The Force of Faith - 2

Continuing from the previous blog, and staying with the same Scriptural passage of Mark's gospel, chapter 5, there are additional lessons which contain intriguing elements. What do I mean?

Let's see how the story of Jairus' daughter being raised from the dead by our Lord ends. In 5:38, Mark records that as Jesus and Jairus - and we soon discover that Peter, James and John were directed by the Lord to follow as well, reaches the home, there is already the "tumult" of mourning in the air. We can reasonably conclude that there was an air of grief and sorrow in the place. Now, remember that upon hearing the news of Jairus' daughter's death, Jesus had turned to Jairus and said, "Do not be afraid, only believe." Now Jesus enters the house, facing the overwhelming evidence of a death in the house, and makes an extremely strange statement, "Why all this fuss ( or drama )? The girl is just sleeping!"

There is enough evidence in the preceding chapters of Mark, as well as in the other gospels, that Jesus knew all things. And Jesus certainly knew that the little girl was dead - at least by human standards. But He insists that she is only sleeping. At this stage, it is no wonder that the crowd at Jairus' home "laughed him to scorn". And this is very interesting. From grief and sorrow, to the laughter of derision. Amazing!

Jesus just brushes aside the laughter of scorn and derision, and proceeds to move into action. A valuable lesson here for believers of Jesus who would like to build their faith, is to do the same. Many times our faith statements and proclamations will be met with the laughter of scorn and derision. And many times, the best we can do is to brush them aside, and not feel rejected.

Another lesson here is the force of faith can look at a contrary circumstance straight in the eye, and insist on the working out of God's will and plan. And this is usually accompanied by resonant words to that effect. As far as Jesus was concerned, He was only interested in the Father's will being done, and that was in the raising up of the little girl.

Learning from Jesus, we see that likewise, we too must keep our belief intact in the face of contrary circumstances. And keeping that faith involves speaking out that belief in the face of contrary circumstances. And that's where all of us struggle. The privacy of our devotional time is so utterly different from the glare of the public arena. Do we dare to proclaim, or profess our faith in public? Or is our faith resilient enough to weather the laughter of scorn and derision?

So Jesus enters the little girl's room, accompanied only by Jairus, his wife, Peter, James and John. He proceeds to take her hand, and directs her, "Damsel, I say unto you, arise". And death released its hold on the girl in obedience to the Lord and Savior's word of command.

And why can't we do the same?

Well, do we live the kind of life Jesus lived? Or can we live like how Jesus did? A life punctuated by miracles demands 100% obedience to the Father. And Jesus did say that He only did what He saw and heard the Father doing and saying. Jesus worked completely in tandem with the Father. He had the fulness of the Godhead bodily, including the workings of the Holy Spirit.

And He also said that the works that He did, we shall also do, because we too will have the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, doing the works of Jesus is not the collective experience of many believers who claim the name of Christ.

We have much to learn in Jesus'school of faith.