Do not fear, only believe
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Opening Remarks
Opening Remarks
Today as we consider the account in Mark 5 of Jesus’s healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of Jairus’s daughter from the dead we will be touching on three key doctrines;
Faith
Healing
Salvation
I want for you to see today through this passage how these three doctrines relate to one another. How the power of Christ is brought to bear by this thing we call faith. I want for you to to note the Lord’s response to the faith of Jairus and to the faith of the woman whom he heals. Moreover I want for us to consider together the nature of faith, what does it consist of, where does it spring from and how does it manifest?
And what can this passage teach us about supernatural healing and it’s relationship to faith? There are many teachings on the subject of healing from this passage, many of them centred on the role of faith in supernatural healing. This is an area where there has been much confusion and therefore much hurt has been caused to the body of Christ, so we must proceed with caution and care as we unpack this doctrine.
And finally, as if taking a moment to look up from the valley to the lofty mountain summit high up above, I want for us to catch a glimpse of the glory of God’s great work of salvation. For if there is a summit of revelation in this passage, this is surely it.
21 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.
Mark’s gospel, you may remember, is the testimony of the apostle Peter. And Peter recounts that after the deliverance on the eastern shore of the Galilee they crossed back over to the other side, not to Tiberias the largest settlement on the western shore but likely again to Capernaum.
22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet
He is met again almost immediately by a man who falls at His feet, although this time it is not a demoniac, it is someone of some standing in the community, a ruler of the synagogue. It would be wrong to think of this man as a leader or a teacher of the local jews, rulers of the synagogue took care of the practical, organisational management of the building and it’s functions. Nevertheless Jairus would have been an influential character and it’s likely that Peter knew him personally, since we are told his name.
23 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.”
This man, Jairus, we are told comes and falls at Jesus’s feet and begs him to heal his daughter. These aren’t the actions of a cool, calculated, austere man. He is desperate, he is past caring what those around him might think about him, he is in need, he’s in pain, he knows Jesus is the only hope for his daughter.
Here is the first thing we can learn about true faith today. True faith, faith that moves Christ, comes to him in desperation, it doesn’t stroll cooly up to him, it isn’t aloof or complacent, it falls at his feet, true faith sees Christ as the only answer to our most pressing and urgent need. True faith isn’t ashamed of looking foolish in pursuit of Christ, it isn’t looking to the opinions of men, it’s to busy looking to Jesus.
Secondly, true faith in Christ is always driven by need, it flows out of an acknowledgement that we need Him, that we aren’t enough on our own. There can be no faith where there is self sufficiency. Faith reaches out when we reach the end of ourselves, have you reached the end of yourself? Do you need Jesus? Do you consider that life and death without Him are unimaginable? Then reach out in faith to Him just like Jairus did.
Too many today in the health, wealth and prosperity gospel world treat Jesus like a cash cow or a magic lamp that if they rub it the right way will give them whatever they desire. This is to attempt to use Christ, to manipulate Him for what He can do for us. This isn’t true faith, it’s a worldly counterfeit. True faith isn’t some kind of mystical, super power that we wield, it is a simple, childlike trust that runs to Jesus empty handed and believes Him at His word.
24 And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
Jesus follows Jairus with a large crowd in tow, so close that they are pressing up against Jesus. Imagine the hope beginning to flow through Jairus now that Jesus is with him. He’s walking back to the place of his trial, walking back to his young daughter on deaths door but now instead of fear and dejection we imagine him full of hope! How different a situation can look when you’ve got Jesus walking with you.
25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Now the procession to the home of Jairus is interrupted by a woman who we are told has had a discharge of blood for 12 years. This condition would have certainly been a physically debilitating, life altering one. Moreover, amongst the Jews it made her ceremonially unclean. For twelve years she would have been effectively ostracised from community, anyone who touched her, even her husband would be made unclean too. Not only had she suffered physically for twelve years but she also suffered the shame of being unclean and the pain of being separated from those she loved.
We’re told by Luke that she actually spent all that she had on doctors bills in an attempt to make things better but it had only made them worse.
She has tried everything, given all that she had to the cause of making herself better but to no avail. The best medical wisdom of the time hadn’t been able to help, in fact it had only made things worse.
There are people who sense that there is something wrong with their lives, they sense an emptiness inside, and they spend all that they have trying to fill it. They head out into the world and take their fill of the best it has to offer, it’s entertainment, it’s pleasures, it’s religons and spiritual practices and nothing works, in fact it only seems to make things worse. The world offers many, expensive solutions to problems that only God can truly fix.
27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
This poor woman has heard reports about Jesus that have given her fresh hope. This is why we must continue to look for opportunities to share the gospel! We never know who we are speaking to when we go out into town on Thursdays, we don’t know their struggles or where they are in their journey. Even though it might seem that people are unresponsive you never know who might hear your report about Christ and go home and reach out to touch the hem of His garment!
As far as we know this is the first time someone thought to reach out and touch Jesus’s clothes in order to be healed, it sounds a little superstitous but this is what she did, and she was immediately healed! It seems that this story spread all around because later on in Jesus’s ministry on the opposite side of the Galilee many were trying to copy what this woman did.
34 And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
A lengthy, serious condition that had been beyond the reach of contemporary medicine to heal was healed in a moment through one touch of Jesus’s garment.
Lot’s has been said about this passage but I just want to say a few things in passing:
Jesus healed then, and Jesus heals now. He healed all sorts of conditions then, he heals all sorts of conditions now. He can heal completely with just one touch now, just as He did then. He is compassionate, He cares about your pain and your needs. He heals according to the faith of Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood, and He heals according to faith today.
Jesus responds in each case according to the faith of the individual in need. Jairus had faith for Him to come to his house and lay hands on his daughter to heal her, so that is what He does. He doesn’t say ‘well actually, I could heal her from here if you’d prefer. I did that for a Centurion a few weeks back’ he acts according to the level of Jairus’s faith. In the same way He heals the woman with the issue of blood with a touch, He doesn’t say, ‘actually, you have to speak to me first.’ This should embolden us in our faith; if Christ responds according to the level of our faith then let’s not be afraid to believe Him for big things!
It’s human nature to try to copy any method that we see getting results. We see people in Jesus’s day copying the faith of this woman and getting results. But we mustn’t get mixed up into thinking that it was the method that got this woman healed, it wasn’t, it was Jesus. I think Jesus was being gracious in healing all the other copy cats when they came grabbing the hem of his garment. There was no power in the technique of hem grabbing, there was no power in the hem itself, the power was in Jesus and it was faith in Him that healed, not faith in the method, not faith in the garment, not faith in the faith.
Our faith mustn’t rest in our declarations, or certain prayers or sayings, our faith must rest on Christ and His promises alone.
So what about when people aren’t healed? Did they grab the hem wrong? Did they not hold on to the hem long enough or believe hard enough? We know these answers are absurd but this is sadly what many Christians have been taught about healing. They have been taught that if they aren’t healed then it’s their fault, there was something wrong with their faith. But let’s remember, this woman’s faith was unorthodox, it was a little superstitious but Jesus still healed her. We know that Jairus began to doubt when his people came and told him his daughter had died, did her unorthodoxy prevent her healing? Did Jairus’s wavering faith prevent his daughter being healed? No! In fact, there is even an account in John 5 of Jesus healing a lame man who didn’t even know who He was. The point being, Jesus healed these people who all had imperfect or even weak faith in Him. Even a weak faith gets a powerful saviour!
We believe in healing God, we also believe in a sovereign God, who works all things according to the counsel of His will. When healing doesn’t come, we keep praying and in the process we learn to trust Him, trust His timing, trust His plan that even though we might not understand how with our finite minds, He is working all things together for good for us.
30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 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. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
Jesus, sensing that power has gone out from Him starts looking for whoever touched Him. The disciples are bemused and almost mock him, what do you mean who touched you?! Everyone is touching you! There’s a whole world of difference between brushing up against Jesus and touching Him in faith. There are many who touch Jesus who are never saved by Him. There are many who press up against Jesus in this life but never receive His power. There are professors who spend their lives researching the scriptures but have no interest in knowing the saviour that they preach, there are many who attend church their whole lives who know the stories in the Bible but have never reached out and touched Christ with faith, they assumed they were already good people, they didn’t see how they needed a saviour. If we are to receive from Christ it must be by faith, association alone won’t do, good works won’t do, you personally must reach out in faith to Him. No one is saved apart from faith in Christ.
But before we begin to boast and think that it was our faith that saved us we must remember Paul’s reasoning in the second chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians 2:8-10 - For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
This is where we start to catch sight of that mountain top here in this passage; the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. Many touched Jesus, but only the touch of faith received the power of God to save. As soon as we see that faith is both required for salvation but that it is also a gift from God, that it’s something He works in us of grace we see the gospel. That God works in us what He requires of us.
The woman who had been healed must have been scared, why did Jesus want to expose her? Was he going to rebuke her for touching him? What would happen if he found out she was unclean? If you’ve ever felt too sinful, too messed up, too broken for Jesus this is the verse for you. She comes to him trembling, falls down and tells him the whole truth, everything, sparing no detail and what does he do? He blesses her, He publicly declares her clean so that now everyone will know she has really been healed. He mentions nothing about her uncleanness, he doesn’t rebuke her, he calls her daughter. Wow! This should encourage every sinner that when you come before Christ and tell the whole truth that He won’t ridicule you or embarrass you, He won’t be angry but he’ll receive you as a son, as a daughter!
John 6:37 (ESV)
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
35 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?” 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”
While all of this is going on you can imagine Jairus standing, nervously tapping his feet, and then some of his people come with the news that his daughter is dead. What must have gone through his head, would there have been anger at the woman, frustration at Jesus maybe? Perhaps. Certainly we know from Jesus’s words here that Jairus was afraid, Jesus hears the report that his daughter is dead and turns to Jairus and addresses him alone saying do not fear, only believe. Jesus doesn’t give up, he doesn’t leave Jairus because he sees that his faith is wavering, he encourages him.
I want you to see here that Jesus is an encourager. When your faith is wavering, when you doubt, when you’re frightened he comes to encourage your faith, to encourage you, don’t be frightened, only believe.
Believe in what? In Christ and His word.
37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 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. 41 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. 43 And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
When they arrive at Jairus’s house there is a commotion. In those days in was required in certain parts of Judea that you hire professional mourners when someone died. Jesus asks them why they are making such a scene and tells them the child is only sleeping, they laugh at him. Was the child only sleeping? No, she was dead. But to Christ she was only sleeping. When we walk with Him things that are impossible become possible.
Jesus puts them all outside apart from the family and according to Luke’s account Peter, John and James. There are some who teach that this was in order to protect at atmosphere of faith in the room. I’ve even seen people practice this, where they will ask those who they feel lack faith to leave a room if they are praying for a healing. This is I believe a misunderstanding of this text. Jesus heals people in public in front of sceptical unbelievers on a regular basis throughout his ministry, he’s not trying to foster an environment of faith. The reason is that at this stage of his ministry in Judea he is still charging people not to tell others of his miracles, this is told us in verse 43.
Jesus calls to the little girl, Talitha cumi and immediately she gets up and starts walking. Jesus tells the family to give her something to eat. Clearly she hasn’t just been resucitated, she has been raised and totally healed of whatever illness had killed her.
As I finish I want for you to see here again the mountain top from this verse, here we’re catching again a glimpse of the power of God’s work of salvation.
When God saves you he is raising you from the dead! You were as dead as a doornail, dead in sins and trespasses as Paul says in Ephesians, unable to do anything to help yourself, unable to respond to God, dead! When God saves you he’s not giving you a helping hand, giving you a leg up so you can get over your problems, your sins, your hurts. No! You were like this girl, totally dead. It was Christ’s words that raised her, it was His command, ‘arise’ that raised her. It is the word of God, the Gospel that raises dead sinners to life today. This is why we believe the Bible teaches clearly that it’s God who gets the glory in our salvation and Him alone, we can claim no share in His glory, it was all of Him. Soli Deo Gloria was the cry of the reformers and we need to return to that cry once again. When we think that in salvation God does His bit and we do ours guess what we’re saying? We’re saying; I’ll take a share of that glory thank you God, you couldn’t have done it without me! How foolish, how contrary to all Biblical revelation. You and I were just like Jairus’s daughter until God made you born again, we owe Him all the praise and all the glory for giving us new life.
Pray