of disobedience to God as respects your relationship to that which He "purchased with His own blood," the church.

Find a good local church, join it, and become committed to both attending there faithfully and serving there passionately. Its a good investment in your future. The sin of disobedience in this area can not be sugar-coated or excused or overlooked. And it has potentially devastating impact. For the love of Christ, go to church.

Posted by chcobb at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)