A Hopeless Situation

Mark 5:21-43  **  July 17, 2010

To listen to “A Hopeless Situation” click here. This recording was made at the Nortonville (Kansas) Seventh Day Baptist Church and may be slightly different than the text below.

The Ervin Lupoe Family

Last January in Los Angeles, a father of five killed his wife and children after he and his wife were laid off from their jobs. Authorities found Mr. Lupoe’s body with a revolver by his side, upstairs with his three daughters. Mrs. Lupoe’s body was found in an upstairs bedroom with the bodies of the couple’s twin two-year-old boys.

Last October, an unemployed financial manager who was plagued by money worries, killed his wife, three children and his mother-in-law. In December, a gunman dressed as Santa Claus stormed into the home of his former in-laws, killed all his relatives and then set his soon to be repossessed house one fire.

Well, this is a terribly depressing way to begin a sermon, but it is a sad reality. Our country is attempting to claw its way up out of a deep financial crisis. Many Americans have responded with a sense of hopelessness; some of them to an extreme!

Through the ages, mankind has faced many situations that seemed hopeless. There have been wars upon wars. People have suffered through disease, starvation and deprivation. They have been our companions since the beginning. How is it then, that amidst tragedy, some people live lives of hope?

I am here today to tell you that we serve a God who specializes in helping those with no hope! The Bible is full of them. There are too many to count! Today in our series of Encounters With Christ I have picked two examples. Turn with me to Mark 5:21-43.

MK 5:21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 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. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

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

MK 5:31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, `Who touched me?’ “

MK 5:32 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.”

MK 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?”

MK 5:36 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

MK 5:37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of the word.

Jesus was teaching and as so often happened, a man came to him for help. By the way, in context, Jesus was teaching about the fact that he came to help the sinful, not the righteous; the hopeless and not the hopeful.

Jarius was a leader in the community. Mark said that he was a “synagogue ruler.”  That would mean he was likely a Sadducee, a member of the political party that ran the temple and all of its commerce. They were powerful and sanctioned by the Romans.

This man of power came and pled with Jesus, begging him to save his daughter. Mark and Luke say that the daughter was “near” death. Mathew writes that the daughter had “just died.”

What do you think Jarius was feeling? It must have been a wild mixture of emotion; grief, pain, helplessness, desperation and hopelessness. He was hopeless enough that he was willing to swallow his pride and set aside his now useless political power. He ignored that fact that his party hated Jesus and he came begging for help from this vagabond rabbi. “If you’ll just touch her she will live.”

What did Jesus do? He read the man’s heart and went with him. Then we read this very odd insertion. A woman, “who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years” reached out of the crowd and touched the “edge of his cloak.”

Mark shared her thoughts with his readers, “If I can just touch him, I will be healed.” Think about this for a moment. She has been bleeding for 12 years! Now I hope I do not offend you with the details here. But I want you to understand how desperate this woman must have been and the Bible does not obfuscate! So, turn to Leviticus 15:25-30.

LEV 15:25 ” `When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. 26 Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. 27 Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.

LEV 15:28 ” `When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge.

This is Hebrew law. A woman with a “discharge of blood” is unclean and she stays that way as long as this goes on. If she lies on a bed, it is unclean. If she sits in a chair, the chair is unclean. In addition, anyone who comes in contact with her or what she touches is unclean as well. They have to go through ritual cleansing and will stay unclean for the entire day. When it is over and she is healed, she must wait seven days and then offer sacrifices to be considered clean.

This woman had been “unclean” for 12 years! She was a social and ritual outcast! Can you imagine 12 years of being a pariah? She must have been desperate, desperate and hopeless enough to sneak up on the rabbi and touch him! She knew what she was doing! She was assuming that he would not touch her, and she knew she was making him “unclean.”

What was the rabbi’s reaction? It was not disgust that this unclean woman had touched him as she had imagined. Instead, she heard encouragement. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that moment. At the peak of her hopelessness, she found the healing touch of Jesus.

What about Jarius’ daughter? Do not forget about her! Jesus went to his house even though the news of the girl’s death had already come. He threw out the mourners, took the girl by the hand and she got up! Can you feel what Jarius felt? At the peak of his hopelessness, he saw the healing touch of Jesus.

Have you ever felt hopelessness? Have you had the overwhelming sense that no matter what happens next it will all go badly? There is no way out. You are trapped; trapped with no way out! Have you felt that?

Here is the amazing thing that Jesus teaches through his encounters with Jarius and the woman. God is in the midst of hopelessness. Our God inhabits our hopelessness! You may think that your prayer goes unanswered, but God is in the midst of hopelessness. You may think that this “faith” is a waste of time, but God is in the midst of hopelessness. Is your situation dire? Stop telling God how to fix it. God is in the midst of it!

We know that Paul experienced this. He wrote in 2^nd Corinthians 12 about his physical illness. He said that God had used his illness to keep him humble. He wrote that he had prayed for healing. Verse 8 of that chapter says, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” But God told him “no.” When Paul prayed about his “hopeless” situation, God said, “No, I will not fix it.” God wanted him just the way he was. He said, “…my power is made perfect in weakness.” My power is complete, when it is demonstrated through your inadequacies.

What did Paul do when God told him “no?” He said, “Well… if Christ’s power is shown in my weaknesses, then weakness is what I want!” How absurd is that! He defined his attitude about his hopeless situation in verse 10. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Some of you know my youngest daughter, Heaven. She is a beautiful little six-year-old girl that tends to draw a lot of attention when she is in public. That is because she is in a wheel chair. She has Cerebral Palsy and she is blind.

Recently, in a fast food restaurant a man approached our table. We could see it coming. He was going to witness to his faith in Jesus to this family with the crippled daughter! It happens to us all the time! But, his initial question surprised my wife and me! He asked, “What’s wrong with her?”

I was surprised! The answer in my head was, “Not a single thing! She is perfect!” But, I was polite and we explained her situation to him. Then told him I was a pastor and spoiled his witnessing opportunity!

 I cannot tell you how many people have been uplifted by Heaven’s smile and the purity of her unreserved love! Some might see her situation as tragic or even hopeless, but she is absolutely perfect! She is just the way God wants her to be! No sir, there is nothing, “wrong with her.”

You and I, however, have a disease. It is called “myopia.” We are “short sighted.” When we are in a hopeless situation we cannot see beyond our own noses! Hopelessness becomes an opportunity for looking “inward” and the focus turns to “self.” Paul’s revelation in 2^nd Corinthians sounds so absurd to us because he acknowledges that life is not about him! Life is about being used by the power of Jesus Christ, regardless of your situation! We are so short sighted that we think that our current situation is all that is real!

Is your situation hopeless? Do you sometimes feel like your suffering will have no end? To be honest with you, I have felt that. It is a midnight black thought. “I will suffer pain for the rest of my life.”

But then, I remember. I have peace with God through Jesus Christ. I can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Paul said that our present sufferings are not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Believe it or not, suffering is the beginning of the end of a hopeless situation! We can rejoice in our sufferings:

Romans 5:3 … because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. …8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

When we had no hope of communion with God, Christ died for us. When we had no hope of a life of value, Christ died for us. When we had no hope of anything but a future of suffering, Christ died for us.

I can tell you today just what Job told his friends so long ago, JOB 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.

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