2024-06-30 - Covenant CRC - Sermon Only - Joel Kok

Transcript

Mark 5:21-43

A Time to Speak, a Time to be Silent

 Our scripture reading this morning the Lectionary reading being read all over the world today is from the gospel of Mark chapter 5 And we begin at verse 21, and then we read through the whole passage. The remainder of the chapter, which is verse 43. And there is so much in this gospel reading, as there often is in just about every gospel reading.

But I can share, this gospel reading is sometimes called a sandwich reading. Because there is a, what we could call an outer story. And then there's an inner story. inner story and then we go back to the outer story but there's kind of a middle story and so that's why it gets called the sandwich story and it has so much in it that we'll just uh get what we can from it this morning and um we'll trust the holy spirit to help us receive this message so let's listen for the word through the spirit and begin at mark 5 verse 21 hear god's word when jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake A large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake.

Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and lived. So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there, who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.

She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors, and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. Because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately, her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once, Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, Who touched my clothes? You see the people crowding around you, his disciples answered, and yet you can ask who touched me? But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet, and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace, and be freed from your suffering. While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. Your daughter is dead, they said. Why bother the teacher anymore? Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, Do not be afraid, just believe.

He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went and said to them, Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead, but asleep. And they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and then went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, , which means little girl, I say to you, get up. Immediately. The girl stood up and walked around. She was 12 years old at this.

They were completely astonished. He gave strict orders. He gave strict orders. Not to let anyone know about this. And told them to give her something to eat. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well friends, one interesting angle on our story for this morning is that Jesus told his followers not to tell anyone the story that we just read as our gospel story for this morning.

Now, I think we would all know that since we've been able to read this story in the gospel, since we've been able to read a story they were not supposed to tell, well, we know that this amazing good news, there came a time when it was alright to share this story of Jesus bringing a young girl back to life.

And so Jesus command not to tell story. That was a temporary command and it also is a revelation that when Jesus does things, when Jesus speaks in this world, Jesus does it with a very realistic wisdom. And one aspect of that realistic wisdom is that Jesus knows, and he could quote Ecclesiastics 3 here, Jesus knows there's a time to be silent.

And then there's a time to speak. And Jesus knows, and he wants us to know, that when there is a time to speak, we need wisdom regarding how to speak, and how to, uh, have our words do what God wants the words to do. That wisdom is something we so much need as we follow Jesus through this complicated world.

Because, as I trust you all agree, we find out quite soon in life that there is a time to keep silent. As well as a time to speak. And to discern when those times are, and how to speak when it is time to speak, what we need again is that realistic wisdom for navigating through a world that is not just complicated.

It's also deeply conflicted, and Jesus is certainly revealing all of that. And so to help us receive Jesus revelation with the, uh, realistic wisdom that he shares with us, what we can do to begin with is we can say that as Jesus, Jesus raises a young girl out of death and into life. As Jesus raises that girl into a whole new life, that's Jesus giving a signal of something happening.

That's Jesus signaling that he's bringing God's kingdom of heaven to earth. He's bringing a whole new creation into this broken world. Jesus, as he does that, he's able to do something so amazing like turning death into life. And he does that with this unique power and wisdom. And he expects us to follow him as we live out that power and wisdom to do it again with the kind of wisdom that we see here.

And to see Jesus speaking in a way that might not at first seem like a wise way to speak, we can turn now to Jesus speaking about death And speaking about it also is sleep. And that is something for us to begin with. Jesus, when he talks about death and describes it as sleep, that's because it does have, he truly has the power and the wisdom to transform death into sleep.

And that's what he does as he goes to the home of this synagogue ruler named Jairus. And there, right away, we see, well, when is the time to speak? When is the time to stay silent? When we do speak, what kind of words do we use? Well, it's interesting, because as Jesus gets to the home of Jairus, this synagogue ruler, and as everybody there knows, that the girl is dead.

That's why they're in this ritual of mourning that was part of their tradition. That's why they're doing this. Well, Jesus feels like it's time to speak, and then Jesus says these words. He says, this little girl, she's not dead. She's just asleep. And how do people respond to those words? They laugh. They had been grieving kind of ritually.

Well, now they laugh. And they think, this guy, what, is he crazy? Is he stupid? What's going on? That would seem like unusual words for Jesus to use. But here we can note that in terms of describing death as like being asleep, we read that here in Mark chapter 5, and we see Jesus making the same connection with those same words.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 11, where he's dealing with Lazarus. And that's again going to help us understand Mark 5, if we go to John 11 and 12. It'll illumine Mark 5 for us. So, you may remember, just as Jairus, when his daughter is not yet dead, when she's just sick in a way that's going to lead to her death, Jairus is just desperate when he comes to Jesus and pleads for his help.

Well, that's how Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, felt. That's why they sent a message to Jesus. This friend of yours whom you love, Lazarus, he's really sick. Come and help him. They send that message. And in both the stories, for reasons that Jesus understands and other people don't at first, Jesus does not arrive until that beloved family member is dead.

And as with the 12 year old girl in Mark 5, so with Lazarus in John 11, Jesus describes death by saying, Well, no, he or she, they're actually just asleep. And then, thank God, Jesus can say that, because he truly does have the power and the wisdom to transform death into sleep. And so, as Jesus comes with that kind of power and wisdom, and wisdom.

He does, again, want his disciples and the people around him to share that wisdom. And that's why he tells the people there in Mark 5, who have just seen this amazing new life, he says, do not tell anyone that. And again, to understand at least in part why he's doing that, we can go back to, again, Lazarus and John 11 and 12, because in that story, it's not so much people laughing at Jesus about talking about death as sleep, In John 11, it's 12, it's people saying, we've got to kill this guy, Jesus, who talks about death in terms of being asleep.

He does have these powers and people may start to follow him, but he's a false teacher, he's going to get us in trouble with Rome, there's all kinds of things. And as they hear about the word going out, that Jesus took Lazarus out of death and made it into a sleep from which he could wake up in a new life, What they add to that, boy, they say now, not only do we have to kill Jesus, we're going to have to kill Lazarus, too.

Because if we don't get rid of him, if his word keeps going out, there's going to be, again, more and more people following this teacher who is leading us astray in all kinds of terrible ways. So that's the kind of setting in which Jesus is bringing new life and bringing a kingdom that's a whole new creation.

That's the kind of setting. It's a setting in which people are resisting him. People are feeling that he's leading them away from God instead of toward God. And so to go to Jairus and his wife, what would have happened to them if they had just started to shout with joy over their daughter having new life?

What would have happened to them if they just wanted to tell everybody and proclaim what a wonderful person Jesus was? Their lives would have been in danger. They were already, going back to Mark 2 and 3, there were already people planning to kill Jesus, and they would be willing to kill people leading others to fall for what they see as a false teacher.

And so that's just all kinds of Um, Perspectives to understand what has happened here. And what Jesus says, one thing we can describe what happens here is, this is a sign from Jesus, when he brings that young girl into new life. We often call it a miracle, and certainly we're okay to call it a miracle, uh, showing Jesus power and wisdom.

But it's not just a miracle, it's also a sign. And what Jesus is signaling is that, I'm gonna raise this girl, and I'm gonna raise Lazarus. As a signal. That eventually I'm going to raise everyone. I'm going to bring everyone into new life. I'm going to bring a whole new creation. But again, there's going to be so much resistance and hatred of that kind of saving grace for all these people that some people say they're terrible, who could love those awful people.

As Jesus brings all that saving grace and life, he just sends signals sometimes. And that's what he's doing when he raises the little girl. And he's knowing that because of the resistance. He has to be careful about how we speak of it. But, with a knowledge that we do this in appropriate ways, both then and now, certainly in this setting, we can think a little bit more about Jesus transforming death into sleep, which again, he did with the 12 year old girl, he did it with Lazarus, and that's really Jesus plan for all of us as well, is to transform our deaths into a sleep from which we wake up into a new life.

And to get an idea of that, that death into sleep being, uh, broadened to speak to all of us, well, here we can go to the Apostle Paul, who often takes these gospel scenes of Jesus and transforms them into messages that speak directly to us now. So think about what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.

There, Paul says, well, here's the central teaching of the Gospel, that Christ Jesus was crucified according to the Scriptures, because that's, again, this resistance to Jesus bringing this kingdom and this new creation. Christ Jesus was crucified according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and then on the third day, He rose according to the Scriptures.

And then Paul talks about the people He appeared to, Peter and the eleven, and then he mentions, and He appeared even to 500 people at one time. Most of them are still alive, Paul says, but then he says, Some of them have fallen asleep, which of course means they have died. Now, what can Paul mean when he says, well, they're dead, that means they're asleep.

Again, he's echoing Jesus, but he's also even Giving us further revelation about that truth. Because Paul can talk about death as sleep. Because as he says in Philippians chapter 1, when he's wondering if he's going to die by getting killed as a prisoner, and that will happen to him a little bit later down the road.

But he's wondering, you know, am I going to die, am I going to go to, uh, depart from this life to be with Christ? What Paul says is, you know, for your sake, I think I'm gonna keep working in this life. But if I had a choice, I'd die to depart to be with Christ. Because what happens when we die? What happens when Jesus turns that death into a sleep?

We wake up into something that is a better place by far, Jesus says. Which is such a word of comfort to us when we lose loved ones as all of us do. We grieve. We feel sad as can be. But what about the people we love who have died? They're loved by Jesus and they have been brought, woke up into a new life that is better by far.

So after what may have been a terrible sickness for many years, now they're awake with Christ. in a new life. So that's this wonderful transformation of death into sleep. And just to add one more thing of it, what Paul adds to that message about death and sleep and new life, he just says, again, this is in 1 Thessalonians, he says, Of course, when we lose loved ones, we grieve like everyone else, but we do not grieve without.

Because we can have hope in this new life. Savior Christ who, he died, but then he rose to new life. And again, just to keep going on that, He transformed death into sleep into which we wake up into a new creation. And that's the kind of consolation that we can get already from this story. So we're seeing a signal that Jesus is bringing a new life.

a kingdom of heaven to earth, that he's bringing a whole new creation. We're seeing that, um, as he brings that, he knows we need wisdom to understand how his power and truth works, and we're also wanting then to, um, participate further in this gospel story. So having seen the new creation coming, Having been receiving some wisdom about how to see something like death turning into sleep and new life.

Let's now turn to what we can call the middle story in our reading here. Well, actually we'll hold that off for just a minute. We're gonna get to this woman in the middle story who's been bleeding for 12 years. But first, we're going to spend a little bit more time with Jairus and his wife, because that'll speak to us too about how to navigate in this world.

And here, I can share that as I was doing some preparation for, uh, thinking about this, uh, Two stories, really, the outer and the inner story. Regarding the outer story of Jairus and his wife and their daughter being near death, a couple of sources for me, Tim Keller and N. T. Wright, they said, try to think what it was like for Jairus when his daughter is very near to death and as Jesus is making his way to lay his hands on to heal her.

What was it like for Jairus when all of a sudden Jesus stops? You And again, he speaks. He asks a question that is, his own disciples can't understand this question. Who touched me? Jesus asks. And when at first there's no question, there's just wondering, why do you even ask that question? Jesus stands there, looking around.

How long did that take? Well, again, what Tim Keller and he writes is, think of what was that like for Jairus, as his daughter's getting closer and closer to death. And what is Jesus doing? He seems to be delaying. He doesn't seem to have a sense of the timing needed to bring the healing in which he has all his hope.

And so they said, you know, as you're reading this story, think about how you would have felt If you were Jairus and his wife, and Jesus seemed to be delaying, it seemed to be taking too much time. And I'm sure all of you could share some kind of a story where we didn't understand the timing of our Lord.

We didn't understand the delays going on in our life. And for my wife Tricia and me, that happened in relation to our daughter. Now, at that time, she was only 18 months old, and Tricia was expecting our second daughter. Um, so we were at that time in our life, but our 18 month old daughter, she entered into a, some kind of a sickness, some kind of an illness that we didn't understand, and that seemed serious.

And then eventually seemed tremendously dangerous because Tricia brought her to the hospital and I joined them and, you know, I took the baby in my arms. And as we're waiting in what seemed like an endless line to get our daughter looked at, All of a sudden, this little girl starts trusting out and crying out and being in that.

It just seemed like a complete crisis. So how did we feel? No delays. Get over here. Help us. We would have been willing to go right through a crowd to get the help we needed and thank God as we were shouting, the medical people did come to us and they started their emergency help and thank God They were able to treat our daughter in a way that saved our life.

But there again, it took quite a bit of time. The little girl was in the hospital for quite a bit of time. But one thing that we learned there is, well, to put in terms of our reading for this morning, even when you don't understand the timing of our Lord, we can trust our Lord. to bring about what he wants to happen.

So in our case, our little daughter was not saved by a miracle and a new life. Instead, our little daughter was saved, healed by medical practices that had developed over century after century. And that's another way in which our Lord works. Our Lord still does. Miracles. There's someone in our church today who was declared dead and who came alive.

But our Lord also works through medical practices. And again, our Lord works through consolation. Our Lord works in all kinds of ways. So as our Lord brings this new creation, as we need wisdom to understand how something like death can be turned into sleep. Another truth for us to take away from this passage is when the timing of our Lord seems all wrong, when the sickness goes wrong, or, or when the death does happen, or just when things just never seem to get fixed, how can we look at Jesus?

We can trust Him. He's bringing a new creation. He's bringing a kingdom of heaven to earth. He's doing things that are beyond what we can ask or imagine. They're better. And so trust his timing, even when you don't understand that. And then take, to take another step in all kinds of gospel truths in our gospel reading for this morning.

As we're trusting the timing of Jesus, Another aspect of this is that Jesus is bringing this kingdom of new creation. Jesus is bringing this power and wisdom. Jesus is working with the timing that we can trust. He's doing that with what we can call a healing holiness. And that comes out when we finally get to that middle story of the woman who has been bleeding for 12 years.

That's where we see the additional Gospel truth that Jesus works with a healing holiness. Now, the thing for us to see here is that when this woman has been bleeding for 12 years, that's not just a physical and, um, medical condition for her. It's also a social and worship condition for her. Because the law of God in the book of Leviticus says we could find it to this day.

When you are bleeding in that sort of a way, You need to stay separate from the rest of the people because you're unclean and we don't want you to make them unclean which becomes an obstacle regarding gathering to worship and things like that. That is what God teaches in Leviticus chapter and other parts of the law.

And the reason God does that, the reason God teaches that back then, is that when God had just let his people out of slavery, when he was forming them into this particular people, he needed to separate them from other people so that he could form them more directly to be the people into which his son was born.

So that covenant at Sinai includes a holiness that includes separation. And when Jesus comes, Jesus does not abolish all those holiness teachings. Jesus does not say, well, just throw the book of Leviticus away. But Jesus does come, as he says, not to abolish But to fulfill those teachings. And what Jesus does then is he takes this holiness that included a lot of separation.

Jesus now makes it into a healing holiness that brings people together in wonderful ways. So when Jesus, he probably already knows, but when he finds out directly from the woman who's been bleeding for 12 years, Jesus knows that she's been questioning, or at least, uh, navigating with the book of Leviticus.

Jesus knows that in some ways he could be viewed as unclean now because he's been touched by this unclean woman. Bleeding woman, but instead Jesus has the power to transform holiness now into something that brings people together So that when Jesus says Daughter your faith has healed you that can also be translated same word in Greek daughter your faith has Saved you so go in peace And be free from your suffering.

And again, it's not only the suffering of bleeding, it's also the suffering of separation. That's Jesus saying, Go in peace, go in peace in terms of shalom! Because now, this is a peace where you can all come together, and flourish together. So that is yet another good news, action, and teaching, that comes out today.

In our reading for this morning, so we could go on and on but I've had a theme in my life where sometimes people say Pastor there's a time to be silent. Okay, so let's let's try to bring this sermon to an end And what we can do is just again review these wonderful teachings And then relate them to this metaphor of navigating how to live them out.

So again, Jesus has been signaling a salvation of a whole new kingdom of heaven coming to earth a new creation coming that people Will resist so we need wisdom about how to do it But that kingdom really is coming with wisdom and power can transform death Into sleep that'll come with a timing that we won't understand But we can trust because there's this healing holiness that's going to bring us together in this You Peace that is shalom.

So how can we get all of that right here and now? Well, how about this? How about if I just add a lot more teaching right now about how to understand what Synod said? Two Thursdays, you know, do you want me to tell you exactly what to think about that right now? Or is this a time not to speak so much about that and to have it happen another way?

How about that was two Thursdays ago that Senate ended. Just this past Thursday, what happened there? We had a presidential debate. Shall I tell you exactly, I understand that, how we want to speak about that? Or is it time not for me to speak about that right now? But it is time for us to have wisdom and seek shalom by speaking about Senate debate.

And the presidential race in a way in which we seek a healing holiness that we can come together even when we passionately disagree. We can passionately love one another in a way that signals the coming of a whole new kingdom of heaven to earth. Of a whole new creation coming in which we're going to flourish as shalom together.

So we can do that in some ways in a sermon and in a worship service. We can do it in further ways in the kind of edifying engagement where we're going to invite you to come back about five minutes after our worship service today so we can have an atmosphere in which we can exchange ideas rather than just having to listen to this one fellow go on and on.

We can exchange ideas with respect in a way that leads to shalom. That is another way in which we can live out this gospel teaching. And then just to go to that navigation thing, we can pick up here that Jesus has been sailing. In this ship and C. S. Lewis says when you're trying to figure out how to live out your faith when you're trying to figure out How to be ethical in our complicated conflicted world picture yourself and picture your congregation as One ship and a whole fleet of ships That God, through His Spirit, is sailing into a new creation.

And as you do that, ask yourself, Well, how am I as a ship? Am I sinking or am I healthy? And then, how are other ships? Like, are there congregations in the Christian Reformed Church crashing into each other? How can they be sailing together? That's the kind of navigation that we're going to explore in this edifying engagement after worship.

But we're going to need to be exploring that kind of thing all the time for our whole congregational life regarding church, politics, relationships, everything. So let's pray for the Spirit to help us sail and navigate into that new creation. Let's join in prayer now. Gracious God, we thank you so much for sending your Son and your Spirit Amen.

To help us navigate into a salvation that's a whole new creation. We thank you for gospel truths about death and to sleep, for a timing we can trust, for a healing holiness. We thank you for truth upon truth, for grace upon grace leading us into your shalom. And we pray for your spirit to continue to help us sail towards your new creation.

Both as we pray right now, as we sing, as we conclude this worship service, as we gather in all kinds of ways, we pray for the Son to give us His Spirit in a way that makes us more and more like Christ our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. So let's rise for a song that'll pick up on the healing segment of our gospel reading for today.