5-9-21 | (IN)significant Encounters | Jeremy Hudson
“When God does something over there,
while we are waiting for Him to move right here…
does it increase our hope or deepen our fear?”
Sometimes when we are waiting for God to show up and show off through a significant encounter in our lives—He shows up somewhere we didn’t expect, and with a different plan. And when He does, it can really stretch our faith beyond any place of comfort. If we aren’t careful, we can allow those moments to give way to our fear that God isn’t big enough, strong enough, or caring enough to meet us in our need. We can be overcome by an anxiety that tells us that our desperation for provision or our need of healing will never be a place where God shows up.
This past weekend we concluded our (In)Significant Encounters sermon series by seeing how “suffering spaces become powerful places to encounter God.” Sometimes it is the very moments of extreme need where we get to experience the power of God moving in our lives like never before. This was the case for two different people in Mark chapter 5. Both were experiencing a desperate need for a miracle. Both of their situations required an excruciating period of waiting for Jesus to show up. And, eventually, both experienced His power do more for them than they had originally needed.
In verse 38, Mark says, “They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue (Jairus), and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.”
In Eastern cultures, especially in ancient times, death was approached differently than it is for us today. People in the community truly came together to mourn and grieve the death. I don’t mean for a time visitation and a service at the funeral home or graveside. People would gather at the home of those who had lost a loved one to sit, cry, even wail with them. This could go on for days. In fact, history tells us that in some cases communities had professional grievers—people that could be hired to come and join the grieving process for people they didn’t even know.
Here’s the point—to have people crying in grief at the home of a deceased person was not an unusual thing. So, it is worth noting that Mark observes that the scene Jesus walks into at Jairus’ house was “a commotion,” with “people weeping and wailing loudly.” I think we can infer that the scene was bigger and louder than what was normal and customary.
I tend to think that people had gathered with an inauthentic show of support for him and his family probably because of Jairus’ elevated social status. Maybe they thought this would give them special access to him and his status. Maybe they thought that if they showed their support in Jairus’ time of need that he might return the favor one day. If nothing else, some were probably there because of they were gawking. They liked the drama, especially because it wasn’t happening to them.
Whatever the reasons, it was a disturbing scene because upon His arrival, Jesus rebuked them saying “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” Instead of getting excited at this seemingly good news, or even becoming curious about why Jesus would say that, Mark tells us that the people laughed at Him.
They laughed at Jesus! Here’s the deal—at this point they knew who Jesus was. Or at least who He claimed to be. Jesus had enough street credit that Jairus went looking for Him. So, when Jesus arrived on the scene and declared that there was still hope in the situation, either excitement or curiosity would have been appropriate. But not laughing. Not doubting.
So, what did Jesus do? He threw them out! (Mark 5:40) He literally put them outside of the situation. Their backstage passes were revoked. Not only did they forfeit their influence in the situation, but they also lost their chance to witness Jesus’ power on display.
Two takeaways from this… especially while we are waiting in these suffering spaces:
1. Any influencing voices telling you God can’t or won’t show up in your time of need—NEED TO GET THROWN OUT!
This is hard, I know. But there are people who will come alongside us in our difficult times, not because they want to help ease our suffering but rather because they want to watch us suffer. They might do it because it makes them feel better about their own situation or distracts them from their own struggles.
When God shows up and starts to move, instead of getting excited for you, they worry that you will get the relief they wanted for themselves. And driven by their own fear or inadequacies they start to tell you that it isn’t going to happen. That you are wrong for believing that God will do something. They may even throw some Bible verses at you.
Here is the simple truth: Anyone around you who is not encouraging you to believe that God can show up any time He wants and do anything in your life to bring glory to Himself—needs to be put outside!
I don’t want to make this seem prescriptive… Jesus could have done what He was going to do in Jairus’ house however He wanted to do it. But can we at least take note that on that day, Jesus didn’t perform the miracle in the house until the naysayers had been put out. Could it be that Jesus hasn’t shown up in our circumstances because He is waiting for us to put some negative voices out first? Throw Them Out!
2. We can’t impact our community… if we have been put outside!
As a church family, we believe that we are called to “Impact our community, and through our community—the world.” It is really hard, no—it’s impossible to impact our community FOR JESUS if we, ourselves, have been put outside.
As Christ-followers we should be the most affirming voices speaking truth and hope into the lives of others;
“Jesus can do it.”
“Jesus has done it before.”
“Jesus will do it again.”
If you find yourself in a suffering space with someone else, and anything but these truths are coming out of your mouth—don’t be surprised if you get put outside. Don’t be shocked if your access is restricted. When your backstage pass gets revoked and you lose your front row seat to see God move… its only because you forgot that God can turn any situation into a (In)Significant Encounter with His power.
So, the bottom-line question is…
In suffering spaces, are we going to position ourselves to witness a powerful encounter, or are we going to be a negative voice standing in its way?