Week 24—Sunday Mark 5:35-43
Mark 5:35-43
“JESUS IGNORED THE REMARK”
We now turn from the Sermon on the Mount in our study of the realism of Jesus to a happening where he seems not to be realistic. When Jesus was on the way to the healing of the daughter of Jairus, word was brought to the father that the child was dead: “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher to come any further? Instantly Jesus ignored the remark” (Mark 5:36, Moffatt). But the remark was a fact—the child was dead—why did Jesus ignore reality? Did not this prove him unrealistic?
No, for Jesus was realistic on a higher level—the Kingdom level. The lower set of facts said, “The child is dead.” And the higher set of facts said, “The child can live.” Jesus chose to be realistic on the higher level. There are two levels of reality: the lower level, life around you, and the higher level, life above you. Some people are realistic on the lower level. Whatever the facts around them declare, they decide. They are this—worldly realistic. But Jesus was more conscious of the Kingdom set of facts than he was of the lower set. The lower set of facts did not decide things for him—the higher set did.
And the higher set of facts—the Kingdom facts—were realistic; the child lived. The last word was not with death but with life. The so-called realists are realists on too low a level. They are earthbound and earth-fact-bound. They are only half-realists. But Jesus was a total realist. He didn’t deny the lower set of facts—he simply “ignored” them. For he was more conscious of the higher set. He lived and moved in the reality of the Kingdom. Some live and move in the half-reality of the lower: “The church is dead”; “Nothing can be done here”; “This generation of young people is impossible”; “War is inevitable”; “Things are hopeless.” But the Kingdom realism says, “Yes, I admit the lower set, but apply the higher set. Life is stranger than death.” It is!
Blessed Jesus, we are so grateful that the two worlds were your home. And yet you knew that the ultimate reality was in the Higher—and the last word there too. Teach me to live in both these worlds, especially the Higher. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today I shall live in two sets of facts—may I draw on the higher to change the lower.