Sixth Sunday after Pentecost June 29-30, 2024
“Bother God!” Mark 5:21-43
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
I don’t know if you can understand what I am going to tell you today. If you haven’t gone through a life-changing crisis I imagine that my words spoken today will simply be foolishness, empty emotion. But if you have gone through life and have had something precious taken from you, you might be giving me an Amen! when I’m done speaking today.
I am Jairus, the synagogue ruler, but more importantly the father of a twelve-year old daughter. The twelve-year old daughter that you just heard read in your Bible reading had died. It was terrible. I was watching her die. We had tried everything to make her better. But she didn’t get better. I was her father and I had to do something. And what I did was risky. I was the ruler of the synagogue and what I was about to do put all of that in jeopardy. The synagogue was my life and my livelihood. I got that position by the respect of the people in my community. And at that moment of seeing no answers for the life of my daughter I sought out Jesus. Now for you the name of Jesus means Savior, Master, Lord. But for us the name of Jesus meant trouble-maker, even heretic. He was teaching about a new way and that didn’t fit into our established Jewish ways. He claimed to be the Messiah.
But I went. I didn’t even go at night so I could sneak to Him secretly – I went in full view of everyone. My job, my position, my name were all in question now. But it didn’t matter. I had heard about Jesus. He had done things that no one could explain. So I went for my little princess.
He agreed to come. I was given some hope. And then on the way another daughter, a daughter of Israel, who for the whole twelve years of my daughter’s life, had been ill and had gone to physician after physician and they could only empty her pocketbook, but offered no cure, came to Jesus. And she came secretly, sneaking up from behind so He would not notice, and she touched the tassel of His robe. And her bleeding stopped. She was made well. I got to view one of His great miracles.
This lady had been rejected by everyone. She was ceremonially unclean. She was second-class. But He made her well. He saved her. My hopes were solid.
But have you ever gone from the heights to the depths? I did. Right then. She died. My daughter died. From my house came the news, “Your daughter is dead.” Now I looked at this woman made well in a different light. She had interrupted Jesus, the healer, from getting to my home sooner. If she had not caused such a commotion by reaching out for Jesus my daughter may have lived. He may have gotten there in time. She had been ill for twelve years, surely a few more minutes would have made no difference. But now it was too late. Dead. I heard it over and over in my ears. My daughter was dead. She was to be a woman, a wife, a mother. We had such dreams for her. And now that was over.
After the men told me the news they also gave me this advice, “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Maybe this was the time that I should bother Him. Was His power only over the living?
And immediately when Jesus heard about the death and heard the advice, He took my bold faith and made it stronger. “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” You talk about an emotional day! We traveled together and I didn’t know what to expect.
I hate the sound of the flute. To this day I hate the sound of the flute. Now I imagine some of you love that sound and some of you may even play it. Good for you. But for me it is the sound of death. Jewish law says that even the poorest in our society had to have two flute players announcing a death. And I wasn’t poor, at least financially, and a whole band of flutes played me the news that I had been told.
I don’t know if you have even been to an old Jewish funeral. It is a sight unknown to you. The grief of death is expressed. Within 24 hours and often on the very day of the death the funeral was held. People wailed, some of them were paid to do it. (Maybe that was for some of the folks that we didn’t really mind passing on to the other life!) At the grave the wailing was even greater. They would bend over the dead body, begging for a response from the silent lips. They beat their breasts; they tore their hair, and they rent open their clothes. We could only read the sorrowful books of Job, Jeremiah and Lamentations during our period of grief. We would take eggs and dip them in ashes and salt and eat them. Our grief was great.
Then Jesus enters as a picture of calm in this chaos. He says, “Stop wailing, she is not dead but asleep.” Everyone there knew she was not just sleeping. She was dead. They laughed at Him for saying such a thing. The laughter was scorn and unbelief and anger. They felt He was cruel by saying such words. I could hear the advice given me when I first heard the news of her death, “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” They were telling me, “We’ll take it from here. We know how to wail and mourn and cry.” “We know how to handle death.” “We’re in control.”
That is when it changed. That is when I was so glad that I was ‘bothering God’. My wife and I, Peter, James and John went to her bedside. Jesus took her by the hand and spoke an Aramaic term, “Talitha koum”, that means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up”. And she did. She walked around the room. The flutes could stop their screeching. The wailers could be silent. I bothered God and He bothered to raise my daughter from death.
What can I tell you from my account? Bother God. Don’t think even for a moment that anything is too difficult for Him. Everyone seemed to want me to give up. But Jesus wouldn’t let me give up. I saw death leave and life resurrected.
Maybe you have things that are dead in your life. You may find the will to resist temptation gone. You may be single, looking for God’s design for your life and it all seems unclear. You may be in a marriage where love is not the reason that you are still together. You may have lost the spark and fire of life. Hope has gone out. Bother God. Please, bother God.
You may have felt, like me, that He has put you on hold and He is not coming to your help quickly enough. But He hasn’t forgotten you. He knows your need and He will answer with His wisdom and good heart towards you.
My story is one that brings Goosebumps to your forearms. I wonder though, what if my daughter had not been raised from death. I know that there are many children who die and are not brought back to life here on earth. My word is still the same – Bother God. When He walked into my grief He brought peace, calm and strength to the place. He showed His compassion by listening to my plea and coming with me. And He brought a sense of control to an awful situation. Into despair He brings hope. He does the same thing today.
What stands in your way of bothering God? Do you wonder if in this world of billions, God could care for you, just one among so many? Do you wonder that in this world of such great problems, should God be concerned with your little complaints or insignificant hurts? He cares about you, each one of you. Just as He cared about me in my need He cares for you.
Does pride get in your way of bothering God? I threw away my pride when I went to see Jesus. I fell at His feet. And He lifted me up with hope. I knew the Scripture that said, “A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.” I was bruised, and just barely smoldering, and He brought me wholeness.
What can I tell you? Bother God. And you don’t have to wait to the end. You’ve heard that phrase, “If all else fails, pray.” Right? What dumb advice. Do it first. You know that verse, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
What can I tell you? Bother God. But maybe that isn’t the phrase I should use. Bothering God sounds like someone who is knocking at a door of someone else who says, “Go away”. God doesn’t want us to go away. He invites us to come. Our pains and sins and hurts and death are no bother to Him.
Go ahead and bother God. He can do what no one else can do. He will bring calm to chaos; hope to despair and life to death. Amen.