"He said," Mark 5:21-43 Sermon Pr. Ted Giese Sunday July 1st 2018 Season of Pentecost

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday July 1st 2018: Season of Pentecost / Mark 5:21-43 "He said,"

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about Him, and He was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing Him, he fell at His feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And He went with him.

And a great crowd followed Him and thronged about Him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from Him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

While He was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when He had entered, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at Him. But He put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with Him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand He said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And He strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. They thought they were dead, that the boat would capsize and that they wouldn’t be able to make it to shore, they thought they were perishing and they called out in great fear to Jesus who was asleep right on the cushion covering the seat in the stern of the boat where the one who manned the rudder and set the course and managed the mainsail sat. They likely though that when Jesus woke He would take the rudder and set the course and get control of the mainsail as they bailed out the boat but Jesus didn’t do all that, He didn’t even get out of the way so that Peter or James or John the fishermen could get in there and pilot them home, no Jesus did the unexpected Jesus simply spoke, He opened His mouth and “rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [Jesus] said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”[1]

They’re question, “Who then is this,” would be answered over and over and over again along the way and in today’s Gospel reading that comes hot on the heels of last week’s calming of the storm we hear again who this Jesus is, who this Jesus is that even the wind and the sea obey Him. Jesus’ unexpected power extends beyond the weather, as we hear in the reading today, in fact it practically, seeps out of, and radiates off of Him, it heals the sick. Hear His voice and you like the waves will obey … even if you are dead like Jairus’ daughter. Elsewhere Jesus, speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd, says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”[2] That day Jesus gave the woman with the twelve long year discharge of blood healing, that day He gave Jairus’ twelve year old daughter a second chance at life and in His death and resurrection He gives all who believe in Him and hear and listen to His voice the gift of eternal life, not just a momentary escape from a storm or short term trouble but an everlasting gift of life, a life that will never end.

“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” Well He isn’t simply a man. Men can’t do these things try as they might. And yet He also bled and died, and His lifeless body was wrapped up and sealing in a tomb just as dead and buried as other men who die and are buried. Jesus is not a glass into which God poured His divinity, His Godliness, His miraculousness … Jesus isn’t even a cup that God poured and poured and poured His divinity, His Godliness, His miraculousness into until it overflowed all over you and everyone everywhere. No Jesus in His incarnation took His humanity, the man and brought it into God. “Who then is this?” Jesus is “at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; And He is man, born from the substance of His mother [the Virgin Mary] in this age,” this makes Jesus, “Perfect God and perfect man,” and what does this look like? Well the disciples where starting to understand but wouldn’t fully understand it until after Jesus’ death and resurrection that this meant, that this means that Jesus was “composed of a rational soul and human flesh [that He was and is and ever shale be] equal to [God] the Father with respect to His divinity, [while] less than [God] the Father with respect to His humanity. [That] although [Jesus] is God and man, He is not two [separate things like a light switch that is either on or off], but [in fact, Jesus is] one Christ: One, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh [as if God poured Himself into a human body], but [rather] by the assumption of the humanity into God [like I was saying].” (Athenaisian Creed) This is a lot to take in … no wonder they were beside themselves with awe and amazement, with fear and trepidation yet the disciples didn’t run off, they listened to His voice, they heard the call of Jesus and they followed Him, they followed His voice.

You are also ones who have heard His voice and followed Him. Jesus said to go and make “disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”[3] and they, these very men Peter and James and John and the other faithful disciples who feared for their lives in the boat in the storm, who witnessed Jesus heal the sick and raise the dead, who saw Jesus alive after His death, did just as He commanded them. They went out into the world and they baptized, they spoke the words Jesus gave them to speak and from generation to generation these words “I baptize you in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” have been said over countless souls as the body felt the touch of the water and faith was implanted by the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit with the words of Jesus, the same Jesus who said to Jairus’ daughter, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And you, who were dead in your trespasses and sins, are made alive at the voice of Jesus, at the Word He gives in His Sacrament of Holy Baptism, at the washing you’ve received and that you acknowledged and confess today.  Today we have a profession of faith a confirmation of faith, yet every Sunday we confess the creeds of the church the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and sometimes the Athanasian Creed; in them we confess the gifts we receive in baptism and our Christian faith in Christ Jesus.  Faith in Jesus is poured into your ears and as you hear His word you are hidden away in Him.

Now on the other hand when you fail to listen to this Jesus’ voice, when you turn from it you actually drift in the direction of your greatest weakness, now as soon as I say that you know what your greatest weakness is. When you fail to listen to His voice you drift in the direction of your greatest weakness, you don’t become stronger or wiser or more accomplished by following your own voice or the voice of those opposed to Jesus and His word. No you end up in danger of sinking your boat if you desire to pilot it yourself, you will die in your illness if you seek no attention or help, and you’ll remain dead if you think that you will raise yourself up from the dead by your own power.

When Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter up from the dead ... and I don't know if you caught this, but what does He say? While everyone is happy what does Jesus tell them something that seems odd on the surface?  He strictly charged Peter and James and John and Jairus’ family and everyone in that household that no one should know what He had done. This would be like letting the cat out of the bag, it would frustrate and infuriate the ones who wanted Jesus dead and may have prematurely hastened His death and He yet had more to do, after Jesus was crucified and risen from the dead they were then free to tell the world of His resurrection and ascension, they were free to tell the world how He brought Jairus’ daughter back to life, just as we are now free to tell everyone what Christ Jesus has done for us, to tell everyone that He is not simply a man just a moral teacher and that He is not only divine, rather that this Jesus is God and Man in perfect union; He is “one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.” And yes “even the wind and the sea obey Him,” even death, He has called you to new life in Him. And on The Last Day this Jesus will call your body up out of its grave as He called Jairus’ daughter up from the dead, only on That Day it will not be a temporary thing meant to point to His own resurrection to help clue in Jesus’ disciples who had asked “who then is this?,” no on That Day you will hear His voice call you up unto life everlasting and it will be permanent.

Until That Day listen to His voice, hear His Holy World, trust in what He says to You in Scripture, in the Bible, and return to Him when He calls no matter how far you have wandered, no matter how far you have strayed. His voice calls to you and you will hear it wherever it finds you, in the storm, in illness, even in death. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

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[1] Mark 4:39–41
[2] John 10:27–28
[3] Matthew 28:19