Breaking Expectation Barriers In Healing

We know that faith is important in healing. We looked at that a bit in our previous lesson and saw that faith can come from a number of sources: 1. the person who is praying, 2. the person receiving the prayer, 3. friends or relatives who encouraged the sick person to get healing prayer. We saw that faith fosters healing, but we saw that the opposite is also true. Disbelief can actually interfere with healing and prevent God's miraculous power from flowing. We see an example of this in Mark 6:5-6: "5Jesus could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6And He was amazed at their lack of faith."

Jesus wasn't only amazed by the power of their disbelief, He also did not like how it effected His ability to minister to others. He did not like being limited by the power of disbelief and lack of faith. We know this because the Bible records at least two times that He intentionally manipulated His environment to eliminate the "doubt problem."

The first was Jairus' Daughter, who died and needed to be raised from the dead. There are two versions of this story, one told in Matthew 9:18-26, and the other in Mark 5:22-43. At first glance, the two accounts almost seem like they are referring to two different incidents. They have differences that almost sound like contradictions, but those differences are there because the story is told from two different perspectives.

The gist of the story is that a Jewish leader came to Jesus to ask Him to heal his daughter, who was deathly sick. As he was talking to Jesus, he received word that his daughter died. Right then, Jesus encouraged the man to believe God for a miracles. At that point, Jesus selected a small team (Peter, James and John) who He permitted to come with Him to this man's house to "heal" the dead daughter. The rest of the disciples were left behind, they were excluded from this particular ministry session.

When the team arrived at the house, there were a bunch of mourners and "funeral types" already there. Jesus told them that the little girl was not really dead, so their services were not needed. Their response was a total lack of faith. In fact, they actually mocked Jesus to His face. Jesus would not tolerate their disbelief because He knew that it would interfere with the miracle He wanted to do. So He had all those people put out of the house.

He only allowed the girl's parents and His hand-picked ministry team of three (Peter, James and John) to go with Him to see the little girl. Then Jesus appears to quite effortlessly raise her from the dead. He didn't spend any time praying before-hand, He didn't do anything elaborate. He simply took her hand and told the dead girl to get up, and she did! She came back to life and then Jesus swore everyone in the room to silence about what He just did. However, the people outside saw the little dead girl up and walking around. They have not been sworn to silence and the news of what He has done (raising a person from the dead) begins to spread like wildfire.

I am going to include both Bible accounts in this lesson, so you can see the differences between them. Let's start with the version of someone who was not allowed to go with Jesus and did not see the events first-hand, from Matthew 9:18-26:

18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, 'My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.' 19 So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.

23 When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, 24 He said to them, 'Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.' And they ridiculed Him. 25 But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. 26 And the report of this went out into all that land.

Mark's account includes specific details that had to come from one of the eye-witnesses, probably either Peter, James or John. Mark himself wasn't there, but he relates an eye-witness account of one who was there. Mark 5:22-43:

22 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet 23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.' 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him.

35 While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, 'Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?'

36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, 'Do not be afraid; only believe.' 37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. 39 When He came in, He said to them, 'Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.'

40 And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, 'Talitha, cumi,' which is translated, 'Little girl, I say to you, arise.'

42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.

There are a few things there that we should pay attention to. Let's start with Jesus' selection of His ministry team. Have you wondered why He only allowed certain of His disciples to go with Him instead of bringing all of them? I am firmly convinced that it had to do with their level of faith. I believe Jesus was hand-picking a team that was strong in faith.

We know from Matthew 17 that nine of the twelve disciples had a bit of a "faith problem" and still needed to grow in their faith. Jesus had taken three of the disciples with Him to a high mountain where He was transformed before their very eyes into His glorified form. The other nine remained behind and were ministering to the masses, holding a giant healing meeting and multitudes were coming to them for healing prayer. There had been this certain boy who the disciples could not heal. Matthew 17:15-16 is the father of the boy talking to Jesus. He said, "15 'Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.'" Jesus cast out the demon and healed the boy. Then the nine disciples came to Him and asked Him why they could not cast that particular demon out. Jesus answered them in verse 28, "Because of your unbelief." That indicates that those disciples definitely needed to grow some in their faith, they had a faith problem that keep them from being able to do all the things that God wanted to do through them.

That incident happened chronologically after Jesus had raised the girl from the dead. Jesus knew the disciples and He knew they did not have the required faith-level for "raising the dead," so He did not bring then with Him. I believe He was carefully controlling the ministry situation to assure that there was an adequate faith-level in the room to raise the girl from the dead.

There is another group that Jesus excluded from the ministry session: all the people who had come to mourn the leader's dead daughter. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these people had no faith. Jesus told them the girl was not dead, only sleeping, and they ridiculed Him. They were not just unbelieving, they were downright rude in their disbelief. Jesus did not waste any time trying to convince them or win them over. Instead He simply had them removed. He did not want to fight their disbelief to do His miracle, so He had them put out of the house. In short, Jesus fostered faith for the ministry situation by getting rid of those who did not have faith for the miracle.

The Bible does not tell us much about the parent's faith level. We don't know anything about the state of the mother's faith, but we do know that Jesus allowed her into the room when He healed the dead girl. We don't know if she had the required faith or if Jesus just had compassion on her because she was a grieving mother.

Obviously the father had faith that Jesus could heal his little girl (before she died). That is why he left his daughter's bedside and went after Jesus, who was apparently some distance away. Most parents will drop what they are doing to be at the hospital bedside when their little girl is deathly ill. The man obviously cared a great deal for his daughter. Yet he choose to leave her and go find Jesus and ask Him to heal her. That means he was convinced that Jesus could heal the girl.

I don't think that he had faith to raise the dead, but I think Jesus was working with him to help build that faith. A messenger (a runner) came just as he was finally able to talk to Jesus and told him (in front of Jesus) that the girl had died. I am guessing the father reacted in the typical way...grief. He was probably ready to take the messenger's advice and "not bother" Jesus anymore, since the girl was already dead. Jesus stepped in at this crucial point to build the father's faith. He said, "Do not be afraid; only believe," then He offered to go with the father and heal the girl.

God worked in the man's heart to build is faith while they were in route. The woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus and she was physically healed. I am sure that God the Father arranged that incident to help Jesus build Jairus' faith. There is nothing as faith-building as seeing Jesus do a big miracle while He is in route to come and heal your own loved one! The bible does not record any more of Jesus' conversation with the father, but I would not be surprised if Jesus said other things to him to build his faith while they traveled to the man's house.

Jesus was carefully building an environment to foster faith for the miracle or raising the girl from the dead. Faith was important to Him when He did miracles. There were times when He could not do the miracles that He wanted to do because of the unbelief of others (Mark 6:5-6). Jesus really wanted to do this particular miracle, so He controlled the environment by eliminating those who did not have faith from the ministry situation.