The Place To Bring Your Sorrows
People at the Feet of Jesus
The Place To Bring Your Sorrows
2/17/08
Many of you learned last night or when you came this morning that Bro. Moose Couch went to be with the Lord last night. This morning our prayers are with Marlene, Lindsey, Matt and the family.
Given the situation, I decided last night to flip flop the sermons in this series. We began last week talking about people at the feet of Jesus. And we looked at those who were in misery cast at the feet of Jesus and he healed them to the glory of God.
There are in this series, three at the feet of Jesus situations that are surrounded by death. And I felt that since God has chosen that for us again that I would move those three up in the series and deal with them now.
So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 8:41. Last week we looked at the privilege of bringing our miseries to the feet of Jesus and today I want to speak of the privilege of bring our sorrows to the feet of Jesus. Our sorrows are to be brought to his feet. Let’s read beginning in verse 41 of Luke 8.
41 And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house:
42 For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.
49 While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.
50 But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.
51 And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.
52 And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
53 And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
54 And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.
55 And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.
56 And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.[1]
Here we have Jairus, someone who is in a position of authority in the Jewish synagogue and he has come to the feet of Jesus. And what has brought him here is sorrow. Misery had brought the lame, blind, dumb, and the maimed last week to the feet of Jesus but sorrow brings Jarius.
He has a daughter and she is dying. And a three-fold sorrow fills his heart and drives him to the feet of Jesus.
1. It Was A Collective Sorrow!
His sorrow was collective or mingled or mixed. There was something here that could not be separated.
Notice his sorrow is Pointed! His sorrow is for his daughter who is dying. He is seeking help for her. Her life is coming to an end and she is only 12 years old. She may have been in pain or she may have been suffering through some dreaded disease, we are not told. But Jairus comes that day and his sorrow is pointed toward his daughter who is dying.
But notice as well that his sorrow is Personal! For while his daughter lays dying, his heart is bound in hers and his heart may be said to be dying also. Not only does his daughter need help but he needs help too.
Here is a father for an only daughter and these two sorrows cannot be separated, and they are meant to be separated. It is meant to be this way.
It is not meant that Jairus should come and seek comfort for his daughter at the feet of Jesus and then comfort for himself somewhere else. It is not meant that he is to place priority on the two needs—my daughter first, my sorrow is not important. No that is not the way it is meant to be.
We understand completely what is racing though the heart of Jairus, don’t we. His daughter is dying and he is seeking help for her but his own heart is sorrowful and he is in need of help too.
So here there is relief sought for his own grief as well as for his daughter. And the same God, who is meant it to be felt, is the same God who meant it to be eased. And the place for ease by His appointment is the feet of Jesus.
It is not wrong to take them both—the one who needs help and our sorrow that is associated with them—to the feet of Jesus. That is where they are eased—both at the same time.
2. It Was A Concentrated Sorrow!
While this was a mingled sorrow, a mixture of his daughter and himself, it was not a diffused sorrow. It was not scattered but was concentrated on his daughter and I don’t want to marginalize it at all.
This was a Painful Sorrow. I pick up on the pain of this sorrow from the words, “for he had only one daughter.” This was his only daughter and that defines the pain very well. There is great pain in sorrow. And this Father is in pain for his daughter. His heart hurts because of her. She is dying and the prospect of losing his only daughter was more than he could stand.
And while it is certainly true that we could say that since we have not lost a child we do not fully understand the hurt this father is experiencing. God can and God does. He feels it and He understands it and he can focus on this one grief. This trial is not more to you than it is to God. He sees the largeness of it. He recognizes it as being what it is. He is touched.
It is hard for me to explain it from a pastor’s perspective. But when one of the sheep are in pain, the shepherd is in pain as well. When sorrow fills the heart of the sheep, sorrow is in the heart of the shepherd too. And if that is true with an earthly shepherd, how much more true is it with the Great Shepherd. The God, who loves you and made you his own, feels the sorrow and pain of your heart.
This was a Paralyzing Sorrow. One old writer from the 1800’s said “a dried-up heart tended to grind in the days and nights of sorrow.” When I read that, I thought of Samson. After he had revealed his secret, Delilah cut his hair, and the Philistines had blinded and bound him he grinded. He was put on the grinder and all day he went in circles grinding. When we are in sorrow it seems that we just grind around that sorrow day and night. We can’t make progress beyond the sorrow.
The key in seeing his parallelize is in what happens as he and Jesus are going back to his home. You remember they are interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood who had slipped through the crowd and has touched the hem of the garment of Christ and has been made whole. And there is no recorded joy for this woman from Jairus. While this woman who has been sick for 12 years is healed, Jairus just keeps grinding around his 12 year old daughter who is dying.
So it is concentrated sorrow.
3. It Was A Comprehensive Sorrow!
There is much more connected to a death than just the present situation. Death has a wide-spreading comprehensive nature to it. So when Jairus comes to the feet of Christ, he brings more than the present situation, he brings much more than that.
He brings a Remembered Past. For 12 years this little girl had been in his heart. He remembered her birth, her first steps, her first words, the first time she said, Da-Da. He remembered holding her hand, her sitting in his lap, he remembered the things she liked and the things she did not like.
Perhaps, it was this little girl that kept him fresh and young, maybe it was her laughter and her presence that brought a special joy to her father’s heart. Maybe he can’t remember what life was like without his daughter. It is with this remembered past filled with love that Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet.
But that is not all. He brings to the feet of Jesus a Robbed Future. The father had probably looked forward to much, dreams of what his daughter might be to him in his old age. Castles of a father’s heart now lay ruined in a flash. All his intents and purposes, and dreams would die with her unless Jesus would come at once and help. The father could no doubt see in his mind, her empty room, the empty place at the table, and the empty place in his heart and his life.
As he falls at the feet of Jesus, this father brings it all and lays it at the feet of Jesus. The past, the present and the future, all of it brought to the feet of Jesus.
Close:
In closing let me say just a few more things. The proper place to bring our sorrows is the feet of Jesus because he is a man of sorrows—not just a man of sorrow but a man of sorrows. He tasted this kind of sorrow and many others. He was a man that was acquainted with grief. He understands and he feels and the appropriate place for our sorrows is the feet of the Christ.
So here is my big question. Why would God allow things that would bring us sorrow? The simple answer is so that we will bring them to his feet. Here you have a ruler of the synagogue, a great man is before one who is called the carpenter’s son and not just before him but at his feet.
It does not matter who you are—the rich, the honored, the intellectual, the proud—have all been brought there by nothing more than a deep sense of need. All rank, riches, and intellect are swept away before the avalanche of urgent and tremendous need. A ruler at the feet of Jesus feet was a triumph of reality. The world as we know it has it all mixed up, but God has a way of making us see the truth of reality, Jesus enthroned and us at his feet.
The simple answer is God allows things to happen that bring us sorrow so that we would be humbled to come and take a lowly place at the feet of Jesus and submit, surrender, and depend on him for all things.
The more complicated answer is this: Something must be done with us, before anything can be done for us. God gives gifts, he even makes little girls alive again, but those gifts are given to those at his feet.
The messengers come and they report, “Don’t bother Jesus, she’s gone.” She died, then there is a delay Jesus coming to her, and finally Jesus raises her from the dead. In the meantime, Jesus tells the father to believe.
The same thing happens every day. There is death and there is going to be a resurrection but where is the strength and the comfort and the power for the delay in between found? At the feet of Jesus. The place where we can’t but where Jesus can.
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[1] The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995