Detination: Glory

Destination: Glory

When Jairus fell at the feet of Jesus pleading with Him to cancel His schedule so that He might come and heal his dying daughter he got more than what he expected. I’m sure he thought a quick trip to the house, a prayer, and all would be well. But on the way there were delays, crowds, others who wanted healing and that resulted in Jairus’ daughter dying before Jesus could get there. The message came simply, “Your daughter is dead, why bother the teacher any more?”

Many of us are living in the land of “too late.” Many of have secretly said these words, “why bother Jesus any more? This is over.”

Maybe our marriage is on life support, or our ministry, or something else and we have decided that “even Jesus can’t fix this.” Dead is dead. Unfixable is unfixable.

An interesting thing happens at this point in the story. Jesus invites Jairus into another story. Jesus simply says, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” The story began with Jairus asking Jesus to walk with him, now it’s Jesus asking Jairus to walk with Him. It starts with Jairus asking Jesus to fulfill his agenda, and now it’s Jesus asking Jairus to fulfill His agenda. This is the critical turnabout that we often miss. We want Jesus’ power to be demonstrated, but on OUR terms. Jesus wants to demonstrate His power but on HIS terms. Often He is simply asking us to walk with Him because He is going to do something we can’t imagine.

And what was Jesus asking Jairus to believe anyway? It was undefined. Jesus didn’t say, “believe that I will raise her from the dead…” He simply asked Jairus to believe in HIM. The same faith that drove Jairus to Jesus was the same faith Jesus wanted from Jairus when it got hard to believe. Just believe in Jesus no matter what the outcome may be.

And then we wait. Waiting is hard. Jairus had to walk through a crowd of doubters, through the mourners, through those who thought he was crazy, but this was Jesus’ show now, not Jairus’. Jairus could have pulled the plug anytime he wanted and that is what we are tempted to do during the wait.

Destination: Glory. All Bible readers know how the story ends. Jesus speaks, life returns to the girl, and everybody is completely amazed. The fact is we could have better endings to our tragic stories if we could just keep believing and walking with Jesus. I believe in His miracle power that turns tragedies into triumphs. Jesus power is always about His glory, not ours.

I ask, “why did it happen like this? Why didn’t Jesus just wave his hand and make it better from the start? Why allow Jairus to go through the pain, the wounding, the confusion, and the testing if Jesus was going to heal her anyway?” Because there is great character to be gained in trust. Jesus teaches us through Jairus to never give up too early. He teaches us that there is still resurrection power that undoes what we think is undoable. “Don’t be afraid, just believe.” (Mark 5:21-43)