Participants: Don Pate
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000027
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00:29 Hello I'm Don Pate from Between the Lines,
00:32 and I welcome you today. 00:34 As we spend some time opening up the Bible. 00:37 We're going to open up the Bible to stories of Jesus 00:41 to spend just a few minutes with Jesus. 00:43 And the older I get and I feel like 00:46 I'm getting older everyday. 00:47 The older I get the more I'm coming to realize 00:49 that if I have a chance the very best thing 00:53 I can do with anybody is to take them 00:55 to spend a few minutes with Jesus. 00:57 And we're going to do that together 00:59 as we look at a powerful story. 01:01 But a story that's got some, some inner play 01:03 under the surface that most Christians 01:06 probably wouldn't know. 01:08 And I'm going to invite you to join me 01:10 as we look at a wonderful message 01:12 out of the Gospel of Mark. 01:15 Let's pray as we begin. 01:17 Lord today as we spend time with this wonderful old story, 01:20 we pray that the old, old story will speak to us 01:24 in a way we've may be never heard before 01:26 and that the Holy Spirit will whisper 01:28 to every individual distinctly the things 01:32 that you would wish to impress upon them today. 01:38 This is my prayer in the name of Christ, amen. 01:42 In the Gospel of Mark, you find 01:45 a story of a young girl. 01:47 Now as soon as I say Jairus' daughter, 01:51 many people who are with us in the broadcast here 01:55 will say "okay, I think I know that story, 01:58 I think I know it pretty well, so I don't have 01:59 to pay attention anymore, because well, 02:01 I know there was this, you know, 02:02 little girl she died and Jesus rose her back to-- 02:04 from the dead and brought her back to life." 02:06 Well, obviously there's got to be more than that. 02:10 Otherwise, I wouldn't plan to invest 02:12 a few minutes with you in this story. 02:13 I would like you to take your Bibles 02:15 please and turn to the Gospel of Mark. 02:18 Now this is one of those stories that is found 02:21 in all three of the first three 02:22 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, 02:24 and Luke if you were to look in Matthew 02:26 it would be Chapter 9. 02:27 If you were to go back and read 02:28 the same story in Luke, it would be Chapter 8, 02:31 but we're turning to Mark Chapter 5 02:34 just because I kind of like the way it's reported by Mark. 02:39 I sort of like some of the insights 02:41 that Mark brings to us that we don't see in the other two. 02:46 And so I would like you to turn 02:47 in your Bible to Mark Chapter 5. 02:50 And we find Jesus up in the Galilee region. 02:54 We find Him moving across throughout the various cities 02:57 and towns interacting. And if you know 03:00 anything about the Galilee within the Bible story 03:02 especially in the New Testament, 03:04 oh, there is some wonderful things 03:06 about the people of the Galilee 03:07 and there is also some negatives. 03:09 The negatives as you may know, of course 03:10 is that historically by the mainstream 03:13 of Jerusalem, they were seem to be the country bumpkins. 03:16 They were the backward folk. And they were also the people 03:20 who had somewhat sold out 03:23 to the Roman Authority in a way 03:25 that the people of Jerusalem hadn't. 03:26 Now don't get me wrong, the people in Jerusalem, 03:28 they had their problems too. 03:30 They certainly have done some of the things with the aliens 03:32 that was a little embarrassing, 03:34 but, you know, we all tend to be gentle on ourselves 03:37 with our own little flaws and weaknesses 03:39 and when we somebody else's problems 03:42 we tend to magnify them. We'd say, well, you know, 03:44 I would never do anything like that. 03:47 When in reality I probably do something a lot like that 03:49 but it's the area that I'm comfortable with 03:51 and so I don't critic it very well. 03:55 The Galilee people had some things going against them 03:59 not just the fact that they were, you know, 04:01 the simple folk of the land, the country bumpkins, 04:04 that wasn't all that was going against them 04:07 when it came to the mentality of the mainstream of Israel 04:10 in Jerusalem, the authorities in Jerusalem. 04:12 They were two areas that may surprise you 04:14 that may actually give you more understanding, 04:18 of what's going on, you know, between 04:20 the lines of the story. And that is number one, 04:23 when the exiles back in the days of Ezra, 04:26 Nehemiah within the text when the exiles came back 04:30 from the Babylonian Persian captivity, 04:33 when the 70 years were completed 04:35 and they were allowed to go home 04:38 and the decree went forth to rebuild 04:40 and restore Jerusalem. 04:42 Well, it was just a minority that left Babylon. 04:45 In fact, clear until the Middle Ages, 04:47 this may surprise you, clear until the Middle Ages 04:49 the largest Jewish community in the world 04:53 was the Babylonian Jewish Community. 04:56 They had been there ever since the Exile. 04:58 In fact, you often if you know 04:59 anything academically or historically about it, 05:01 you often hear it refer to as the Babylonian Talmud. 05:06 That it was the work done by the congregation, 05:08 the house of faith of Judaism in Babylon. 05:12 Babylon remained a major stronghold 05:15 of Jewish life clearly until the Middle Ages. 05:19 But the few that came back of the exiles, 05:22 the remnant, the few that Ezra, Nehemiah, 05:26 Zerubbabel had as they went back to rebuild 05:29 the land and rebuild the city. 05:31 Not all of them made it back down 05:33 to the temple region. Not all of them 05:35 made it all the way down to Jerusalem, 05:36 you may not know that. Some of them just barely 05:38 got across the border from the east and said, 05:41 "well, you know, this is the land of Israel, 05:43 this is the Promised Land, that's it 05:44 we're sticking out here, we're just planting our self. 05:46 We're not going down in Jerusalem. 05:48 Jerusalem is too much work, too much effort, 05:50 all it counts is we're back in the Promised Land." 05:52 And so there were some who never went 05:54 all the way to Jerusalem 05:56 and those who did go all the way 05:58 to Jerusalem kind of like back over the shoulder 06:00 at the ones who had compromised, 06:03 settled in and they look down their noses 06:06 at them with disdain and said, 06:07 "you know, if you really, really, really, 06:08 really had a heart for God, you would be down 06:10 here in Jerusalem doing the dirty work with us. 06:12 You know, you would be lifting the bricks 06:13 and you would be rebuilding the wall, 06:15 and you would be dedicating the temple. 06:17 You know, we're the holy ones, 06:18 you all just a sort of half citizens of the land." 06:22 As early as that timeframe 400 years before Jesus, 06:25 as early as that there came to be a distinction 06:29 between the people of the Galilee 06:31 and the people of what's called Judea, 06:33 the region of Jerusalem to the south 06:35 that Galileans were looked at as being 06:38 not really the people that have a true heart 06:41 for the ways of Israel. 06:43 But more than that it actually came out 06:45 in a more literal fashion after Herod the Great 06:49 ascended to the throne in Jerusalem. 06:51 He looked around his territory and saw certain problems. 06:54 He wanted to be a major player in the world 06:56 and I don't know how much you know about Herod. 06:58 Herod is one of the great anomalies of history. 07:01 Herod is one of the most 07:02 fascinating characters of history. 07:04 He is truly just a dual personality 07:07 that is overwhelming. 07:08 On the one hand that boy was, he was a genius. 07:12 The world has never seen engineering capabilities 07:16 and ingenuity for design and building 07:18 such as Herod had. It's just, 07:21 it's overwhelming, the more you understand 07:23 about Herod and his massive public works programs 07:25 in the buildings not just the temple, 07:27 but with the Herodion and Masada 07:30 and the regions up to the north 07:32 and Caesarea by the sea, 07:33 Caesarea Maritima, that when you come 07:36 to understand Herod's ingenuity 07:38 and genius in building up 07:40 this land with these edifices mostly for his own glory, 07:44 but it's remarkable. On the other hand, 07:46 he was crazy as the days long. 07:49 I mean, insane, unbelievably insane. 07:52 Married at least ten times. 07:53 His favorite wife was Mariamne. 07:56 He was really sorry after he killed her 07:57 that he regretted having done that. 08:00 That was his favorite wife. The man was insane, 08:03 a matter of I think two days before he died. 08:08 He had one of his own son's executed in prison. 08:11 In case that son might try to take the throne from him 08:13 and Herod was already on his death bed. 08:16 I mean, you know, this man he is such a contrast 08:19 of incredible ability and incredible insanity. 08:22 It's just-- he is a fascinating character. 08:24 And one of the things, Herod really was a wily old codger. 08:28 One of the things that Herod understood as he found himself 08:31 as a street fighter who rose to the top in his world, 08:35 not even Jewish of course, you remember, 08:37 he was Idumean, he was not Jewish. 08:39 When Herod came to ascendancy here in Jerusalem, 08:42 he looked around the land and he realized 08:44 that he had certain problems. 08:45 One was he had no safe harbor. 08:47 There was no port along the Mediterranean 08:49 seacoast and so he created one. 08:52 The falls harbor, the marble harbor at Caesarea, 08:55 to this days a fascination to archeologist 08:58 and an amazement to scientists. 08:59 But, beyond that he also looked up 09:01 at the Galilee region and he said you know, 09:03 what, this is very fertile soil, 09:05 but more than that 09:06 it's an un-protective frontier. 09:09 I need some population based there. 09:12 And so Herod bribed people from Judea, 09:16 from Jerusalem, the southern region 09:18 and he said, "look I'll give you tax breaks, 09:20 if you'll be willing to displace to move 09:22 out of Jerusalem and get yourself 09:24 out to populate the hinterlands. 09:26 If you go up in the Galilee and settle in 09:28 and farm the region and get the resources 09:32 from that region and also provide 09:33 a bit of defense shield for me, 09:36 I'll give you tax breaks." 09:37 And so it was with some skepticism 09:40 that the Jerusalem class looked 09:42 at the people of the Galilee, 09:43 because not only had some of them 09:45 never really gotten home after the captivity, 09:47 but here even in their own lifetimes 09:49 there were some who would sold out to Herod, 09:52 to go up to move into the Galilee 09:56 for the benefit of tax breaks. 09:59 And they looked down their nose at the Galilean 10:01 and you can understand why. 10:03 Now when Jesus began 10:07 His ministry of course, 10:09 things were always extremely sensitive around Jerusalem, 10:12 but as you know, up in the Galilee 10:14 He received greater acceptance. 10:17 Less was demanded of Him, 10:19 He didn't have to sit there and measure every word, 10:22 you know, for those who are public figures. 10:24 I don't know if you're aware, 10:26 it can be quiet simply a pain in the neck. 10:29 In the ministry Between the Lines, sometimes 10:31 I'll get letters from the people around the world 10:33 everywhere and they'll criticize the way I pronounce 10:35 the word that it doesn't quite match their expectation 10:38 just even the pronunciation of a word 10:41 --that will send them little haywire, 10:43 it's a critic, and they may or may not be right, 10:45 you know, sometimes they're actually wrong. 10:47 But it doesn't matter and you sit there always weighing out 10:50 and measuring the fact that there are those out there 10:52 from whom you may get ]the dirty letters, whatever. 10:55 A public figure always is, is--as the old proverb 11:00 said anyone who sticks his head 11:02 above the crowd is an easy target. 11:05 You know, if you stayed down in the mass, 11:07 you're not an easy target. 11:08 Well, Jesus, it were on Him too. 11:13 To always have people right on the edge of jumping on Him 11:18 that wasn't easy for Him either, and so 11:21 He often remained in the Galilee, 11:23 because it was good stewardship. 11:25 It was good stewardship of His time. 11:26 Why should Jesus stand in Jerusalem 11:28 banging his head against the wall 11:29 when He wasn't gonna get anywhere, 11:31 when He actually could make a difference in the lives 11:33 in the Galilee if people-- because people up there 11:36 were receptive and willing. 11:37 There are many reasons for why Jesus 11:39 remained more in the Galilee. 11:42 But of course, these people were somewhat 11:44 not the mainstream, but we're dealing 11:46 with the man here in Mark Chapter 5 11:49 who is mainstreamed in the Galilee. 11:51 It's very easy to understand 11:52 why he is mainstreamed because he is ruler 11:54 of the synagogue. This man may be Galilean. 11:59 Jairus may be Galilean, but he is a man 12:01 who is at least a half step closer 12:05 to acceptance by the Jerusalem class 12:07 by the power brokers. 12:09 He is a half step closer to their acceptance, 12:11 because he is in authority within the line of Israel. 12:14 This man has responsibilities for the defense of the faith. 12:19 He is ruler of the synagogue and of course as you know, 12:22 in the story Jesus Chapter 5, verse 21, 12:27 Jesus passes over along the lake shore there by ship 12:30 to the other side and many people gathered 12:33 to be near him for many reasons I'm sure. 12:36 He was a celebrity. He was notorious. 12:39 That's where the action was. 12:41 Some people were there simply because they really, 12:43 really did want to hear what he had to say. 12:44 There are probably all kinds of reasons 12:46 why crowds collected around Jesus, 12:49 some hoping for a miracle for a show, 12:52 others just needing His embrace. 12:55 There are so many reasons why the crowds 12:57 would follow Jesus, and Jesus had the crowds gathering 13:01 around Him and he was by the side of the sea 13:03 not into the sea it says in verse 21 and verse 22, 13:06 he is coming along the shore line 13:08 right at the edge of Capernaum. 13:10 Now Capernaum wasn't the largest 13:12 town of the Galilee by any means. 13:14 In fact, there is a town and this is a wonderful 13:16 insight into the gospels. There was a town 13:19 that Jesus could see as a child from Nazareth 13:22 on the precipice of Nazareth where they were going 13:26 to throw him off the cliff you remember, 13:27 looking right off that cliff that cliff 13:29 just down there three miles away was the capital 13:32 of the Galilee, a major Roman town. 13:36 It is estimated that there may have been upto 13:39 30,000 people living in the town of Sepphoris. 13:43 It was the capital of the Galilee. 13:45 Arabians lived there, Arabs lived there, 13:49 Romans lived there, Greeks lived there, 13:52 Jews lived there. It was a very 13:53 cosmopolitan town, an amazing place. 13:55 In fact, it is a Christian myth 13:58 to somehow have the sense that Jesus as a young boy 14:01 growing up never had any idea of city at all. 14:05 That he was just in this little back water 14:07 village of Nazareth and he never had 14:08 any interaction with city at all. 14:10 The Bible doesn't say that, that I think is a legend 14:13 somehow that Christians carry that cannot be true. 14:16 Because Jesus as a young boy could stand there 14:19 and just three miles away you could see a major city, 14:21 but the reason you've never heard about it 14:23 is because Jesus--we have no gospel interaction there. 14:28 Jesus never went there in the gospel 14:29 here that we have any record. 14:31 Now Capernaum probably was the second 14:35 in line of importance within the Galilee region. 14:40 It certainly was the queen city 14:42 of the lake right around the lake. 14:43 Jesus came to Capernaum. 14:45 And Jairus who was the ruler of the synagogue, 14:48 the defender of the faith, the number one top 14:50 dog in the religious hierarchy of the lake region is Jairus. 14:55 Now at first glance I'm sure that many people 14:58 who were standing watching this event on that day 15:01 would have thought wait a minute here comes, 15:03 you know, here comes Jesus who by this time is already 15:05 somewhat of a heretic prophet rejected in Jerusalem, 15:08 you know, he's coming up this way and here is Jairus, 15:11 defender of the faith, he's coming this way 15:12 and we're gonna have some fireworks. 15:13 I mean, you know, some confrontation here. 15:15 Jairus is gonna look at Him and say 15:16 you got to stay out of my town. 15:18 You know, it's my responsibility 15:19 to defend the faith in the village 15:21 of the Capernaum in this region 15:22 and I'm commanding you stay out of my town. 15:24 Some people might have thought that, but of course, 15:26 you know, that's not why he was coming to Jesus. 15:29 Jairus, the man, when he saw Jesus, 15:33 he fell at Jesus feet, 15:34 he fell at his feet that's verse 22, 15:36 and he begins his appeal to Jesus verse 23. 15:39 I've got a problem it is more than you can know. 15:43 My little daughter lies at the point of death. 15:48 That is what drives Jairus to Jesus that day. 15:51 It isn't going to be this confrontation of two 15:55 views of religion within Israel. 15:58 It is a man, a father who is desperate. 16:01 Now my graduate studies are all in Jewish studies. 16:04 I'm the only Gentile who ever attended 16:06 the center for Jewish studies, what a great privilege. 16:08 What an honor it was for me to do that. 16:11 And there are certain things happening 16:13 within the mentality here of Judaism 16:16 that many Gentile Christians just we would never know. 16:19 It just goes right on by. 16:23 Jesus is listening and the man says 16:25 my little daughter lies at the point of death. 16:28 Now as you go into the story, 16:29 you find out that she is 12 years old. 16:32 Now you probably know that the breaking point 16:35 of 12 within Judaism for young man 16:39 relates to the issues of Bar Mitzvah 16:40 when he becomes a son of the law 16:42 responsible to the law for himself 16:44 that if a young boy killed a cow when he was 11, 16:47 you know, dad paid for it. 16:49 But when he accidentally may be killed a cow 16:52 when he was 13, he paid for it. 16:54 In fact, even to this day in a Bar Mitzvah ceremony 16:57 the father's prayer part of the Bar Mitzvah 16:59 ceremony is where the father in prayer says, 17:02 "I thank God that this thing is no longer on my conscious. 17:05 I'm not responsible for this kid." 17:08 You know, you're on your own between you and God. 17:10 That's actually part of the prayer. 17:13 That breaking point of 12 is very important. 17:16 Now we see in the next few verses beginning 17:19 at verse 25 and onward, 17:20 there is actually a woman who gets thrown into the story 17:22 who's had the issuance of the blood for 12 years, 17:24 but that's a whole another story. 17:26 This little girl is right on the edge of womanhood. 17:30 Now the Mishnah actually debates about, 17:33 it's clear that for a Jewish boy 17:35 in the Mishnah it said 13 years and a day. 17:38 The completion of the 12th year. 17:40 For a girl there is actually some argument 17:42 with some other Rabbis about that she became technically 17:45 a woman after 11 years and a day. 17:47 But, I don't want to debate that, 17:50 it's just that we know when you're talking somebody 17:52 who is right at the edge of 12 that something is happening 17:56 in the story about a girl who is leaving 17:59 childhood into adulthood. 18:03 Now remember, it's his daughter, 18:07 it's his only child and she is right 18:10 on the edge of the adulthood. 18:13 Now most Christians would begin to think 18:16 and they'd say, okay, now I understand 18:18 it's brutal to lose a child. 18:22 And it's even worse if it's your only child, 18:23 may beI don't now, I don't know 18:25 if it can be worse. But, thereis something 18:28 going on here, probably more than we see at the surface. 18:32 Let me share with you what it is. 18:34 For several years, I taught college, 18:38 I served as a college professor, 18:40 and the areas that I thought were history of the Holocaust, 18:44 and Second Temple history. And in order to understand 18:48 either one of those issues of the world, 18:51 you have to understand certain things that are going 18:53 on within the mentality of Judaism either through 18:57 the precursors of the Holocaust 18:59 or in the Second Temple era. 19:02 One other things that most Christians don't know 19:05 about much of Judaism through history 19:08 especially the Middle Ages onward was 19:11 there is a very cosmic sense. 19:12 You know, sometimes we look at this issue 19:14 of chosenness in Judaism, 19:17 and we say you know that's pretty smug. 19:19 That you look down your nose at the rest of the world, 19:21 and say well, you know, we're the chosen. 19:24 That Judaism has some very provocative 19:26 things for Christians to chew on in that issue 19:29 and one of the areas that it plays out 19:33 is in the concept of God 19:37 needing the continuation of Israel. 19:42 It's a cosmic view. 19:44 Now let me just take a second to try to get you 19:46 to understand what I'm saying here. 19:49 If God made a promise to Israel, 19:52 "so shall your seed and your name remain" 19:54 we read that in Isaiah 66. 19:56 If God made a promise to Israel about the protection 19:59 and defense and continuation of that race. 20:03 If the day--follow me, if the day would ever come 20:06 at least this is the mentality of much of Judaism, 20:08 if the day would ever come when Judaism no longer 20:13 continues then God has not kept his promise. 20:18 And if God doesn't keep His promise 20:21 the universe goes to chaos. 20:24 If God cannot keep His promise to Israel, 20:28 then how can He run His universe? 20:29 That's the thinking of this issue of chosenness. 20:33 That God has in some ways painted Himself into a corner 20:37 by His promises and He has to fulfill those promises, 20:41 otherwise He can't run His universe. 20:43 Therefore God is dependent upon 20:45 the continuation of Israel 20:47 and that's some of the issues of what we consider 20:50 when we talk about the issues of the holocaust. 20:54 You'd probably know that within Judaism 20:58 the continuation of the race goes 21:00 through the line of the mother, 21:02 matrilineage, who your father is, 21:06 you know, who cares. 21:07 Timothy, we don't care that your father, 21:09 you know, wasn't part of the package. 21:10 You had a good Jewish mother 21:12 and a good Jewish grandmother that's what counts. 21:14 We see that in Paul's writings paraphrased obviously. 21:18 It's not exactly the way he words it. 21:20 Matrilineage, the line of Israel 21:24 goes through the mother. 21:25 There is a very simple reason for that by the way. 21:28 You can always question who the father was, 21:31 you can never question who the mother is. 21:34 That's always pretty obvious who the mother is. 21:36 And so matrilineage defines the continuation of the race. 21:40 Therefore, if I was a Jewish person 21:42 and I had a Jewish son and he married outside 21:48 the faith and I had a Jewish daughter 21:50 and she married outside the faith, 21:52 it's actually potentially a greater tragedy 21:54 for the son to marry outside the faith, 21:56 because if he married a Gentile, 21:58 none of his children would ever be Jewish, 22:00 whereas if my daughter married 22:02 a Gentile it wouldn't matter, 22:04 they're still going to be Jewish, 22:06 because of the laws of matrilineage. 22:10 This is an only child more than that it's a daughter, 22:16 the continuation of the race and the promise is depended 22:21 upon this one little girl for his family. 22:25 There are no more. There is something 22:28 very cosmic going on in the mind of Jairus. 22:31 My little girl, my daughter-- 22:32 and remember she is 12 years old. 22:34 She is right on the front edge of being a woman. 22:36 It's a rather modern in concept 22:38 this thing called adolescence 22:40 where we have kids with adult bodies, 22:42 but no adult responsibilities. 22:45 We don't hold them countable for anything 22:46 until 18 or 21 or something like this. 22:48 Back in the old days, in the world agrarian times 22:52 when you're 14 years old, your dad died, 22:55 you took over the farm. 22:57 This issue of adult bodies without adult responsibilities 23:01 that's a modern concept in society, 23:05 the idea of adolescence. In these, 23:08 in this day back in these days 23:10 when a young girl was 11, 12, 13, 14 23:14 when she was edging into womanhood, 23:17 she soon became a wife 23:19 and part of it was because of course life 23:21 expectancy was much shorter too. 23:23 A young boy it was nothing for him 23:25 at the age of 14, 15, 16 to be engaged 23:28 and being married and be a man 23:29 because he was a man, he was Bar Mitzvah. 23:34 This little girl was on the edge 23:35 of being a woman. All the hopes 23:37 and dreams of this man not only for his own family 23:40 line and name, but the cosmic view 23:43 of the continuation of Israel 23:45 is wrapped up in his daughter 23:50 That's why he approaches Jesus. 23:51 He is going to throw away his reputation 23:55 with the boys in Jerusalem, 23:57 if he goes to Jesus, 23:58 but he has got nowhere else to turn, 24:00 because she was the princess of the village. 24:04 I can imagine then he and his wife probably 24:05 sat around at night around supper after little girl 24:10 was in bed from the time that she was eight or nine 24:12 onward talking about the young man in the region 24:13 about who would we like to marry our daughter off 24:16 to because they would get the pick of the crop, 24:19 because he was the ruler of the synagogue. 24:21 She was the princess of the village. 24:24 They would be able to select her groom in a way 24:28 that nobody else in the region could. 24:30 And now they're going to lose it all and how many times 24:34 I'm sure Jairus must have looked up to heaven 24:35 as she started to fade and he would rage, etc. 24:38 How many times he must have looked up to heaven and said, 24:41 "What did you expect of me, God? 24:43 I was defender of the faith. 24:44 I did the best I can do, I've served 24:45 the house of Israel till the end 24:47 and this what I get in return? 24:48 I'm going to lose my daughter." 24:50 And then of course, he finally, 24:52 he loses his propriety he runs, 24:54 he breaks, and falls before Jesus asking for help 24:57 from the heretic profit at least that's what the boys 24:59 at Jerusalem would have thought. 25:02 He loses his propriety and throws it all the way 25:04 for the hope of keeping his daughter 25:06 only to have her die anyway. 25:11 The princess of the village dies 25:14 and Jairus has got to be broken in this. 25:17 He's got to be broken when the word comes verse 35, 25:19 "Thy daughter is dead." 25:21 Imagine I don't know about you, 25:24 you probably a much better Christian than I'm, 25:26 but I'm sure I would have looked at heaven 25:28 and just been furious with God. 25:31 After all I have done for you and this is my reward? 25:34 How could you do this to me? 25:37 That would have been my perception. 25:39 And Jesus of course came up 25:41 and put His hand on the man's shoulder 25:42 and said take me to her. 25:45 I'm going to resolve this mess. 25:48 When they got to the top of the hill up 25:50 where the rich people live or wherever 25:52 the suburb was for the upper class. 25:56 This girl was already being mourned. 25:58 Rabbi Judah actually said that appropriate mourning requires 26:01 at least two flutes and three wailing women. 26:06 I'm sure that she had a whole lot more 26:08 than two flutes and three wailing women. 26:09 She was the princess of the village 26:11 and Jesus said take me in to her. 26:14 I know that one Bible commentator 26:16 actually spoke about Jesus, you know, standing there 26:18 just tensed and flexed, because He is ready, 26:23 He is ready to do something miraculous 26:25 and that He knows what he is going to do. 26:26 And I can imagine Jesus going 26:27 into that little girl's death room 26:30 with Jairus' wife sitting there just oblivious. 26:32 She is just lost in her grief, maybe not 26:35 even catching on to the fact that the girl is really dead. 26:37 And Jesus I'm sure he entered that room 26:40 with a smile on his lips, it was his way of looking 26:42 and saying Satan, you know, often you get your way. 26:44 Satan, my father allows you enough rope to hang yourself 26:47 and you're going to, but not today, 26:49 not in this room, not in this place, 26:50 I'm not gonna let it happen. He came in. 26:56 He'd already asked the people outside, 26:57 "Why are you making such a big deal out of this?" 26:59 Why make you this a do? It says verse 39, come on. 27:05 He reaches out and touches her hand 27:07 and the voice that can call forth people from death 27:12 through 6,000 years of death cuts through the dead 27:16 ears of a little girl in a back room in the upper 27:19 society homes of Capernaum. 27:23 The little girl I say unto thee, arise 27:26 and the dead ears heard Him. 27:32 Oh, the hope of the resurrection 27:33 for everyone of us when the dead ears hear 27:36 and Jesus turned the sorrow into rejoicing. 27:40 He dispelled the flutes and the wailing women. 27:44 What a marvelous thing 27:46 when we find Jesus interjecting 27:48 Himself into an incredible story to show us the hope 27:52 that He cuts through and no matter 27:53 what your problem is, 27:55 no matter how hopeless it may seem. |
Revised 2014-12-17