This post is part of the thinking the unthinkable series.
The name Jairus appears to be related to that of an Old Testament character called Jair briefly mentioned in Numbers chapter 32 verses 39-41:- “The descendants of Makir son of Manasseh went to Gilead, captured it and drove out the Amorites who were there. So Moses gave Gilead to the Makirites, the descendants Manasseh, and they settled there. Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, captured their settlements and called them Havvoth Jair. Gilead being situated on the high ground to the east of the Sea of Galilee. That brief account suggests an action hero, the sort of man portrayed in a film by an A-list celebrity, but Jairus is in most people’s minds is just a bit player in a Jesus movie whose role is little better than that of an extra. How many times have you heard a sermon with Jairus as its chief subject, I do not remember one. Yet, the woman with the issue of blood has been the subject of not just many sermons but also has inspired many songs as well. We seem to be taking him for granted, an unsung hero indeed. If he indeed was married to the “woman with the issue of blood,” as I believe was possible, then he must have provided the funds for the money spent on physicians. (See earlier posts in the thinking the unthinkable series.) He must have loved her dearly, a lesser man would have found an excuse to divorce her and marry again in order to secure a son and heir. As such he is a picture of Christ’s love for the Church. It must have been an act of desperation as his daughter’s condition worsened that he felt the need to prostate himself before Jesus. Do we look down on him because of that? He was risking his status as a synagogue elder, John’s Gospel states that known followers of Jesus were being expelled from synagogues towards the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. How few times have we metaphorically or physically prostrated ourselves before Jesus?
When look at the Western world it has been largely overlooked that humble godly men like Jairus have been the bedrock of society for most of the past 2000 years. Quietly going about their business, raising their families and building a just society. Yet today’s ‘Worldly Wisemen’ despise the Judeo-Christian ethic and want to erase all traces of Biblical influences from the business and cultural marketplace. But their dreams turn into nightmares when the consequences leave a society that finds life meaningless. Superheroes do not really exist in this world yet the more the world tries to tell us that nothing exists outside the physical realm, the more the we crave something more than this mundane everyday existence. A hundred years or more ago nobody wrote stories involving heroes with special superhuman powers, because people generally believed in a supernatural God would right their wrongs, if not in this life then the next. Jairus’ neighbours seem to have written him and his family off as soon as the daughter became ill and seem to have started the preparations for mourning while the daughter was still alive. Matthew states that they were playing flutes, but Jesus did not dance to their tune. Instead he was the ultimate party-pooper as far as they were concerned, when he raised the girl back to life. Jesus is in the resurrection business.
David Rose, 2017.
Last week I was walking along a path that went through an ungrazed meadow. As I walked along I would disturb many butterflies. Unfortunately these were all ringlet butterflies which are dark brown colour and because I had photographed them before I was not particularly interested in them. When came to the highest point of this path and began to descend I stood for a while. There seemed to be ringlets all around fluttering about but rarely settling. It was difficult to estimate their numbers. There must have been ten or more within a few feet of me. As I looked further afield I might there might have several hundred across the whole meadow. But they all seemed to be that dull brown colour. Until I noticed a flutter of light blue move towards me before landing in the long grass a few yards from me. I presumed from local experience to be a common blue butterfly. I tried to stealthily manoeuvre in that direction. But before I reached that point I noticed another male common blue sitting on a blade of grass. I then saw that there was also a female common blue underneath him and that they were no doubt mating.
Question: How do we know when some random thought that comes into our heads is from the Lord or not? The answer is not as simple as one might think. There might be some thoughts that are clearly not in line with Scripture and are easily dismissed. Equally, there are others that speak to the very depths of our souls which convict us of our shortcomings, which makes us fairly sure that it is the Lord. But in between there are many others which can leave us puzzled, at least initially. A week or so ago whilst dreaming one morning I found myself saying “The world is looking for Christians with two eyes in them.” I immediately thought that was stupid and woke up. As I went over that statement again in my mind I realised that it might make more sense if it was referring to the letter i, which in English is also the personal pronoun. And that the word Christian contains two ‘i’s. If we take the first ‘i’ as being our natural selves with all our idiosyncrasies and characteristics. Then as Christians we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through which people can hopefully see God working in them as the second ‘i’. So the statement means that people are neither looking for carnal Christians who have no evidence of the outworking of God in their lives or Christians living as automata under the control of the Holy Spirit, but people who are clearly human in their behaviour but also something of the divine in them. Even if we are unaware of what they see of God in us.
There is a great disconnect between the traditional Christian world view and that of the liberal secular view which dominates the News channels and most of the press. Those in the public eye who cling to the authority of the Word of God are seen as a threat by the liberal establishment. When Christian issues are raised the media always seem to get the wrong end of the stick. But this is not the first time in history that people have misconstrued the message that God has been trying to give. The prophet Jeremiah had the difficult task of warning the people of Judah of the impending Babylonian exile. Instead of repenting they regarded him as a threat, a possible traitor, they preferred to listen to false prophets who said what they wanted to hear. Towards the end of the siege of Jerusalem the Lord told Jeremiah that if the people freed their slaves then Judah would stay in the land, but after agreeing to free their slaves they reneged and re-enslaved their fellow Jews. Condemning themselves to become the slaves of Babylon. Some of the poorer people were allowed to remain in the land after the fall of Jerusalem. But they continued to make a catalogue of bad decisions. After the assassination of Gedaliah the remnant fled to Egypt out of fear even though the Lord told them otherwise. In Chapter 44 verse 18 the men said “But ever since stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offering to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.” In other words blaming God and not attributing it to the consequences of their sin. They refused to see it God’s way but it did not stop them finding themselves under Babylonian rule after Nebuchadnezzar invaded Egypt.
cairngormmusings 