Mark 5 Verses 21 to 34 The Power of a Desperate Faith May 18, 2025

5 Lesson 7 The Remarkable Journey Continues Class Presentation Notes AAAAAA

Background Scriptures:

· 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NASB95)

9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

· Jeremiah 29:13 (NASB95)

          13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

· Matthew 10:32–33 (NASB95)

          32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.

          33 “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Main Idea:

· Suffering is a part of life, but Jesus gives us hope.

Study Aim:

· To understand that casual contact with Christ is not the same as a desperate grasp of faith.

Create Interest:

· The major theme in the two miracle stories in 5:21–43is healing/salvation by faith. Both bring out the compassion of Jesus for those who had a lowly place in Jewish society: two females, one of whom was a child, the other an outcast due to her continuing state of ritual impurity. Jesus did not neglect the needs of a lowly woman to impress an influential religious official. Both incidents show that when human means have failed, God through Jesus can succeed. The juxtaposition of the faith of a humble woman and that of a religious dignitary reinforces the importance of faith. All must have it.[1]

Lesson in Historical Context:

· Unlike many religious leaders, including the rabbis of first-century Judaism, Jesus did not seclude Himself from people. His entire ministry was spent surrounded by the crowds, with only occasional retreats into isolation for the purpose of prayer, rest, and focused times of instruction with His disciples. Ministering among the multitudes was not easy; they relentlessly hounded (cf. 1:37, 45) and crowded (cf. 2:4; 3:9, 20) Him. Yet, He remained accessible to them.

· In the previous section (5:1–20), Jesus cast a legion of demons out of a man on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The residents of the area, frightened by such a dramatic display of divine power and revealing their unbelieving indifference, begged the Lord to leave. Obliging their request, Jesus and His disciples crossed over again in the boat to the other side, traveling roughly six miles across the lake to the western shore near Capernaum. When they arrived, they were greeted by a large crowd that gathered around Him to the extent that He stayed by the seashore. According to Luke 8:40, “the people welcomed Him, for they had all been waiting for Him.” This crowd was no doubt comprised of many who were suffering from various diseases and disabilities. Hoping to be healed, they had waited eagerly for Jesus’ arrival.

· Mark’s account focuses on two individuals out of the massive multitude who desperately needed Jesus. They had little in common, other than the dire nature of their circumstances. One was a man, the other a woman; one wealthy, one poor; one respected, one rejected; one honored, one ashamed; one leading the synagogue, the other excommunicated from the synagogue; one with a twelve-year-old child, the other with a twelve-year-old malady. Though they had no obvious relationship to one another, in God’s perfect providence their lives intersected that day in an unforgettable way.[2]

Bible Study:

Mark 5:21–23 (NASB95)

21     When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore.

22     One of the synagogue officials named Jairus *came up, and on seeing Him, *fell at His feet

23     and *implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.”

Some of last week’s lesson is modified for this as the same passage was included…New info is included to freshen the approach.

· We really should take this passage with the next one, since in Mark’s mind they are all part of the same story. But both are so full of interest that it’s worth holding them apart for the moment, provided we remember how closely they belong together.

· What Mark has done is to place one story inside the other, in what is sometimes called a Markan sandwich. (We’ll see him do this again in, for example, 11:12–25.) The flavor of the outer story adds zest to the inner one; the taste of the inner one is meant in turn to permeate the outer one.

· Both stories are about fear and faith, and the power of Jesus to take people from one to the other. Both, singly and together, are worth spending time ‘inside’, in the sense of meditating on them, imagining you are in the crowd watching it all happen, then—if you dare!—identifying with the various characters at the center of the drama.

o That’s a wonderful way to turn Scripture into prayer—and today, as in Jesus’ day, to turn fear into faith.[3]

· One crowd sighed with relief as they saw Jesus leave, but another crowd was waiting to welcome Him when He returned home to Capernaum.

· In that latter crowd stood two people who were especially anxious to see Him—Jairus, a man with a dying daughter; and an anonymous woman suffering from an incurable disease.

· In our study last week, we spent much time on Jarius’ request.  This week we will focus on the unidentified lady.

Mark 5:24–34 (NASB95)

24     And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him.

25     A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,

26     and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—

27     after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.

28     For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”

29     Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

30     Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceedingfrom Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”

31     And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

32     And He looked around to see the woman who had done this.

33     But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.

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

· The contrast between these two needy people is striking and reveals the wideness of Christ’s love and mercy.

o Jairus was an important synagogue officer, and the woman was an anonymous “nobody”; yet Jesus welcomed and helped both.

o The first interest is focused upon Jairus and his urgent appeal to Jesus. He may have had contact with Jesus previously, since as synagogue-ruler he was a lay official responsible for supervision of the building and arranging the service. His request that Jesus should come and lay hands in healing upon his daughter reflects a common practice of the day.

§ What was unusual was his confidence that if Jesus would come, his daughter’s life would be saved. Jesus went with him, followed by the crowd.[4]

o Jairus was about to lose a daughter who had given him twelve years of happiness (Mark 5:42), and the woman was about to lose an affliction that had brought her twelve years of sorrow.

o Being a synagogue officer, Jairus was no doubt wealthy; but his wealth could not save his dying daughter. The woman was already bankrupt! She had given the doctors all her money, and yet none of them could cure her.

§ Both Jairus and the poor woman found the answers to their needs at the feet of Jesus (Mark 5:22 and 33).

o The woman had a hemorrhage that was apparently incurable and was slowly destroying her and, according to the Law, she was ceremonially unclean, which greatly restricted both her religious and her social life.  What a burden she carried!

§ However, she laid aside all arguments and excuses and came by faith to Jesus.

· There is a good lesson here for all of us.Not everybody has the same degree of faith, but Jesus responds to faith no matter how feeble it might be.

o When we believe, He shares His power with us, and something happens in our lives.     Discuss and apply to your life.

Let’s move on……………

· The plight of the woman is twofold. Her illness is chronic and has cost her all her money (26). Perhaps as bad, however, is the fact that her particular form of disease rendered her ritually unclean.

o Bleeding (5:25). Possibly due to some sort of uterine disease. Such bleeding not only was unhealthy and uncomfortable but also left the woman ceremonially unclean (see Leviticus 15:25–27), thus shutting her off from the worship of God and the fellowship of her friends. Anyone whom she touched would have become unclean for a period of time as well.[5]

· The physicians had had no success with the treatment of this woman’s case, and she had heard of Jesus. But she had this problem—her trouble was an embarrassing thing; to go in the crowd and to state it openly was something she could not face; and so, she decided to try to touch Jesus in secret.

· Every devout Jew wore an outer robe with four tassels on it, one at each corner. These tassels were worn in obedience to the command in Numbers 15:38–40, and they were to signify to others, and to remind the man himself, that the wearer was a member of the chosen people of God. They were the badge of a devout Jew.

o It was one of these tasselsthat the woman slipped through the crowd and touched; and, having touched it, she was thrilled to find herself cured.

· Here was a woman who came to Jesus as a last resort; having tried every other cure that the world had to offer she finally tried him. Many have come to seek the help of Jesus when he/she was at wits’ end/desperate as it were. He may have battled with temptation until he could fight no longer and stretched out a hand, crying, “Lord, save me! I perish!” He may have struggled with some exhausting task until he reached the breaking-point and then cried out for a strength which was not his strength. He may have labored to attain the goodness which haunted him, only to see it recede ever farther away, until he was utterly frustrated. No man should need to be driven to Christ by the force of circumstances, and yet many come that way; and, even if it is thus we come, he will never send us empty away.

“When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.”

· This may account in part for her secretive approach (27). Her place in the narrative at this point harmonizes with that of the synagogue official. For all the differences between them she, also, has perceived on the basis of reports she had heard about Jesus (27), that Jesus will be able to meet what she sees as her basic need, physically and ritually.

o Her touch achieves what she hoped for (28–29), but she has not allowed for the effect on Jesus himself.

o He knows that power had gone out from him and asks by whom (30), to the amazement of his disciples, in such a crowd (31).

o The woman now comes up as he turns around.  Greatly afraid, she tells him the whole saga (33). Her commitment is complete.

§ She has received power already (29);

§ She now receives peace (34).

§ The clue is her faith (34).

§ What he accused the disciples of still not properly having (4:40) he now praises the woman for possessing.[6]

Let’s look at questions we might have in this story.

· There were many others in that crowd who were close to Jesus and even pressing against Him, but they experienced no miracles. Why?

o Because they did not have faith.

§ It is one thing to crowd Him and quite something else to trust Him.

· Why did He not simply permit her to remain anonymous and go her way?

o For one thing, He did it for her own sake.

§ He wanted to be something more than a healer to be to her

He wanted to be her Savior and Friend

§ He wanted her to know that “to be made whole” meant much more than receiving mere physical healing.

Jesus had given her spiritual healing as well!

o A second thought would be for the sake of Jairus. His daughter was close to death, and he needed all the encouragement he could get. The crowd was impeding their progress, but now this woman had to interfere and stop Jesus! When one of Jairus’ friends arrived and announced that the girl had died, no doubt Jairus felt that the end had come.

§ The Lord’s words to the woman about faith and peace must have encouraged Jairus as much as they encouraged her.

o Perhaps a third reason was that Jesus dealt with her publicly that she might have the opportunity to share her testimony and glorify the Lord.“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy … He sent His word, and healed them …

§ Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” (Ps. 107:2, 20–21) No doubt some people in that crowd heard her words and trusted in the Savior; and when she arrived home, she already knew what it meant to witness for Christ.[7]

Let’s look at the cost of this healing

Mark 5:30–34

· It tells us the cost of healing. Every time Jesus healed anyone it took something out of him. Here is a universal rule of life.

o We will never produce anything great unless we are prepared to put something of ourselves, of our very life, of our very soul into it.

§ No pianist will ever give a really great performance if he glides through a piece of music with faultless technique and nothing more. The performance will not be great unless at the end of it there is the exhaustion which comes of the outpouring of self.

§ No actor will ever give a great performance who repeats his words with every inflection right and every gesture correct like a perfectly designed automaton. His tears must be real tears; his feelings must be real feelings; something of himself must go into the acting.

§ No preacher who ever preached a real sermon descended from his pulpit without a feeling of being drained of something.

· If we are ever to help men, we must be ready to spend ourselves. It all comes from our attitude to others.

o The greatness of Jesus was that he was prepared to pay the price of helping others, and that price was the outgoing of his very life.

§ We follow in his steps only when we are prepared to spend, not our substance, but our souls and strength for others.

· It tells us something about the disciples. It shows us very vividly the limitations of what is called common sense.The disciples took the common-sense point of view. How could Jesus avoid being touched and jostled in a crowd like that? That was the sensible way to look at things. There emerges the strange and poignant fact that they had never realized that it cost Jesus something to heal others.  It had to be physically exhausting!

o When the Israelites faced the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army behind them, they despaired. Yet it was Moses' desperate faith that led him to raise his staff, trusting in God's power to part the waters. The subsequent miracle was a testament to how faith can lead to divine intervention when all seems lost. Desperate faith takes action, trusting that God will move even when the situation appears impossible.

§ What led Moses to raise his staff at the Red Sea, and what action did this represent?

· One of the tragedies of life is the strange insensitivity of the human mind. We so often utterly fail to realize what others are going through.

o Because we may have no experience of something, we never think what that something is costing someone else.

o Because something may be easy for us we never realize what a costly effort it may be for someone else. That is why we so often hurt worst of all those we love.

o A man may pray for common sense, but sometimes he would do well to pray for that sensitive, imaginative insight which can see into the hearts of others.

§ In the Old Testament, King David, fleeing from Saul, found himself in a desperate situation hiding in a cave. In Psalm 142, he pours out his soul to God, expressing his fear and loneliness. David’s raw honesty and absolute reliance on God during his darkest moments showcase the essence of desperate faith. Such faith doesn’t give up hope, even in the most challenging circumstances; it clings to God’s promises.

· How does King David express his feelings in Psalm 142 while hiding from Saul?

· It tells us something about the woman.

o It tells us of the relief of confession.

o It was all so difficult; it was all so humiliating. But once she had told the whole truth to Jesus, the terror and the trembling were gone and a wave of relief flooded her heart.

o And when she had made her pitiful confession, she found Him very kind.[8]

§ Consider the story of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10. Shouted down by the crowd, he wasn’t deterred; instead, he cried out even louder for Jesus to have mercy on him. Jesus paused, called him over, and healed him. Bartimaeus exemplified desperate faith—not only did he believe that Jesus could heal him, but he also acted on that belief despite opposition. His boldness captures how genuine need can lead us to fervent faith.

· What does Bartimaeus' response to the crowd teach us about desperate faith?

· What steps can you take to cultivate a spirit of desperate faith in your daily life?

Thought to consider:

· Whenever I face a trial, I struggle with viewing it legalistically: “God, how could you allow this to happen to me? Haven’t you noticed everything I’m doing for you?” My next response is to see how quickly I can make the trial stop, all the time missing the fact that God has a bigger purpose in mind for my suffering. To short-circuit the trial would be to miss out on the display of God’s glory in the trial.[9]

o It is much easier to discuss an abstract subject like “sin” than it is to minister to a concrete need in the life of a person.

Let’s spend a moment looking at Paul’s shared view on Prayer in weakness.

Romans 8:26–30

“Even so, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray, if we are to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings which baffle speech to utter; but he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because it is by God’s will that he intercedes for those whose lives are consecrated to God. We know that God intermingles all things for good for those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he knew long ago, he long ago designed to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brothers. Those whom he long ago designed for this purpose, he also called; and those whom he called, he put into a right relationship with himself; and those whom he put into a right relationship with himself, he also glorified.”

· Thefirst two verses form one of the most important passages on prayer in the whole New Testament. Paul is saying that, because of our weakness, we do not know what to pray for, but the prayers we ought to offer are offered for us by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd defines prayer in this way: ‘Prayer is the divine in us appealing to the Divine above us.’

· There are two very obvious reasons why we cannot pray as we ought.

o First, we cannot pray correctly because we cannot foresee the future. We cannot see a year or even an hour ahead; and we may well pray, therefore, to be saved from things which are for our good, and we may well pray for things which would be to our ultimate harm.

o Second, we cannot pray correctly because in any given situation we do not know what is best for us. We are often in the position of children who want something which would be bound only to hurt them; and God is often in the position of parents who have to refuse their children’s requests or compel them to do something they do not want to do, because the parents know what is good for them far better than the children themselves.

· As Paul saw it, prayer, like everything else, is of God.

o He knew that by no possible human effort can we justify ourselves; and he also knew that by no possible effort of human intelligence can we know what to pray for.

o In the last analysis, the perfect prayer is simply: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Not my will, but yours be done.’

§ But Paul goes on from there. He says that those who love God, and who are called according to his purpose, know very well that God is ‘intermingling all things for good’ for them.

It is the experience of life for Christians that all things do work together for good.

§ We do not need to be very old to look back and see that things we thought were disasters worked out for our good; things that we thought were disappointments worked out as greater blessings.[3]

· Our afflictions are like weights, and have a tendency to bow us to the dust, but there is a way of arranging weights by means of wheels and pulleys, so that they will even lift us up. Grace, by its matchless art, has often turned the heaviest of our trials into occasions for heavenly joy. “We glory in tribulations also.” We gather honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.[10]

Questions to stir discussion:

· What happened when the woman touched Jesus’ cloak? (5:29)

· What was Jesus’ immediate response to the woman’s action? (5:30–32)

· Why could the disciples not understand Jesus’ action? (5:31)

· Of what was the woman afraid? (5:33)

· How did Jesus’ reply give the woman comfort and reassurance? (5:34)

o What connection is there between a person’s faith and whether God heals him or her of a sickness?

· In what way is it good for a person to be afraid of God?  Fear God?

· Jesus felt it when He took on the woman’s uncleanness and bestowed grace on her. How does knowing this affect your attitude toward the many times you have experienced forgiveness and grace? Forgiveness is free; but is it cheap?

· Jesus commended the imperfect faith of the woman. How can we be more encouraging of spiritual babes in our churches without condoning bad theology?

· Have you ever been frustrated with God’s timing? Have you ever felt He waited until it was too late—but then He came through? Explain.

· When our prayers turn into demands, are we trying to manipulate God, like magicians attempt to do, or are we commanding God, as if He were our butler?[11]

Grace and peace to all who read this………………

[1]James A. Brooks, Mark, vol. 23, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 93.

[2]John MacArthur, Mark 1–8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2015), 254–255.

[3]Tom Wright, Mark for Everyone(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 58–59.

[4]William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), 190.

[5]The Navigators, LifeChange: Mark, ed. Karen Lee-Thorp, The LifeChange Bible Study Series (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2013), 64–65.

[6]NIV Bible Speaks Today: Notes (London: IVP, 2020), 1359.

[7]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 126–127.

[8]William Barclay, ed., The Gospel of Mark, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster John Knox Press, 1976), 129–133.

[9]Matt Carter and Josh Wredberg, Exalting Jesus in John (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2017), 207–208.

[3]William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, 3rd ed. fully rev. & updated, The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 132–133.

[10]C. H. Spurgeon, Feathers for Arrows(London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1870), 8.

[11]Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 116.