Faith in Action!

Brief Review

Mark’s theme and Key verse- Written to Romans/Gentiles to show who the suffering servant, Christ, was. Key verse

Also mention the mistake - the demoniac was indeed worshipping Christ ()

Introduction

What is Faith? Some of the dictionary synonyms are confidence, reliance, conviction, belief, assurance. Ok, but what does faith look like? I’ve heard it described by Ray Comfort as a parachute which is put on. One biblical definition is in , “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”In today’s message you will see faith - living faith - in not one account, but two corresponding events. And by God’s grace you will leave today with greater faith than you arrived.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), .”In today’s message you will see faith - living faith - in not one account, but two corresponding events. And by God’s grace you will leave today with greater faith than you arrived.

Read the account

The New King James Version Chapter 5

21 Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. 22 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet 23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him.

25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing 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.”

35 While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”

36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” 37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. 39 When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

40 And they ridiculed Him. 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. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.

Literary matters

Way back in October of 2017 we looked at and in particular we saw what I called intercalation, or chiasm, or insertion. One event interrupted by another event. In the two events were Christ’s family coming for him because he was going crazy interrupted by the Scribes who accuse him of blasphemy. And at that time you may remember that the two events were informative one to the other. Christs’ family thought he was out of his mind and were coming to get him, and the Scribes were shown by Christ to be the insane party having themselves blasphemed the very Holy Spirit! Today we have another insertion. We have the account of Jairus requesting help for his dying daughter, interrupted by a woman looking for help.

Secondarily is the fact that this account is also found in all three synoptic gospels - so we do have to take consideration of all the material.

Lexical Notes

Words

There are certain words which have significant theological meaning behind them and in our account we see a few of them quite regularly. There are two that we are considering this evening, Sozo - the Greek word for delivered or saved; and Pistis - the Greek word for faith.

Matt uses sozo 3 times and pistis once ()

Sozo - the Greek word for delivered or saved.

Pistis - the Greek word for faith.

Luke uses sozo once and pistis twice ()

Mark however uses sozo and pistis much more frequently. Sozo 3 times, pistis 2 times, and the usual word for healing, 2 times.

Apparent contradiction

BTW - When we read the account in Matthew it is stated that Jairus’ daughter had just died - which might look like a contradiction. However, in Matthew AND in Mark we read that Jairus explicitly says “she will live” using the same Greek word for live in each case, so it is best to understand that this girl was dying, at the point of death, crossing over - and by some accounts had already done so. There is no contradiction.

Gospel to the gentiles

Finally - there is a unique example of Mark demonstrating his concern for us gentiles - in vs. 41 the Aramaic Talitha Cumi is translated. Tali signifies a boy, talitha a girl. Cumi is a command to arise.

Evaluation

Who is Jairus? and his daughter?

Who is Jairus? and his daughter?

Who is this anonymous woman?

When we ask these questions consider how the parties are referred to in the account. Ruler of the Synagogue. “These were laymen whose responsibilities were administrative, not priestly, and included such things as looking after the building and supervising the worship. Sometimes the title was honorary, given to prominent members of the congregation with no administrative duties attached.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

And his daughter - 12 years old - and very affectionately referenced in when he calls her his “little daughter” The Greek term is unique and means one which is like when we call to our wife or child ‘sweety’.

The anonymous woman is exactly that. The most we can come up with is a probability that she is a gentile, based upon Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical history. Eusebius was the Bishop of Cesarean and also a historian who lived from 263 - 339 AD. (76)

Eusebius relates that this woman was of Cæsarea Philippi, where her house was, and where were still standing (about 300 years later), monuments of the benefits conferred upon her by Christ; at the door of her house was a brazen image of a woman in brass, set upon an high stone on her bended knees, and arms stretched out like one begging; and opposite to her, another of a man, of the same metal, standing, and decently clothed in a tunic, and his hand stretched out to the woman... (Eusebius Eccl Hist. l. 7. c. 18.)

We have other history that tells us it was broken and destroyed by Julian the apostate who reigned from 355 to 360 AD (Theophylact Simocatta).

Walter W. Wessel, “Mark,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 660.”

Whatever we make of statues of Christ, this woman did what seemed respectful to her pagan mind at the time to honor Jesus. And if she was of Caesarea Philippi she was almost certainly gentile.

What city are we in? We are not told explicitly, but with some conjecture and based upon we can assert Capernaum. However, it does not seem to matter.

Consider the event as a whole… Though it is recorded as an intercalation by Mark, all 3 gospel accounts give the same order. Mark simply gives us enough detail within that order to learn a few things.

First - remember that both Jairus and the woman say or think that Jesus can deliver or save (sozo). While we might see this in the English as healing, that wasn’t their first thought.

Second - Jesus connects faith, their faith as the causative reason for deliverance (sozo).

Jairus says to Christ, “Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” And he says this after declaring her death. Verse 36 we see Jesus address him - “Do not be afraid, only believe”

The woman says to herself, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well (sozo).” After the healing Jesus says to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well (sozo) . Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

Finally - the woman whose issue of blood made her an outcast, had this malady from the very time of the little girls’ birth. For twelve years these two people, who never, as far as we know ever met one another, were tied together in a theological lesson for us today - just like the book of Job. He never as far as we can tell ever knew about the reasons for his great trial - God’s boasting in Job.

We are far too quick to ‘understand’ a persons’ plight I think. I don’t say that to excuse sin, but often we think we know when plainly the fact is God does what we cannot see and will not see, until He determines to do so. Like Joseph said to his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” Therefore he was not going to take vengeance out on his brothers.

Conclusion and challenge

So how are we to understand these two accounts? What is God’s message for us?

Faith is the key

Jesus is constantly mobbed. We’ve seen this over and over. Yet he does not let the circumstances surrounding him drive him over the brink to anger or abandonment of his work.

Don’t we do that? You have an appointment which you planned for, but new things have arisen to squeeze that appointment to the point that you have just enough time to get there and as you go you get a flat, or the train crossing is busy with a 2 miler. Do you get exasperated and take it out on the kids or the Doctor? Or do you just abandon your responsibility with some fatalistic saying?

Look at this woman’s faith - for more than a decade she pursued a cure. Spending it all - yet she still didn’t yield to fatalism. Que sera sera. Somehow, she continued on until this Messiah comes by and she thinks Aha! Hope! BTW - some commentators I read pointed out that her idea to touch the hem of his garment to be made well was a pagan superstition. We read of this sort of thing in . Now, think of this, this gentile woman, her faith corrupted by superstition, still finds herself healed. What does that tell you!

And look at the faith of Jairus - First off, he is plainly already convinced that Christ can indeed heal his little girl. In verse 23 he says exactly that. but notice this - he never says another thing. Not one more word - even though his daughter was at the very point of death, or as good as dead. His faith is in the Lord. Even when an unexpected distraction, this anonymous gentile woman delays the whole works!

Do you see where I am going with this folks? Do you really and truly trust in the sovereignty of the almighty - or when the hard time comes, when your plans fail do you fatalistically abandon hope, or become angry? Remember the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. () James tells us this right after exhorting us that every good and perfect gift come down from the Father above. And we know faith is one of those gifts of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

Jairus even holds his tongue when the report comes that his daughter had indeed passed on. Dead is dead, and it makes perfect sense to “not trouble the Master” right? But Jesus now says only one thing to cheer him - “Do not be afraid; only believe.” There is our word again - pistis, or faith.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), .

Marks theme expressed

In the press of crowds, with hardly time to sit and rest our Lord serves. He patiently waits upon crowds of people with imperfect faith. Even his own disciples chastise him - you ask who touched me?! Indeed! This Jesus not only serves rowdy crowds, he teaches foolish disciples - like you and me… He lets one distraction after another go, without exasperation.

In my day job, when computer systems fail it seems to be that they fail in droves. I get pretty testy when I can’t focus on one problem without 2 or more people telling me their troubles. I suspect you are a lot like me. But we need to have faith. Jairus gives us the example of a near perfect faith. I know it wasn’t perfect, for nothing a man does is acceptable to God, but for Christ. And the example of this anonymous gentile woman with her very imperfect, even superstitious faith also instructs us.

Lastly - let me show you something that tremendously blessed me. Jairus was a Jewish man of some note. Perhaps nothing more than a generally righteous Jew he was afforded the title Ruler of the Synagogue. This reminds us that his daughter also was Jewish and Jairus had great affection for her.

But notice this last comparison for us from Mark - the gospel for us gentiles. When Jesus addresses the anonymous gentile woman, he says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” He says to her - daughter and I can’t help thinking that he also affectionately loved this woman - despite her imperfect faith.

Challenge

But notice this last comparison for us from Mark - the gospel for us gentiles. When Jesus addresses the anonymous gentile woman, he says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” He says to her - daughter and I can’t help thinking that he also affectionately loved this woman - despite her imperfect faith.

What I want to remind you of is that the essence of true faith is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. This woman’s faith was superstitious and even the fact that she hid among the crowd shows she was ashamed in her actions. Will our faith be better? When the Disciples requested of Christ in , “Lord - increase our faith” his response was that familiar mustard seed illustration. Don’t you see that it isn’t up to you and the goodness of your effort or the sincerity of your belief? You have no faith apart from Him!

That is why this woman was healed - God is gracious toward the sinner! The man whose son was demon possessed and even Christ’s own disciples could not heal him - this is the man who call out to Christ, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” () It’s not the perfection of your faith so much as it is the confidence of the One in whom you trust which makes all the difference in the world.

May the Lord help us each one to be more aware of the sovereign Lord we have and his good intentions toward us, despite the ‘setbacks’ we seem to experience. Every setback is from the Lord and as Joseph said God meant it for good.

on, 1982), .

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” () Do we believe that?

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), .”

Oh Lord! May you keep ever before us the faith to believe - Lord help us in our unbelief! Help us in our faulty belief! Help us that we keep the faith.

Amen.