King’s Cross 6

Tim Keller’s newest book, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, examines big questions through the Gospel of Mark. Chp 6 is called “The Waiting” and the whole chp is about patience, the patience of God and our desire to hurry God.

Questions: Do you see impatience in the synagogue leader? Do you see Jesus concerned with patience? Do you see Jesus transforming requests into more than what one expected?

He examines Mark 5’s stories of Jairus’ daughter and the hemorrhaging woman. (It would be a good idea, if you have the time, to read the text after the jump. I’ll give it a quick summary.)

In brief: A synagogue leader’s daughter is on the verge of death; he petitions Jesus; Jesus begins to go with him to his house. Jesus is interrupted by a bleeding woman; Jesus stops to heal her and then asks her a question. Then Jesus comes to the house and raises the little girl from death.

Keller’s point is the impatience of the synagogue leader, the patience of Jesus, and that the delay caused by the bleeding woman. He says Jesus’ delay is tantamount to malpractice and being a reckless doctor.

From which Keller draws this point: “If God seems to be unconscionably delaying his grace and committing malpractice in our life, it’s because there is some crucial information that we don’t have, some essential variable that’s unavailable to us” (67).

Two points: first, I don’t see any concern whatsoever in this text with patience, though I can imagine his point. Second, I wouldn’t give the patience of God or the impatience of the synagogue leader this much centrality. I can imagine this occurring though. When Jesus speaks to the leader he says “Do not be afraid, just believe.” He does not say “Be patient.”

Keller makes another point I really like, and it’s central to the Gospels themselves. “Be aware that when you go to Jesus for help, you will always both give to and get from him far more than you bargained for.” So true. He challenges us deeper than we imagined and he gives us more than we hoped for.

Mark 5

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” ⁴⁰ But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. ⁴³ He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.