Mark 5 Devotional Part 2

Intro

I was really encouraged by our conversation in our DBS Groups Sunday! DBS is one of many was that we can encounter God through the word and each other! For this Thursday Thought, I wanted to share some of the highlights from my groups conversation around this text. Would you join me as I read the passage from Mark Chapter 5 starting at verse 21

Mark 5:21–36 NIV

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

I want us to focus in on the faith of the two Characters in this episode of Mark’s Gospel. The Synogogue Leader Jaruis and the Unnamed woman with the Bleed. Let’s us start with Jairus and then move on to the woman at the well.

Jairus’ Situation and Status

The situation- Jairus and his immediate need are introduced right away. Jairus comes before Jesus and falls at Jesus’ feet and pleads with Jesus. His daughter is sick and on deaths door. We must remember that is is a time and place where a person could not go to the emergency room or an urgent care. Doctors usually came to the house and were quite expensive. The reality of the day was children and adults died from sicknesses that we easily recover from today.

Jairus, begs Jesus to simply lay his hands on his dying daughter he believed that she would be healed.

I want to take a moment to discuss the role of social status plays in this situation

The Status- Now Jairus is a labeled as a synagouge leader, we dont know what kind if he was a priest, assistant or a scribe. But its important that We know he is a leader. All of the other leaders in the synagouges not only dont believe in Jesus they want to cast him out. Yet, this synagouge leader is different. He not only believes Jesus has power and authority, but He believes that Jesus is the only one that can heal his daughter. Jesus responses to Jairus faith and Goes with him.

BUT SO DID THE CROWD. In the crowd we found another person. A woman with Courageous Faith.

The Unnamed Woman with Courageous Faith

The situation- This unnamed woman was dealing with a bleed. This is not a typical menstral bleed. This was a bleed that persisted for 12 years. That is an extraordinary amount of time to dear with any kind of problem. The text says that she spent all she had trying to fix this problem. Now the average woman was not wealthy in that time. But I want you to imagine spending all you had to fix this problem. Countless appointments and procedures. Except instead of things getting better for this woman they got worse. I can imagine how difficult dealing with this condition would be. But the implications of this ailment had severe consequences for this woman’s social status.

The Status- Because of this condition this woman would be considerd unclean. Now we dont know when this started in her life, most likely around puberty. She has spent a significant portion of her adult life with this condition. If she was married, she has been divorced and alone now. Most likely she was forced to be alone on the margins of society because anyone she touched was unclean. In fact, if anyone touched something she did they were unclean for the rest of the day. if they sat in a chair she sat in unclean. She was probably forced to live a life of isolation due to this condition. Take a moment to think about what it would feel like to live alone and never be able to touch anyone?

Transition: Despite her situation this woman has a courageous faith!

The Courageous Faith- This woman knows that Jesus is the answer to her situation and healing for her condition. So this woman takes a leap of faith and enters a crowd knowing that anyone she touches would be considered unclean. Yet she pushed forward anyway knowing “if I just touch the hem of his clothes, I will be healed”. We see in the text that her faith did bring healing she touched Jesus and she was healed.

Transition: But as soon as this happens Jesus stops the crowd saying who touched me? and I love the disciples response, what do you mean jesus? the whole crowd is pressed up against him.

Jesus then calls out, who touched me? This woman again shows courageous faith and comes forward. She explains the situation Jesus and Jesus declares her a Daughter, who has been made well.

Transition: Now I want to turn back to Jairus for a moment. Can you imagine what he must be thinking while this is happening? I know what I would be thinking, come on Jesus, my daughter is dying. Maybe Jairus knew this womans situation and was thinking shes waited 12 years whats a few more hours, my daughter is dying! Then he hears the news.

Jairus Courageous Faith

Right after this occurs someone from Jairus’ house comes and declares that his daughter has died. This is the point where he must truly have courageous faith because it seems that this little interruption has cost him his daughters life. He believed that Jesus couldve healed her before, but even the servant says, why bother the teacher anymore? What’s left unsaid here is the implication that Jesus is merely a teacher, he cant do anything now the daughter is gone.

What makes Jairus’ faith courageous is that he has to believe that Jesus can do something that seems impossible, futhermore he has to keep going through this crowd and face his family, who is probably wondering where he is. Most of all he now has to go home to his daughter that everyone believes is dead.

Jesus encourages Jairus saying, dont be afraid just believe. Its Jairus’ courageous faith and God’s healing power brings his daughter back to life.

What can we take from this passage? What does this passage challenge in us?

This story teaches us that no matter our situation or our status we can have courageous faith in God. Because Despite our sitution and our status we follow a God that can bring healing and new life in ways that are beyond what we can even imagine!

This story challenges our understanding of who God values and God’s timing. In the passage Jesus stops and takes time for a woman that everyone rejected and pushed away on an errand for an important religous leader. This shows that Jesus values those that others overlook. How can we learn from this? Second, Jesus takes the time to heal a woman during what we may see as a pressing time. We are challenged to trust in God’s timing and not our own.

In what ways can we take steps to trust in God’s timing over our own this week and how can we have courageous faith like Jarius and this unnamed woman? Thank you for joining me for the thursday thought! I pray that you were blessed by this encounter with God! Love you church!