6-30-24 “Lift up your Faith!”

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“Lift up your Faith!”

 

I want to start with something funny that I found on an internet site: A young woman brings home her fiancé to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancé to his study for a drink.

“So, what are your plans?” the father asks the young man. “I am a Torah scholar,” he replies.  “A Torah scholar. Hmmm,” the father says. “Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in, as she’s accustomed to?” “I will study,” the young man replies, “and God will provide for us.” “And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?” asks the father. “I will concentrate on my studies,” the young man replies, “God will provide for us.” “And children?” asks the father. “How will you support children?”
“Don’t worry, sir, God will provide,” replies the fiancé.

The conversation proceeds like this, and each time the father questions, the young idealist insists that God will provide. Later, the mother asks, “How did it go, Honey?”
The father answers, “He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I’m God.”

Today, I want to talk about “faith.” The young man in that story has such a great faith. He has nothing, but strong faith (?) that God will provide everything he needs. We believe that we are saved by faith through Jesus Christ. The scriptures say, “The One who is righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16; Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 10:38) I wonder if we indeed live by faith in our everyday lives.

I met a gentle middle-aged man in a hospital when I worked as a chaplain. He was a strong believer in Jesus, dedicating his time and energy to the church ever since he was young. He had read the entire Bible several times and memorized many biblical verses. However, he was diagnosed with cancer and became frustrated, believing that God was punishing him. As a result, he rejected everything, including eating food, communicating with others, and receiving medical treatment. Several chaplains and nurses tried to help him, but all failed. Then, my turn came to see him one night when I was on call. A nurse called me to help him. Of course, he rejected me when I greeted him, saying, “I am one hundred percent a Christian. I don’t need your help.” However, I didn’t withdraw. Instead, I challenged him, saying, “Well, I don’t think so. You are not one hundred percent Christian. Maybe 50 percent or a little more, about 55 percent maybe?” Finally, he looked at me and I said. “You know, if you were one hundred percent Christian, you would pray to God instead of rejecting medical treatment,” He then asked me, “Where are you from?” this started our conversation, and he shared his stories. As he shared, he cried and prayed with me. He later confessed that he saw Jesus in his dream on that night and realized that Jesus loves him so much. He promised to receive treatment with prayers. Yes, he was born again in Jesus through his difficult situation.

We believe that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ through the grace of God. I wonder if your faith is strong enough to save you. I mean, when you face a life crisis, is your faith firm in Jesus Christ? Jesus used to say, “Your faith has saved you” or, “your faith has made you well” when he heals the sick. He didn’t say, “I healed you,” but rather, “your faith has made you well.”

The word “faith,” according to the Dictionary of Jesus and Gospel, “is essential to human relationships in general, but gains its special biblical connotations from the interaction of God with humanity, his reliability, and our response of trusting in him.” Therefore, the faith in Jesus Christ is given to us as a free gift in a good relationship with God. We may simply say our faith journey is about building a good relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Today’s scripture shows us an excellent example of faith. There are two stories, but one story about faith. Whenever Jesus appeared, many crowds followed him. At that moment, one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came, fell at Jesus’ feet, and begged him, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.” It is unusual for a Jewish leader to kneel down to Jesus because most religious and political leaders ignored him.

On his way, a woman who had been suffering from a bleeding illness for twelve years came to Jesus. She had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had, but she grew worse and worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe, because she believed that even if she touched his clothes, she would be made well. As she wished, she was healed; her bleeding stopped. Meanwhile, someone came from the leader’s house and said, “Your daughter is dead.” What? No way!! His daughter had died because he delayed in helping the poor woman.

Let’s pauses here and think about Jairus and the woman. Jairus was one of the leaders of the synagogue. A synagogue is a Jewish temple. Jairus was a Jewish leader, socially, religiously, politically, and economically in a higher class. In contrast, the woman suffering from a bleeding illness was an outcast socially, religiously, politically, and economically.

Imagine Jesus delaying his journey to Jairus’ house because of a poor and outcast woman. She couldn’t approach Jesus as courageously as Jairus did. Instead, she reached out to him from behind in the crowd, wanting to touch Jesus’ robe silently. As soon as she touched Jesus’ robe, she was immediately healed. Then, Jesus said, “Who touched me?” She was filled with fear and trembling. “No, please Jesus! Don’t look for me!” She thought, wanting to hide herself.  However, she couldn’t, because Jesus shouted, “Who touched me?” His disciples were panicked, saying, “Hello, teacher, did you say, ‘who touched you?’ See, how many people are around us pushing and pulling.  How can you ask, ‘who touched me?’” Jesus looked all around to see who had done it. Finally, with fear, she showed up before Jesus and told him her whole story in public. And, Jesus said to her in front of everyone, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” He brought her back into society from being an outcast. She was healed, but Jairus’ daughter was dead.

If you were Jairus, how would you feel? You might feel frustrated, angry, heartbroken, and disappointed. Jairus, who was a leader in society, knelt down to Jesus, and begged for mercy on his daughter without shame, but with humility. Jairus also seemed to be “afraid” of her death. Jesus understood his fear and said, “Do not fear, only believe.” Finally, he went to Jairus’ house to see his daughter. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha cum,” which means. “Little girl, get up!” and immediately, the girl got up and began to walk.

Through Jairus and the woman, we learn about faith. Faith is to act courageously for what we hope for. Faith is to come before Jesus as Jairus and the woman did. No matter what situations we face, just lift up your faith! Faith saves us when we come to Jesus courageously and show evidence of our good relationship with God. So let us come closer to Jesus and lift up our faith to God so our faith will save our loved ones as well as ourselves! Thanks be to God. Amen.