Mark's Gospel

Mark 5v21-43 - Afraid and out of options?

As you know, I work for the Royal College of Physicians. What is a physician you might ask yourself – and the answer is basically ‘hospital doctor’. They are the cardiologists, gastroenterologists, haematologists and various other specialists. All of our physicians are top-notch, naturally! But I’ve heard on the grapevine that not all hospital doctors meet these exacting standards, as these extracts from hospital notes suggest::

• The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
• Discharge status: Alive but without my permission.
• Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year-old male, mentally alert but
  forgetful.
• Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
• She is numb from her toes down.
• The skin was moist and dry.
• Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
• Patient was alert and unresponsive.
• Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.
• The patient refused autopsy.
• The patient has no previous history of suicides.

It’s funny, but some things never change – in Mark 5, today’s chapter, there is brief mention of physicians (v26 “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”. A note that Doctor Luke misses out when he retells this story in his gospel!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The thread of Mark’s gospel is still progressing at breakneck speed. In chapter 4 there were a series of parables, and then at the end of chapter 4 we see Jesus stilling a terrible storm, at the start of chapter 5 we see Jesus relieving the terrible demonic possession of a man who had 2000 evil spirits inside him and in the latter half of the chapter we see Jesus healing those facing terrible suffering, even raising someone back from the dead.

I want to concentrate on the last one of these narratives, because once again we have one of Marks ‘sandwiches’. We have the story of Jairus the synagogue ruler and his ill daughter, and in the middle of this is the story of the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. Two narratives with startling correspondence and contrasts. One thread that draws them together Afraid and out of options? Put your faith publicly in Jesus.

Jairus

The story starts with Jairus, so that is where I’ll start. He is a synagogue ruler – a layman who was trusted to handle the practical affairs associated with running a synagogue. A very honourable position, he was probably a wealthy man and certainly looked up to in the district. Yet he has a problem. His beloved daughter, only twelve years old, is dying.

Presumably she has been fading and nothing that he has tried has helped. He is worried that she will die. What can he do? What lengths will any parent go to help their child? Almost every year there are news stories about parents raising money for a last-chance operation for their child. Just in June Mr Wishick of Westcliff-on-Sea has donated one of his own kidneys for his two year old son; and there is the ongoing story of little Charlotte whose parents are continually fighting to have an order that she should not be resuscitated overturned.
Trying to put myself in Jairus’ shoes, I think that more than anything else he was scared – scared that he was going to lose his daughter. Willing to take any chance. Then he hears that Jesus is in town. He rushes there, struggles to the front of the crowd and finds the carpenter from Nazareth who has been causing such a stir lately.

He falls at Jesus’ feet, prostrates himself and pleads earnestly. “Please, please, please come and help my little daughter”. This isn’t faith, it is desperation speaking, a man clinging to the last shred of hope. But Jesus assents, and goes with him. The crowd surges along, pressing closely to the miracle worker, how Jairus must fret at the delay it causes…

The woman

And then we see another vignette. A woman who is just the opposite of Jairus. Where he is respectable, she is an outcast, where he is wealthy, she is penniless, where he has friends, she is an outcast. She had been suffering from bleeding for twelve years, and according to the Law of Moses in Leviticus 15, she is ceremonially unclean, anyone she touches becomes ceremonially unclean, anywhere she sits or lies down becomes ceremonially unclean…

The pain and the discomfort and the feelings of sickness would have been bad enough on their own, but on top of that she is a social outcast. She shouldn’t even be in this crowd of people, all pressing together. If they knew who she was there would be such trouble.

As we’ve already noted, she had suffered under the ‘care’ of many doctors, and spent all her money in the process, to no avail. The best that this world could offer provided her with no solution. It couldn’t even keep her stable as she just kept getting worse.

At the end of her resources, out of options, no idea what the future might bring she sees just one possibility. Jesus has come to town. He is the one who has healed people, he is the one who hasn’t turned away the outcast and unclean. She has spent years keeping out of the public eye, avoiding the hue and cry that her public presence would engender. Amidst the press of the crowd she doesn’t want to draw attention to herself… but if she could just touch the hem of his garment, that would be enough (notice also in Acts how people are healed by touching the handkerchief of Peter or the shadow of Paul – in all these cases it is not the item itself that has any power to heal, but rather the one in whom ones faith is placed. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ.

She touched his cloak and immediately (that favourite word of Mark’s again) the bleeding stopped, and she knew that she was freed from her suffering!(v29) What a relief!
But then suddenly Jesus stops and turns around amidst the press of the crowd, and he speaks. The first words recorded for him in this encounter. “Who touched my clothes?”…

The disciples characteristically didn’t really understand what was going on here. In v31 they ‘helpfully’ point out that lots of people are crowding around him, so what is the point of asking ‘who touched me’ when there are lots of people touching you all the time?

Did Jesus ask this question because he was ignorant? Of course not. He knew very well who had touched his clothes. In v32 Jesus kept looking around, waiting to see who had done it. I think Jesus could have pointed her out, but he wanted the response to come from her.

You know how important silence is in getting someone to come out with the truth? I’ve sometimes found when talking to someone about deep or serious issues that if you ask a question and leave it hanging there, bite your tongue and don’t say anything else, more often than not the silence drags the real answer out of the person you are talking to. I think Jesus’ waiting did the same thing here.

The woman came and fell at Jesus’ feet, trembling with fear and told him the whole truth – including the fact that she was unclean and in touching him she had, according to the law, made him unclean too (and normally once bleeding stopped there was still a seven day period before you actually became ceremonially clean again) – not to mention all the people that she had been crowding with. No wonder she was afraid!
Jesus then says these wonderful words. “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering”. The Greek word translated here ‘healed’ can also mean ‘saved’, the Aramaic term Jesus would have used is yashaw, which is a variant of the Hebrew name for Jesus, Yeshua. Jesus is not looking for some kind of anonymous faith, he wants a personal encounter with this woman, and looks for her to publicly stand out before him – enabling him to publicly bless her and free her from not just the physical suffering but the social suffering she has endured all those years too.

Jesus isn’t in a hurry. Jairus must have been chafing a little, wanting them to press on towards home. Then news arrives. Bad news. While Jesus is still speaking some men come to say that his daughter is dead. It is too late. As all his worst fears come crashing down upon him, Jesus now turns his attention back to Jairus and his first recorded words to him are “don’t be afraid, just believe”.  He must shift his thinking from the circumstances of his daughters death to Jesus himself. What kind of faith is needed? The same kind as this woman here who has just been healed in front of your eyes. Faith that clings to Jesus as the only solution to your problem.

It isn’t faith as an end in itself that is important. There are many that have faith in things that can’t help them, can’t save them. Faith is only as good as the object in which you put your faith. Ron Dunn gives a great example in his book “don’t just stand there, pray something (p   ).

Jesus then took the special three disciples and made everyone else wait behind while they went on to Jairus’ house. The professional mourners were already there, wailing and moaning along, although they were quick to laugh at Jesus when he proclaimed that the little girl was just asleep and not dead. Jesus is speaking figuratively here, she really was dead but he just took her hand and said ‘little girl, get up’. And she did. Raised from the dead just like that. No fuss, no flash, no pleading. This was the raw power of God displayed on earth. The mother and father and three disciples are astonished. The girl is not to become a sideshow, nor is her life to be threatened by the religious authorities as Lazarus would be after Jesus raises him from the dead (see John 12v9-10), but people will remember the very public meeting between Jairus and the Lord Jesus, as they would remember the very public meeting between the woman and Jesus.

Both were afraid and out of options. Both put their faith publicly in Jesus

Everyone I see today seems happy, smiley, just fine. But what if it is a façade? What if behind the scenes you don’t know what to do – about the finances, about the relationship, about the job, about the health, about the children? What if you are out of options, afraid about what’s happening but afraid to let anyone know about it?
Come to Jesus today. Kneel before him. Jesus’ words to Jairus are words for you today too. “Don’t be afraid. Put your faith in me”.

What kind of faith? Not an anonymous, private faith such is espoused by much of our political establishment. Jesus isn’t interested in an anonymous faith which will not own him. He wants to help, but he wants you to acknowledge that you want his help, so I’d like to give an opportunity for that now.

 

Alex White