Just Right

“My little daughter is dying.  Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” Mark 5:22-23  

Are there others out there besides me who sometimes want what they want done done right then?  For most things, it doesn’t matter, and I’m pretty patient, but there are times when time is of the essence (or at least it is to me), and I desire that my request be granted right here right now.  When it’s not, I feel the angst and anxiousness rising, and I battle to be kind.  Some of you beautifully laid-back souls cannot relate to these feelings, so consider yourselves blessed, but there are those nodding their heads because they know exactly what I mean.  If Jairus the synagogue ruler from back in Jesus’ day were reading these words, he would be agreeing the most.

Jairus faced a true crisis—a matter of life or death, not his own but, much worse, his daughter’s.  She was so sick she needed someone to save her from the grave, so Jairus went to Jesus.  “He fell at his feet, 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’”(Mk 5:22-23).  In faith, Jairus dialed the divine 911, and Jesus turned on the sirens and headed toward his house in a hurry.  “So Jesus went with him”(Mk 5:24).

But suddenly, not too far down the street, Jesus stopped the ambulance to bandage someone’s skinned knee.  Not exactly, but that’s what it must have felt like to Jairus who just wanted Jesus to get to his home as soon as possible.  A lady was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. “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”(Mk 5:26).  Her situation was very sad and very bad and her faith was very good because she believed that if she could just touch Jesus, she would be healed, and she did and she was, and suddenly Jesus stopped His steady strides toward the dying girl to interact with the once-desperate, now-delighted woman.  “He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ ‘Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth”(Mk 5:30,33).

The whole truth?  Really?  Couldn’t she have just hurried through the abridged version?  Didn’t she know Jesus had somewhere to be and something to do?  Since I was young, every single time I read this story, I feel Jairus’ anguish.  I feel his heart pounding, his palms sweating, and his body shaking.  I hear him sighing and gulping and trying so hard not to scream at the woman and at Jesus who was acting as though He had all the time in the world to dawdle and delay.  Didn’t He know that Jairus’ daughter was dying?  Couldn’t He see and sense Jairus’ distress?  Why now, of all times, would He pause and heal a piddly malady and then listen to the long story about the whole affair when right down the road a little girl was gasping her last breaths?

The next verse just gets worse.  Jesus took so long with the lady, He was too late to save the little girl.  “While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus.  ‘Your daughters is dead,’ they said. ‘Why bother the teacher any more?’”(Mk 5:35).   Aaaarrrrggghhhh!  I can hear the furious frustration in Jairus’ soul, but before he even had a chance to sputter or speak, Jesus said something straight to him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe”(Mk 5:36).

The following few minutes were a whirlwind of despair, desperation, and delight, as Jesus tossed the wailing mourners out of the house, took the limp, lifeless hand of the little girl, and raised her from the dead.  Jairus and his wife were “completely astonished” as she stood up and walked around while Jesus gave instructions to find the kid some food.

This story ends happy on earth, and we sigh with relief.  Some situations only find healing in heaven, and we sigh in expectation, but no matter the outcome, we can breathe easy in both and be absolutely sure that God is in control.

What we see as a fear-filled emergency, God views as a faith-filled opportunity.

His way of working may not always be right now, but it’s always right.

“Don’t be afraid; just believe.”