Mark 5:21-43
Passage Mark 5:21-43
Speaker Ben Tanner
DownloadAudio
This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.
The reading is from mark 21 to 43. When Jesus had again crossed over by the boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, my little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.
So jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him, and a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.
Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once, Jesus realised that power had gone out from him. He turned round in the crowd and asked, who touched my clothes?
You see the people crowding against you? His disciples answered, and yet you can ask, who touched me? Me. But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
He said to her, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.
While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. Your daughter is dead. They said, why bother the teacher anymore? Overhearing what they said, jesus told him, don't be afraid, just believe. He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing. He went in and said to them, why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead, but asleep. But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was.
He took her by the hand and said to her, talitha kum, which means little girl, I say to you, get up immediately. The girl stood up and begged to walk around, began to walk around. She was twelve years old. At this. They were completely astonished.
He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Celia, for reading that for us. Please do have those service sheets in front of you.
It will help you, and it will help me for you to have God's word in front of you. And let me lead us in a prayer. Great is the Lord, Father. We've just sung it. We believe it.
We want to believe it more. We want to know your greatness. Your truth has set us free. Do that this morning. I pray as your truth is read and preached.
Set us free as we meet your son. Would we know him better? I pray. Amen.
I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Don't you love Krispy Kreme doughnuts? They're the kind of doughnuts that are. They do do the round ones, they're all right. But the ones that are kind of with the lovely filling that is where it is at.
You've got the lovely topping and then the topping always kind of goes really well with the stuff in the middle. And it's just great because as you bite through it, you get this kind of wonderful blend. Why am I going on about Krispy Kreme doughnuts? Well, because our passage today is like a Krispy Kreme doughnut. It's a story within a story.
And those two stories, both true, both happened, but they've got all sorts of similarities. They complement one another. We see a story about, well, see two stories, both about women, both about women for whom the number twelve was important. One had suffered for twelve years, the other is twelve years old. They're both people who are ceremonially unclean.
At the time, they wouldn't have been able to go to the temple. They're both people who experience the touch of Jesus. They're both people who are healed by Jesus. They're both called daughter by Jesus or addressed as daughter. You see, there are all sorts of similarities between these two stories.
And in fact, these two stories help us to understand what Jesus is doing here. There are also a number of differences. One is relatively rich, of high social standing, the other relatively poor, of low. One is met at their house, the other in the crowd. All sorts of differences.
Let's dive in and see what happens. We're told that when Jesus had again crossed over by the boat, over the last few weeks in the book of Mark, we've seen Jesus showing his power again and again in different places, over the sea, and then over the powers of evil, over the demon legion and his friends. And today we're going to see his power shown again only over physical ailments. Last week we saw him in probably a gentile area, and when he got onto the shore, a man ran and fell at his feet. And as he comes back onto the jewish side of the lake here, another man falls and runs and falls at his feet.
Only this one is a synagogue leader, verse 32. Now, in fact, he's named Jairus. That's a bit strange. Mark doesn't normally name people. I think he only names one other person who kind of comes up to him in a crowd.
So Jairus was a fairly well known, well to do guy, probably a bit of an elder in the local, in the local synagogue. He would have been somebody who was well respected, who was thought highly of. And this man, Jairus, falls at Jesus' feet, in some ways quite undignified. What would make a synagogue leader, a local man of standing, fall at Jesus feet? Well, it's his little daughter, he says, verse 23.
He pleaded earnestly with him. My little daughter is dying, literally. My little daughter has finishing. She is coming to the very end of her life. This is a girl for whom there is no help left.
She is in the process of dying. And so this synagogue leader has heard of Jesus and he runs and he throws himself at Jesus feet and he says, please come, please, you are our hope. Come and heal my daughter. This isn't extreme, is it? A twelve year old girl.
Imagine if one of our year seven girls here at church was on the brink of death. Imagine what would be going round the prayer chain. Imagine what we would be talking about. Imagine the meal trains that would be happening. Imagine the tears, that it's that kind of situation.
This man is desperate. And so, amazingly, Jesus went with him. And we're told there's a large crowd who've gathered by this point. It would have been a slow progress group inertia as they make their way. And you can imagine Jairus, for whom every second counts, going, come on, Jesus, come on.
Look. Come on, let's get to my. She's dying. And it's at this point that mark shifts to that wonderful centre of the doughnuts, to the other story. You see, within that large crowd of people, all gathering around Jesus is a woman.
We're told in verse 25 that this is a woman who was there, who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. This is a woman who is also desperate and in a desperate situation. In fact, verse 25 through to verse 27, all one sentence in the original language this is written and they come together with the verb right at the end. In other words, it kind of has this feeling, even as you read it, that this poor lady is in this desperate situation. It says something like this.
And there was a woman there who had a flow of blood for twelve years, and having suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors, and having spent all that she had, and instead of getting better, grew worse. And she heard of Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and finally touched his cloak. Here is a woman who almost certainly would have been physically weak, probably anaemic. She's got, what we understand is probably a gynaecological issue, that is a chronic issue for twelve years, like anybody who's there in chronic suffering, what does she do? She looks around for any possible solution as she goes to doctor after doctor after doctor.
In those days, pre our current medical science, you can only imagine the kind of things that she had to go through. And perhaps unsurprisingly, instead of getting better, she got worse. She said, twelve years without hope. And in fact, it's even worse. You see, in those days, they understood the blood to be the place where life is.
And so here is a lady who is, who literally has a flow of life flowing out of her. It would have meant that ceremonially she was unclean, she was unable to access Jairus synagogue. It would have meant that whenever she touched people or things, they would become ceremonially unclean. And so as a result, she probably didn't have a lot of human contacts during this time.
And this poor lady, twelve years in, hears about Jesus and comes to Jesus and touches Jesus, and the most amazing thing happens. It's there, verse 29. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
Imagine the joy at that moment for that poor, poor lady.
But Jesus read on. At once Jesus realised that power had gone out of him. He turned around to the crowd and asked, he touched my clothes. At this point, the disciples, they look at him and they're like, well, that's a silly question to ask this crowd. If you're into music.
This crowd is not like going and seeing the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It's not that people were sat in seats, all nicely sat around looking at Jesus. No, this would be more like a Taylor Swift concert. They're all there gathering as close as possible to see who to see and to be near to Jesus. Imagine if you were there at a Taylor Swift concert and you were right down trying to get towards the front, and you stopped and you looked around and said, who touched me?
Like people would say, who hasn't bumped into you? I mean, we're a crowd, we're squeezing together. Jesus says, who touched me, his disciples say, what do you mean, everyone? And yet, well, Jesus kept looking around verse 32 to see who had done it. Jesus, if you like, is willing to take time to make this awkward, he touched me.
Now, is it that Jesus doesn't know who has touched him? I don't think so, actually. Again, and I'm sorry to keep referring to the original here, that who touched me is in the feminine. In other words, it could be translated, which woman touched me? Jesus knows exactly who touched him, so why is he labouring the point?
Imagine what it would be like for this poor woman. She's just had the delight. Finally, my chronic illness is gone. And then she's thinking, wait a second, Jesus is stopping and looking around.
What's this going to look like for me? I'm somebody who was ceremonial unclean. I bumped into a whole bunch of people. I've just touched the rabbi. Is he now ceremonially unclean?
Is he stopping in order that he can say, Jairus, I'm really sorry, I was on my way to sort your daughter out, but I can't now, look, because I'm unclean, what's Jesus doing? Why is he labouring the point?
Well, Jesus is labouring the point because when we come to Jesus, he always gives us more than we are anticipating, and it's always way more than we could ever give to him. You see, this lady has come for a kind of a drive by healing, a kind of a touch. And I'm healed and I can just let it go quietly. But Jesus wants to give her something more. That Jesus doesn't just come to be a kind of power dispenser, somebody who just meets our needs.
And now Jesus power always comes with Jesus person.
Verse 33. The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet, trembling with fear, and told him the whole truth. And what does he say to her? Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.
He calls her daughter just like a few chapters ago. We looked at it last year. He says to the paralytic man, son, your sins are forgiven here. He says, daughter, your faith has healed you. Healed?
That could mean saved as well. He says, go in peace and be free from your suffering. In other words, Jesus doesn't just want the be free from your suffering. Jesus wants this lady to know her status as daughter, her status as one who is at peace.
That's really important, because when we come to Jesus, he gives us far more than we expect. Maybe at times we like to come to Jesus, the one who will give us what we want? We come with our shopping list, don't we? If you can just sort this out, sort that out, do this, make world peace, then that'd be great. Please.
Thank you very much. And we often, some of us have come to church because we've got a whole list of things that need sorting and we really know that we've come to the end of ourselves and only God can sort it. And if that's us, there's a truth there. God is powerful. He's powerful.
We've seen it over the last few weeks. But his power comes with his person. If we come to him wanting him to do a work in our life, we need to know him as our father, our friend, our saviour. And there are times, even as christians, sometimes when we do this, let me ask you, and I was challenged even thinking on this myself, how often do your prayers talk more about power than person? How often do your prayers are your prayers?
Please sort that out. Please do this, please do that. And not great is the lord. Oh, father, thank you for saving me, father. I delight in who you are.
How often are prayers more power than person?
Jesus wants us to hear. Daughter, son, be at peace. Your faith has saved you. Be freed.
But while all this is going on, there's Jairus. Jairus looking. He doesn't know what's happened with this lady. It's not obvious to him, not until she starts talking and he's thinking, come on, Jesus. What are you doing?
Why are you stopping? My daughter's dying. Unless they're having this conversation, along come the servants, and the servants are coming. And Jairus knows what's about to happen.
Your daughter is dead. They say those words any parent dreads hearing your little girl, who you ran and fell on your face as a final hope for, is dead. Why bother the. Why bother the teacher anymore? She's gone.
What's Jesus doing?
If Tom Ferny Huff ambulance driver were to turn up at a scene of an accident and there is somebody in chronic pain and there is somebody who is dying, he treats the one who's dying first, doesn't he? The chronic pain needs treating. But she's suffered for twelve years. Can she not have this conversation later? I mean, somebody's on their deathbed.
Or could Jesus have healed her and smiled and carried on and then come back? What's going on, Jairus? Your daughter's dead.
Why bother the teacher anymore?
And yet Jesus always gives more than we expect, don't we? The woman came for a drive by healing and finds a father and saving faith, Jairus comes for a healing and receives a resurrection. Jesus he longs to build into Jairus and us faith, even in the face of death. Jesus replies. We're told verse 36, that overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, don't be afraid.
Just believe. That's either true or the most insensitive thing anybody has ever said. Don't be afraid. Don't have fear, have belief. He gets to Jairus house.
There, the funeral has already started. People are wailing. He says, be quiet, she's only asleep. They laugh at Jesus, just like the disciples laughed at him about saying, bustling in on you, who's touched you. They laugh at him.
Don't be silly. Jesus casts them all out. And then he takes the parents and a couple of his disciples and he goes and he takes the little girl's hand. This is wonderfully, wonderfully tender, isn't it? He takes the little girl's hand and he says, talitha Kumar, my Aramaic is non existent.
But reading around, my understanding is that get up, little lamb, or more woodenly translated, little girl, I say to you, get up. Get up, little lamb. And she does. There she's raised to life right before their eyes. That she gets up, it's amazing.
You see, Jesus is able to raise somebody from dead as easily as you're able to raise a child from sleep. Some people look at this and they say, there's another miracle going on here. Here a twelve year old actually gets up when she's told to. And we laugh about it. But what's remarkable here is, for Jesus, it is easier to raise somebody from the dead than it is for you to raise a teenage girl from sleep.
That's incredible, isn't it? Jesus, in the face of death, touches this little girl's hand, holds her and says, get up. And she does. And like anybody who understands teenagers, he gets a hearty breakfast to eat.
But what's going on here, you see, for Jairus, what was going on on the road helped him to understand. I need to have faith, I need to trust, even when I've got all sorts of questions that are going on.
You see, as this girl is raised to life, Jesus shows that there is no power in this world that he cannot meet.
And that means that as we go through our life, as there are times in our life where God seems to do stuff that we don't understand, it seems to delay on stuff that we want straightaway, that seems perhaps to allow us to go through stuff. What is he doing? He is showing us again and again. Look, in this moment, I'm longing for you to grow in faith, in knowledge of me. One of the people, he taught me a bit about vicaring, he used to say, it's great asking people, how can I pray for you?
That's a really good thing. Somebody might say, well, my foot's really sore. But then the question is not sorry. Then the follow up question needs to be, and how do I pray for you with that? What is God doing in you?
Even as you are going through this, even as this is happening, how is God somehow showing you more of what it means for him to turn to you and say, you are my daughter, you are my son.
Do not fear, but have faith?
How can I do that? Well, there's a question that goes on in this passage, and it's the question of kind of clean unclean. It's there in the background, this kind of ceremonially clean, ceremonially unclean. Both these ladies, one through the flow of blood, the other through being dead, is ceremonially unclean. And the idea is that anything that they touch, or anyone they touch, becomes unclean.
And so the question that's going on here, especially with the touching, is, what's going on? Is it that by them touching Jesus, Jesus is becoming unclean? Or is it that by Jesus touching them, they're becoming clean? Because there is one place in the Old Testament where that happens. In Exodus 20, we'll come onto it in a few months time, there's this thing, this place of sacrifice called the altar.
And whenever anybody touches the altar, that person or that thing becomes clean. It almost works in reverse. So which is it? Is it the alter thing of them becoming clean by touching Jesus? Or is it the Jesus becoming unclean by touching them?
Yes is the answer. Yes, they become clean, don't they? Restored to health, restored to life. How? Because the very one who calls them daughter is the one who would become unclean.
He who is without sin became sin for us. Again, at the end of the book, we see this swap, don't we? There he becomes one with flowing blood flowing from him. There he becomes one who dies. There he becomes one who is cut off outside of society.
There he becomes one who people scoff at and laugh at. And if they touch, would become unclean. And he took not just their uncleanliness, but my uncleanliness in order that he can make me and you clean. This is why his power and his person come together, because it's in knowing that saviour that I delight in him calling me my son, that you delight in him calling you my daughter, my son. Be at peace.
I love. I love donuts. They're great.
But this passage points us to one who will meet not just our physical needs, who will delight us not just physically, but for all eternity. Let's draw near to him in faith. We're going to do that in a moment when we take communion together. There we will remind ourselves of the one who became unclean, so that we can be clean, the one who was ostracised, so that we can be brought in, the one who flowed with blood, in order that we can be restored to the life and health. And we're going to do that in a moment.
But before that, we're going to sing before the throne of God above. I have a strong and perfect plea. Who's that?