(prayer)
intro:
odd details:
the woman had been sick for 12 years.
jairus daughter was 12 years old.
the woman with the blood was unclean.
jairus daughter was unclean (as she had died)
jairus believes his daughter will healed if jesus lays his hands on her.
the woman believes that she will be healed if she touches jesus (both have a method of healing in mind).
mark 5:21 - 34
two healings
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."
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--
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."
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?"
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."
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.
power section, with human elements/stories.
jairus
3 attributes about him:
1. important
a synagogue leader; he was a man with some status,
2. desperate
he was also a dad whose daughter was dying; he comes to jesus and falls at his feat to beg for his daughters life.
some of you have had a family member ill to the point of death, and will understand this story immediately.
otherwise, you may have to think for a while to understand how distraught and hope
mark has him say that his daughter is "at the point of death." in matthew, the story is simplified to be, "dead".
3. had faith in jesus' power
v23 [he] *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."
he believes that jesus has the ability and authority to heal his daugther.
what he does:
he finds jesus, falls at his feet, and begs him to come, lay hands on his daughter and heal her.
jesus agrees.
the bleeding woman
3 attributes about her:
1. unclean
unlike jairus, who had social standing, this woman was an outcast.
she had spent the last 12 years ritually unclean, meaning that others had to stay away from her or beocme unclean themselves.
2. desparate
v26. [she] 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--
her life has been somewhat destroyed by this sickness; she's spent all her money, she's not better, she has no hope other than a miracle.
3. had faith in jesus' power
v23 [he] *implored Him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her,
what she does:
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."
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?"
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."
- she believes if she touches jesus she'll be healed.
- she touches jesus, and is healed.
- jesus senses that something has happened, and asked "who touched me?"
does that mean he doesn't know? or is he giving her a chance to identify herself?
mark doesn't say.
we know christ has known things that aren't told to him, as he knows the thoughts of the pharisees in mark 2:8
we also know that jesus has emptied himself of a lot of his divinity as part of his becoming human.
not sure mark cares about this sort of theological inquiry. remember this is the michael bay film of the gospels.
summary - she believes, she acts, and she receives healing from god.
note the kindness in jesus speech - "daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction."
jairus again
3 changes:
1. bad to worse
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?"
while this was happening, the girl died.
you can imagine poor jairus; he's desperate, and someone is interrupting.
2. despair to hope
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.
jesus here offers explicit hope
"do not be afraid any longer, only believe"
he does not just leave jairus hanging - he's not trying to make things as hard as possible.
he also shrinks the crowd
he takes the "big three" (peter, james, and john), and leaves the others.
when he gets to the house (and is laughed at), he brings the father and mother as well.
3. dead to alive
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.
he raises the girl up
this is the supreme moment in our power section.
but...was she dead?
maybe she was just in a coma?
maybe. but mark's story doesn't seem to be showing that jesus knew she was in a coma.
the gospels don't seem to be teaching that jesus was fixing their mistake...
- something had changed as she had gone from 'deathly ill' to 'dead'.
is it secret? is it safe?
from the start of this, jesus has been trying to downplay the event.
he only brings along a few disciples.
he euphemises her death as a cover story.
he tells them to speak to nobody of the event.
this is weird...but somewhat expected at this point.
jesus sems to not want crowds interfering with his primary jobs.
large ideas.
review of ideas
christ's power is unlimited.
in the past section, jesus has :
- calmed the storm (power over nature)
- exorcised the demoniac (power over satan/demons)
- healed the woman (power over illness)
- raised the dead (power over death).
at this point, he can pretty much do anything.
as god says to abraham after sara doubts that she will have children, "is anything to hard for god?" (gen 18:14)
but this unlimited power is not used to fix everything...
jesus doesn't fix every problem in the world, in israel, nor in galilee.
ja? not everything is fixed here.
the people healed here had faith in jesus and asked for help.
this story is about two people with faith, and what jesus does for them.
jairus:
has faith in jesus, and asks on behalf of his daughter.
note that the focus of the story is not about jairus' daughter; it's about jairus.
the bleeding woman:
she believed that she would be healed because of who jesus was; and she received her request with
the words, "your faith has made you well."
both were convinced that jesus had the power to deliver them, and both sought him out.
these are biblically constant ideas here: abraham is told to do something (sacrifice his son), and shows himself
willing to carry out the task (and holds on to the idea that god will restore his son to him) - this is faith.
jairus believes jesus can heal his daughter...and seeks him out.
the bleeding woman believes she will be healed...and finds him.
we are still supposed to make our requests in faith.
1. jesus still has power to do all things.
2. he still responds to the request made in faith.
- true of salvation.
salvation is a plea we make to god; as the tax collector prayes in luke 18, "god be merciful to me, a sinner."
once we know our personal guilt, the holiness and judgement of god towards sin, and the innocence offered through christ,
this is received through faith in christ.
- true after salvation
especially in prayer.
james 1:5-8
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach,
and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts
is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that
he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
areas of doubt
i think we, in general, know these things.
however, it doesn't hurt to be reminded, as there a number of other thoughts that wear our faith down.
i think our doubt will often come along two lines:
- god is unable to help
- reading vs living
it is all well and good to read about god's power over sickness and death.
it is quite another to believe that god has power over our jobs, health, finances, spouses, and kids.
the doubt is that god is unable to help; the faithful thought is to remember and believe that god can do anything.
- slight and unconcious, not conscious
few christians would ever just say that god can't help.
this is more the type of thought that sneaks up on you, that you find yourself believing without knowing it.
be encouraged - though you may not have your sick child raised from the dead, that doesn't mean god is not in charge.
thought
i believe that god still works miraculously today. but it is not 'normal'.
at the time of christ, it was not normal either.
god's ability to miraculously make things 'well' has never been used to make everything 'right' (to our standards).
it does happen. and it should teach us not that god will do such things, but that he has the power to do so.
this brings us to our next problem...
- god is unwilling to help
this is a bit of a natural result - if i have problems, and if god is able to fix my problems, then he must not care.
- disbelief -> bitterness
this is a bit more subtle.
if god can fix my problems, and he doesn't, then he doesn't care.
as before - this is probably not something you'll explicitly believe, it's a doubt that will
cause suffering in your life.
again, i would like to encourage.
the miracles that we do so should teach and remind us.
christ is shown in the gospels to be compassionate, loving, caring.
even while on earth though, he did not solve all physical problems.
nor did he solve his own physical suffering as
ultimately, he will suffer and die for our guilt, to give us the ability to know and enjoy him.
clearly then, as christ demonstrates with his life, there are times when suffering is best.
these are things we have to know and remember.
we should also remind ourselves.
i'm going to read a psalm that, for me, expresses a lot of the hope and encouragement gained from remembering the
power and love of god.
psalm 27
1. A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread?
2. When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
3. Though a host encamp against me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,
In spite of this I shall be confident.
4. One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD
And to meditate in His temple.
5. For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle;
In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;
He will lift me up on a rock.
6. And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,
And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
7. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice,
And be gracious to me and answer me.
8. When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You,
"Your face, O LORD, I shall seek."
9. Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
10. For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
But the LORD will take me up.
11. Teach me Your way, O LORD,
And lead me in a level path
Because of my foes.
12. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
13. I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
14. Wait for the LORD;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the LORD.