BUT THEY LAUGHED AT HIM. MARK 5:40
I think it is pretty incredible that people would laugh at someone who came to help. As in, a person is on the side of the road, with a broken down car, and he laughs at the one who risked much to lend a hand. Or, when you bring a meal to a new mother who is so exhausted with caring for newborn? Has that ever happened? To you? I really don’t think it does, at least not very often.
But, here in Mark 5, Jesus arrived at the house of Jairus and He encounters people who are wailing because of the death of Jairus’s daughter. Jesus tells them that she is not dead, just asleep. And the word He uses here, is actually the word for sleep. Yes, it can also be used as dead, but more often used as asleep. So, these people laughed at Him, The King of Kings.
It’s not the first time He would encounter this type of laughter. Even for doing something GOOD. The word choice at this verse is ‘laughed Him to scorn.” Can you think of another time when this word ‘scorn’ is used? Especially at this time of year, I only think of the last day of Jesus’s life here on earth.
The very definition of scorn is: to hold in extreme contempt. To despise. Or disdain. It makes me think of mock: to imitate in contempt.
Oh, my precious Saviour endured so much. As He was at the house of Jairus, He was fresh from His encounter with the woman with the issue of blood. She was full of faith and worship, and she was healed. Jairus too was a man of faith and worship. He had faith to beg Jesus to heal his daughter, and his faith did take a hit when he was told that his daughter was dead. However, Jesus tells him, “Do not fear, just believe.” Mark 5:36
On the heels of a healing as well as a time when Jesus was about to display His power in this young girl’s life – He was being laughed at, scorned, and dismissed. But guess what? He ignored that. Here in Mark 5, and at the Cross. His eyes were on His Father and pleasing Him. That was His way. The way of the Cross. Via dolorosa.
I am not trying to minimize what Jesus went through or grab at things that were never meant to be misunderstood, but in studying the Capernaum healings of the woman and Jairus’s daughter, I can’t help but see the same word and the object – the Saviour of the world.
He came to seek and save that which are lost. He came with the Cross in mind, He became sin, who knew no sin. He endured shame, contempt, scorn, mockery, pain, death. But He brought life, salvation, healing, love, hope, a way of a personal relationship with His Father.
On this Good Friday – He brought goodness for us. God is good and what He does is good. (Psalm 119:68) Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30) So He brought good, and humanity scorned Him. He brought healing and was laughed at.
Would I have laughed at Him, or would I be found at the feet of Him who walked those roads of Capernaum and Jerusalem? We find Jairus there at His feet as well as the woman. I would like to think I would be at His feet in worship and in faith. I seek Him even now for healing of my feet. And the amazing thing is – it is at HIS feet that I need to be. And am, in my heart.
What about you?