Lesson 7: "Be not afraid, only believe"

For some reason of all the miracles Christ performed, this one (well, technically two) sticks out to me the most this week.

All we know about Jairus (Greek, "whom God enlightens") is that he was "one of the rulers of the synagogue" (Mark 5:22). His faith in Christ's ability to heal his daughter seems genuine, and he implored Jesus to come with him to save her. He knew if Christ would come, his daughter would be spared from death.

As they went a large crowd followed, as it usually did. As they walked, a woman who had suffered for twelve years from a blood hemorrhage touched the Savior's clothes and was healed. He stopped to inquire who touched him, which the disciples thought was a bit odd, considering the large crowd which was no doubt constantly bumping up against him. He looked at the woman, who then confessed what she had done, and told her, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague" (Mark 5:34). Not only did he know that she had been healed, he also knew what he had healed.

As he is talking with this woman, someone brought Jairus the news, "Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?" (Mark 5:35). Essentially, "There's nothing he can do now, there's no point in taking any more of his time."

Christ told Jairus, "Be not afraid, only believe" (vs. 36). Luke adds, "and she shall be made whole" (Luke 8:50). Jairus did believe and his daughter was restored to life.

I wish more details of this account had been preserved because I'd like to get to know Jairus a bit better. I'm left to assume because his reactions weren't recorded, he was quietly trusting in the Lord. I'm sure someone would've written something had Jairus snapped... "We need to walk faster." "Why are we stopping to see who touched you? We're on a tight schedule!" "If we hadn't stopped, maybe we would've made it in time and my daughter would still be alive!"

There was only quiet faith on the part of Jairus. How hard would it be to calm the natural sense of urgency a parent would feel on behalf of a dying child? Instead of letting the incident with the healing of the woman irritate him, he seems to have let it build his faith in Christ's ability to grant the desired blessing. Even when he received word of his daughter's death, he quietly followed the Master. When those around him were laughing to scorn, he still showed faith.

This whole experience seems to have been tailored to build Jairus' faith in Christ's power to heal. Jesus could easily have simply told him to go home and his daughter would be healed, as he had done with the centurion (see Matt 8:5-13) and the nobleman (see John 4:46-54). But Jairus would've been deprived of his walk with the Master. They could have walked a different route where they would not have been "interrupted" by the woman seeking healing for herself, Jesus could've simply found her on the way back and healed her later.

So, what can we learn from Jairus and his experience?

First, miracles are predicated on faith. The woman was told it was her faith which made her whole, not the touching of Christ's clothes. Often, we will experience ridicule or scorn for exercising our faith. There is no evidence from the scriptural account to show Jairus ever lost his faith in Christ.

Second, the Lord is keenly aware of us. He knew who, out of a large pressing crowd, had touched his garment. We can be assured he is also aware of our needs, many times even when we are not.

Third, we shouldn't get too caught up in our own needs that we can't stop to help someone else along the way. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught:

"When, for the moment, we ourselves are not being stretched on a particular cross, we ought to be at the foot of someone else’s—full of empathy and proffering spiritual refreshment." (Neal A. Maxwell, "Endure It Well", April General Conference, 1990)

Fourth, no one is beyond the healing reach of the Savior. How often do we consider ourselves as having gone too far astray? We have wandered off beyond Christ's ability to help us back. We give up on ourselves just as those in the house had given up on the daughter (turns out she was only mostly dead...).

Finally, we need to exercise patience when asking for blessings from the Lord. God has a way of using what we feel are delays and turning them to our benefit. We can grumble about having to wait (and probably miss out), or we can let it strengthen our faith like Jairus did.

Lesson 7: Needs of the One

This week's lesson deals with Christ's miracles. There have been chapters and books written about the various miracles performed, so what does that leave for a 45-minute lesson? There are so many ways to apply the lessons to our lives today, how does one pick a few selected examples when they are all so rich?

When I worked on this lesson last time (four years ago), one of the strongest impressions I had was how much the Lord loves the individual. I went through and counted 21 miracles performed for just one person; healings, casting out devils, even raising the dead. He often went out of his way to reach someone. If I have time this week, I'll see about picking a few miracles to discuss, but now I want to focus on "the one".

The Lord used the image of the shepherd leaving the "ninety and nine" to search for the one sheep which had gone astray (Matt 18:12-13) to show us (among other things) how much he cares for us. And notice the sheep didn't get a lecture all the way home, but the shepherd rejoiced in finding the one which had been lost.

When the resurrected Savior came to visit the Nephites, he told the multitude to come forward to feel the nail marks in his hands and feet, they came "one by one until they had all gone forth" (3 Nephi 11:14-15). So, how many people are we talking about? Thirty? Fifty? How about 2,500 (see 3 Nephi 17:25). Even with a group of 2,500 people, he still made sure they had individual one-on-one time with him.

That's how I imagine the atonement taking place. We talk about the infinite atonement (see 2 Nephi 9:7, Alma 34:12) which makes it easy sometimes to forget the very personal nature of the sacrifice. I haven't found any supporting evidence of this, but I believe the atonement was made one person at a time. The closest I've been able to find is a quote from Elder John H. Groberg:

"I feel that as [the Savior] hung upon the cross and looked out…, he saw through the stream of time. His huge, magnanimous, loving soul encompassed all eternity and took in all people and all times and all sins… Yes, he saw down to you and to me" (John H. Groberg, "Beauty and Importance of the Sacrament", Conference Report Apr 89).

In my heart, I see the Savior in Gethsemane taking on himself the burden of our sins. When my name "came up" I imagine him pulling my picture out of his wallet (I'll never understand how it was done, so I put it into terms I can grasp a bit better) until he was sure I had been sufficiently covered before he pulled out the next person's photo. "I ... [suffer] these things for [you], that [you] might not suffer if [you] would repent" (see Doct and Cov. 19:16-18). And then, just to make sure, he went through it all again on the cross:

"...while he was hanging on the cross for another three hours, ... all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane recurred." (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane", April General Conference 1985)

So, while there are so many great spiritual lessons to be found in the miracles performed by Christ, one of the biggest for me is the reminder of the importance and value in God's eyes of the one.

Lesson 6: Once More, With Feeling

Sometimes, lessons jump out at you from unexpected places in the scriptures. I've been wondering all week how to approach this week's lesson on the selection of the 12 Apostles. I went through all the scriptures listed in the manual and wondered, "what am I going to do with the other 40 minutes of class time?"

Then I read something about the experience with Peter before his call to the apostleship. In Luke 5, Christ was teaching the people near the Sea of Galilee and a large crowd was gathering. He saw two ships docked as the fishermen were working on their nets after an uneventful night of fishing. Christ entered one of the boats and taught the crowd from there. When he finished, he instructed Simon (not Peter yet) to "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught" or large catch (vs. 4). Simon responded that they had been fishing all night without any success, "nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (vs. 5).

This may be obvious to some of you, but it was one of those, "how long has that been in there??" moments for me. I knew he went back and always thought, "Good job Peter, you're such a trooper" but never tied it in with anything, so I missed the bigger picture...

-Hey, Nephi. Would you mind going back to Jerusalem? Turns out we need the Brass Plates (see 1 Nephi 3). Nephi says, "Sure Dad, anything the Lord asks!"

-Hey, Nephi, this is going to be a long trip. Would you mind going back to Jerusalem to pick up Ishmael and his family? Thanks. (see 1 Nephi 7). By this time I would've been murmuring, "anything else you need while I'm in town? If we forget anything else, we'll just have to do without because I'm not going back in again" but Nephi is faithful and goes without complaining.

-Alma, I know you just got kicked out of Ammonihah, but would you mind going back? Yeah, the Lord needs you to tell them to repent or be destroyed. "Have fun storming the castle..." (see Alma 8). Even though the people of the city had just "reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city" (verse 13), he "returned speedily to the land of Ammonihah" (verse 18). No complaining, no "you could've told me while I was still there", just willing obedience.

-Samuel (the Lamanite, not the Old Testament prophet. See Helaman 13), how about going back to Zarahemla and "prophesy unto the people whatsoever things should come into [your] heart" (verse 3).

So, when the Lord asks us to do something, again, what is our attitude? Do we complain a little? Maybe subtly remind the Lord (as Peter did) that we just tried that and it didn't work? Imagine if Naaman only dipped himself in the river Jordan six times instead of seven. "Three... nope, Four... nothing, Five... still not getting any better here... Six, that's it. I'm going home!" Or do we, like Alma and Samuel the Lamanite, immediately turn around and go back? Simon Peter's previous try simply didn't work, it's not like the fish threw him off the lake. Alma was thrown out of the city, but went back faithfully and "speedily".

Why does the Lord so often ask us to do things repeatedly? Just once, wouldn't it be nice to have someone come up and say, "Here is the golden horseshoe and silver platter you ordered, will there be anything else sir?" The first time I prayed for a testimony of the Book of Mormon, I didn't get an answer. Didn't get one the second time either, or the third... I think I had read it at least four times before my answer came, and I can't imagine it would've had the same lasting impact had it come when I asked the first time when I "took no thought save it was to ask" (Doct. and Cov 9:7).

So, what I learned from Peter, and by extension the other examples used here, is that I will be asked to do things over. Things which didn't work out well, or at all, the first time. Things I would rather just leave behind and move on. Things which the Lord knows I could do better. Will I grumble a bit, or welcome the opportunity?