Jairus, the Woman, and the Girl

Introduction

Last week we saw the interesting story of where Jesus traveled across the sea and came across a demon possessed man and he cast the demons out into a great herd of pigs and they drowned and the people asked Jesus to leave. In that story we saw that Jesus brings the best kind of change and that we should let him bring that change. Tonight we are back across the sea after Jesus had left the region with the man and the pigs. Once he lands there are people there waiting to see him. Tonight we will look at three characters; a man named Jairus, a woman that has had an illness for twelve years, and Jairuses daughter.

These three people all have different backgrounds and are all at different stages of life. There is one thing that links them all together and that is faith. We will see that it doesn’t matter how much you know about the Bible or how you grew up. The only thing that matters is faith. Once you have saving faith you can begin to grow and learn about the Bible but you don’t need that stuff to have this faith.

Some of us hurt for others, some of us hurt ourselves and have for a long time, and some of us don’t know how to hurt anymore. Faith is the key to all of it.

Let’s begin by reading our story tonight.

Mark 5:21–43 ESV

And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

What a series of events. The man comes and gets Jesus to heal his daughter and while they are on their way he meets a woman and stops to take care of her and since they were delayed the girl was dead by the time that they arrived yet that still didn’t slow down Jesus any at all. He proceeds to raise the girl back to life once again showing his all encompassing power.

After this section these miracles like this are not the main area of focus for a bit. I think Mark put this story here in this way to show just what all Jesus was doing as he went along. We know that we do not have records of everything that Jesus did because of John 21.25 “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” This passage gives us a sense of what that means.

The three people in this passage can teach us all a thing or two. They are three different people, though two related, they are in different stages of life and all have different backgrounds. Yet even through all of this there are still some commonalities between them, the foremost of which is faith.

Tonight we are going to learn about the importance of faith and how our knowledge is not what is holding us back from anything but rather it is our sin.

Let’s pray then begin to look at each of the people in this story.

pray

Jairus

Mark 5:22–23 ESV

Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.”

The first person that Jesus meets after he comes back across is this man named Jairus. He was a ruler of the synagogue which was kind of like their churches in that time. It was often the rulers of the synagogues that were bringing accusations against Jesus and sending for the higher religious authorities. Here it looks a bit different though.

Here Jairus’s daughter was ill and near death. We don’t know if he was one of the rulers that had previously opposed Jesus but it is possible that he was. What we do see here is that he had faith that Jesus could heal his daughter. He didn’t know everything about Jesus and his faith was still very young but it was there.

In our lives we must realize that when we come to faith we are more than likely not going to know much about the Bible. You probably won’t have a lot of knowledge of theology, you most likely won’t have any formal training in the Bible, you won’t know much except that you are forgiven. That’s the thing here, we don’t have to know it all to accept Jesus. All that we need is faith.

This man probably had a pretty good understanding of the Old Testament but he didn’t fully understand who Jesus was. Even with all of the Old Testament knowledge he couldn’t see the fulfillment of the prophecies. He knew some and had faith in Jesus. From here we see someone that knew even less have saving faith in Jesus.

The Woman

Mark 5:28–29 ESV

For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Mark 5:34 ESV

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

The next character in out story is the woman. This woman had a medical issue for 12 years and had spent all of her money on doctors only to have it getting worse. Her last hope was to get to Jesus and just to touch the fringe of his garment. This was because of a belief at the time that if you touch a piece of the clothing of a man of God you could be healed. She knew Jesus was a man of God so she went to him.

Her knowledge was lacking but she did have some things right, Jesus can heal and you should have faith in him. She viewed him as a man of God but it is evident to us that he was more than that, he is God. She also thought there was special power in touching his clothes but there wasn’t, all of the power was in him.

This woman lacked knowledge about the deep things of the faith, all that she had was the beginning knowledge. This was all that she needed though. This is all that you need. This woman because of her illness would have been deemed as ceremonially unclean. Just like the leper that we talked about a few weeks back Jesus did not become unclean through this interaction but rather she became clean.

So often we try to complicate things and it all looses it’s meaning. People try to add to the Bible, they try to use movies to illustrate the Bible, they turn things into a big joke, and they rob it of it’s real meaning. Faith is such a simple thing and you don’t need a lot of knowledge to have it, you just need to know that you are a sinner and that Jesus saves sinners.

The Girl

Mark 5:41–42 ESV

Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.

The last of the three characters in this story that I want to look at is the young girl at the end. By the time that Jesus had helped the woman the girl had died. This was no big deal for Jesus though. He took in with him his inner circle of apostles and brought her back to life. Just like this girl was dead, we to are dead in our trespasses and sins. Realize this, dead people don’t ask for help. Jesus brought healing for the woman that had been ill for as long as this girl has been alive, and to this girl he brought life.

Jesus is the giver of life, he doesn’t do it based upon what we have done but upon faith. Jesus doesn’t give life based upon our knowledge but upon faith. This is an image of what we will someday experience when Jesus returns and it will be the most spectacular thing in all of the world.

Here in this story it is also important to note that just like with the woman before for Jesus to touch the body of this little girl he would have become ceremonially unclean but instead she became clean once again.

Conclusion

Through this passage we saw people from all different areas of life all finding Jesus. A leader in the church, a woman that had been ill and unclean for years, and a girl that was dead. These people did not have a complete knowledge of Jesus and the Bible, they just had the faith that they needed.

This is all that is required of us for salvation, faith and repentance. We do not have to have extensive knowledge of the Bible to be saved. You just have to put your faith in Jesus and turn away from your sins.

When you have put your faith in Jesus you should work to learn more about him and his word in the Bible. We have infinite riches in Christ right here in his word and as a Christian we should desire to be in it more right now. I have found that the more I learn about the Bible, the more I want to know. It never gets old and is refreshing every day. If you are not a Christian then I would recommend that you read the Bible to so that you can see more of what it’s about. A good place to start is John.

In the end remember this, there is nothing that you must do to get ready for salvation.