Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, July 1, 2018
Clearly our Gospel reading contains two stories with one thread of truth. You have the healing of Jairus’ daughter interrupted by the healing of the woman with the hemorrhages. Jairus first begs Jesus repeatedly to come and heal his daughter. There is an intense urgency. Jesus must come at once. And he does. But then Jesus senses the secret battle of a woman who touches his clothes and is healed. It’s not clear if the delay caused Jesus to miss the window of time that Jairus’ daughter was still alive or not. But now the news that she is dead comes. And Jairus is told not to bother the teacher Jesus anymore. But Jesus defies this tragic news with words of hope, “Do not fear only believe.”
Last week, I was talking about this text with long-time member Jane Meyer. She said that I could absolutely share with you her insight that these words of Scripture are to encourage us in our prayer life. Jesus wants to strengthen our trust in him. In Jane’s words, “My prayers are never a bother. God can multitask.” This is a story of two people knocking at the same door at the same time. This morning we are well over 100 people knocking at the same time. We have a long list of people in our bulletin of those who have requested our prayers. Just down the street in both directions, we have faithful Christians in different churches knocking at the same door. People are in their homes. The faithful are in the hospital. God’s people are praying in English, Romanian, Greek, Spanish, German, Swahili, Chinese, Russian, and Haitian Creole—just in Chicago! Imagine how much more chaos and confusion we would feel if we were all gathered in Grant Park to repeatedly beg and tug on Jesus’ clothing at once. And yet, that is what we are doing every time we pray. And Jesus does not stress out. He can multitask.
Are we bold to pray like Jairus? Or are we too afraid to repeatedly beg to God to answer our prayers? Do we think we are pestering God? Does he understand our sense of urgency? Does his delay in answering our prayers cause us to lose hope? Are we bold to pray like the woman with the hemorrhage? Or are we still paralyzed by shame and secret struggle? Do we think we are invisible? Do we feel like God is unattainable? Or that he is too busy with other more important matters? Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe.” He says it to Jairus and in the hearing of the woman with the hemorrhage. He says so that Peter, James, and John can hear. He tells the whole crowd not to let fear hold us back but to trust in Jesus. As the hymn writer says, “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!” (LSB 770). It is not just bad theology. It is unbelief to think that God cannot hear 7.6 billion people pray at the same time...and for God to understand prayer in 6,500 different spoken languages. We are not taking a load off God’s back by withholding our prayers. We are paralyzing ourselves by unbelief.
God shares our sense of urgency. Jesus came from heaven to earth—the eternal Son of God took on flesh, time, and space. He lived his few years under the same laws of physics. But he was never bound by them like you and me. As one preacher's grandmother wisely put it, “God may not show up when we want him to but he is always on time.” Or as the Scriptures say, “God is not slow in keeping his promises as some count slowness, but is patient toward you” (2 Pet 3:9a). Jesus is not constrained by our schedules but he understands that you and I are. And our understanding is limited. We cannot step outside the universe and look in to gain perspective; but God can. God does not want us to fear, despair, or to lose hope. He wants us to trust in him who sustains the universe by the Word of his power (Heb 1:3b). As Scripture says, “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).
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| Healing of bleeding woman. --Catacombs of Rome |
So go ahead and repeatedly beg. Cry out in your urgency. Quietly sneak your prayers past the throng of people clamoring for Jesus’ attention. Pray boldly. Do not fear, only believe. God understands our time crunches just as well as he knows the agony of chronic pain and stress. He knows our stories. He knows how much our children and young people mean the world to us. He knows how we can suffer at the hands of physicians for years and years who know the medical arts well but cannot always heal the body and certainly not the soul. He knows our battle with time and space. He says, “Do not fear, only believe.” Pray boldly. Have the audacity to beg repeatedly. Have the nerve to interrupt God. Presume God is not irritated, overwhelmed, or too busy for our problems. Do not fear, only believe! He took upon himself the burden of the world’s sin and death from all time and all places on the Cross of Calvary. He can handle the load. He rose victoriously from the dead so that we would not fear death or any obstacle that may come our way.
Boldly pray
No matter what comes your way.
Surrender every apprehension.
Trust in him who surpasses all comprehension.
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