Untitled Sermon (4)

Womens Flow

Mark A Woman with a Flow of Blood

An unceasing hemorrhage was bad enough, but the Old Testament law declared that someone with the condition described here was ceremonially unclean. That meant this woman could not be a part of the worshiping community of Israel (Lev. 15:25–33). She was as unclean as a leper. No one was allowed to touch her or her clothes lest he or she, too, become unclean. So this woman was suffering not just physical misery, but social and religious misery, because she had been banished from the presence of the people of God. Just by being in the multitude that was thronging around Jesus she was actively disobeying the Old Testament ritual law.

Mark A Woman with a Flow of Blood

In one sense, what the woman did was commendable. Her action was certainly a demonstration of faith in the testimonies she had heard about Jesus. In another sense, however, it was not commendable at all. One of the widespread beliefs of that day was that if one could get close to a great man or to a healer and touch his clothing, that would be all it would take. So her hope was based at least partly on superstition. Surprisingly, people still accept such ideas. Ministers on television offer to send handkerchiefs they have blessed in return for a donation, and the dollars pour in. The idea, basically, is that physically touching someone (or something he has touched) who has a hotline to God will prove beneficial. Of course, there is no biblical support for such an idea.

Another true shepherd Numbers 27:15-18 records another Old Testament promise about God giving his people a true Shepherd. In this passage, Moses is told to lay his hands on Joshua and commission him as the new leader of Israel so that the people will not be “sheep without a shepherd”. Given that ‘Joshua’ is simply the Hebrew form of ‘Jesus’, what do you think is being said about Jesus in Mark 6?

Immediately following these demonstrations of Jesus’ strength, we have passages telling us about Israel’s official leadership—first Herod (in 6:14-29) and then the Pharisees (in 7:1-16). Sandwiched in between these two passages about Israel’s leaders is an example of the power and compassion of Jesus—the true and faithful Shepherd of Israel (6:30-57). Mark often uses this sort of device in his Gospel (and we will see more of it in the coming chapters). He links together different incidents in order to make a point. He sets up contrasts and comparisons, sometimes between Jesus and the religious authorities, and sometimes between the disciples and other people who are responding to Jesus. Lying very prominently in the background to this whole section is the prophecy of Ezekiel 34. In it, God declares his judgement on Israel’s leaders of the day whose job was to care for the flock of Israel. They should have fed and cared for the sheep, but instead they fed themselves on the sheep and clothed themselves in the wool. God’s anger towards the failed leaders is fierce. In the same section, God promises that he will not let his sheep be treated in this way. He tells the people that he, himself, will come and be their true shepherd (Ezek 34:11-16). As the chapter progresses God says that he will rightly judge his sheep and set his servant David over them as the true shepherd (Ezek 34:23-24). It is important to keep these ideas in mind as we work through the next section.

Mark A Girl in the Grip of Death

They laughed at Jesus.

Jesus was not deterred in the slightest. He took full command of the situation: 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. Then He took the child by the hand (v. 40b–41a). Just as Jesus was ritually defiled by the touch of the woman with the flow of blood, here He was defiled by touching a corpse; but again, Jesus saw that the need of one of God’s people outweighed that ceremonial law.

Then, He said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (v. 41b). God brought the whole world into creation by the sound of His voice, by fiat, by imperative. Christ brought Lazarus out of the tomb by His oral command. In the same way, He spoke in Aramaic to this little girl in her state of death and commanded her to rise, and again His almighty word was effective: Immediately the girl arose and walked (v. 42a). All of her strength returned immediately. She was returned not only to life but to full health.

As we might expect, they were overcome with great amazement (v. 42b). Perhaps their faith had been large enough to encompass a healing (v. 23), but they had never expected to see a resurrection; indeed, who in this world of sin and death would expect to see such a thing?

In such a situation, overcome by their joy, the girl’s parents must have been ready to run through the town crying out what Jesus had done for them. That was not what Jesus wanted: He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat (v. 43). Jesus often commanded those He helped miraculously to keep quiet about Him so that His mission would not be troubled by excessive popular acclaim. Thus, He gave Jairus and his wife a simple task—get the child a meal—and directed them to keep the miracle secret.

The power over disease, the power over death, the power over lost causes—all of these converged in the touch of Jesus. This is the Lord in whom we place our trust for all things for all time.

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