Fear or Faith

“Don’t be afraid; just believe.”—Mark 5:36b

I changed schools in the middle of my first-grade year. Prior to Christmas 1960, I attended Madison Elementary of the Redbank Valley Schools. Over Christmas vacation, we moved to a 40-acre farm. In January 1961, I began attending the Hawthorn Elementary School. Although we only moved 10 miles and my siblings attended the same school, the move traumatized me.

On the first day at my new school, I discovered that I was now in the slowest reading group. During a Christmas vacation lasting just over a week, I went from being in the first reading group to the last. I also learned, by experience, that I rode the late bus. At the close of my first day at the new school, I tried to get on an early bus with the correct number, but I didn’t recognize any faces. My first-grade teacher stopped all the buses and led me from one bus to another until we had checked every bus. None were mine. We then determined that I, terror-stricken and in tears, must ride the late bus. I cried at school for three weeks in a row that January.

No matter how old our bodies grow in years, there remains within us a little child, often fearful and insecure. Many things in life move us to fear and doubt: a new job, a marriage, the loss of a job, or spouse. Words like cancer, divorce, addiction, and guilty can send us cowering in fear. Pause for a moment and think back to the last time your breath was taken away in fear or you faced a new challenge.

The fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark places fear along side faith. Chapter 4 ends with Jesus and His Disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee to the “other” side. The “other” side is where the heathens live. They don’t worship God. They own and eat unclean animals like hogs. It’s the land where little children are warned never to go. As they cross the lake, a storm nearly drowns them all. They awaken Jesus to rescue them, and He replies, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40) And there it begins, fear and faith.

Chapter 5 continues the story as they land on the “other” side. The Disciples’ fears are confirmed. They immediately meet a demon-possessed man living a graveyard. After Jesus casts out the demons, the crowd returns to see the demoniac, clothed and in his right mind, sitting at Jesus’ feet. The scripture tells us, “They were afraid” (5:15).

Jesus and the Disciples return home across the lake without incident. They are met by a crowd that includes a religious man whose daughter is near death. As Jesus goes to the daughter, a woman with a 12-year-long disease comes and touches the edge of Jesus’ clothes and is healed. When Jesus singles her out, she falls before Jesus trembling with fear. Jesus tells her to go in peace for her faith has healed her. Here again, fear and faith. Immediately, some men come to tell the father that his little girl has died. Jesus ignores this report and speaks to the father, “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (5:36b).

Many of you have fears, large and small, real and imagined. These fears keep you imprisoned and immobilized. Hear these comforting words of Jesus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” I remember a plaque given to my father-in-law by his Sunday School Class. It read, “Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered, ‘No one’s home.’” Who is home at your house? Fear or Faith?