Dwell in the Word Mark 5:21-43

Consider these questions as we dwell on Mark 5:21-43:

1. How does the story of the woman with the flow of blood illustrate the concept of faith in Jesus' healing power? What does this narrative reveal about the woman's social status and the cultural context of her condition?

2. In the story of Jairus' daughter, Jesus declares that the girl is not dead, but only asleep. How does this statement challenge the mourners' perception of death? What does this reveal about Jesus' authority over death and His ability to bring life?

3. Reflecting on both healing stories, what overarching message about Jesus' power and authority emerges? How does this message apply to our faith in Jesus today, particularly in facing challenges related to sickness, death, and other aspects of life?

Transcript:

As I said, these are two stories that we know relatively well, and they are two stories that I believe we are naturally drawn into. We all know someone who maybe has a long-term health issue, and we also have all dealt with death in some capacity. We can relate to these situations. And here we see that Jesus has power over both of those things. And the story, it feels very familiar from what we've seen in Mark, right? Jesus is trying to avoid the crowds. He's come back from the Decapolis, and now all these people, all these Hebrew people that he's been around doing the healing with are wanting to be near him again. And Jarus finds him and says, My daughter is dying. Now, we don't know what's wrong with her. We can't say exactly what her medical issue was, but he knows that she's at the point of death. And so, he wants Jesus to come and heal her. Great faith there that he believes that Jesus can do it. But what is interesting is what happens while Jesus is on his way. There's this woman with the flow of blood, and she has great faith.

She believes that she doesn't even need to have Jesus say anything. She just needs to touch the garments of Jesus. She believes so greatly in Him and His ability to heal. Well, as we go and we look at this story, there are some important things that we need to know. Because of what was wrong with her, she was considered to be unclean. She was not able to marry. And so, she is on the fringes of society. Someone who is older, someone who isn't able to have a husband, they would have been, as I said, on the fringes of society, unable or not unable, but finding it difficult to care for themselves. This is more than just about her being having this long term illness or disability of some kind. It is about her being an outsider in society also. So she gets close enough to Jesus, and she touches Him. And we see our word here immediately. The power of Jesus is able to do this immediately. It's a multi-year problem that physician upon physician had looked at, but Jesus is able to heal and He knows that He touched her. And so, this faith that she has, after Jesus talks with her, this faith that she has is given to us as an example.

Look at what Jesus says here in verse 34, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. She had great faith. She was able to heal. And again, not because of her faith necessarily, she didn't somehow heal herself. She had faith in Jesus. That's the point here. By having faith in Jesus, we can be healed. By having faith in Jesus, and we can be healed of our biggest problem, which is sin, death, and hell. That is what we are looking at here, that Jesus has power over all these things. This isn't teaching us that Jesus can heal any problem that we have if we just have enough faith. That's not the point. The point is that Jesus has power over all these things, and we need to trust in Him because ultimately, He knows the greatest good for us. He knows what we need. And so, the story continues, and they get there and Jaris's daughter has died. What a sad event. We read later on that this young lady is 12. Is there anything that is more grievous that causes us pain than the death of a child?

And so, these people are wailing and weeping as their custom is. But Jesus says, Why are you making this commotion? The child isn't dead, but she's just asleep. Well, they laughed at him, and we might say they laughed at Jesus, but what would you have done if you saw a child breathe her last and someone came in and said, She's just sleeping. She's just asleep, what would you do? You'd laugh at them. You'd almost maybe even be offended that someone would make that claim that someone would say something that this grieving that you are doing isn't legitimate. Well, Jesus goes in, takes her by the hand, and tells her to arise. And immediately she got up, and immediately everyone was overcome with amazement. Jesus has power over all of this. He has power over sickness. He has power over death. He is the Messiah. That is what we are meant to be seen here, and His power is absolute. And we see this in the elevation of the stories of all the things that Jesus has done, all the things that He's healed, suddenly we're seeing that He has this amazing power. He has power to even raise the dead.

As we think about what this means for us, we need to understand that Jesus does have this power. If we were to go to people in our modern day and say that we believe in the resurrection of the dead, we might be laughed at. But ultimately, we know that because Jesus is God, the Son, because Jesus is a part of the Trinity and the one who spoke the universe into existence, He has the power over all of this. And so, we need to just have faith, faith as the woman had, faith as Jaris had, that Jesus has the power over all of this. And we place our faith in Him instead of ourselves. And so may we remember this power that Jesus has. May we trust that it's true. May we trust that He is working all things together for good for us, and that He will bring us to Himself as He has promised. He is good to keep His promise. We believe by faith.