By: Pat Quinn
In our perilous time of pandemic, disruption, and death, Jesus shines forth with hope-filled and glorious love and power. As counselors today, we share the same circumstantial fears, frustrations, and isolation as those we counsel, and we need the same Jesus we commend to them. Mark 5:21-43 records two stories of Jesus dealing with seemingly impossible situations: the healing of the woman with an incurable discharge of blood and the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Both of these accounts point to a Savior who is utterly reliable and unfailingly strong in the most trying of circumstances. These two stories provide ten solid reasons to love and trust Jesus Christ in the hardest situations.
Ten Reasons to Love and Trust Jesus
1. Jesus is compassionately responsive to urgent requests for help.
Jairus, a ruler of a local synagogue, pleads with Jesus to come and heal his dying daughter. Mark records simply, “And he went with him” (Mark 5:24). No hesitation; no request for information. Jesus responds immediately. He could have healed her right away from a distance and said, “Go home; your daughter will live.” By agreeing to go with Jairus to his house, there would be a delay and then a costly interruption and, therefore, an extended time for Jairus to have to wait anxiously. This reminds us that Jesus always hears and responds to our cries for help, but the timing and method of His help are in His sovereign hands. Delays and frustrating interruptions may come but cannot ultimately hinder His work.
2. Jesus is absolutely undaunted by “impossible” situations.
There are three increasingly difficult situations Jesus deals with here. First, a daughter at the point of death—urgent. Second, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years who had spent all her money and had only gotten worse—desperate. Third, during the delay dealing with the woman, the daughter dies—beyond all help. However, Jesus is unfazed by the escalating problems. Sickness, incurable disease, and even death do not trouble Him. As He told His disciples later, “All things are possible for God” (Mark 10:27).
3. Jesus calls needy sinners to engage with Him face-to-face.
As Jesus follows Jairus, the woman with the discharge of blood touches His garment and is immediately healed. Jesus perceives that power had gone out from Him and asks, “Who touched my garment” (Mark 5:30)? The terrified woman comes forward and tells Him what she did, probably expecting to be rebuked for touching Jesus when she was unclean. However, Jesus unexpectedly reassures her. Why did He call her out of hiding? I believe it is because Jesus doesn’t merely want to help people; He wants to make disciples. This is important in our counseling troubled people. The ultimate goal of our counseling is not just to help people work through their problems, even with Jesus’ help. The goal is that they would see His glory, love Him, and follow Him in committed discipleship.
4. Jesus responds powerfully to the “touch of faith.”
Verses 27-29 says, “She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.’ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body she was healed of her disease.” She heard about Jesus, she sought Him out, and she “touched” Him in faith. This describes well what we attempt to do in biblical counseling: point people to the real Jesus, showing through scripturally faithful and creative means who Jesus is, what He has accomplished, and what He promises to do. Then we seek to lead them sensitively to actually touch Him in faith-filled prayer. Every sincere cry for help, however feeble, is touching Jesus. And it always results in a response from Him. Like Jairus, it may encounter delays or unexpected hindrances. The answer might not be exactly how and when we pictured it, but Jesus promises that if we ask, it will be given (Matt. 7:7-11).
5. Jesus confirms and commends genuine faith.
I love how Jesus responds to the woman’s faith. As she comes “in fear and trembling,” anticipating Jesus’ displeasure at her presumption, He says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34). Marvel at His gifts of grace: He tenderly calls her “daughter;” He commends her faith in front of a crowd that would earlier have looked down on her, thus restoring her to community; He offers her the peace that has eluded her for so long; He confirms her healing and the new life she has been given. This is the Jesus we connect our counselees to—the gentle Healer who “took our illnesses and bore our diseases” (Matt. 8:17) on the cross and who longs to give new life to those who reach out to Him in faith.
6. Jesus confronts fear and despair with, “Do not fear; only believe.”
I’m so thankful that the Bible is utterly realistic. While the story of Jesus (and all who are united to Him by faith) ends with the happiest of all happily ever afters, there are surprising setbacks and discouraging plot twists along the way. Jairus, who has been anxiously waiting for Jesus to finish dealing with the woman, is now confronted with, “Your daughter is dead: Why trouble the teacher any further?” (Mark 5:35). This is what life looks and feels like sometimes: things are desperate, we cry out to God, and then they get worse. They seem to go from difficult to desperate to improbable to impossible. How striking that Jesus speaks what sounds like a crazy command to Jairus: “Do not fear; only believe” (Mark 5:36). How can Jesus say this? How can we believe in the face of death itself? Jesus knows what we often forget or simply struggle to believe: He is the Son of God, the resurrection and life (John 11:25), the all-sufficient Creator and Redeemer. He has the power to raise the dead! How important for us to meditate long and hard on the character and power of Christ so we can commend Him to hopeless counselees.
7. Jesus radically reinterprets hopeless situations.
Death is final. It’s the end of life and the end of hope. It’s the final loss of everything. So how does Jesus address death? What is His interpretation? Again, His reply is shocking but shockingly hopeful: “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping” (Mark 5:39). Why does Jesus say this? If the child had been hooked up to a heart monitor, it would have flatlined. He says this because to Him, death is merely sleep, and He can wake her by calling gently to her and telling her to get up. That’s what it means to be the Son of God. You see everything differently because you have all power and authority in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18). Biblical counselors have the privilege of connecting our counselees’ stories to Jesus’ story so we can help them reinterpret their circumstances in a realistic yet hopeful way. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our lives are ultimately comedies, not tragedies, and this story helps us interpret them that way.
8. Jesus tenderly raises little ones to new life.
“Talitha cumi…Little girl I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41). One of our granddaughters is named Talitha. When her mom was pregnant with her, there was a time when they thought they had lost her. Thankfully, that didn’t turn out to be the case. One of the reasons they named her Talitha was because they felt like they had received her back when they thought they had lost her. Needless to say, the name Talitha and this story are precious to me. I am drawn again to the power and tenderness of Jesus. He radiates compassion for this family, love for this little girl, the power to raise the dead, and a burning desire for all to see Him as He is and trust Him with what is most precious to us.
9. Jesus cares about our most practical earthly needs.
Most of this story soars in the stratosphere of Jesus’ transcendent power over sickness and death. We are breathing the air of heaven and walking on holy ground. I smile, therefore, when at the end of this amazing story, Jesus tells the parents to “give her something to eat” (Mark 5:43). From the heights of heaven to the mundane needs of the earth. “She looks a little pale. Why don’t you make her some lunch.” He responds to our desperate cries for supernatural power as well as our ordinary needs for food and drink. This is an important reminder to me as I counsel. I am wired more to attend to spiritual needs. I need to remember and remind my counselees that Jesus cares just as much for our practical needs. What a Savior!
10. Jesus is utterly amazing in every way.
This story is an eloquent testimony to the beauty and greatness of Jesus. It impresses upon us that the only reasonable response to Him is to be “overcome with amazement” (Mark 5:42). The goal of our counseling can be nothing less than grateful worship and joyful service to our Redeemer and King.
Ten reasons to love and trust Jesus: let us commit ourselves to learning, living, and lavishing them on those entrusted to our care.
Questions for Reflection
What do you see about Jesus in these two stories that moves you to love and wonder?
Think of someone you’re counseling who is facing desperate circumstances. Which of the ten reasons does this person especially need to see and take to heart?
How can you help him/her to see Jesus more clearly, love Him more genuinely, and trust Him more fully?
Posted at: https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2020/05/11/ten-reasons-to-love-and-trust-jesus/