Until

Mark 14:25-26

      I remember hearing the word “until” repeatedly during my childhood. You don’t get any dessert until you eat your vegetables. You can’t go out to play until you clean your room. You can’t watch any TV until you finish your homework. Until always meant something was in the way of getting what I wanted. Something unpleasant was between me and my fun goal. If there were no until’s getting in the way, life would be smooth sailing.

      I am sure you have had a few until’s in your life as well. You can’t do brain surgery until after you finish medical school! But far more likely is the silent until. You can’t do the laundry until after you change the diaper and feed the snack. You can’t spend time with your spouse until after picking up your child from their afterschool activity. You can’t plan a day away until after the season is over. Until’s seem to get in the way.

      Jesus gives His disciples, and us by extension, a big until. He is at the final meal with His disciples. They have eaten this preparatory meal together in anticipation of the Passover meal the next day. There are tens of thousands who have flooded Jerusalem for this festival. Every space is filled with guests because the Passover must be eaten inside the city proper. You can’t get Passover as a takeout meal.

      So the place Jesus has chosen for their meal was booked for the extra evening to ensure they had a place. They won’t need it for the Passover meal, since Jesus will be on the Cross and newly entombed by the time the meal would be eaten. They next 24 hours get rather busy for them as a group. There is late-night prayer meeting. The police are called and raid their prayer meeting. They haul Jesus away for questioning. There are a series of trials, all of which come to the politically correct conclusion that Jesus is dangerous and must be eliminated.

      But as Jesus knows His next 24 hours, He gives His disciples an “until” to keep them through the dark hours ahead. He says that He won’t drink wine again until the kingdom of God is active and present.

      This can only mean one thing as Jesus breathes His last. A day is coming for the disciples when Jesus will again share the cup with them. After the resurrection Jesus at with them, but we have no record of any drink being consumed. When Jesus returns, there will be a banquet for all who believe with beverages included. And Jesus will drink with us.

      You see, until’s can also bring hope. They don’t just stop progress toward a goal, they can bring hope into a place where no hope seems to be possible. Until can be a bridge across time. Almost two thousand years have passed since Jesus told the disciples about the until of heaven. Time still waits for that moment. The disciples, and all who have died believing, are in Jesus’ presence enjoying the meal. When our time has run its course we will join them. But until that moment, we wait in anticipation of the union.

Bad News

Mark 5:35

      I hate bad news! I try to avoid watching the news on TV because they only talk about bad news. I think it makes my world too large. I become aware of so many things over which I have no control or influence. And since they only talk about the worst things, my world becomes filled with even more violence than it did yesterday. Every politician becomes corrupt. Every earthquake fault line is ready to shift. Every river is ready to overflow it banks. Everyone is experiencing record cold weather.

      It would be nice if we could train ourselves to hold onto the good news and savor it. If we could train ourselves to focus on and celebrate the events filled with grace, I think our lives would be filled with grace rather than disaster.

      Some of the most difficult times for people are the holidays, especially if a loved one died around that time. If the holiday used to be exciting, some of the excitement is taken away, at least for the first couple of years.

      About the worst news anyone can deliver is the news of someone’s death. I have been part of that process for hundreds of people, both as a hospital chaplain and a military chaplain. Walking up to a stranger’s door and knocking, knowing that as soon as they see the uniform they know their loved one has died, is never easy, even after hundreds of times.

      Our text records one of those moments. Jairus has been walking with Jesus on His way to his extremely ill daughter. And along the way Jesus has been delayed. I can imagine the anxious feeling that Jairus must have felt. Come on, quick, let’s go before it is too late. The woman touches, she slips back into the crowd, Jesus looks for her, and then listens to her story. Then He blesses her. Come on! Let’s go!

      And before Jesus finishes Jairus sees some men from his household walking toward him. They were probably telegraphing the bad news in their facial expressions and body posture even before they began speaking. And then come the words of confirmation. “Your daughter is dead.” This is about the worst news any parent can hear. This goes against the things are “supposed” to be. Parents die before children. That’s the rule.

      But I don’t think those words were the hardest to hear. They suggest that Jairus give up, that there is no reason to bring Jesus to his daughter. All is lost. Don’t bother Jesus. It would be a waste of time. There is no hope. It is over. Give up.

      It can be very hard to give up, to concede defeat, to stop hoping. Your heart sinks and a weight lands on your shoulders. Your feet feel a little heavier, and often words escape discovery. Grief sets in.

Desperate Hope

Mark 5:21-22

      The same physical gestures can be very different things to different people. We don’t realize this until we are dropped in the middle of another culture and try to communicate. I remember several years ago when the US took the battle against Islam’s militant ideology to their soil. One of the strange things for us was their understanding of the bottoms of our feet. For us here in the West, seeing the souls of someone’s shoes has no significance. We sit with our feet crossed and point the bottom of our feet at each other all the time. It means nothing.

      But this same gesture in the world of Islam is an insult. Enemies are put under your feet. You wipe the souls of your feet in the statue of a disgraced leader’s statue. Even when flying over in a helicopter, you don’t want your feet dangling over the edge because you are then insulting everyone below you. You throw your shoes at the President to show the ultimate contempt. Physical gestures have very different meanings.

      We find in our text today another example of someone falling on their knees before Jesus. If you remember from a previous incident that the demon possessed man came running and begged that they not be tortured. They were filled with fear that judgment had come.

      So if the sound were turned off and you watched Jairus’ actions, you might conclude that he too thought judgment had come, that he was filled with fear. But this is not the case. You can’t judge internal attitude and motive from the externals.

      Jairus is desperate. His daughter is in grave condition. If something is not done immediately, she will die. And Jairus knows this. He is so desperate that he puts aside his pride, his position, his reputation and comes and begs this itinerate preacher. This man has a position from which he projects his authority, day after day, week after week. He is a synagogue leader. He leads a gathering of leaders in his community. He walks in different circles than some other people. His word carries weight.

      Jesus has no earthly position, no earthly title or qualifications. He is a nobody. And yet Jairus comes running and falls before Jesus. He hadn’t planned to meet Jesus there, as far as we can tell. It could be Jairus was part of the intelligence gathering attempt by the Jewish leadership. They wanted to catch Jesus in something He said in order to have a reason to kill Him.

      But Jairus had other more important things on his heart and mind. Whatever reason for his presence on the beach, when Jairus sees Jesus the condition of his daughter takes center stage. All his previous plans went out the window. He realizes this might be his one chance to ge help for his daughter. So in that moment, he jumps on the opportunity.

      I don’t know if you have ever been this desperate, but I have. There have been several moments in my life when all else fell to the side. The need was so great that every other priority didn’t matter. My schedule was cleared and the issue became the only thing of importance.

      And in that moment, I prayed. What do you do when those moments of desperation arise? Is your prayer one of desperation, knowing that Jesus is able? Jairus knew Jesus was able, so he asked. Do you know that Jesus is able?

Rock Bottom

Proverbs 14:32

      The expression “to hit rock bottom” is used when someone has exhausted their resources, usually in a foolish or wasteful pursuit, and now has nowhere to turn for help. It often happens with those who pursue addictive behaviors. They burn all their bridges with those who might have been there in this moment of despair. They have cheated and lied so many times, promising that this time it will be different, that they are changed, that no one believes them.

      Our proverb describes the wicked at the bottom. They have no one to whom they can turn. Their behavior has separated them from whatever help that exists in their life. They are alone. They are defeated. Their resources are depleted.

      The truly sad thing is that for the wicked, their current situation could have been avoided. They could have made different choices. They could have chosen righteousness.

      One of the difficult balancing acts when it comes to the downtrodden is deciding when to help and when to step back and allow them to step up. My guiding principle is that we should not do anything that they are capable of doing themselves. If we are, we are robbing them of the dignity of growth. This is called “toxic charity” and needs to be avoided.

      Our system now rewards people who do nothing. If they begin to do a little bit for themselves then the system takes away benefits, making their situation worse. It should be the other way around. Work should be rewarded. Almost everyone could do something to get benefits. Organizations are always needed volunteers, and often have difficulty recruiting them. This is a cultural pickle.

      When the righteous hit rock bottom, they continue to look up. Their life is one of surrender and dependence on God. There is not delusion of self-sufficiency. They know that whatever they have they have received from God, including the strength to work and earn money.

      Recently I have been reminded again that life is extremely fragile. Something the size of a pencil lead causes me daily problems. The doctors say it should not be a problem, and yet every day it is. And there is almost nothing I can do about it. Something so small has radically changed my life. I have allowed fear to grip me. Yikes, what a mess.

      But even in this, the LORD is faithful. No matter what happens, He is good. I sense His presence with me in new and refreshing ways. I am excited about the future, even if my future is very different from what I dreamed.

Deferred Hope

Proverbs 13:12

Waiting for the plane to land, again. The phone to ring. Skype to chime. The text to arrive. For those in the Army and their spouses, these are lifelines. They are the million moments in between the wave goodbye and the tears of joy and relief. They occupy too many moments for so many. Moments become minutes that creep along.

After a dangerous mission, the first thing, often even before a shower, soldiers want to call home. And the spouse knows that at certain times, that is when the day is done and the contact will happen.

But what happens when that contact doesn’t come, the phone doesn’t ring, Skype doesn’t chime, and no text arrives to say “I’m fine.” At those times hearts often go to the door, the men in uniform ringing the doorbell with horrible news. And this is repeated day after day during deployments.

This is an example of hope deferred. And if you haven’t been there, you really don’t know what it is like. Trust me, you don’t know. It is not like a business trip in another city. Usually business trips don’t involve people trying to blow you up or shoot you. (Unless you are in Chicago!) Business trips don’t involve sleeping with 80 pounds of gear strapped to your body, curled up on a dirt floor, smelling urine and feces, head resting on an MRE, just waiting for morning to come. Or the long hours of silence waiting for the Casualty Notification Team to arrive at your door and give you the news you hoped would never come, news that ends your life as you know it.

But when that plane lands and your soldier marches through the doors of the hanger at the airfield, patriotic music blaring in the background, screams and cheers deafening all, that is a longing fulfilled. A few moments of prayer, a speech, and then the word that causes the masses of family in the bleachers to pour into the center of the hanger to squeeze the life out of the soldier. You can breathe again.

All of us have moments when we hold our breath, not sure of the outcome of some event. If our lives get stuck in those moments of incomplete hopes, we get sick. But when relief comes, life ensures. It becomes a tree of life.