Don't Be Afraid, Only Believe

Matthew 9:18-34

There's nothing worse than losing a child. I remember well sitting in a courtroom in Eugene, watching parents struggle with the loss of their kids to Kip Kinkel.

In the face of such sorrow - some parents had peace - because they trusted Jesus. That's what we're going to look at today - trusting Jesus in your circumstances. And we're going to study it in Matthew Chapter 9, starting in verse 18.

18 While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." 19 Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

This is interesting because Jesus has just finished talking about how you can't stuff the new life that He offers into the old wineskin of Judaism. Now up comes a leader of a Jewish synagogue - who openly declares his faith in Jesus and his need of healing.

What kind of effect would this have had on the Pharisees who had witnessed the healing and had questioned Jesus?

Synagogue leaders were lay people - sometimes more than one - elected to care for the administration and leadership of the synagogue. They were part janitor, part administrator, part school superintendent, part disciplinarian, part teaching organizer (although they themselves didn't teach - they arranged for rabbis to come and teach each week).

There are other accounts involving synagogue rulers in the New Testament. In one case a ruler chastises Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. In two other stories we learn about synagogue rulers and their families coming to faith in Jesus.

Mark and Luke actually provide more details of this story than Matthew. Matthew focuses on Jesus' words of authority. In the other two accounts we learn that the ruler's name was Jairus, that the child in question was only 12, and was Jairus's only daughter.

In fact - the daughter had not yet died when Jairus came to Jesus - but as they were going his servants reported the death.

In fact, let's turn there to see Jesus response to the news:

Mark 5:35 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 any more?" Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."

Jairus' servants said - don't bother the Teacher - your situation is beyond hope and beyond His grasp.

So what does Jesus do - He ignores what the servants say and turns to the man saying "don't be afraid; just believe."

Doesn't this happen to us all the time? We are in a desperate situation - and we run to Jesus for assistance, full of faith that He can touch and solve our problem.

Then bad goes to worse - and those around us, maybe even those who mean well, say - its hopeless, why bother God anymore? We cannot imagine a way out of the situation, so we cannot imagine God being able to help. The fat lady's sung, and the curtain has dropped so we might as well just accept the inevitable.

But Jesus says: don't be afraid. I can imagine what must have been going through this man's mind - if I ignore the reality of what is before me and am disappointed what will I do?

So Jesus says: "do you trust Me?" Isn't it just like Him to bring us to the brink - then instead of pulling us back He pushes us over the edge - then while we are free falling and waiting for the elevator to stop suddenly at ground level - He comes alongside and says: "do you trust Me?"

Nothing is hopeless for the Lord - and He will actually bring us into a situation where all is lost so He can stretch us and force us to trust. In our lives it doesn't mean that the solution we envisioned will come about - what it means is that we trust Jesus NO MATTER WHAT the outcome.

Jesus didn't promise the guy that his child would live - He only asked the question: do you trust Me - only believe. Let us believe, let us trust, let us leave the outcomes to Jesus.

So off they go - when another amazing event takes place.

20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed."

We don't know what the woman's condition is - but we know that she had suffered immensely for over a decade.

Mark's gospel has more detail on what took place - it says:

Mark 5:26 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.

"modern" medicine of the day consisted of little more than superstitious remedies that could do nothing for a serious internal medical condition.

More than that, the bleeding made this woman ceremonially unclean - she could not attend synagogue, and could not even be touched by another person. For all intents and purposes she was treated as a leper.

She hears about Jesus and wants to touch His cloak. This probably came from the belief that a holy person's clothing also held power. It may also be that she figured Jesus Himself would not touch her because she thought it would make Him unclean.

Like the lepers we saw in chapter 8 - an act of desperation brings the woman to sneaking up on the Lord - get healing, then blend away in the crowd. Her plan for healing works - but as far as disappearing:

22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment.

Mark tells us a little more about the story:

Mark 5:30-34 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"

32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Matthew concentrates on Jesus' words of authority - but leaves out the part about Him realizing that He had been touched.

I want us to focus on several things in this wonderful story.

1. Jesus healed even when He didn't direct it

Notice how the healing took place - now I don't want to make more of this than we should here - but its important to note that Jesus Himself was healing - He didn't have to just appropriate the power - it came out from Him naturally.

Jesus really is the answer - He's not just a "good person" who God filled - to touch Him is to be healed. But notice - no one else in the crowd pressing around Him received the same healing.

This woman had faith in Him - even though she didn't understand everything fully. So too - just brushing up against Jesus by coming to church or hanging out with Christians or listening to KLOVE won't heal you from sin either. You need to put your trust in Jesus - put the weight of your life down on Him - look to Him for your own personal touch and a relationship - not just as a bystander curious about what kind of interesting or unusual thing will happen next.

2. The woman was unclean - she didn't know Jesus would get "down and dirty" in order to help her, and us.

How open is your life to the Lord? Do you have a place set aside in your life for Him that is orderly, worshipful, obedient and "Christian?" What about the parts of you that you are ashamed of, that seem unclean, unholy, disobedient? Do you hide these things from God because you are ashamed?

Sometimes - like in the case of the leper - disease, or sin, is obvious on the outside - someone who is addicted to alcohol or abusing their family or clearly hungry only for power, wealth, and fame.

But sometimes the disease of sin is unnoticed by the outside world. Perhaps there are secret sins and secret places of your life that you know are sinful, but are hidden away.

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus is not afraid of sin - He is not afraid to touch it - and he is not afraid to touch the areas of your life that you are most ashamed of.

Reach out to Him - let Him in - let Him see and touch and experience you as you really are. You cannot surprise Him nor do anything to stop Him from loving you.

But He can do lots to help you - to cleanse you from things that are on the inside - like this woman - no one could see the disease - only its effects. But Jesus can heal it all - if we let Him.

So Jesus makes His way to the synagogue ruler's house - and here's the scene.

23 When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, 24 he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him.

Now there are several things operating here - some cultural, some physical. Jewish tradition called for mourners. Because bodies in Palestine decomposed quickly - there were actually people who made their living, traveling quickly to houses to mourn and cry over the dead.

These people may not have ever met the young girl who died - they were used to seeing death - and knew full well its look and its finality. This was no coma, certainly not a nice nap. People just didn't come back from the dead - so what Jesus said would have seemed preposterous.

Something else - a young girl of 12 would have been very near marriageable age - never having had the opportunity to marry would have been mourned all the more in that culture.

This is the second test for the ruler - remember first he hears from messengers that his sick daughter has died - now the crowd reinforces that belief.

Sometimes tests of our faith keep getting notched up - first it was only a few people he had to ignore, now the ruler must defy a laughing crowd and appear to be stupid in order to have faith in Jesus.

Look what Jesus does:

25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

Jesus puts out the crowd - we know in Mark that He invited only the child's mother and father, and the disciples that were with Him - Peter, James, and John - to go inside.

We also know in Mark that he speaks to the girl - he says in Aramaic - "little girl, get up." And she does - even walks around. Jesus tells the parents two things - don't tell anyone what happened - and, give your daughter something to eat.

Despite that:

26 News of this spread through all that region.

But look back - Jesus put the crowds outside. Sometimes in the effort to be "well balanced" we take in every kind of argument and insult against out faith that we come across.

Perhaps its in school, perhaps in the workplace, perhaps its your own drive to continually test whether Christianity is real by letting doubters have full access to our ears and minds.

But there are times when we must silence those crowds, and just listen to the Savior. Let His words ring in your ears, instead of those who laugh at Christ.

It's not that we put our hands over our ears and never listen to anything else - but there comes a point where it begins to erode our faith - as we know, "faith comes by hearing - and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)

In conclusion, I want to challenge you today. Jesus is standing by you, in your darkest hour, in the time when you think everything is lost - and He asks: "Do not be afraid, only believe." "Do you trust Me?" Jesus says. "Or do you trust the shouting voices of doubt around you?"

Trust Him, He's worth it.