Mark 5:21-43 Laughing At Jesus (Molin) – Bible study
Sermon Mark 5:21-43 Laughing At Jesus
By Pastor Steven Molin
Dear friends in Christ, grace, mercy and peace, from God our Father, and His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
There is a group in Portage, Michigan called The Fellowship of Merry Christians. It was begun in 1985, for the single purpose of reminding Christians to be joyful. They like to spread quips like The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves so lightly. And The devil fell because of the gravity of his situation. They organize Holy Humor Sunday each April, where people are encouraged to dress with humor, and tell jokes in worship.
The folks at The Fellowship of Merry Christians claim that the Resurrection is the best April Fools trick every played. And these people love to laugh with Jesus. Their hallmark is a wonderful print of the Savior, standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, laughing! In fact, the painting is called Laughing Jesus and makes me smile every time I see it.
Theyre right, of course, these merry Christians. We ought to be more joyful, even in church, where our legacy is one of stern seriousness and somber faces. If Keith and I ever lose our jobs, it may be because we had too much fun in church, but frankly, it will be worth it! But there is a big difference between laughing with Jesus and laughing AT Jesus. And thats what I want to address today on this Fourth of July week-end, for those of us who are here because we dont have lake cabins.
This 5th chapter of Mark is just one amazing miracle after another. It begins with Jesus curing a demon-possessed man. Then he and his disciples sail to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee and they are immediately approached by one of the leaders of the local synagogue, who is pleading with Jesus. My little daughter is dying. Please come and lay your hands on her. Can you hear the urgency in his voice? Can you feel his anxiety? Though Jairus was a religious expert, he was powerless to help his own daughter, so he reaches out to this traveling preacher who had a reputation of healing, and he begs Jesus for a miracle.
And so Jesus begins to follow Jairus home, but the crowds were immense, and in the midst of that crush of people, another woman needs a miracle. This one had been bleeding for 12 years; 12 years! She went to doctors, but they only made things worse, so she too, reaches out literally to become healed by Jesus. Jesus doesnt even know hes healing her; she just touches his robe, believing that this will do the trick, and it does. Who touched me? Jesus asks. Hundreds of people pressing in on him, and yet he feels her touch. She confesses, Jesus assures her that it was her faith that healed her, and she is sent on her way.
But then Jairus receives the horrible news; Dont bother Jesus anymore, your daughter has died. Shes not dead says Jesus, lets keep going. They get to the house and Jesus announces that the little girl isnt dead, she is merely sleeping. And the people laughed at him. The people laughed at him. But Jesus went into the house, took the hand of this 12 year old, and said Little girl, get up! And she does!
Three desperate people; three amazing miracles. But the question I come away with is Why did the people laugh at Jesus? Word of his power and had preceded him into the village; some people had even seen Jesus perform a healing before. So when he announced that the little girl was not dead but merely sleeping, why did they laugh at him?
Was it nervous laughter; the way we sometimes do when our emotions are running high, and we dont know what to say?
Was it an angry, spiteful outburst, intended to hurt Jesus? Psychologists often tell us that hurting people hurt people and perhaps these hurting people were just lashing out.
Or was it a quiet, cynical snicker, by those who simply couldnt take Jesus seriously? They had endured the religious rules and rituals for years, but now it all seems so hollow, now that a little girl had died. So they laughed; they snickered and scoffed at this one who didnt know death when he saw it.
I dont suppose well ever know which of those possible explanations of laughter were plausible on the day that Jesus raised Jairus daughter. What we do know is that the same responses are repeated today whenever we bump up against tragic circumstances. When we are Jairus; when the events in our lives are beyond our ability to cope, we too, laugh, or we snicker, or we lash out, because we dont know what else to do. We may shake our fists at God; lots of biblical characters did. We may turn our backs on God, have nothing to do with him and with his church anymore. Ive seen that a lot. Despair can even move us to harm ourselves because we see no hope in the future. The story of Jairus daughter becomes a laboratory for us to see ourselves. How do we cope when life overwhelms us?
One of our responses is to turn to our faith. Luther once wrote I must go to the one whom I think is my enemy, and I must trust him. I had the hardest time wrapping my brain around that statement when I first read it; God? The enemy? But in the midst of the storm, people have said that if feels that way; like God is causing the painthat God in inflicting the punishment. Job, whom we considered last Sunday, is a case in point. But sooner or later, when people of faith realize that there is no place else to turn, we are likely to turn to God. When the loyal followers of Jesus were jumping ship, Jesus said to Peter; How about you, Peter, do you too want to go? Peters response was immediate; Lord, who else would I turn to? You have the words of eternal life.
In each of the three miracles of this 5th chapter of Mark, faith preceded the miracle. The demon possessed man bowed before Jesus. Jairus requested Jesus to come to his house and lay his hands on his daughter. The hemorrhaging woman reached out and touched Jesus. Their lives were already a mess. They had lost hope for healing already. But they turned to the one whom they thought was their enemy and they trusted him.
The second response suffering people might consider, although there is not a chronological order to these responses; a second response is turning to others for support and encouragement. One of the great blessings of being part of a congregation like this one is that nobody ever weeps alone. We are family, and if you suffer, you have fellow sufferers on the journey with you.
Twenty one years ago, I was on a youth trip in New York State when I received a call from Marsha. A three-year-old child in our congregation had suddenly died. She got sick at suppertime, and she was dead by morning. I missed the death, I missed the funeral. By the time I got home, there was only the pall of grief and despair in that childs home. The first time I visited the mother, I knocked on the door and no one answered, but I heard sounds, so I walked in. I found the mom in her daughters closet, lying on the floor, clutching and smelling her daughters pajamas. I crawled in there with her and listened to her cry for an hour.
Karen never came back to church. She was angry at God and couldnt bear to praise him in worship. In fact, I think I remember her laughing at God! But strangely, she came to coffee fellowship between services. Every Sunday. She entered through the back door and walked down to Fellowship Hall and drank coffee and ate donut holes with her church friends. And that went on for years. Some would judge Karen; criticize her for her grief. But her friends were her lifeline, and coffee in the basement of the church became her sacrament.
And there is one more response, one more thing we can do to survive the difficult chapters of our lives. We can learn to forgive ourselves. Oddly, Christian people have seemingly mastered the art of forgiving others, yet we have great difficulty forgiving ourselveseven for things that are not our fault. You think my friend Karen didnt beat herself up for not taking her daughter to the E.R. at suppertime? You think Jairus didnt feel responsible for the apparent death of his daughter.
Even when we are responsible, when we have failed or brought suffering upon ourselves, there comes a time when we must let it go. There comes a time when we must forgive ourselves for being human. If you are carrying some enormous weight on your shoulders today for something you did or didnt do years ago, you need to know that God has already cleared your name. Only when you can forgive yourself, only then can you be free of it. And its okay to be free of guilt.
One day, when God Kingdom prevails, when all the Saints are gathered in Gods presence, we will laugh with Jesus. Scripture tells us that all the tears will be wiped away, and only love will prevail. I look forward to seeing Jesus, laughing with all his children. Until then, we have each otherand the promises of God. May this be enough for the journey. Thanks be to God. Amen.
2006 Steven Molin. Used by permission.