Mark 5:36
But Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but
said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not be afraid,
just have faith."
Goodspeed
Read this whole chapter (Mark 6) and you will find out what was happening here. Jesus had just felt healing power go out of Him as someone had touched Him, and their faith had healed them. Then as they were all standing around marveling about this, someone told the "leader of the Synagogue" that his daughter had died. Those there in the Synagogue said,"Don't bother the Teacher, she is dead and there is nothing you can do". Jesus overhead this and then the above scripture comes. Notice the first line? "But Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but ....." The leaders "friends" were telling him to give up, to move on, she was dead, there is nothing that can be done, just bury her.......But Jesus ignored them and told him to not be afraid, just have faith.
Let's put this into perspective shall we? Everyone there had just witnessed a miracle of healing simply by a woman touching Jesus clothes. Jesus had felt it, and knew someone had been healed, that their faith had made them whole. The very next thing is the leader of the synagogue being told about his daughters death. What do you think the leader thought about? Sure the same thing any parent would have, "Could this man do anything?" I can see him start to approach Jesus, and his "Friends" filled his ears with doubt. There is nothing you can do, she is dead, even this man can not do anything now, just leave him alone.
I have learned that the time to doubt Jesus' power is never. What part of "nothing impossible" do we not understand? This leader had just seen someones faith, and nothing more, no words, no praying, no money paid, no touching nothing but faith and the mere feeling a piece of cloth, and healing occurred. It wasn't about the cloth, it wasn't about the woman, it weren't about the street it wasn't about the stones in the street, it wasn't about that particular day, it WAS about this woman's faith, and Jesus.. This leader more then likely thought to himself, I can have faith if it means my daughter will be OK> But then the doubt voiced itself through these "friends".
So there we are two choices: Believe that this Man can bring my daughter back to life by my faith and His Power, or believe that I am out of my mind and this is ridiculous. The question we all must face: Faith or Doubt? Faith can move mountains, heal the sick, raise the dead, cause us to do seemingly impossible things like walking on water. Doubt causes us to stop moving forward, sit down, surrender, waste away, fear, tremble, fail. Go ahead bury your daughter, give up, don't take that chance. But why not? What do you have to lose? If you go home and fine your daughter is really dead, then bury her, have her funeral and mourn. But if this Man really does the things He seems to do, your daughter could be alive when you get home, alive, healthy and full of joy.
What did Jesus say in the verse above: ............Do not be afraid, just have faith" So, I believe, you cannot have one and have the other. If you fear, if you doubt, if you question, if you are faced with many times in our lives: if you give up.............you cannot have faith. Remember all those "Science Fiction" movies about time travel? You know "Back to the Future, parts 1-3, The Terminator parts 1-however many they made. Anyway one of the "rules" of time travel was something like : not seeing yourself in another time, because two people cannot occupy the same space at the same time, or something like that. This is true of Faith and Doubt or Fear. You either have one or the other never both. If you say you have faith for something yet you constantly worry about wither it will happen or not, what are you doing? Doubting, in other words not having faith.
Remember that good ole definition of Faith that used to be put in songs, poems....? "Things Hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN"? CSI could never solve a crime if they could not see the evidence. Where does unseen evidence come from? Heaven. God gives us the assurance that what we cannot see is there. The "I can't see it, but I know it is there" feeling. Not Ghosts, not spirits but KNOWLEDGE of the unseen happening. Ever seen someone get healed? I have heard of people actually seeing a missing limb grow back or a twisted body part become straight, but usually we don't see the healing. We may get confirmation through X-Rays or other medical test that there is no longer any problem. This is another example of the "things not seen". I am sorry Gill Grissom, (he's the CSI guy), but you'll never figure this one out, unless you conclude it was because God said it and it happened.
.....Jesus paid no attention to what they said.........sounds like a good idea. We hear the doubts, the "are you nuts", the "why try, you'll never get it done" the "that is impossible" comments all the time. But what does Jesus say? Do not be afraid, just have faith"
Pay no attention to them (the world), but do not be afraid, just have faith. It sounds so easy, yet we make it so hard. Do not be afraid, just have faith.
No matter what life throws at you...."do not be afraid, just have faith"
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