An Age of Unbelief: A Meditation on Mark 5 for the Season of Pentecost

While he yet spake, there came from

 the ruler of the synagogue's house

 certain which said,

Thy daughter is dead:

why troublest thou the Master any further?

As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken,

he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue,

Be not afraid, only believe.

 

The words of Mark’s fifth chapter can seem a long way distant to us.  It opens with the story of a demoniac who was liberated by Jesus, and his town so terrified by this redemptive power that they begged Jesus to leave.  After coming back to another town, a throng enveloped him, but one woman who had been bleeding for years, was suddenly healed by her faith and the mere touch of Jesus’ garments.  The chapter ends with the story of Jairus, a ruler in the synagogue, who’s sick young daughter died before Jesus brought her back to life.  An exorcism of a man possessed by a Legion of demons, a healing of a chronic disease no doctor could cure, and the resurrection of a 12 year old girl everyone knew to be dead—three stories which would invite incredulity and derision in almost any modern venue of western civilization.

 

Perhaps there’s some rationale for such incredulity.  Anyone’s who’s lived long enough, has been acquainted with a huckster or con artist.  They pepper the airwaves and the internet with infomercials and clickbait, claiming to offer the miraculous for a price: cures for cancer or obesity, mantras for luck or success, technologies to stave off death or maybe even live forever.  Sometimes they wear flashy clothes, while others might wear religious garments, and still others wear lab coats; sometimes they adorn their names with credentials earned, won, or fabricated; sometimes they present themselves with grandiose vocabulary, and other times with somber sincerity.  Regardless of the trappings of such people, the ruse remains the same—an appeal for misplaced trust, exchanging naivete for advantage, usually resulting in the fleecing of the target with the enriching of the con.  Such liars and frauds are common place, and we see them everywhere from bars and street corners, to universities and laboratories and board rooms and halls of government.  If the old maxim is true that a fool and their money is soon parted, it is equally true that there are plenty of clever, malicious people out there who are happy to facilitate the exchange.

 

Yet Jesus is different.  He didn’t sell liberation from demonic powers, or healing from chronic illness, or even resurrection from the dead.  He didn’t fleece anyone, and every promise He made, He kept.  Unlike the titans of industry and politics, from Silicon Valley to the District of Columbia, who always seem to over promise, under deliver, and make fortunes in the traffic of human souls, Jesus came to give life and to give it abundantly.  Jesus had no ulterior motives to fund a vacation home in the Hamptons, or to cross the Rubicon with a conquering army.  He wasn’t building an economic or political empire, nor was He making a living off the misery of afflicted people.  Rather, Jesus gave His own life as a ransom for the world, calling everyone to lift their eyes to a higher truth that would set them free from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil.  And in case anyone thought He was promising what He couldn’t deliver, He showed His divine power by casting out demons, healing the sick, and raising the dead—not just once, but over and over again.  Crowds were thronging Jesus because they both heard and saw what He said and did, just as the hucksters and con artists in positions of leadership saw and heard.  Jesus was the real deal, a light in the darkness of wicked men, calling everyone to faith and repentance that they might live forever.  Some would repent, believe, and live, while others might ignore Him out of apathy, and still others would persecute Him even unto a tortuous death for His audacity in revealing their manipulative fraud.

 

We ought not be surprised that the charlatans of our age push so hard for disbelief in Jesus.  His Word continues to enlighten people in their darkness, and draw them away from the enslaving machinations of miscreant cons.  In fact, the smarter ones who wield power over others through deception and deceit know that their game is undone when the light of truth hits their schemes, and like every dark soul who loves the darkness because their deeds are evil, their reaction to Jesus is everything from derision and insult to injury and murder.  Having failed to keep Jesus in the grave some 2000 years ago, they now turn their ire upon His Church, where His lavish gifts continue to be poured out day by day.  In some places they scoff, in others they legislate, and in still others they deride, form mobs, and brutalize those who shine the light of Jesus’ Living and Eternal Word into the darkest corners of every human heart.  Still the masters of dark arts plot to suppress the Light which undoes them, and still the Light of Christ comes to illumine the whole world with grace won through His Cross.

 

And so, while the words of Mark’s Gospel may seem far from the modern world, they are near and present among Jesus’ people.  Here in the communion of the saints, one holy Church connected across all time and place by grace through faith in Jesus, people are liberated from demonic powers, healed of diseases in both body and soul, and sealed with the promise of resurrection from the dead.  Every day the power of Jesus’ Word brings new life to dead sinners, opening blinded eyes to eternal realities, and opening deaf ears to the glorious symphony of the Everlasting Gospel.  Every day, Jesus speaks His consoling Word to suffering souls, just as He did to Jairus on the dusty roads of ancient Israel: do not fear—only believe.  And today, as it has been from the beginning of the world, and shall be until its end, those who set their fears aside to trust in Jesus find out that He really is who He said He is, has really done everything He said He would do, and has proved Himself faithful to accomplish every promise He has made to mankind.  In our age of unbelief, propped up by the Machiavellians to preserve a dark covering for their dark deeds and ambitions, the Word of Jesus still brings the light of liberty, healing, and life.  Hear Him as He calls to you this day, with a Word which reaches to the darkest depths where sin sick souls lay in anguished servitude to unworthy masters:  little one, I say unto you, arise!  Amen.