No Small Parts - Jairus and the Daughters
October 11, 2020 Sunday Evening Study

There are things in this life that make me feel incredibly entitled. I imagine this is true of most people. For me, I feel entitled usually when I have, in my mind, done something to earn whatever it is I am after. And I don’t necessarily mean just through work - think of this. When I go to the Macon License Office, and I have an appointment, invariably I am still going to sit and wait at least 45 minutes before they see me - sometimes even longer. I know this because in obtaining my commercial license to drive a bus, I have been going there on a regular basis.

I get into a slow boil of annoyance when I have to wait even though I made an appointment. When my time finally comes, I am going to take my sweet time about it because I waited, and now it’s my turn. I am entitled to whatever I want to get done. So when they tell me I need some obscure document that is not listed as a requirement anywhere and I leave without getting what I need, I feel like the office owes me something.

Entitlement is a big thing in our country. It has the potential to be absolutely catastrophic depending on how we apply it to ourselves. Entitlement isn’t all bad - we are entitled to inalienable rights as citizens, and we are entitled to the wages we earn. Authority figures such as police and fire personnel are entitled to respect - at least until they aren’t. According to the Bible, widows and orphans are entitled to support from the church. Perhaps most importantly, the Bible tells us that as believers and followers of Christ we are entitled to grace and salvation - though entirely unearned.

Where feelings of entitlement go sideways are the places where it is applied outside of accepted boundaries. People of one generation think that other generations are too entitled and don’t know the value of a day’s work. The roots of racism come down to the belief that one race or skin color is entitled to privilege over another, or that others are entitled to nothing. The history of the world shows that those with much behave as if entitled to more than those with little, making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

In any job, entitlement can mean the difference between effective management and tyrannical management. I had to learn the maxim that real respect is not freely given, it is earned. Because I wanted to earn the respect of my employees, I approached management as a player-coach so as to inspire others. That didn’t always work, but for the ones it did work with, I had long and lucrative working relationships with them. But then there were the executives, or in the case of my last job, the Governor himself. It was expected when the governor was here, nobody wasted his time, got in his way, or altered his agenda. His time was limited, he was an important man, so he was entitled to having things his way. We respected this by virtue of his position alone - even when the governor was a man who I personally did not harbor respect for.

Celebrities are known for showing entitlement to get what they want - we have all heard the stories of famous people dropping the line “Don’t you know who I am?” It’s a way of saying that I am more important than the average person. We know this sort of thing happened in Jesus’ time as well - in fact it was an attribute that Pharisees in particular were known for. There were people of privilege, and there were people who were not entitled to the same things. Jesus was accused of associating with people who should not have been entitled to His attention during His ministry - tax collectors, prostitutes, and people otherwise unclean.

Two weeks ago we spoke about the man who was demon possessed in the Gerasene valley. After Jesus cast out the demons, the people were afraid of Him, and asked Him to leave, so he got back in the boat and sailed back to Capernaum where they had come from. At his arrival in Capernaum again, he meets several people in need, and today we are going to discuss a few of them - a man named Jairus and two women we’ll call the Daughters.

Read the passage. Mark 5:21-36

This story finishes without the benefit of knowing Jairus’ reaction to all of this. We know that Jesus continued on, saw the dead girl, and claimed she was only asleep. Even as they laugh at Him, he commands the girl to get up, and she does, to everyone’s astonishment. Jesus leaves, and we hear nothing again about the man or his daughter, or the woman healed in the midst of it all. The story of Jairus is recorded in the Bible in Mark 5:22–41 and Luke 8:41–56.

Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue of Capernaum, so he was a well-known religious leader. He was important, respected, and probably even feared by some. Jairus came to Jesus, pleading with Him to come lay His hands on his only daughter, who was near death. This important man of high station humbled himself before Jesus, falling down at His feet (Luke 8:41). Jairus expressed faith in Jesus’ ability to heal his child, and Jesus began to follow him home.

As Jesus walked with Jairus, they had to press through a large crowd. In the Bible the description is that “the crowds almost crushed him” (Luke 8:42). It is likely that the crowd slowed Jesus’ progress considerably, and this must have been frustrating for Jairus—time was of the essence, since his daughter was at the point of death. In the midst of the crowd, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his robe, saying to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 

As Jesus was speaking to the woman, some people from the house of Jairus arrived and told Jairus that his daughter was dead and there was no need to trouble Jesus anymore (Mark 5:35). Jesus overheard the news and gave Jairus two commands and a promise: “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

There is a parallel here that is easy to miss. It is interesting to note that the daughter of Jairus was twelve years old—the same number of years as the woman in the crowd had suffered from her infirmity. Also, Jesus calls the woman He healed “Daughter” (Luke 8:48)—the only time He calls an individual that—amid the many references to Jairus’ daughter in the same narrative. The story of Jairus in the Bible is really a miracle within a miracle, with two “daughters” and two stretches of a dozen years.

Consider the man Jairus in this whole situation. When Jesus stopped on His way to Jairus’ house to speak to the woman in the crowd, He allowed time to pass. Jesus was not worried about Jairus’ daughter dying. He knew all along that He would heal her, even if that meant raising her from the dead. In a beautiful act of mercy, Jesus stops to care for the woman in the crowd who had reached out to Him in faith. 

Jairus undoubtedly felt the urgency of his situation, and he probably chafed at what he saw as a delay. His daughter was lying at death’s door, and Jesus was taking His time. Jairus was an important man - a pious and religious man, and this woman was unclean. Jairus was entitled to Jesus’ attention without an unclean woman’s interruption. But Jairus learned that God’s timing and purpose are not like ours. Sometimes He requires patience from us, sometimes He waits longer than we think is rational, and sometimes He allows temporary loss in order to show us the eternal abundance of His blessing.

Jairus was a leader in the synagogue, and the bleeding woman in the crowd was likely an outcast because of her ailment according to Levitical law. But Jesus graciously met their respective needs and responded to their faith with equal love, power, and willingness to heal. As Job 34:19 states He “shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.”

The lesson we take from this is clear - and there are many lessons to take. The immense faith of both of these people is inspirational. Jairus, despite his position, approaches Jesus in abject humility, and as far as we are told, Jairus never objects to Jesus’ priorities, improper though they may have seemed. We see a beautiful story here that illustrates much of the content of Jesus’ teaching - the last shall be first, through our faith He works wonders, etc. But we also see an example of entitlement as designed by God - Jesus was the one with the power to choose who to heal and when. When the people submitted to His authority, it worked for the good of all.

So for our practical application - what are some of the things in life that we assume we are entitled to? Which of those things are healthy beliefs, and which might not be? This week, let’s look for an opportunity to take an entitlement we ascribe to ourselves and see if we can bless someone else - even if it is as simple as allowing someone to cut the line at Walmart, or paying for the car behind you in the drive thru. Remember that everyone in this world is entitled to the same things we are - Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death - our entitlement. But there is a second part of that verse, and it is offered to all - “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.”

Let’s show the world what they are entitled to if they will only take it.