Pentecost 4, July 2, 2006:

 The college-age older brother had invited his roommate to come home with him for a weekend visit.  The roommate was heavily tattooed over his arms, chest, and back.  The family sat down for a Sunday lunch and the youngest brother, age 6, couldn’t keep his eyes off the man’s colorful adornments.  Curiosity finally got the better of him.  Very politely, he asked the brother’s roommate “Didn’t your Mom give you paper to write on when you were a boy?”

I confess to you that I used to worry about the various bodily adornments that are so much in fashion today.  But, I have come to see that modern technology will allow most to work without the need to spend long periods of time in public.  That, plus the fact that the body heals itself and laser treatments can erase the marks of that time in life when each of us has said, “I can make my own decisions,” lessens my worries about the future.  For many of us making that statement did not involve an outward and visible mark of independence but, many of those who loved us and wanted the best for us wore those marks on their hearts.

Jairus was a man worried about the future.  Certainly, he worried about the future for his daughter, but he was also worried about his own future.  How could he face tomorrow without that little one?  His love for his daughter helped him forget certain things, while allowing him to learn certain other thing.  Jairus learned that if he was to come to Jesus the Christ in a saving manner he would have to forget some things.  If we are to come to Jesus the Christ in a saving manner we, too, must forget some things; gender, physical strength, arrogance, social status, wealth, vocation, piety, polity, and denomination are among them.  It is generally true that those things get in the way of developing that saving relationship with God in Christ when they are seen as ultimate measures.

It is true, I would suggest, that when we face a crisis we most often do not focus on those less important measures and look for that which is greater than we are.  When self-sufficiency is found to be insufficient we may pray, “O God!  Help me!”

Jairus was willing to move beyond any claim of self-sufficiency.  He was a man on a mission and nothing could stand in his way of placing his need before a man whom he thought could help.  He needed help and would go to any length to get that help.  He came before Jesus the Christ beseeching him to help.  He forgot some things as he came to Jesus.  So must we.

First, he forgot his prejudices.  Among the many things a ruler of the synagogue would not do was kneel before someone who was suspected of being a heretic.  Jesus was an outsider, one who had openly questioned traditional religion.  None of that mattered to Jairus because his need was great enough to cut right through prejudices.

Our history is filled with prejudices and few things in life have done more to hold back God’s love for all than that.  A prejudiced mind shuts out a person from many blessings.  Jarius did not want o miss a potential blessing by holding on to prejudices.  Neither should we.

Secondly, Jarius forgot his dignity.  He was a well-respected ruler of the synagogue throwing himself at the feet of an itinerant, wandering teacher with a rag-tag bunch of followers.  He was not the first, and hopefully will not be the last, to forget his dignity to place a need before the one who could do something about it and perhaps save his own soul in the process.  It frequently happens in spiritual matters that a person will stand on their dignity and fall from grace; fear of embarrassment applies the brakes and causes many to withhold total allegiance.  Jairus did not want to be such a person; neither should we.

It is often the case that dignity and false-pride go hand-in-hand.  In the spiritual realm it is very often the case that humiliation is the beginning of humility.  The very best definition of humility is that one remains teachable.  Jarius did not know everything, humanly speaking, and he had to make a conscious effort to come to Jesus and ask for help.  So must we.  To stand on our dignity and false-pride and miss a teachable moment, standing in front of Jesus, makes us poor indeed.  In our desire to not be indebted to anyone, we attempt to run our own lives and very often run them into the ground.

Regrettably, we are sometimes like the man who died of chronic alcoholism.  At the visitation, a friend asked the widow, “Why wouldn’t John get to treatment, attend AA meetings, and get sober?”

The widow said, “Oh, he never got that bad off.”

The very first step in living the spirit-filled life is to realize that we cannot be anything other than indebted to God.  Maintaining our dignity and false-pride in the face of some great need that God could help us with is a little like the man who jumped off a thirty-story building.  He was beaming with pride that as was well as he passed the twenty-ninth floor on the way down.  It is as true in the spiritual realm of things as in the physical; it is never the fall that ultimately hurts us, it is the sudden stop.  Dignity and false-pride are never the way to authentic, genuine living.

Finally, Jarius forgot public opinion; would that more rulers and public official would stop worrying about public opinion and provide desperately needed leadership for us.  Jarius had a need and the advice of friends and family could not dissuade him from placing that need before Jesus the Christ.  It seems to be a spiritual truth that a person is wisest when his or her worldly-wise friends think he or she is acting like a fool.  It is sometimes helpful for Christian people to be reminded from time to time that Christianity is not supposed to be a popularity contest.  It is supposed to be glorious.

We are invited this day to learn from a man named Jarius.  We can overcome our prejudices, our dignity and false-pride, and our worry about public opinion.  We are invited to bring whatever need we may have and place it before Jesus.  Jarius forgot those things that day and because he was able to forget, he would ever remember afterward that Jesus is a Savior.  So can we!  So, don’t worry too much about outward appearances, the shape of the tattoos, or the number of piercings.  God looks on the heart and expects us all to do community service.  Amen.