Wait on Jesus

I was listening to Tim Keller today in my car. He gave a quick sermon to some preaching students on Mark 5:21-43. This is a typical "sandwich" section of scripture, where one account begins, another is started and finished, and the first one is then concluded. I'll try to relay Keller's main points (which, by the way, nearly killed me).

1. The issue with this story is that Jesus, as he makes his way to heal a dying girl, stops to speak with a woman who had touched his garment (which had healed her). Does he not know that this woman's ailment is not life threatening but that the little girl, if not attended to immediately, will die?

2. Keller, at this point, brings up cultural idiosyncrasies. He says that each culture has an idea about when someone is actually late to an appointment. Western Anglo-Saxoners are offended when you are minutes late. Contrastingly, those in the Latino culture won't get offended until you are 30-45 minutes late. And in some societies, people will give you hours before they consider you late. Accordingly, we can't put our artificial time constraints on Jesus, on God. We have preconceived notions about when God should act. And, so, when he doesn't act immediately, we, out of pride, get angry. You'll feel like Jairus. When you get into a relationship with God, you will constantly wait for an apology. You must realize that his schedule is not your schedule. His time line is not your time line. Jesus says to Jairus, essentially, "I will keep my promises, but hardly ever will they fit within your time line." Now is this satisfying? Is it helpful to us who will experience this over and over? "Just have faith." Partially.

3. We must see the wisdom of Jesus. Jesus is entirely capable of dealing with the woman with bleeding and healing the little girl. Because we have the information that the characters in the account don't have, we don't have to worry about what he'll do. We know his wisdom in this account will prevail. But what about when we are the characters in the account? What about when we can't see the end to the story?

4. Jesus takes the time to comfort and teach the unclean woman with a chronic problem causing a male church leader in urgent need to wait. This is a picture of the gospel. The gospel reverses the values of the world. The cross of Christ says that the way up is down, to be strong you must be weak, to have power you must serve, the last shall be first. Jesus puts the outsider first. This is how God always does salvation.

5. When he finally goes to the little girl who has died, he says to her "Talitha." This was a diminutive for "little girl." Or, this was a pet name. Translated today, it would read "honey." Notice what Jesus doesn't do. He doesn't say "Stand back! I will defeat the power of sin and death!" No, he sits down next her and pulls her up from death. There is no greater enemy in the world and he defeats it handily. That is power. But it is also tenderness. He is saying, "If I have you by my hand, death is nothing but a good night's sleep."

6. Why was he able to do this? Because when he went to the cross, he lost his father's hand for us. When he went to the garden he asked God to spare him and he was turned down. God did not reach down to save him from his misery. The reason Jesus Christ can be this gracious, the reason he can go to the weak and marginalized, the reason he is able to lift her out of death, is because he lost his father's hand. We now have his. He is now the true parent we all need.

7. Now why would you want to hurry someone like this? He is utterly kind, gracious and lost his father's hand. Why would you want to disbelieve someone who loves us like that?