100% Maybe

Ep. 26 - Encountering Jesus: Two Desperate Encounters

• CLC Gulf Breeze • Season 1 • Episode 26

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Associate Pastor, Clint Jernigan joins Jeff on the podcast this week:

In this episode of 100% Maybe, we explore two powerful encounters with Jesus in Mark 5:21-43, a synagogue ruler and a woman who had been cast aside by the religious system of the time.  Associate Pastor, Clint Jernigan joins Jeff on the podcast this week. 

On the surface, these two people couldn’t be more different. Jairus was a respected leader in the community, while the woman had spent twelve years living in isolation and desperation. One stood at the top of society, the other on the margins. Yet both came to the same place: helpless and in need of Jesus.

In this conversation, we wrestle with what these stories reveal about faith, desperation, and the way Jesus sees people fully and completely, regardless of their status. Whether you feel overlooked, worn down, or like you should have it all together, these encounters remind us that hope is found not in who we are, but in who Jesus is.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the 100% maybe podcast. I'm your host, Jeff Stewart, the creative director here at Community Life Church in Goldfreeze, Florida. Each episode, we'll get together to talk about the scripture passage that we'll be studying in our Sunday services. While this started as a resource for our church, we found it applies to all of us who are interested in what it looks like to follow Jesus. Wherever you are on your journey of faith, we hope these conversations will connect you to the source of life we have in Jesus and to the greater story that God is still writing today. Here's our episode. What's going on you guys? Welcome back to another episode of 100% maybe. Glad to have you guys with us today. Pastor Clint. Welcome to 100% maybe. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you so much. Uh, second time being around and just definitely delighted. Is this your second one? Yeah. That's it. It's been only two. I know. I know. That's all right. I think the last couple of times I preached, um, there were it was like end of the year, and then it was like the last minute, like throw kind of like cat experience.

SPEAKER_01

It was, I remember that because it was uh Roman's week. It must it was a transformation or one of those yes. Exactly. I do remember that.

SPEAKER_05

So we had to kind of flip-flop a couple of things.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. That's right. It was wonderful, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

But I'm I'm thrilled to be here, man. I I watch this and I dig it, and I'm I get to work with you a lot, but I'm kind of fanboying in this whole situation. This is pretty please. This is pretty rad.

SPEAKER_01

Hey, I'm still gonna ask you the tough questions. Oh, come on, man, get out of it like that. Flattery won't get you anywhere here. All right, all right. But uh, it's very kind of you. Thank you. I'm also a fan of yours, fan of your work. Uh, I'm glad this week you get the full experience, multiple Bible studies. Yeah, then this experience, how does it help you? Does it help you frame your thoughts a little bit more? Do you find the value in seeing other perspectives?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So what sermon track has brought uh uh an awareness uh and in uh in in uh engagement with over a hundred in the message before the message ever hits the stage? But what it's done for for us as communicators and a lab, it's given us like real world feedback. I was walking the halls with Tammy just a minute ago and got the update from her group last night, and she goes, Oh, here are the high points that we just talked about. It's like, oh my goodness, like this, it's so so good. But I think that's how scripture is supposed to be, you know, held in in community and conversation, living and breathing. And so it's also pushed up the timeline. Whereas an old school youth pastor be like, Saturday night, let's start this thing, right? Let's start working on the message. But now it's like, oh my goodness, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So take me into your first few thoughts about three weeks into encountering Jesus. Yeah. What has been something that you've taken away out of these encounters?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So one, I I love how it's been kind of a myriad of things. Like, like Christ shows up in very different situations where there's no like um, I want to say there's no rhyme or reason, but there's no like mathematical equation where you could expect, oh, Jesus is about to do this thing, or oh, look at this situation. Even if you think uh reading the scriptures maybe for the first time, this this is gonna be the time, and I bet he's gonna do it this way. Almost like you're watching a movie and you're you're um you're expecting how the the antagonist or the protagonist is gonna to make a a deal or do the thing or help someone or save the day, and then he just like throws a left curve and you're like, I did not see that coming at all. So like all of those little ways, like it's just fat like Jesus, it's awesome. Like it's it's fascinating. And then the the um the wide variety of of things. So uh what we talked about was a couple of weeks ago that Jesus uh demonstrates his power over nature, right? And he calms the storm and then he uh over the natural and then uh over the supernatural with with healing of the the the man, the demoniac man, the guy with uh with the uh in in the garrisons. Yeah. And then um and then today continuing to just see how Mark specifically demonstrates Jesus' power over different things. Um and it's it's exactly what is needed in the moment. So it's not like Jesus got like I got I got one card to play, right? And I hope this works. It doesn't. Okay. No, like we see him loving people exactly where they are and and showing uh different uh his his different abilities and and sovereignty or authority over different things in very real ways.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's good. And this will pick up, we're gonna be in Mark V, picking up right where we left off from week one. We kind of jumped around from that, but this is right on the heels of of that encounter with the guy in the uh cemetery. So uh excited to see that. And we have what they consider in Mark's a sandwich story, in that he he puts a lot of these things together. Yeah, and I I I love I'm excited to talk about this with you when you get into seeing two different types of people on opposite ends of the spectrum. There's absolutely an intentionality on why they're put together here.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's a it's a twofer, right? It's a bO, it's a buy one, get one. Like it's and it's intentionally held together. Like, I I don't know if you could possibly separate it or why you'd want to, but yeah, the similarities are incredible while at the same time being wildly different on on almost all accounts.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's cool. Let's jump into it, man. All right. So Mark V. Um, so you mentioned there at the garrison, so he's in the area of Capernaum, goes across the lake, seemingly to have this encounter with this guy, tells him after the healing to go and tell. And so again, an interesting twist, maybe, of what you don't expect if that's what you see as the model is every time he performs something incredible like this, then they get to go. But we'll see at the end. That's not what this happened. It's not how this happened uh at the end. So, what what do we need to know about just I don't know, anything in that area or that the timeline. This is still pretty early on in his ministry.

SPEAKER_05

Yep, still pretty early on. Um, he's done some teaching. He's uh especially in Capernaum, there's been a uh a growing awareness of of Jesus and his abilities. Hey, he can heal people, he's a guy, like he's the guy to go see. And we'll see that that that word's starting to get out in the way that people respond as soon as seeing him.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Um, but yeah, immediately on the heels, and that's a word that Mark uses a lot, right? Immediately and and and right then or just after that, uh, that Mark writes from uh from that perspective. Uh Pastor Scott has talked oftentimes about uh that Mark was probably written to be um shared orally, to be able to tell these stories out loud, um uh given the ability for people to read, uh, that sort of thing, probably was the first one written and written by John Mark, who is a close associate of Peter, and also connected with Paul through uh through some of Paul's travels. So a guy who's right in the middle of all of it. Right. In the middle has first eye uh eyewitness accounts of what Peter experienced while Jesus was here, and eyewitness accounts of what Paul experienced right after the resurrection and when Peter, uh when Paul got on the road and started doing stuff. So like perfectly positioned to write.

SPEAKER_01

Well-connected guy if you're gonna write about this stuff.

SPEAKER_05

So one of the cool things uh I like to do when I'm reading through Mark is remember this is almost like Peter's uh uh gospel account. So he probably got a lot of his information. Uh these stories, the details from Peter. Um, and and so as we as we think through this, we're we're getting the guy who's one of the three. And in the story, Jesus actually pulls Peter and two others out to be part of the three two.

SPEAKER_01

The inner circle.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah, to kind of get the deeper story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. So uh he gets in his boat back across the lake from the guy at the Decapolis and and the cemetery there. We see a large crowd gathered. So to your point, there's a buzz happening. Some of these stories are getting out. Um, that that's come up in discussion about like, well, how did they know? Because you know, there's no internet, there's no phones, but people know stuff, right?

SPEAKER_05

People know. Word travels. It does, it does. So our uh our campus, as we call it in Mahenya, Zimbabwe, uh, we call it the Bush Telegraph. Holy smokes, man. Like they have like cell phones are are certainly around, but you can leave the thing and before you get there, like there's already and the word is spread and they just figure it out and they just get there and do it. I think that's probably a modern day example of of how the word just gets around. Right. Especially if your motivation is knowing that this Jesus guy, you're figuring him out, he's a teacher who's referred to in this story. The teacher has some sort of special healing abilities about him. And so I yeah, I'm gonna find out exactly where that guy is because there's a need that I have in my life for that.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah, there's just that extra incentive, not just information, but information that could possibly help me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So who is gyrus? So this story, the sandwich is gyrus, and we have this woman here, and they're connected in this encounter. So you've got a crowd also, a component of that. So who's gyrus? What's his situation? What is he dealing with?

SPEAKER_05

So Gyrus is one of the synagogue leaders. So in in this community, he would be one of the ones that was like most I say revered, it's a weird way to say it, but most influential, uh, in charge of a lot of the worship ceremonies and services in the synagogue.

SPEAKER_01

Synagogue think like local church of the area. Yeah. You had the temple in Jerusalem, and then you had local um churches, synagogues about that still had worship and faith practices happening. Yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_05

So he's the guy who's kind of in charge of all that. He's one of the leaders of this. So even thinking of all the the league legalistic things that they've been about, um, we're gonna see Jairus take a huge step of faith and do something that's probably not only uncommon, but maybe even frowned upon by many of the religious leaders, like reaching out to to somebody who is outside of that world.

SPEAKER_01

Um Yeah, Jesus, no popular figure in the Jewish religious system of the time. Yeah. We see they're the ones that ultimately steal his fate. Um but yeah, you see this leader interesting dynamic already that he's actually seeking Jesus out.

SPEAKER_05

And not just seeking him out, like we'll read in a few minutes and we'll give it all away, but like he throws himself at Jesus' feet. Like that is a wild public demonstration of who you think this guy might be. Yeah. Or who you uh uh or you're maybe just the um depravity of the situation that you're in. Like you're just you're whatever you're he's this guy's all in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like a last resort almost or or something. So the part of the story as you read it, his daughter is dying. So he's a desperate father, yeah. And maybe has heard a story about this guy who can heal. Right. And um that's that's where he's at. So he seeks Jesus out and asks him to uh come please come lay your hands on her, heal her so she can live. So do you think Jairus is approaching Jesus with a level of faith here? Do you think it's just a last throw everything at the wall, desperation?

SPEAKER_05

Uh yeah. All of it. All of it. Yeah. So there has to be some sort of understanding. So Jesus at this point is taught around the area, he's healed around the area. We think about the paralytics and others. And so there's this growing like buzz, I'm sure, about Jesus. Um, not only we want to crowd around him, but we he is seeking him out surely because this is the guy who can do something about the situation, right? He can heal people. My daughter needs healing. Let's try this out. You're a dad of two daughters, right? Yep. Like if one of them were sick or really needed help, we would do everything we can as dads to chase down not just any sort of thing, but in this dire and the way it's written in the word that's used is like it's a dire situation. It's not like, yeah, I mean, like maybe one day eventually, like she's kind of sick, may not be well. Like it's yeah, like these are final hours kind of situations, right? And so as a father, we would want to do anything we can to find the one, not to chase down all the leads and say, oh, this this thing may help or that thing may help. Like, there's gotta be one thing that we're gonna be focused on, and it's interesting that Gyrus picks Jesus. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Yeah. And I think the heaviness of that situation leads to this whole narrative of the story about what's happening. Um, because when this when the woman gets involved, you see what is a uh rushed, uh frantic, I'm sure, you know, desperate situation. Uh Jesus is never in a rush. Yeah. But the thing that one of the things that stuck out to me, you have these two leaders kind of high up in society would have been well revered. Um the the connection to me is I think of the story about the the centurion uh guy who he has a level of faith in the sense of Jesus, just from where you are, just say just say the word and he'll be healed. Right. And Jesus commends that guy for his faith and says, I've not seen faith like this in Israel. Right. And um but it is interesting. Jesus doesn't argue with the guy, he doesn't knock him for not having that level of faith that the centurion had. Right. But he he just says it went with him. So you don't even get an exchange, really. He just says, All right, here we go. Let's go. This is what's next. Yeah, yeah. Um, okay, so on the way, tell us what happens. Because this is a dire, desperate situation.

SPEAKER_05

What happens? This is this is the ambulance, right? Yeah, like we are going straight to a dire situation. We gotta get there in a hurry. We've seen in other stories where Jesus found out about his buddy, Lazarus is sick, he gotta come right away, stayed another couple of days, and then went, right? And he got there and Lazarus had already passed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Had already been put in the in the grave at that point. Right, right. Uh same thing. There's there's movement, there's an on the way, and even before that, so to kind of speak about how Jesus was wildly popular and sought after, yeah, while he was still by the lake, like Jesus and his disciples didn't even get a chance to like get into town and go check out the the cafe, right? Like it was straight away crowds met him right there, right? Thronged in around him. This uh the gyrus, this desperate father came came to him and said, Hey, this is the situation. Uh I love how Mark mentioned his title, but uh but I bet Jesus saw a dad, right? Right. Saw a father who who desperately cared, was in these situations, like, yeah, let's let's go.

SPEAKER_03

Here we go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And then on the way. Yep. And then while the uh the sirens are flashing and they're moving towards this very, very heavy, difficult situation where where time is of the essence, the interruption, right? The interruption. The interruption. Yes. Uh and and what we find is that Jesus is more than willing to be interrupted, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. A woman in the crowd suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She'd suffered a great deal, she'd spent everything she had, she'd gotten no better. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. Her measure of faith was if I can just touch his robe, maybe just touch him, I will be healed. Yep.

SPEAKER_04

Isn't that wild?

SPEAKER_01

That's a level of faith right there. Or again, desperation. Or desperation. Or both.

SPEAKER_05

It has to be both. So you want to talk about the lady for a minute?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, let's talk about her. So I th Okay uh so I got a question from uh let's see, this was sent in from Scott V. Oh, oh so I don't know who that can be. Question Ask Clint about Leviticus 15. Yeah and please explain that to us. All right.

SPEAKER_05

I listen, if you want some really fascinating reading to understand uh how how God was providing ways for people to find humanity again um after after uh being in in Egypt, check out Leviticus. Okay, right? Yes. So what what he's trying to set up is um ways for people to be included, right? So many times I think we look at that they're all exclusions. It it's it's uh the heart intent behind it is is how God is providing ways for for people to be um included, to be not not always ostracized and kicked out in in this particular circumstance. So um in Leviticus, if a woman was on that sort of cycle, then she was deemed unclean for that time. Yeah, she had to be kind of like set apart and outside because of the situation she was in. So that's the understanding, and that's what the the Israelites have held on to for all this time. And so now here you have a woman who's been having this sort of hemorrhaging for 12 years, with no other law that allows for like a way to get past that or a way to be reintroduced to the city.

SPEAKER_01

Caveat if it's a a disease or a sickness. Right. It's just it is what it is. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

If X, then Y, right? If you if you have this, then this is how you treat it, this is how you do it. Um while the law can't hold all that heart, Jesus certainly can, right? Yeah. And so uh this this woman would not have been included at all in in the community, in the cultural um things, according to Levitical laws, not even allowed to be a part of the synagogue and and be able to worship and would be separated not only from her own community, but from from God in as far as synagogue type worship.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Faith practices, all the things, community ostracized, set apart, put away. Get the sense now she's destitute, she's spent all she had to try to get better. Right. And no better, getting worse. So it yeah, it goes beyond. It's a true, it's true suffering this woman has experienced.

SPEAKER_05

And it's alone. And it's hey, get yourself better, and then when you're better, then you can come back into the rest of us. Yeah, then you can worship God. And and under her own strength, she did what probably a lot of people even now would do. You you go, you seek medical attention, and she exhausted everything she has. So now she's broke, she's probably destitute, she is without friends or family or any sort of one of the guys brought up today in uh in the men's Bible study, like no one had hugged her. Like no one had even like reached out for her, right, in 12 years. So, like the the desperation and the loneliness and the just what that does to you. Yeah, she's experiencing all of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Paints a picture, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So so now we find her in the middle of a crowd, right, where she's not supposed to be at all. Right. This was this would have been a bold choice by her. Absolutely, absolutely. Where where gyres has now run up, threw himself down at Jesus' feet and said, uh, come on, like, let's go. This is a dire situation. This lady, in a very similar fashion, different affliction for sure, right, has come to Jesus. I don't know if she's like cloaked up and trying to be hidden, or if she's just like, listen, I don't these people, they already know what they think about me anyway. So I've just got to break through to the one guy who I think can have have have uh hope for my life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Interesting to me, you don't we don't know even what she knew about Jesus, maybe even much like Gyrus. It could have been just, I've heard about this guy and I'm gonna take a shot here. Yeah. So there's a sense, I think, where we feel like, man, I gotta know a bunch of stuff. I really gotta read all this, which I you should. I mean, I'm not discouraging reading scripture. I think you absolutely should. But I think that level of like, I have to know or figure all this out, I think you see in this moment she it was the object of her faith. It was not how much she knew about it. Yeah. That that just stuck out to me as like um even a lesson that continues on today is like our faith in the right thing versus what we understand even about it.

SPEAKER_05

Even like the question, like, could this be the one? Could this be the one who can save me, who can who can heal me, who could like bring me back to restoration, even if you just have that kind of faith to step in, it's like what what if? So a lot of biblical scholars will point towards that prophecy in Micah. Okay, that the uh the the Messiah will come with healing in his wings, and we can get into the Hebrew and the Greek, like all the languages about how the word for wings is the same word for one of the edge of the corners of the rabbi. Yeah, the hem of the cloak, yeah. Yep. And so 100% maybe, right? That's what we do here. Uh maybe this lady believes that Jesus is the Messiah. She's she may be just willing to give it a shot. Maybe try it. Maybe her heart is at the point where she's like, This is the guy. If I can only touch the hem of his cloak, the the wings that the Messiah comes in the healing. If I touch his cloak, then I will be healed, like healing in his wings. Yeah, let's let's do that. Yeah, let's try that, let's jump in.

SPEAKER_01

I do you ever feel like biblical scholars have too much time on their hands? You know, but they do because maybe this lady's just like heard about this guy. Yeah, I believe this is it. Yeah. Like to then go to the level well, she knew the prophecy of Mike. You know what I'm saying? Which is interesting. And again, not discounting it, but I love this about these encounters is you see and feel the humanity of it. Yeah, likely we don't know anything about what they really understood about you. See simple.

SPEAKER_04

Childlike faith. Yeah. And it's awesome.

SPEAKER_05

I love that you use the word childlike. Because that's that's what it is. And in a in a couple of lines, Jesus is gonna say, daughter.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Right? Like that sort of familial love connection, like that's sort of like you are brought back into the family. I see you as a child, as one who's just been broken and like just left out by by the ones who are probably supposed to love you and and and be there for you. Like I see you, daughter, right?

SPEAKER_01

Ah yeah, that restoration. So we can I we won't give everything away, but obviously he she does touch him and he stops. And I love I love the interaction with the disciples and Jesus because this is the stuff you wouldn't make up. Yep. Because if this is like just this holiness and this reverent book, which it is, but Jesus wants to stop. She he wants to publicly restore this woman, and as an example to everybody else, there's a huge crowd. Yeah, Jesus says, Who was it? The disciples are like, Oh yes, Lord, let us find they're like, dude, there's a million people here. Right. Why would you even ask us that? Joking right now, yeah. That that type of humanity, I just I love that humor in that. But he he obviously knows who it is and is maybe proving a bigger point here.

SPEAKER_05

Absolutely. Yeah. So one of the thoughts I had when we were discussing it in the in the Bible study this morning was I wonder if this was almost, almost, like a uh God in the Garden of Eden kind of thing. Like, where are you? He he knew where they were. Yeah, he knew right where they were, but it was like a attitude to your heart and a way for you to respond, like a prompting to then for us to be able to say, like, uh, we're we're over here, we're hiding from you because we yeah. This this lady's also hiding. Who touched me? Where are you, right? Like, who touched me? The disciples are like, literally, what? Yeah. Uh, who who hasn't? Give me a shorter list, right?

SPEAKER_01

About everybody over there.

SPEAKER_05

Everybody's everybody's looking for healing, everybody wants to be with you, everybody wants to see they saw uh say they saw you. Probably no autographs, right? At that point, but like that that sort of like excitement and energy about Jesus being there. What are you talking about? Yeah, and it's yeah, it's so real because it's so real, it's so human.

SPEAKER_01

I I dig it. Is there something too, even about the crowd? Like even thinking through that, there's there's many that touched him. He's walking through a big crowd. Yeah, she's the only one that re that receives this healing. Yeah. Why do you think it was important for him to stop, acknowledge her? You you already touched on that, just what she's frightened as we see. So maybe it's like, uh oh, busted. Yeah, like she got called out, not sure what's about to happen next. Right. Why do you think it was important for Jesus to address her and the crowd?

SPEAKER_05

So so given what we read about in Leviticus, right? Given not just the need for her physical healing, but what that has done to her, and she's she's that lady, right, in society. She's that one who has been identified by her affliction, and you don't go near her and you don't talk to her, like all those things, right? So what we'll read about in in a few minutes is there's there's uh the opposite side where Jesus is like, don't go tell anybody, right, about this. But in this, yeah, he stops the whole thing. He he makes it's not a spectacle. He doesn't put this woman on on uh on blast or anything. He just he he looks at her, he's like, Hey, like I you need to know that you didn't pick my pocket, right? You didn't steal something from me, right? This was something, this was a gift, and your gift came from from from this. And and the other side of that with the Levitical stuff is there has to be some sort of not only healing, but a true like restoration inside of her culture, inside of her community, because she's still gotta live, right? Right alongside these people. Yeah. So for this miracle to take place, for people to like be there and see this um this Jesus guy look at her and and and love her and call her daughter and include her back in, like the sort of like love and understanding and restoration that he was demonstrating, like this is how we do, right? This is how we love, this is how this I see you, I hope everybody else here sees her. Like it's just it's not only healing, but it's a restoration to now she can live her life as a as a normal member of the community, but as right as someone who's known. Restored, yeah. Yeah, beautiful.

SPEAKER_04

That's that guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so Gyrus is still here. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's ready to go. He's like, All right, I got him to come. Right. Now this is unfolding. What is gyrus thinking here?

SPEAKER_05

Oh, I what uh what would I be thinking? I don't know what gyrus is thinking. So it maybe gyrus is like the nicest guy in the world. I don't know. And he's just like, hey, uh uh, I'm looking at my sundial on my wrist. Remember, yeah. We gotta we could just keep on going. I know you uh this is a cool situation, all but my daughter is dying. Yeah, I mean, it's cool that you healed this lady. So I would imagine. I'm not a I'm not on the biblical scholar level yet. You know, but there's gotta be some sort of like there was uh a hurried sense about the situation, tone of my voice. I explained it to you, Jesus. Why aren't you moving at the speed in which I think you should move? And kind of like stiff arm everybody else, and like let's just plow through here and get to the one thing that matters most to me, right? The the biggest fire in my life right now, I need you to come put out. And and what we see is that he's he's got time for all of it.

SPEAKER_01

Never in a rush. Yeah. Does that is do you think that's supposed to speak to us today in the sense of our timing versus God's timing?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would imagine that life has always been hurried, or we have a tendency as humans to live past our probably healthy levels for for some people in some cultures. Um I bet now that may be even more true, perhaps. Yeah. Just with the the ability to connect and and all those things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think the the immediacy in which we now expect everything to happen. Yeah. You know, it's like, oh, I gotta wait tomorrow for my package to come. Right. Exactly. And now it's pretty soon we'll have drones dropping off packages, you know, within an hour. I mean, that's where it's headed. It does not come back the other way. Absolutely. So yeah, does that is there a wrestle then with like what we have expectations in the world? But our faith life, our spiritual life, our things we're trusting in God for, he's not beholden to our timelines.

SPEAKER_05

Even the examples that that Christ gives, right? Faith like a mustard seed. That that's gotta grow. And that doesn't happen overnight, right? Like those things take time. And so that's the hardest thing sometimes for us to sit on our hands and wait and be like, I I'm trying everything I can do, and we're we're we're chasing down everything we could possibly handle. And that that's probably the way it should be. Like, we should probably handle that and at the same time realize that God may not be moving on our time, and we should probably make sure we're moving on his time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um and having that that trust there.

SPEAKER_01

The great philosopher Tom Petty once said, you know, waiting's the hardest part.

SPEAKER_05

That's so true. I didn't realize he was a philosopher.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think so. Songwriters, they're our best philosophers, I think. All right, so we get to Gyrus's house. Uh I love this. So this this exchange with Gyrus. Um, so messengers come while he's with the woman, they tell him, Hey, don't even bother now, she's dead. Yeah, your daughter's gone. Yeah. And Jesus turns to Gyrus now. So he's just he's received the news his daughter is dead. And Jesus tells him, What? Don't be afraid, just have faith.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Uh another great rock anthem, don't stop believing. Right. Don't stop believing. Hey, that's right. I got this too, right? Yeah. So, um, okay, there's a few things interesting, even this passage. Okay. I don't want to give it all away. Um, the the messengers say don't bother the teacher anymore. So their understanding of who this Jesus guy is is a teacher. Teachers can't handle this sort of situation, right? What you what you needed was someone who can heal, but the current situation dictates that this guy that you're bringing to your house, he's a teacher, and he can't do anything. Like, who who could? Yeah. You've never heard of anybody. Like, you could be able to do that. Yeah. So why bother? I wonder how often times in my life it's like, I mean, this is a hopeless situation. Like, why why bother? Why why yeah was that Eeyore? Did I just manifest Eeyore just now? Why bother, right? So so then then Jesus overhears this this conversation and his only response is Yeah. Keep keep on believing. So yeah, keep walking.

SPEAKER_01

Fear and faith. Yes. Are these things exclusive? Are they oftentimes a package deal? Is faith the absence of fear? What is how do these two coexist?

SPEAKER_05

Oh, that's a great question. Do you want to tackle that one first? No, I asked you. Oh, fair enough. So the it seems oftentimes, I mean, how many times in scripture do we read, uh, don't be afraid? Yeah. Just just have courage, have courage. Like, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Like, God knows that we are prone, right? In the absence of our understanding, or when we find ourselves the limits of our abilities, that it's easy for us to just jump straight into fear. I can't do anything else about this situation. This situation, you know, is lost. It's hope. Like, there, there are those sort of like hands up. I I don't know what to do. And so we could go one of two ways. We could jump straight into fear, which is human, yeah. Right? Yeah. Or we can jump straight into faith. And hopefully our faith has been leading us all along, even in our own workings and doings. But uh, but in those moments, Jesus is okay, now it's getting real. She was sick, but now now let's let's not be afraid. Let's just believe. Believe that God's still working, right? That there's still there's still something uh moving in that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's beautiful. Believe God's still working. Um because we don't we don't know the end result. He didn't know the end result of this time. Yeah. And I think, you know, there's there's a level of of sensitivity I know we take into this passage because we've been around, maybe we've been a part of it, you know, of not receiving what ends up happening for gyrus. You don't get that miracle moment that you maybe you've been praying for. Right. Um, so I think yeah, there's a level of of understanding what Jesus is doing goes beyond even us here. Um, that greater story that we talk about often. It has to be held, I think, central to understanding all of this.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So what Jairus doesn't know, no. Jesus knows the other side and knows how this is all gonna work out and play out and what he what he's capable of doing. So it's almost like it's certainly not patronizing. Jesus isn't like, just believe. Like, I got this. No, it's it's not that, it's a truly love. Like, this is a moment, gyrus, for you specifically in this story to to have faith, to continue to believe, and and take take that next step. We're gonna, we're gonna uh we're gonna walk alongside you in this.

SPEAKER_01

So ultimately, he shows up, goes inside, asks him. There's weeping. Yep. Um, he says, Well, she's not dead, she's only asleep. She's sleeping. Does that give you Lazarus vibes? It does totally.

SPEAKER_05

And even Steven from uh from Acts, right? They threw stones at him and he fell uh asleep. Yeah. Not asleep, right? Right. But that that's a technique that the early writers would use to to describe s death is is that sort of knowing death for a believer, death, yeah, in that sense.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So it's death. Yeah. Even uh, even people in the first century knew when someone was dead. Sure. Yeah, let's let's not belittle them and say, like, oh, maybe they didn't know he she was actually dead. Like, come on, you know when someone's not alive.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Yeah, right. Um, so the crowd laughs and uh he made them all leave. Yeah. So it's biblical just to say, hey, just put them out. Can you get out?

SPEAKER_05

Can you get out? He goes into someone else's house and kicks all of their people out. Yeah. That's true.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't think about it.

SPEAKER_05

The word that uh that Mark uses here is uh it's like he backed him out. There was like a all right, yeah, and there's like almost I'm sure he wasn't shoving, right? Right, but he was like backing them out of the house, and they're just going like, oh, okay, I guess we're I guess we're leaving. Like I love that picture where Jesus, yep, you gotta go, you gotta go.

SPEAKER_01

And uh Peter wants us to know he was there. He was there. He was he was one of the three there. One of the three. Yep. He got picked.

SPEAKER_05

And it's it's the same three. So Peter, James, and John, the same three that we see Jesus brings with him on Mount of Uh Transfiguration uh and in the garden, right, in of Gethsemane. Yep. So so these three guys. They saw a lot. They saw a lot. Yeah, yeah. I think you said earlier the inner circle, right?

SPEAKER_01

Might be the inner circle. So pretty good. Um yeah, so he heals her, tells her to get up. Um, and the girl, how old was she, Clint? You know, she was 12. 12. Yeah. Where have I heard that number before? How long had that woman been suffering?

SPEAKER_05

You know, for 12 years. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

Right? Do you think there's a connection there?

SPEAKER_05

Do you think that this woman who had been suffering for 12 years, whom Jesus calls daughter, and the daughter who had been who is 12 years old and also needed Jesus to step into her situation? They could be they could be similar. Yeah. Maybe we should teach these stories together.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Um, you can get you can go way down that rabbit hole of of number of numbers there, 12, but significant number, 12 tribes, yep. Uh, 12 disciples, right? Jesus and so um you have this woman who's basically dying for 12 years, and this girl who's lived for 12 years who dies, yeah, and there's restoration for both. And the daughter thread is so awesome through that.

SPEAKER_05

Right. Even think of like the way that Jesus has gone about the last few stories, right? So he's spoken to the waves, he's uh spoken to the um to the supernatural, and he's uh the the woman touched him, so there's a physical touch there right on Jesus' clothes, and now Jesus just does both, right? He holds her hand and he speaks to her. And this isn't a spell, right? There's nothing up like it's a it's a command.

SPEAKER_04

Hey, come on, get up, it's time for you to get up. And then this could be a throwaway that you miss. He says, Hey, give her something to eat, right?

SPEAKER_01

Why would he say that?

SPEAKER_05

A hundred percent maybe? Yeah. Okay, so uh one of the guys uh earlier to we wildly speculate on things. Well, a wild speculation. Okay, maybe that um when when Jesus uh was resurrected and he showed up to the disciples in the house in the home, and it was almost like for proof. Hey, give me some of that fish, I'm gonna eat it right here in front of you. Yeah, and so then that way no one can say that there's this apparition or the spirit kind of floating around because I'm a man, I gotta eat, right? Could be that he wanted to prove or show like this isn't this is this is what you think it is. Yeah. This girl is now alive. People eat. Yeah. People that are alive have to eat. Yeah, yeah. It could be that. I don't know. I'm just making stuff up now. Can I make stuff up?

SPEAKER_01

You've come to the right place to do that, my friend.

SPEAKER_05

So it could be, uh who knows? Maybe she had been sick for many, several days and hadn't been able to eat, and so in her body she's hungry? Yeah. Okay, yeah, maybe maybe it's that. But the fact is that live people eat, right? Living people eat, and maybe Jesus was just trying to prove and show, hey, this this girl is fully, fully alive. She's walking around, yeah. Right? She's walking around and she's she's about to get something to eat.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I like that. I thought I think it's definitely speaks to the physical of of of that. And those small details too are so interesting.

SPEAKER_05

And that's not typically something I would attribute to Mark's writing. It seems like he is just like fly through all this stuff and just like hit the high points. And the other two synoptic gospels, uh, Matthew and Luke, they're gonna be the ones filling in all the de like, they're reading Mark's stuff and then fill in the details. Mark gives us the most information on on um on this story. All of those little details, the other two, they they may not include.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. But significant story in all in the three of the four gospel accounts. So um one probably we should pay attention to. Um, so for you going into Sunday, I know you're holding a lot. I mean, there's a lot of scripture. There's a really beautiful encounter. There's different components. You have a religious leader, you've got uh kicked out of society, outcast, you've got a crowd, you've got disciples watching, you've got another crowd at Gyrus's house who's laughing at you know the ridiculousness of this claim of this Jesus. Um, what do you how do you hold all that? Who is this for this week? Like, it's certainly about faith. It's certainly an encounter um with life change, but what what do we hold on to with it today?

SPEAKER_05

One of the many, many things I love about this Jesus fellow is that he is for everybody. So you mentioned the how wildly different, even in one story, in one walking trip to somebody's house, he encounters kind of the bookends of the whole culture. The the leader, the one who's like revered in his in his community, and the one who's left out. And Jesus is for all of it. And he's so specific um in knowing exactly what they need and and holds their hands and walks them right through some of the challenges uh that they're facing, and not in in like this blanket statements kind of thing, but like in a real and a personal way. In the middle of a crowd, he sees the one that no one wanted there and recognizes her and loves her and restores her. I I think I think when we when we read scripture like this, we have to realize that Jesus, while he taught the five thousand, right, and he taught the multitudes, crowds followed him everywhere, there was like this real and personal like he didn't miss the daughter, right? On the way to the daughter. Like there's this there's this moment where where Jesus sees her and loves her, and he's not at all mad at her. And Jeff, there's in that culture, Jesus does two things that would have made him wildly unclean. He was touched by a woman who had that affliction, they both would have then had to sit on the sidelines until nightfall, until all that, you know, the ritual cleansing and that kind of stuff. And then he reaches out and touches a little dead girl's hand, yeah, which would have made him unclean. What we find is that Jesus isn't made unclean by our mess, that instead he makes us clean through his through his love and our our uh our our trust and our our faith. Yeah, it doesn't it's not it's not a blanket statement, it doesn't mean everybody, but in these two circumstances there is a there is a um understanding of what should have happened with him being becoming unclean, and then there's a reality of what happened when Jesus just turns that around and brings life and restoration and and cleanliness back to these people.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Oh so good, dude. Ain't he cool?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, love this Jesus guy.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, thanks, man. Yeah, I am excited, excited for you, excited for this week. Um, real encounters with real people that we get to hold today. And you might relate to Gyrus, you might relate to this woman, you might relate to the crowd, trying to just be there and figure out what's going on. Yeah, and that is, I think, what she said so beautifully. Jesus sees every one of them and cares for each one of us. And uh yeah, I think that's what's awesome about you know what 15, 20 verses here you see every walk of life. And I know um for those of you joining us Sunday, I'm excited for you wherever you're at, and something we've been saying, Jesus meets you right where you are. Yeah. Awesome, man.

SPEAKER_05

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Of course. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, don't miss it. Week four encounters Jesus see all Sunday.