6th Sunday after Pentecost
July 20, 2003
Mark 5:21-23

Do Not Fear, Only Believe!

  One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can't dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!"

  Fear is something that we have all experienced. It is usually not very funny. When we are afraid of something, we look for a way to avoid it and escape our fear. This little boy overcame his fear by focusing on his daddy’s greater fear.

  Fear is a prominent theme in the Gospel of Mark. In fact, it ends with the statement that the women left the tomb after Jesus resurrection and said nothing to anyone because they were afraid! Sometimes people are afraid of their circumstances and sometimes they are afraid of Jesus. Last week’s Gospel was a good example of both. The disciples feared the storm and thought they were going to drown, but after Jesus saved them, they were afraid of him. Literally, they feared with a great fear and asked each other, "Who is this?" Between that and today’s reading, Jesus casts out a multitude of demons from the man in the tombs. The demons leave the man, enter a herd of pigs, and the pigs jump off a cliff into the lake and drown. When the people of the area learned what had happened and saw the man sane and clothed, they feared and begged Jesus to leave their area. Now, a woman secretly touches Jesus and is healed. But when Jesus exposes her, she fears and trembling, falls at his feet. Jairus doesn’t get a chance to show his fear. As soon as the men from his house report that his daughter is dead, Jesus tells him,"Do not fear, only believe."

  That brings us to another prominent theme in the Gospel: Faith. Faith is the opposite of fear; it eliminates fear. After saving the disciples from the storm, Jesus says to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" To the woman trembling at his feet, he said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." To Jairus he said, "Do not fear, only believe."

  That is God’s message to us this morning. Do not fear, only believe. Whether a little child afraid in a storm, or a powerful CEO, afraid of death, we will face fear. Yet faith, confidence Jesus’ in power, will deliver us from it all. Do not fear, only believe.

  Do not fear, says Jesus. Why do people fear? What do we fear? Mark doesn’t really tell us why the woman was afraid. She knew that she was healed. We would think that that fact would give her new hope and courage. But she did sort of steal her healing! She snuck up and touched Jesus. She didn’t ask. So maybe she is afraid now that she has overstepped the boundaries. Maybe Jesus was angry with her and would punish her somehow. Or, maybe she feared public exposure. Her bleeding for 12 years was likely a menstrual problem. A woman was unclean during her menstrual cycle. Surely people knew her and avoided her. She didn’t need attention that might create an uproar against her because she had slipped into the crowd. Surely, she would have touched others and made them unclean too. Whatever the exact reason, she was gripped by fear.

  Jairus’ reason for fear is much clearer. He had hopped Jesus could come and heal his daughter but now he learns that it’s too late. She’s already dead. Jesus had probably not yet raised anyone. The raising of the widow’s son and Lazarus’ would come later. Jairus’ fear is probably more grief and despair, maybe even anger at this woman and the crowd for having delayed Jesus.

  I guess we could put ourselves in their shoes. I read for example, that "During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. ‘You were one of Stalin's colleagues. Why didn't you stop him?’ ‘Who said that?’ roared Khrushchev. An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. Then Khrushchev replied quietly, ‘Now you know why.’" I bet that’s how that woman felt when Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" When you think you have done something wrong and an authority is looking for you, you fear!

  Had we been in Jairus’ shoes, -well, that too is easy to understand. Imagine your child having an accident and rushing him or her to emergency only to have the doctors emerge a few minutes later and tell you that they are sorry. Then you would know fear, grief, despair, anger; and all at once. Fear is something we live with and for a thousand reasons. Maybe you fear for your health or your job. Maybe you fear someone breaking into your home, or being all alone. You know what and why you fear.

  Jesus says, Do not fear, only believe. To the woman trembling at his feet, Jesus says, Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. Jesus didn’t want to censure her; he wanted to reassure her. He wanted her and the crowd to know that her confidence in him was not misplaced. In the same way, four men brought their paralysed friend to Jesus and lowered him through a hole in the roof. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 2:5. When the blind Bartimaeus continuously shouted out after Jesus and asked to receive his sight, Jesus replied, Go; your faith has made you well. 10:52. Any fear these people might have had, any apprehensions, Jesus wants to dispel. He wants to replace fear with faith in himself. We can only assume that this woman went home rejoicing, truly born again!

  Again, seeing Jairus’ desperate situation, Jesus tells him not to fear at the announcement of his daughter’s death. However hard that may have been for Jairus to do, Jesus meant to dispel his fear with faith. I don’t suppose that Jairus had any reason to believe that Jesus could raise the dead. However, he had just witnessed the healing of this woman! Perhaps he could give Jesus the benefit of the doubt. He must have because they went to his house and Jesus raised the little girl.

  Were these great acts of extraordinary faith beyond what you and I could do? Not at all! Both this woman and Jairus simply believed that Jesus had power to heal. It was no different from your "faith" that your family doctor can heal you when you are sick or injured. That’s nothing extraordinary. I dare say we all believe that our doctors can take care of most everything. We don’t believe they can raise the dead, but we likely believe they can do more than they really can. In other words, this faith, which Jesus commends and commands, is very earthy, physical, and concrete. This is not some abstract, esoteric, pie in the sky faith! Furthermore, it depends on Jesus and what he can do, not on us. He simply invites us to trust him for what he has demonstrated himself able to do. We trust most doctors because they have demonstrated that they can do amazing things. We will even let them cut us open and fix and remove things! Think of the faith we have in them! Jesus has demonstrated a far greater knowledge and power. He proved-by healing this woman and by raising Jairus’ daughter-that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. There is nothing impossible for him. We can come to him with every problem. Therefore, he says to us, Do not fear, only believe.

  Jairus and this woman did have one advantage over us. They lived in Palestine at the same time that Jesus lived his earthly life. They could physically go to him and touch him. They knew where to find him when they needed him. That we cannot do. Or can we? Today Jesus gives us the opportunity to touch him when we receive his body and blood. Here, we don’t have to seek him out; he seeks us and invites us. He comes to us with the promise of the complete forgiveness of sins and with the promise of his return. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. His body and blood is the promise that he will return for you, raise you from the dead, give you an incorruptible body and take you to be with him forever. So he says to you, "Take and eat; take and drink; Do not fear, only believe." Count on the fact that those promises are true!

  But, someone will say, that has to do with the forgiveness of sins and Jesus’ return. What if I lose my job, or have a car accident or a family member dies? I can’t tell you what Jesus will do in each situation, but I can tell you that he still says, Do not fear, only believe. Call upon him in prayer and you will see. Faith works now because Jesus works now. God never sleeps.

  For example, later in his Gospel Mark will tell us of a man who brought his son with an evil spirit to Jesus. The disciples had been unable to heal the boy so the man said to Jesus, "If you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us." Jesus said to him, "If you are able! -All things can be done for the one who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" 9:22b-24.

  Or again, when the disciples marvelled at the fact that the fig tree withered when Jesus cursed it, Jesus answered them,Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, "Be taken up and thrown into the sea," and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 11:22-24.

  We do not have to understand how Jesus can hear and answer prayer. We just have to know that he does and then pray. We do not have to understand how Jesus healed that woman when she secretly touched him or how he raised Jairus’ daughter. We just have to know that he did so that we too can call upon him for help. That’s what faith does! Remember the second commandment. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by his name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks." If we do that, faith will displace fear. We will have problems, but we need not fear. Do not fear, only believe.