Mark 5:24-34

Text: Mark 5:24-34

Title: A Blessin in Pressin

Introduction: [A] text by Johnson Oatman Jr…and tune by Charles H. Gabriel (1856–1932) were written in 1892, when Oatman first started to write gospel songs and Gabriel had just moved to Chicago from California.,” says,

I’m pressing on the upward way,

New heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I onward bound,

“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Lord, lift me up, and let me stand

By faith on Canaan’s tableland;

A higher plane than I have found,

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

(purpose) If there is someone here today who feels like giving up, I want to encourage you to PRESS ON. I don’t care what has happened to you this year, I encourage you to PRESS ON into the upcoming year. God has something greater for you this year. Expect God to do greater things. You will not see what God has for you if you remain in a spiritual state of frozen-ness! PRESS ON!

Jesus has just arrived from a town where he had performed an exorcism. In this same Gospel of Mark 5:17, the Gadarenes had desired Christ to leave their country. So, he did not stay to trouble them long, but presently went by water, as he came, back to the other side (v. 21), and there much people gathered to him. Note, If there be some that reject Christ…there are others that receive him, and bid him welcome. 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. The latter of the two is our focus today.

Her Circumstances (24-26)

Her Suffering - Burden After Burden

Physically (25) – She had a constant issue of blood upon her, for twelve years, which had thrown her, no doubt, into great weakness, had embittered the comfort of her life, and threatened to be her death in a little time. The woman had a hemorrhage that was apparently incurable and was slowly destroying her. One can only imagine the pain and emotional pressure that sapped her strength day after day.

Socially & Religiously (25) (cp. Leviticus 15:19ff) - But there was one [another] added burden: according to the Law, she was ceremonially unclean, which greatly restricted both her religious and her social life (Lev. 15:19ff). What a burden she carried!

Financially (26a) - When you consider her many disappointments with the doctors and the poverty it brought her, you wonder how she endured as long as she did.

Her Situation (26b) – Things did not get any better, they got worse. What a discouraging situation.

Her Cure (27-29)

(Joel Gregory) “Out of the suffocating crush of a crowd one desperate woman touched Jesus. He was on his way to help someone else. Yet we can stop Him with the touch of faith and be healed.

AUTHENTIC PERSISTENCE will ALWAYS be challenged with ADAMANT RESISTANCE

Her Touch (27-30)

(27a) She heard about Jesus.

(27b) She touched (to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to) the tassel on his robe.

(28) Her touch was not just inadvertent, nor out of curiosity but one “that…recognized her personal hopelessness and rested everything on Christ's power to make her whole.” (Joel Gregory, Sermon Synopses). Hers was a touch of faith.

(29) Instantaneous (healing took place right away) & Internal (she sensed/knew internally that she was cured)

Her Courage (30-34)

(30-32) Jesus knew he experienced an unusual touch contrary to what his entourage of disciples thought. The power (dunamis-miracle healing power of God) left his body.

(33) “She told HIM the whole truth.”

(34) Daughter (term of endearment, relationship/restoration)

(34) faith – imperfect (because of the touching of the robe because there was no healing in the robe); sufficient (because of the object of her faith – JESUS)

Conclusion: The contrast between these two needy people is striking and reveals the wideness of Christ’s love and mercy. Jairus was an important synagogue officer, and the woman was an anonymous “nobody”; yet Jesus welcomed and helped both of them. 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. 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 of 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).