SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
4/17/2012 2:07:37 PM
Mark 5:21-42
Let us take a look at the last section in the fifth chapter of the book of Mark as in an earlier post for April we looked at the first part of this chapter. Just for a brief review I want to talk about the reason why the book of Mark and for that matter all of the four gospels were written. Mark 1:1 says “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” When we look at the end of the Gospel of John we read: John 20:31 “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” The things that Mark writes show that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The last post we saw that Jesus had power of the demons, and in this post we will see that God has power over disease and death as after coming back from casting out many demons from a Gentile man Jesus and His disciples come back across the lake and there will be two people waiting for Him, that is two in particular who the story is about. We will find a man with a daughter who will son die, a daughter of twelve years of age, and we will see a woman who has had an illness for twelve years. The man is well to do, while the woman is now broke because she has spent all of her funds on doctors, and is still sick. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Jairus was about to la daughter who had given him twelve years of happiness and the woman was about to lose an affliction that had brought her twelve years of sorrow. 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)”
21 ¶ When Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by the seashore. 22 One of the synagogue officials named Jairus *came up, and on seeing Him, *fell at His feet 23 and *implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.’”
We see in verse 21 that Jesus has arrived from across the lake. Jesus had just left some people who did not want to be around Him and asked Him to leave to a crowd of people who have seen Him perform many miracles and one of the people in the crowd sought Him out because of a sick daughter. Jairus was a synagogue official who no doubt had heard of Jesus and the many miracles that He had done. Perhaps he was even in the service at the Synagogue where Jesus had cast out a demon from one who was there, or perhaps he had heard of the time when Jesus healed a man who was let down through a roof. At any rate he wanted to see Jesus because of a sick daughter.
In John MacArthur’s sermon on this section of Scripture he writes the following about what a Synagogue official’s duties were: “And though this man is not a Pharisee or a Sadducee, he’s not an official in terms of religion, he’s not a scribe. He’s not a rabbi. He is a synagogue official. What does that mean? Well it means that in each synagogue there was a man or a group of men who acted as the caretakers, or the overseers, or the administrators of synagogue life. They weren’t necessarily the teachers, they, however, were the ones who cared for the scrolls, and cared for the facility and administrated the facility and organized the synagogue school. They had oversight responsibility, supervising activity, appointing readers, prayers, teachers, etc. The man who received this honor would be a man who was respected, a religious man, a man of devotion, a man of mature leadership, a non—clerical local official in the synagogue in Capernaum, selected by all the people to be a part of a group of elders usually from three to seven who would give leadership. He was the epitome of the Capernaum religious establishment.”
We see in verse 23 that Jairus comes to Jesus and asks Him to lay His hands on his daughter in order to heal her for she was near death. I read the phrase to lay you hands on her and it also makes me think that Jairus knew something about Jesus.
24 And He went off with him; and a large crowd was following Him and pressing in on Him. 25 A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, 26 and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse-“ We now go from the story about Jairus
“27 after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak. 28 For she thought, "If I just touch His garments, I will get well.’”
I think what we can learn from this section is that the woman had heard of Jesus and she had a small amount of faith, believing that she could be healed by Jesus of her physical issues, but I think that we will see later that it was more than a physical issue that she would be healed from, for she would believe in Jesus for salvation.
29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. 30 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My garments?’”
Mark is using his favorite word here a lot of times as this scene is moving very fast. The woman believe that if she just barely touched Jesus’ garment that she would be healed, and when she did this she was healed, and Jesus knew that healing powers had gone forth from Him. The woman had planned to get in get healed and then get lost in the crowd, but that did not happen for Jesus knew that He had healed her, and Jesus knew who it was that touched her.
John MacArthur writes: “It’s an amazing revelation, absolutely amazing. Immediately she was healed. And immediately she was healed. And immediately Jesus felt the power go out of Him. That’s a stunning reality, an amazing revelation. Listen, His power is personal. We can think of God as some kind of massive cosmic force, we can maybe overextend the notion of His impassability to say that God is impassable means that He is not effected by what men do or do not do, but that does not mean that He does not feel every expression of power whether it’s power expressed in grace, or power expressed in wrath, whether it’s sanctifying power, glorifying power, justifying grace, He feels the power. Luke 8:46 says, ‘I was aware that power had gone out of Me.’ The expulsion of diving 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 person involvement.”
As far as the issue of blood that would not stop in this woman it caused a problem of her being unclean. This was an OT law which was about a woman who was in her menstrual cycle, and because of her blood she would become unclean. Not only was she unclean but this had to cause her to be continually weak.
31 And His disciples said to Him, "You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ’Who touched Me?’" 32 And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of 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.’”
Jesus knew who it was that touched Him and we can see this when He turns around and looks directly at the woman who touched Him. She seems to be embarrassed but she should not have been for Jesus was showing her love and great concern for her problem.
We see in verse 32 that this woman fell down before Jesus and told Him the entire story to which Jesus answered that it was because of her faith in Him that she was healed. Jesus then calls her “daughter” and tells her to go in peace. I believe that at that moment she was healed spiritually. We have to remember that Mark probably not telling the entire story here as far as how much time that Jesus spent with this woman. The reason that I say this is because when Jesus finally gets to the house of Jairus the funeral is going on and it seems to have been going on for a long time so I have to conclude that Jesus spent more time with this woman.
35 ¶ While He was still speaking, they *came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?" 36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, *said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer, only believe." 37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. 38 They *came to the house of the synagogue official; and He *saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. 39 And entering in, He *said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep." 40 They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He *took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and *entered the room where the child was. 41 Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, "Talitha kum!" (which translated means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). 42 Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. 43 And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.”
There is a lot going on in this paragraph. First we see that Jairus finds out that his daughter has died and he is not to bother the teacher any longer. Then we see that Jesus tells him to continue to have faith in Him. Jesus does not want him to fear but to believe. Next we see Jesus taking only three of His disciples with Him to the room of the daughter. When we look later on in the book of Acts we will get a hint as to why Jesus took Peter along with Him.
When they get to the house we see the hired mourners paying their flutes and wailing because of the death of the daughter of Jairus. Jesus tells them that the little girl is sleeping and not dead to which they are offended and begin to scorn the Lord. When we read about the death of a believer in the NT we see that it is said that they are sleeping. Paul speaks of this in I Cor. 11. Luke brings up an interesting point about what happened to the little girl when Jesus raised her from the dead: “And her spirit returned, and she got up immediately.” When a believer dies their body sleeps and their spirit goes to heaven awaiting the rapture of the Church when their bodies and spirits will be united in a new body. While in heaven awaiting this new body believers had a temporary body.
One more point from this section and that is that because Mark is writing to Romans he uses the Aramaic or Hebrew words that are translated into Greek. Luke just calls her “Little Girl.”
I want to talk a bit about why Jesus told her parents not to spread this around, for that would be a difficult thing to do. Think about have Jesus come into your home while you are mourning over a lost child and he raises that child from the dead and then tells you not to talk about it! This was a wonderful miracle that Jesus had just performed and I believe that perhaps the more we read about it the more we kind of take it for granted or perhaps miss the impact that it should have in our lives.
4/17/2012 3:46:16 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment