Pastor Jonah Sage preached Mark 5:21-43. He said that Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person. Lector: Erin Warmbier
Pastor Jonah Sage preached Mark 5:21-43. He said that Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person.
Lector: Erin Warmbier
Have you ever wanted this kind of red-carpet-experience?
Have you ever wished to be wanted?
Have you ever dreamt of stepping out of your car to huge crowds of people all pressing to be near you, to hear from you?
Ours is a culture desperate to be seen and heard.
"Social Media Influencer" is one of the top career goals of middle/high school students
Any guesses what question I most often get from other pastors when I meet them?
"So...how many people are you running?"
More must mean better. Bigger must mean holier.
We come to Jesus the same way we come to our lives: striving to be impressive
Make a name for ourselves, stand out, be seen, and be heard.
Sometimes we say we do this in the name of God, sometimes in the name of a better life for our kids, but regardless of what it looks like on the outside, it comes from the same place.
Somewhere deep inside, you only want to be seen when you feel like you're invisible. You only want to be heard when you feel ignored.
In other words, you only strive to be impressive when you think the crowds and applause will finally convince you that you are loved.
What do you expect Jesus to do here? The savior of the world, on a mysterious mission to rescue, redeem, and reconcile all things...?
Before we can see his reaction to the crowds, he's interrupted:
Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived.
-Mark 5:22
We've seen what happens when the religious leaders show up...opposition/resistance
But this time is different.
When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, 23 pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
-Mark 5:22-23
Can you imagine? This man, Jairus is his name, breaks with his party because he's desperate, he's afraid, and his daughter is dying.
What would you do if you were Jesus?
A man, from the same group that has been resisting and opposing you, the group that says you are demon possessed and working for Satan, begs you for help...and on the other side you have throngs of adoring crowds running around lakes to be with you.
Who would you choose?
Perhaps surprisingly, Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person.
Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding...she had heard about Jesus...for she thought to herself, "if I can just touch his robe, I will be healed."
-Mark 5:24-25, 27, 28
Again, crowds pressing in all around him. Even though Jesus singled out Jairus, the crowds kept following him.
There's a level of desperation that moves you to ask...and an even greater level of hopelessness that doesn't even have the courage to speak, not even the courage to touch the man, but just the very fringe of his robe.
Jesus stops the moment this woman is healed, he feels power go out of him.
He looks to the crowd and says:
"Who touched my robe?"
-Mark 5:30
He's not looking for an answer here, he's looking for a person.
Does not say "what" happened, he said "who touched my robe."
Again, Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person.
This is not time for a group instruction, but a personal interaction.
Jesus commends this woman's faith, tells her to go in peace, and assures her this bleeding is over.
Twice now, Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person.
He does not appeal to the crowd, he speaks to an individual.
He leaves the potential for applause and popularity, and focuses on a desperate, suffering individual.
But perhaps he has made a mistake...after this interaction with the woman messengers from Jairus' house come to inform them his daughter has died.
They arrive at the house to find people weeping and wailing over this girl's death, but Jesus seems confused:
"Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn't dead; she's only asleep."
-Mark 5:39
Perhaps we see a reason why Jesus wasn't so interested in crowds here.
This group ran around a lake to be with him.
They surrounded him as he left for Jairus' house
They pressed into him as he spoke with the bleeding woman
But now, they hear him say this girl is asleep...and watch how they react:
The crowd laughed at him.
-Mark 5:40
They laughed. Have you ever had a large crowd laugh at you? Not with you.
It's dehumanizing, embarrassing, vulnerable. Terrible experience.
These same crowds adoring Jesus only needed a few minutes and two sentences before their cheers turned to laughter.
Sometimes the same crowd that shouts "hosanna" will soon shout "crucify"
The crowd is fickle, which means the platform is dangerous.
To live for the crowd is to live on a razor's edge.
One moment loved, one moment scorned.
One moment embraced, the next rejected.
If you want to be seen and heard, which really is simply a desire to be loved, you will never find it in a crowd.
One moment our culture loves free speech, until you say something a crowd doesn't like
One moment our culture champions acceptance, until you don't accept the way I think.
Today's joke is tomorrow's outrage
Today's virtue is tomorrow's scandal
The culture, and thus the crowd, shifts from day to day like a leaf in the wind, and to live for that crowd's love is to chase the wind.
The crowd will never see you or hear you, which means it will never love you.
And perhaps knowing this is one reason Jesus consistently leave the platform in pursuit of the person.
The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl's father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying.
-Mark 5:40
Enough with the crowds. Send them away. Don't even need all 12 disciples here, perhaps even that was too large an audience.
So three close friends and a devastated mother and father walk into a dead girl's bedroom. Watch this detail in verse 41:
Holding her hand, he said to her..."little girl, get up!"
-Mark 5:41
First, I want you to notice the lack of theatrics.
No commotion here. This was quiet, calm, and right to the point.
Jesus doesn't need a spectacle.
Jesus doesn't need a light show or prime time TV coverage.
Jesus doesn't need a rally or a PR campaign.
5 people in the room with him saw this. No theatrics, no spectacle.
Second, notice how tender this is.
He took her by the hand. Can you see Jesus? Sitting on the edge of the bed...have you been there? Maybe at a hospital with a suffering loved one.
You sit on the side of the bed so gently, and you pick up that hurting hand so tenderly.
I can see Jesus stroking the back of her hand with his thumb, maybe he brushed some hair out of her eyes...little one...wake up! AND SHE DID.
Again...what would you do if you were Jesus here?
Would you be tempted to call those crowds who laughed at you?
Would you ask the girl to sit by the window where the light was just right so you could get a picture for instagram?
What would you do? Here's what Jesus did:
Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened...
-Mark 5:43
Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person.
And then...
Then he told them to give her something to eat.
-Mark 5:43
Dying can really take it out of you. Get this girl something to eat!
But again, Jesus turns his attention away from the crowds to the person right in front of him
Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person. Over and over and over again.
In every of chapter 5, Jesus leaves a crowd to pursue a person.
Back to back to back. Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person.
When Jesus invites us to follow him, he first invites us to trust him.
Part of trusting him means embracing his mysterious mission.
Sometimes he heals with a touch, sometimes with a word, sometimes just from someone touching his clothes.
Sometimes he says go and sin no more, sometimes he says your suffering is over.
Sometimes he teaches from the Bible, sometimes from nature or with stories.
Sometimes he raises the dead with a loud shout into a tomb, other times with a gentle touch and a soft word.
Jesus rarely, rarely, rarely heals or teaches the same way twice.
So to trust means to have confidence he will care for you while also admitting you're not always sure how.
But here's what we can say for sure: Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person
Which is to say Jesus does not want the crowds, he wants you.
So we can confidently cry out to him, or as Hebrews says we can BOLDLY approach the throne of grace, because we know Jesus isn't listening for the crowds, he's listening FOR YOU.
With everything he has going on, he leaves the 99 for the one.
Trust him. He will leave the platform, leave the crowds, in pursuit of you. Trust him.
When Jesus invites us to follow him, it also means to learn from him so we can live like him.
We have all heard it said be seen, be heard, make a name for yourself.
But I say to you, because Jesus says to you, follow the way of the lamb of God, which is the way of the mustard seed.
Look not to the crowds or the platform or the applause to learn how beloved you are
Look to Jesus. See him looking back at you. Cry out to Jesus to learn he listens to you.
Find in him all the love you'll ever need, see yourself as the object of Jesus' mission, because Jesus's mission is always personal. Trust him. Follow him. Live like him.
Jesus leaves the platform in pursuit of the person. He doesn't want the crowds, he wants you.
Let's pray.