Mark 5.
THERE was death in the house of Jarius; there was also sorrow there, and reasoning, the power of Satan, of nature, and of unbelief. Jesus entered with a claim to be received. “Only believe,” He said, as He entered. This is precious to us, as well as glorious to Him. The scene around us is as this house of Jarius; death is in it, with abundance of its attendant sorrow of all kinds, and plenty of the unbelief that knows no remedy. But Jesus has entered, and faith hears the word from Him, “Be not afraid,” and faith sees in Him the remedy for it all, and bows to Him as the One to displace it all by Himself. The lesson is simple, “only believe.” The hardest thing to displace is this reasoning or unbelief. Death is more at His command (I speak as a man) than the reasoning of the heart. But He comes to clear away everything, death, sorrow, fear, reasoning, unbelief, and the sense of hopelessness, and put Himself, and the virtue He carried with Him, in the place of all; and so He did. His claim to be everything was approved; for the damsel at His bidding revived and walked; all was cleared away, and He took the place, and the fruit of the virtue which He brought with Him. And so by and by, it is faith that will be approved in His day; for the claim of Christ to be trusted will then be approved. “Only believe” will then be found not too much for Christ to have demanded, or for us to have rendered to Him.
Yea; and let me add, there was more than death, sorrow, and unbelief in the house of Jarius at that time. There were appearances of this, that the Lord had been neglectful of them; He had tarried by the way, and tarried so long that all seemed now to be hopeless.
But these appearances were found to be false; they intimated wrongly about the Lord. He had not been neglectful, He had only let things take such a course as would end in the greater joy of the house, and in His brighter, fuller glory.