“The Power and Compassion of Jesus”

“The Power and Compassion of Jesus”

Mark 5:21–43

As Jesus moves about He leaves behind him a trail of transformed scenes and changed situations—fishermen no longer at their nets, sick people restored to health, critics confounded, a storm stilled, hunger assuaged, a dead girl raised to life. Jesus’ presence is an active and instantly transforming presence: He is never the mere observer of the scene or the one who waits upon events but always the transformer of the scene and the initiator of events.

W. H. Vanstone

Two contrasting segments of society.

An outcast woman who had been suffering a disastrous hemorrhage for twelve years.

· The hemorrhage rendered her ceremonially unclean in Jewish society (Leviticus 15:25–27), which meant that she was a transmitter of uncleanness to all who came in contact with her.

If she touched her husband, he was unclean. If she touched her children, they were unclean. If she touched her friends, they were unclean. If she touched a stranger, he was unclean. What was life like for her? There was no way to become ceremonial clean.

By the way, that law of seven days of cleansing ritual was designed by God to be an illustration of what sin does. There were lots of symbols in the Old Testament, in the ABCs of God’s disclosed revelation. And one of them was that the laws of clean and unclean were symbolic ways to demonstrate how sin soils, defiles and corrupts. It was just a constant, constant, constant reminder. This woman never was able to rise beyond that. Constantly, ritually defiled, unable to touch anyone without passing on that defilement, according to the Old Testament.

· If she had been married, she was likely now divorced from her husband.

· She was ostracized from normal society and debarred from worship in the synagogue and Temple.

· Her desperate situation had driven her to pursue medical help, and “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors. [1]

In another place, the Talmud recommended that the afflicted woman carry a barley corn which had been taken from the droppings of a white she donkey!2

Very likely this woman had tried some of these remedies, but to no avail. Mark says she “had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse” (v. 26).

This wretched woman was broke, cut off from home, society, and religion, and in declining health. She was at the bottom![2]

A man of wealth and prestige

There was the prominent family of Jairus, leader of the synagogue. Many scholars believe he was the head ruler of the synagogue. If so, he was president of the board of elders and responsible for the conduct of services.

He was a man of wealth and prestige. But he was in equally great need: his twelve-year-old daughter lay dying. She had been the joy of his life—“his only daughter,” says Luke (8:42)—and now that joy was about to be snuffed out.

Parental love leaves a parent wide open to towering joys and to the deepest sorrow. Some of us have known what it is like to see a convulsing child and wonder if he was going to make it. We would do anything to save our child. Jairus probably thought, “Take my life, not hers.” Jairus and his wife were desolate—at the very bottom.[3]

Opposite Ends of the Economic, Social, and Religious Spectrum

The two main characters interacting with Jesus here occupy opposite ends of the economic, social, and religious spectrum. Jairus is a male, a leader of the synagogue.

· As a man of distinction, he has a name. Jairus has honor and can openly approach Jesus with a direct request, though he shows the greatest deference.

· By contrast, the woman is nameless, and her complaint renders her ritually unclean. She is walking pollution. Her malady therefore separates her from the community and makes her unfit to enter the synagogue, let alone the temple. She has no honor and must slink about and approach Jesus from behind, thinking that she must purloin her healing.

· Jairus has a large household and is thus a man of means. The careworn woman has become destitute because of her medical bills. Her complaint makes childbearing hopeless and marriage next to impossible.19

The only thing that these two persons share in common is that they both have heard about Jesus, they desperately desire healing, and they have run out of options.For twelve years the girl and the woman had led such different lives, but now adversity had bound their souls unaware together, and they were both to be recipients of God’s life-giving power.[4]

Dovetailing the Stories

Bring together two dissimilar individuals reveals that being male, being ritually pure, holding a high religious office, or being a man of means provide no advantage in approaching Jesus.

Being female, impure, dishonored, and destitute are no barrier to receiving help.

God always takes the side of those who have been denied rights and privileges, the oppressed and poor. In God’s kingdom the nobodies become somebody. In other words, the only thing that avails with God and Jesus is one’s faith. Health, wholeness, and salvation are not extended to just the lucky few who already have so much of everything else. But neither does Jesus set the lowly over against the lofty.

Faith enables all, honored and dishonored, clean and unclean, to tap into the merciful power of Jesus that brings both healing and salvation. All are equals before Jesus.

CHRIST AND JAIRUS

Mark 5:21–24 (ESV)

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. 22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 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.” 24 And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.

Background

Jesus was back at the shores of Capernaum, which he had left a few days before to escape the crowd. In between, he had calmed the stormy sea and delivered the demoniac’s stormy soul. Now a vast crowd had swarmed to the shore to greet him and see what else he might do.

It was a noisy, jostling, dangerous crowd, just as before. One can only imagine what the crowds were like in a situation where there were no hospitals, there was no effective medical care and the person that they were surrounding could actually heal them from any disease and every disease in a split second.

Jairus had not been known to be friendly toward Jesus. Jesus was an outsider and had even been accused of heresy by many. His previous use of the synagogue had proved controversial. Moreover, Jairus was the leader, not Jesus. Yet, now he was coming to Jesus. Even more, he was bowing in humility, pathetically pleading with all he had for his little daughter. This was amazing indeed.

But we must not mistakenly think Jairus had become a devotee of Jesus or that he was a man of great faith. The simple fact was, he was desperate. He had heard of Jesus’ miracles (maybe had even seen some) and possibly had talked to some who had been healed. He was not sure about Jesus, but Jesus was his only chance.

Jairus was like so many of us in our coming to Christ. It was not his love for Christ that brought him. It was not what he could do for Christ. It was his need. It was his desperation and a glimmer of hope. Despair is commonly the prelude to grace.[5]

As they went, “[a] large crowd followed and pressed around him” (v. 24). It must have been excruciating for Jairus as he and Jesus were slowed down like an ambulance in heavy traffic. There was no ill meant. It was just that no one wanted to miss a thing. Then, to Jairus’ dismay, everything came to a sudden halt.[6]

CHRIST AND THE WOMAN

There was another needy person there that day, an unknown woman with a hemorrhage

Mark 5:25–34 (ESV)

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. 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. 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.”

like so many in her day, believed that sometimes the garments or even the shadow of the godly could bring healing. So as Jesus passed by, she momentarily closed her frail hand about the edge of his cloak, or perhaps one of its four tassels.

Without a word Jesus’ power completely healed her in the anonymity of the jostling throng. The same power which he used to make the sea instantly lie flat and to restore the raving demoniac healed her long-standing illness.

The expulsion of divine power that comes from Him into the life of that woman, Jesus actually experienced. He experienced the power flow that created the woman’s body new, it replaced the old with a brand new organ system.

This is rich insight into the reality that our God is not detached.

He is not unfeeling in the sense that He has no personal connection to us. While He is unaltered by what men do, He is still personally engaged in every act of power. I told you, people like to say I have a personal relationship with Jesus. Let me tell you something. Everybody who has ever lived has a personal relationship with Jesus. He is personally involved in their redemption, or He is personally involved in their judgment. Every expression of power, and every expression of deliverance is an experience that He feels. No one receives His power into his life without His personal involvement[7]

Then the world stopped. Jesus realized that his healing power had gone forth (in fact, he willed it) and began asking repeatedly,

“Who touched my clothes?”

despite his disciples’ remonstrances that he was surrounded by a pressing crowd. With his penetrating gaze “Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.

He is pursuing the sinner, Luke 19:10, He’s come to pursue, to seek and save.

The inexhaustible grace that seeks not the sinner’s temporal fulfillment, but spiritual fulfillment. Here is irresistible grace.

This is irresistible grace. This is the effectual calling. This is the irrepressible resolute resolved undaunted Savior seeking the soul of one whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world.[8]

She came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth

She collapses, fully aware of the terror of being a sinner in the presence of the Lord, a posture that begs for mercy for her sin. And then she has the opportunity to make a public confession in verse 33, she told Him the whole truth. Told her whole story, the confession of her sickness, the confession of her faith, the confession of her healing, the confession of her need for mercy. In fact, Luke says, “She declared it in the presence of all the people.” So everybody around heard about her story. This is an open public confession, isn’t it? She’s confessing Him before men and to be confessed before His Father in heaven.[9]

Christ was calling her to stand before the throng, but not for his sake. It was for her and for Jairus and for some within the crowd—and for us. The woman’s faith was at its core an ignorant faith. She sought a cure that was essentially magic-secured (touching the edge of his robe). She had no idea that Jesus would know anything about what she did. Her faith was uninformed, presumptuous, and supertitious, but it was real, and Christ honored her imperfect faith.

“And He said to her, ‘Daughter”

This is the only time in the New Testament that a woman is so addressed by Jesus … “Daughter … Daughter.”Matthew 9 says He added, “Be of good comfort, relax, rest.” How can You call her Your daughter? Is she a child of God? A daughter of God? Yes, your faith has made you well … says the text.

Jesus healed the people who had no faith. He healed people who had faith. But Jesus doesn’t save people with no faith. This woman seems to demonstrate a faith which brings her into the category of being a child of God, addressed as “Daughter.” Your faith has saved you, He says. And then this, “Go in … what?… peace.” Jesus doesn’t throw that around. Peace belongs only to those who have made their peace with God.[10]

This poor woman represents humanity—all of us.

We are ill. We have spent our resources trying remedies which do not work. Christ comes to us from the Cross. We need to touch him by faith. Do not fear that he will not respond. Do not fear that you are too ignorant. Do not fear that you are too selfish. Fear only one thing—that you will let him pass without reaching out in faith to him.[11]

Should Jesus bother stopping for a woman like this when he may endanger the life of one who is more worthy? Can the love and power of Jesus overcome anything, no matter how contemptible?[12]

Christ and a Little Girl

Mark 5:35–43 (ESV)

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.” 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. Tal e ta cumi

In a terrible instant the growing flame of Jairus’ hope was extinguished. But in equal swiftness it was rekindled and elevated: “Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, ‘“Do not fear, only believe.” (v. 36).

Jairus came to Jesus with an uninformed, wishful “belief” that Jesus could heal his daughter. That belief elevated through Jesus’ exchange with the woman. But now Christ challenged Jairus not to believe him for a healing, but for a resurrection! This is a radical call and a radical development of Jairus’ faith.[13]

At the home, the professional mourners were wailing their antiphonal song. Jesus rebuked them, saying that the girl was “not dead but asleep.” Real death is the separation of the soul from God, not the body from the soul. In this sense, her dead body was asleep, and Jesus would bring it back to life. Then, with some degree of force, Jesus put the mourners and mockers out.

Peter, one of the three apostolic eyewitnesses, was Mark’s informant here. So beautiful was the event that years later he could still hear Jesus’ voice, for he preserved for us the Aramaic phrase Jesus used. Taking the little girl’s hand in his (which by the way was defiled by death, just as the woman’s was by illness), Jesus said, “Talitha koum” (“little girl [or more literally, little lamb] arise”).

Can you hear the word as it falls on the girl’s cold, dull ears? Can you see her eyes flutter and open wide? The first thing she saw was the face of Jesus, and then the faces of her mother and father, and then the three enraptured apostles![14]

Jesus’ triumph over death.

The good news that is proclaimed in this section is that in Jesus’ presence storms subside, demons beat a retreat, infirmities are put right, and death loses its hold. In 5:39, Jesus declares the girl’s death to be merely sleep. This is not some cagey medical diagnosis, a comforting euphemism, or a general eschatological hope. He calls it sleep because he “wills in this particular case to make death as impermanent as sleep by raising the girl to life.”20 At the same time, however, one must also be sensitive to the reality that no matter how genuine or desperate the faith, all are not healed or saved from death. One must look beyond the moment of suffering to the eternal significance of Jesus’ power. That power is related to the kingdom of God, which is present but which is yet to be fully manifest. In the meantime we will suffer from maladies and death. Our faith is in God’s power to conquer death, not simply to restore things as they were. We can face the tragedies of everyday existence with confident faith that God is not through with us.[15]

Conclusion

What do we see here about Jesus? He was accessible. You could walk right up to Him. He was available to go into your life to the degree that you needed Him there. And He was interruptible. He was really indomitable. indomitable, Ilove that word. That means He took charge of this woman’s destiny. He took charge of the little girl’s destiny There’s a relentlessness in Him right now.[16]

Our Lord is accessible to you whenever you need Him, available to get involved in your life.

Aren’t you glad that He cares about you in a personal way? And that He is interruptible? No matter what He’s doing, He will always respond to you when you come to Him in prayer. And He’s inexhaustible really in completing spiritual purpose in your life. Do you understand that He comes to you in an indomitable, inexhaustible and relentless work that is being done and Philippians 1:6 says when He begins it, He … what?… He finishes it … He finishes it … if you believe. And that’s why these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and believing might have … what?… life in His name.[17]

[1]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, pp. 124–125). Crossway Books. 2 2. William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1956), p. 128. [2]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 126). Crossway Books. [3]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 126). Crossway Books. 19 Marshall, Faith As a Theme, 104. [4]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 126). Crossway Books. [5]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 127). Crossway Books. [6]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 127). Crossway Books. [7]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [8]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [9]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [10]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [11]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 129). Crossway Books. [12]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (pp. 225–226). Zondervan Publishing House. [13]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 129). Crossway Books. [14]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Mark: Jesus, servant and savior (Vol. 1, p. 130). Crossway Books. 20 Meier, A Marginal Jew, 2:844, n. 26. [15]Garland, D. E. (1996). Mark (p. 226). Zondervan Publishing House. [16]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You. [17]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Grace to You.