He’s just hopeless! She is beyond redemption! I am never going to make it! They have no future whatsoever! They are hopeless!
Are you ever tempted to speak like that? Do you ever feel that way about somebody, maybe even about yourself? Hopeless?
Watch out. Because there is nothing more blasphemous than to declare that someone is hopeless. There is nothing more faithless, nothing more unspiritual, than to suggest that someone is a hopeless case. If I insist that someone cannot be redeemed, cannot be reclaimed, if I refuse to acknowledge that someone can be brought back from the depths, I have written God off. I have been faithless, even blasphemous.
One of our key spiritual issues is that we give up too soon. We give up on ourselves and we give up on others; we give up hope too soon. We want a quick fix, and we are not willing to wait and to believe that God in Jesus Christ is able, in His own time, to go to a life and make a difference. We give up too soon; and that is faithlessness.
This morning I want us to think about those so-called hopeless cases. I want us to think about how Christ deals with hopelessness and how we are called to partner with Him. My premise is that when Christ goes about the work of redeeming someone, His effectiveness can either be enhanced or hampered by us. Christ’s effectiveness can either be enhanced by our faithfulness or hampered by our faithlessness. Our attitudes will help determine whether, when He sets out to redeem a life, the final result will be "Give up" or "Get up". If you and I bring a skeptical and negative heart, the result will be "Give up". But if we bring faith, Christ can work "Get up".
Let me tell you about what most folks would call a hopeless case. Let me tell you the story of a desperate man with a dying daughter. Almost a tragic story; one with which several of you can identify in your own experience. This man’s anxiety must have been sky-high. But his faith gave him something wonderful: not a give up but a get up.
LUKE 8:40-42, 49-56
I
Let’s imagine the scene for a moment. This is a good man; this is one of those pillars of the community. Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue; a church leader, an upstanding man, gainfully employed, well-recognized, the kind of person who probably had had things go well for him. If his beliefs were typical Jewish beliefs of that day, well, bad things didn’t happen to good people. No sir, not to him and to his family. Why, we are on the Lord’s side, don’t you know? God and I, we’ve got it all sorted out.
But then the unspeakable happened. Jairus’ young daughter, only about twelve years old, caught some mysterious illness. She became a sick, fussing, unhappy, miserable child. Now you know how it is with us parents: we start out thinking the child is faking, just wants to get attention, just wants to play lazy. But then you feel that brow and you know that, no, something is going on here. This child really is sick. At first you think it will pass with a day or two of bed rest. Then, however, you see that this child isn’t getting better, and you begin to suspect that something serious is happening ... so call the doctor, get some help, do something. Panic!
Can you identify with all of that, parents? My wife and I remember some of those childhood traumas we went through. We remember how worried we got and how we pushed the doctor to do something, right now! Margaret and I figure we personally paid for the Emergency Room at Holy Cross Hospital, because we took so many broken bones and cut heads over there. We got anxious and impatient. That’s just what parents do!
I talked the other day with one of our members, Dr. Cheryl DePinto; her baby is just two weeks old today. She’s been practicing pediatrics on other people’s children for some while; but now the baby doctor has her own baby. Ah ha! Dr. DePinto told me, "Now I understand why the parents of my patients are so obnoxious and cranky!" Anxious, not about to give up!
I’m sure that’s what moved Jairus. It’s just what you do when it’s somebody you love. Jairus came running and fell at Jesus’ feet, begging Jesus to come to his house.
Feel the intensity of this moment. Jairus – the ruler of the synagogue, the elder statesman, maybe sort of stodgy and cautious, dignified –- has left all his dignity down the pike and has come racing to find the teacher Jesus. And when He finds Jesus, there is nothing inhibited, nothing cautious, nothing held back. He fell at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for his only daughter was dying.
Friends, when we face apparently hopeless situations, if we love somebody, we will not give up on them. We will do for them whatever has to be done. Most of all, we will pray for them. We will lose our dignity and scrap our inhibitions and pour ourselves out, in faith and intensity, before Christ. We will invest our very hearts in prayer.
Now, let’s test something out. What do you think that Jairus’ prayer sounded like. What do you hear in your imagination?
Oh, uh, Mr. Jesus, if you don’t have anything else on your busy schedule, maybe sometime you could sort of stop by and see my daughter. Probably won’t help, but it won’t hurt either. Whatever.
Is that the way it was? I don’t think so.
Or how about this? Ahem. Dr. Jesus, let me read you this composition of mine, which I carefully crafted last night: "O thou who art infinite compassion and mercy, thou in whose hands lie eternal wisdom and superlative knowledge, if it be thy gracious will, and if thy feet would deign to walk within my humble courts ... " Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no.
Jairus got intense. Jairus got personal. Jairus got down and dirty with Jesus. Jesus, you’ve got to come! His body and his soul were wrapped up in imploring the Lord to do something. Hopeless cases stay hopeless if you and I cannot bring heart and soul and mind and strength to this Christ. Namby-pamby praying will not do it. Half-hearted formulas will not get it. Pray with profound, consistent, intensive concern. And when you think you are all prayed out, pray some more.
I dare say there are some in this room who would not be on earth right now if it had not been that somebody was praying for you in that way. I will even say that there are men and women and young people in this room who are being brought back right now from the edge of disaster because somebody cares enough to pray.
If you think he’s hopeless, fall at the feet of Christ and beg His presence. If you think she’ll never make it, beg the Christ for healing. If you believe you yourself are never going to be what you want to be, then drop all the pretenses, drop all the fronting, lose the dignity, and just speak your heart to this Christ. Don’t give up; get down and dirty; and in a while you will hear Him say, "Get up."
II
However, there is a devastating temptation that comes when we are working on hopeless cases. We need to be aware of what feelings do to us, or, you might want to say, what the tempter will do to us.
There comes a point in working with hopeless cases when we are tempted to give it up, and forget it all, write it off as a loss, and go home. There comes a time when we think we’ve done enough and prayed enough; and if, at that point we are faithless and give up, we will miss the get up. In my experience, it is exactly when you feel you should quit that you should start all over again!
Jesus went with Jairus toward that home. But on the way the crowds demanded His time and attention, and one woman in particular took some of His energy … we’ll look at her case next week. And so while Jesus, ever so slowly, made His way toward Jairus’ house, somebody came and said to Jairus, "Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer." Jairus, it really was hopeless, you know; drop this futile appeal to Jesus. Give it up, Jairus; you knew all along it wouldn’t help.
But Jesus, hearing that, replied, "Do not fear. Only believe; and she will be saved." Stay with it a little longer, grieving father; it’s not over until it’s over. Don’t give up when tempted to give up. Don’t give up just because it seems like the sensible thing to do. That is precisely the critical moment in which Christ wants to work His "get up".
A few nights ago, after prayer meeting, I went back into the office and picked up a message from the answering machine. It told me that the mother of one of our members had died. I tried to phone, but got no answer, and was about to set the whole matter aside. But then my wife called to tell me some more particulars, and I set out to visit the home anyway. A lot of things were against doing that. It was almost ten o’clock at night; it had begun to rain in absolute torrents; since I had not been to this home before, I had a rough time finding the street; and the location was temptingly close to my own house. Several times I started to give up and go home and make excuses. They’ll understand. He probably wants to be alone anyway. I might be getting him out of bed. And even after I found the house and turned in the driveway, I almost didn’t ring the bell. And then when I rang the bell once and no one came immediately, I almost didn’t try a second time. But somewhere in that process I sensed something: I felt that it was the tempter himself who didn’t want me to go, who didn’t want Christ’s mercy to be spoken in that house. I’m so glad I went; not just for the sake of that church member in need, but for my own spiritual health as well. For if we give up too quickly, we will miss the get up. If we give up when we feel like giving up, we will miss what God wants to do for us!
"Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer." "No, do not fear. Only believe, and she will be saved."
Reclaiming Our Youth volunteers: Here is a young man who has been hospitalized several times for drug abuse. Oh well, let’s give it up and forget about him. We have better things to do. But the Lord says, "Do not fear. Only believe, and he will be saved." Don’t give up when the tempter says give up.
Visitation Volunteers: You’ve tried ten times to witness to this friend, and just when you think he’s going to commit himself, he backs off. No more; I’ve had it, I’m tired, and I can’t reach him. The Lord says, however, "Do not fear. Only believe, and he will be saved." Don’t give up; it is the tempter who pushes you to give up.
Deacons: This fellow has taken money from you and has never made restitution; and now he wants to borrow some more. He says that once he’s on his feet, he’ll take care of all his debts. Well, I’ll tell you, he can take this money and shove it … Hear our Lord Jesus, "Do not fear. Only believe, and he will be saved."
Call no one hopeless; for at the very moment we think they are hopeless, that is the very moment at which Christ wants to move in and do a get up instead of a give up!
III
Now watch. They are at the door of Jairus’ house. Jesus seems intent on His mission. At the door of the house, He turns. Peter, come with me. You too, James. And John as well. Now, father and mother, you come in with us. Everyone else, stay away.
But the crowd is going into that shrill and awesome wail that Eastern people offer up when there is a death. The streets resound with cries and howls, the sounds of despair and hopelessness. Even the stoutest heart would crumble under this.
Inside her room: a broken-hearted father; an anguished mother … but they are there. They have come in faith. Unfaith was left outside, to assault the heavens with its harshness; it will never see the miracle. Faith came inside, still hoping to see what God might do.
He is taking her by the hand; He is looking into her young face, full of all the potential of youth. "Child, get up"! "Child, get up!"
She is stirring; there’s a yawn. Color is coming back into her cheeks. "Mom, hey mom, I’m hungry"!
Child, get up! That is what the Christ is always saying. Child, get up. To the man who has lost his dignity, stripped of his pride. Child, get up. To the woman reduced to laying down her body at the bidding of every callous pimp. Child, get up. To the father who has made a mess of it all, whose marriage is in a shambles, whose children have rebelled, who is barely getting by in a dead-end job. Child, get up. To the mother who has raised her children on her own, but cannot begin to see how they are going to get a decent education; to the grandmother who is still working, long after she should be retired, because nobody ever provided for her. Child, get up. Don’t give up; get up.
This child’s spirit returned, and she got up at once. There are no helpless cases.
More than twenty years ago man coldly, callously murdered his wife. He took a bow and five steel-tipped arrows and slaughtered her. No question about it, no argument. He was sent to prison, and most of us would have said he was lost and hopeless. But something happened in that prison; inside those walls of despair he met the get-up Christ and became a believer. And soon after that, he felt called to preach. Now some were skeptical; some thought it was all a trick. A murderer would never be accepted as a preacher of the Gospel’
But, praise God, his church didn’t give up on him. They gave him books, they sent him tutors, they believed in him. And today Vaughn Booker is the spirit-filled pastor of a church in Virginia. No, don’t give up; don’t give up on anybody. You never know when Christ will turn it into a get up.
This morning there is somebody here who feels defeated. Somebody who has quit trying to feel halfway decent about herself. This morning there is somebody here who is carrying a burden for some child, some spouse, and you think, "It’s no use, he’ll never change." There is somebody here who has prayed and prayed and hoped and hoped, but today you’re on the very edge of giving up. Last week was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Last night you said, "I can’t take it any more. I quit."
When Jesus heard you, he replied, "Do not fear. Only believe, and you will be saved." Child, don’t give up. Get up.
“For the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; it goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell.” To God be the glory, great things He hath done and greater things shall you yet see.
