The Graciousness and Greatness of Christ
Derek Wells, Speaker
Mark 5:21-43 | October 13, 2024 - Sunday Morning,
Well, good morning. We are stepping out of our series in Joshua this morning, coming to one of the great passages in the gospels. Our text will be Mark, chapter 5, Mark, chapter 5. If you pay attention to the bookmark, it said Psalm 56. That’s me, I threw the curveball there, so we’ll be in Mark 5. We will read verses 21 through 43.
I’ll read and pray. Hear the Word of the Lord.
“And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about Him, and He was beside the sea. Then one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at His feet and implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And He went with him.”
“And a great crowd followed Him and thronged about Him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, “If I touch even His garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in Himself that power had gone out from Him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing around You, and yet You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” And He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before Him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.””
“While He was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And He allowed no one to follow Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when He had entered, He said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? This child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at Him. But He put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with Him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand He said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And He strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.”
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the truth of Your Word and we pray that You would glorify Yourself during these next few moments, that You would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to respond to You. For we make this prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, more than likely, if you’ve grown up in church, this story is familiar to you, the healing of Jairus’s daughter. And within that story is another story, and that is the healing of this woman with an issue of blood. It’s something of an odd sequence of events in this passage.
But many commentators have noted that there is an interplay in these stories. You have two desperate people who come to Jesus. Two desperate people who come to Jesus; a father who is faced with the imminent death of his young daughter and a woman who for years has had the same debilitating sickness. And neither has an answer to their problem. Both are desperate, both are helpless, both come to Jesus.
What do we learn? Well, I think there are some lessons about the nature of faith in each of these scenes, but more importantly there’s a greater revelation about who Jesus is, about who He is and what He came to do and who He came for and why you and I can trust Him.
So I want to point to two things about Jesus that are on display in this passage this morning. They are really points of application, we’ll come to them at the end, but they build through three scenes we’ll look at. They’re so simple you might think of them as something like points that you would hear in a children’s sermon, but so many times the things that we teach our children are the things that we actually need to fully digest ourselves.
So hear they are.
Point number one. Jesus is gracious. Jesus is gracious.
Point number two. Jesus is greater. Jesus is greater.
The context will give greater definition to these points, hopefully compelling you and me to reach out to Christ as it were this morning, to open ourselves up in faith to Him and to trust Him more fully, no matter what your condition or your circumstance is this morning.
So scene number one. Jairus comes to Jesus.
Well, Mark and Luke give us his name, this story is in three of the four Gospels. Interestingly, Mark is the most fast-paced Gospel of all of them, but he records the longest account here. We learn that Jairus is a ruler in the synagogue at Capernaum, which means he would have had some social and religious status. He’s a leader. Not only that, but he’s a leader in the inner circle of the life of God’s people. As a ruler in the synagogue, he was there to ensure order and accuracy and so on.
You might think of a pastor who’s in charge of the worship service. He’s sort of the Nathan Clark George of Capernaum. Right?
Since that was his job, Jairus, he would have had his eyes on Jesus, who was a notable teacher there.
So maybe you can picture Jairus. He’s there to do his job. He’s a devout man. He’s presiding over the activities, perhaps he’s passively observing, listening to Jesus, watching Him, taking note. But he’s kind of on the sidelines in terms of his engagement with Christ.
Something moves him. What moves him? Well, calamity strikes his home. We learn that his daughter is sick to the point of death. Now the other Gospels tell us that this is his only daughter, and we learn later in the passage that she’s only 12 years old.
Something about that makes it a little bit more poignant, does it not? You have to stop and appreciate the human element here, just for a second. I mean, even if you are the Dutchiest version of a Presbyterian, this should provoke some emotions. Right? Especially if you’re a parent. Because you can’t get any more desperate than a parent pleading for the life of their child.
It doesn’t matter that this was two thousand years ago. It doesn’t matter that this was a different culture and context. That doesn’t matter. The reality is the same. His daughter is dying and he’s tried all the means at his disposal to help her, but he cannot help his own daughter.
You imagine how that feels as a parent. We have this instinct to protect and provide for our children. Imagine that being completely and totally taken away from you.
So what do we see here in Jairus? We see a desperate and helpless father. Some of you have been there. Some of you are there now for various reasons. None of us like those circumstances in our life, but yet that’s what brings him to Christ. A sense of desperation, don’t miss that.
But something else is at work in Jairus as well. Notice he makes something of a statement of faith. He says if Jesus comes, his daughter will be well. And it’s a remarkable statement if you just picture the scene. This is ruler in the synagogue. Think about it. He’s risking his reputation, he’s risking his livelihood, throwing himself down at the feet of Christ in public. But he’s also affirming something about Christ. His daughter is sick, not the common cold but to the point of death, and somehow Jairus has this notion that Jesus can reverse all of that.
He must have seen at least two things about Christ. He must have seen on the one hand the compassion of Jesus. He’s believing that Jesus is not going to be indifferent or stand aloof to his suffering. But perhaps he’s heard the words of Christ and His teaching. Perhaps he’s noted Christ’s response to others and he’s seen in some way the compassion of Jesus. So he approaches Him.
He also must have seen the power of Jesus. Perhaps he’s seen other miracles, but somehow he’s persuaded that Christ has the power to change even this. So here’s what Jairus does. He takes a step of faith. In other words, he acts on what he has seen and what he has heard and he comes to Christ, unlike many others who have said to Him after He’s done miracles, “Please go away,” he says to Him, “Please come.” He says, “If You come, Jesus, she will get well.” So he opens the door to Christ to step into his life, into his condition, to change things.
Now keep in mind at this point his only hope is Christ. Right? She’s dying and it seems like that’s a bad place to be, but the reality is Jairus could not be in a better place. He just doesn’t realize it yet.
So we see Jairus’s request here. It’s a very simple request – please come. We also see the compassion of Jesus – He goes. A simple request and Christ responds. That’s scene number 1.
Scene number two. The woman comes to Jesus. Now fortunately Jairus’s house is not that far off. We know that because Capernaum is a relatively small town. But there’s a problem. Everyone’s gathering around Jesus. You just imagine the crowd. They’re thronging around Him. You can imagine maybe Jairus just pushing Him forward, just trying to clear the way, “Get out of the way so we can get to my house.” But while he’s going, this woman with an issue of blood approaches Jesus and she reaches out and she touches Him and Jesus stops and He says, “Who touched Me?”
Now from a natural perspective, there’s no time for this. You can imagine Jairus’s perspective, “Why are You stopping?” This is something like you get an urgent message, “So and so’s in the hospital, they have moments to live and they’re dying and we need you to rush here” and on your way there you stop to help someone change a flat tire. What’s going on here?
Well, this pause tells us at least something about our timing on the one hand and God’s timing on the other. Now think about this. Jesus sees the suffering of Jairus, He’s going. Jesus sees the suffering of this woman, He’s stopping. It’s hard to make sense of it for us. In this pause, I’m sure there is the temptation to question Jesus, “What are You doing?” Just as there’s the temptation for us to question God when we are waiting upon Him.
But here’s the thing. Jesus sees things that Jairus doesn’t see. Jesus knows things that Jairus does not know. The reality is His timing is going to work out just fine.
Mark puts the spotlight on this woman’s encounter with Christ. So as we look at this, note a couple of things. Commentators note a few things about this woman in comparison to Jairus.
Number one. We know his name; we don’t know her name. He has some social and religious status; she has no social and religious status. He’s deeply connected to the life of God’s people; she seems to be cut off from the life of God’s people. Finally, Jairus’s daughter is 12; and this woman has had this issue for 12 years. Which means that the whole span of Jairus’s daughter, his daughter’s life, she was presumably well, while this woman has been sick. Just make a note of that, we’ll come back to that later.
She has this issue of blood, in verse 26. It says she had suffered under many physicians and spent all that she had and she was no better but rather she grew worse. It’s a bit of an uncomfortable topic, but she had been menstruating continually for 12 years, and some translations say hemorrhaging. It’s actually gotten worse.
Now I’m not a doctor or a woman, but the women in my life would assure me that this would be suffering. In other words, this is no ordinary sickness, not the common cold or the sniffles that sometimes it just sidelines us men, pushes us to the side. No. This is physical suffering.
What is more, it’s perpetual. And even more than that, has life-altering social and religious consequences for her. Many of us know there were lots of hygienic regulations in the life of the nation of Israel that had both practical and spiritual significance. For example, touching a dead body would make you ceremonially unclean. Or coming into contact with bodily discharges would make you ceremonially unclean. And to be unclean in this sense meant that you could not go to worship until you were cleansed of your defilement.
But this woman’s defilement is perpetual. What is more, not only could she not come into contact with holy things, she could not come into contact with others lest she defile them. Some in this day, unfortunately, extend to this even into moral categories, as though she intentionally would disregard Levitical laws.
So you see the picture here. She’s ostracized from her society. She is cut off from the religious life of God’s people. She’s unclean. She’s tried everything within her power; seeing doctors, other healers, spending what money she has, and like Jairus, she has no remedy for her situation. Like Jairus, she takes a risk as well, probably greater than Jairus.
She gets in the crowd. She’s not supposed to be in the crowd, mind you. Not only that, but she also reaches out and she touches the robe of Christ, risking defiling Him and risking His rejection. But this is part of her stepping out in faith. You see the text says she’s heard reports, perhaps about Christ’s compassion as she saw Him, how He responded to others.
So she’s moving toward Him. It’s important to think about this. All the outside voices, though, and maybe even her own inside voice, is, what would it be saying to her? It would be saying, “I am unfit to come to Christ. I am sick. I am unclean. Stay away. You have nothing to do with holy things.”
But somehow it’s dawned on her that her sickness is not after all intended to be an obstacle to her coming to Christ but rather is to be the very reason for her coming to Him, that Jesus came not for the healthy but for the sick. Here you see the seed of the Gospel at work in this physical miracle here. She’s seeing things, she’s perceiving things. She’s no longer just hearing, she’s coming, even pressing her way through the crowds and the obstacles that seem to be in her way. So she gets to Jesus and she opens herself up to Him by reaching out to Him.
What we see here is so clear, as William Hendriksen says, is that she touches Him and she touches Him not just with a finger, but with faith. She reasons that Jesus is gracious and so she comes.
But she also reasons that Jesus is greater. He’s greater than her sickness. Again, she’s heard of others and she’s acting on it. Not only will I not defile Him, but He has the power to make me well. She says, “All I have to do is touch His robe, just His garment, just a touch, and He can make me clean.” Like Jairus, there’s a great simplicity in this act of her coming.
As the emphasis begins to shift, it shifts from this woman’s faith, Jairus’s faith, to the power of Jesus. His power to heal, His power to deliver, His power to save. She touches Him and power goes out from Him.
You ever shook the hand of a really strong guy? You know, a guy who’s really built. You can kind of see it coming. He’s coming to shake your hand and you extend your hand and you get ready and the knuckles crack as he squeezes down. And if you’re like me, you try to kind of return it, but it’s a little bit of shaking going on and you’re kind of going down. And there’s no good, you break and then you slap him on the back and you feel just muscles oozing out of his back as well. Power coming out everywhere.
So picture here the power coming out from Jesus. In Greek this word is dunamis. It’s where we get the word dynamite. Literally, dynamite coming off of Jesus. It’s on His robe, for crying out loud. It’s coming off of Him. We see where the power resides, the power over her sickness. Where does it reside? It resides in Christ. So her touching Him is significant. It points to where the power over her sickness resides. Jesus is greater than her sickness.
Jesus calls out in this pause. He says, “Who touched Me?” Well, He knows full well who touched him. What’s He doing? He’s drawing her out. Maybe she just wanted to do, you know, the drive-by touch. Oh, thanks, He healed me and I’m on my way. No, Jesus isn’t going to let her settle for that. He’s going to draw her out, out of the crowd. The great irony is she’s the one who should not be touching Jesus according to the cultural standards of that day and she knows it.
But Jesus draws her out. You can see her faith and she comes. In one sense it’s admirable. She’s moving obstacles out of the way. She’s pressing through. But in another sense it’s very tepid faith. She comes trembling to Him. We can say maybe it’s small faith or weak faith, maybe it’s great faith. It doesn’t matter what kind of faith it is. She needs healing. She needs redemption. She needs salvation. And the point is, she reaches out to Jesus.
Here’s the great drama. She shouldn’t be touching Him. What does He do? Is He going to reject her? We know He doesn’t reject her. No, He says, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.”
You see this great reversal that’s happening here. Not just her physical condition but her actual identity, who she belongs to. Jesus gives this woman a name.
I love what R. C. Sproul says of this passage. It’s not just a passage about one daughter, it’s actually a passage about two daughters, daughters of God.
He not only heals her, He gives her a new status and He removes her shame. What’s the point? Jesus is gracious. He does not reject her, not for who she is, not for her sickness, not for how she comes. He is gracious to her. And He is greater. He’s greater than her sickness. Jesus is greater than what defiles her.
All this sets up scene three – Jesus goes to the daughter. Like all miracles, this miracle, the victory over sickness, is intended to point to a greater miracle, and that’s the victory over death.
But first there’s the tension here, going back to Jairus. You can imagine Jairus. This interruption here has come at great cost. His friends meet him to tell him that his daughter is dead, don’t bother coming. There’s a cruel irony here. Just about the time something goes right, something goes horribly wrong.
I had this experience as a South Carolina fan watching the Alabama game yesterday. It’s frustrating.
You’ve healed this woman who is sick for 12 years and now the 12-year-old daughter is dead. We might wonder can anything go right? One good thing happens, a bad thing happens. It seems like a cruel irony, almost like the reality of life in a fallen world is packed into this singular moment. But this is what Jesus is overturning.
And again, from a human perspective, they reason quite naturally, there’s nothing anyone can do. Why? Because people do not come back from the dead. But Jesus is operating with a different view and He says don’t be afraid, just have faith.
You might read that and think that sounds a bit trite as He’s saying to Jairus, “Jairus, just conjure up some faith, just work it up inside of you.” But no, Jesus is saying, “You’ve come to Me, you’ve seen Me, trust Me.” And again, Jesus sees and knows things that Jairus does not see and know.
But certainly you can feel the momentary tug here, the war between what seems to be faith versus reason, or faith versus unbelief, that we all feel in our lives sometimes. There are people mourning and wailing.
Jesus almost punctuates this tension by saying, “Why are you crying? She’s only asleep.” And they laughed at Him because this is preposterous to them.
So Jesus makes them leave, except for the girl’s father and mother and the disciples with Him. This is the point. Why does He make them leave? Because He’s going to reveal something about who He is and what He came to do.
Now it wasn’t quite time for full disclosure, but here they are in this intimate setting. You can even see the compassion of Christ. It sort of lies a little bit hidden here, but you can see it. You say, well, why does He let mom and dad come in the room? Well, a good answer for that is because it’s mom and dad and He sees their pain and He knows them. So He takes this girl by the hand and He says, “Talitha,” translated little girl.
A more literal translation would be something like going to your child and taking your child by the hand and saying, “Honey,” a term of endearment like a pet name for your child, or almost like a mother to her child.
Once again you can see the compassion of Christ as He takes her, He takes her by the hand.
I love what Tim Keller says about this passage. It points out that when your child is walking through darkness, what do you do as a parent? What do you do? You grab them by the hand. And this girl is walking through the darkness of death but Jesus has her by the hand.
Not only that, but we see her the physical connection again. Touching once again shows us where the power resides. The power over death resides in Jesus. It’s in direct connection to Him.
He says, “Talitha cumi,” Get up. Get up. And here the greatness of Christ is on display. It’s remarkable. It’s almost like He’s just, He literally is just waking her up from sleep. Right?
If you’re a parent of a teenager, you ever try to drag your teenager out of bed? Turn the alarm on full blast. You go in, shaking them, hopefully not too hard, pulling off the covers. We don’t even have the power to get our teenagers, wake them up and get them out of bed.
This girl is dead and Jesus treats her like she’s taking a catnap. What’s the point? He breaks the power of death with a gentle wakeup call. He brings her out of her sleep.
Once again, as Keller says, it’s as if what is being said in this action is as long as Jesus has you by the hand, death is merely sleep.
She gets up and she starts walking around and everyone is amazed. The miracle of miracles. But it’s almost like for Jesus this is not that big of a deal. She’s walking around. You can imagine the commotion and everyone’s celebrating and Jesus is watching this and He comes along and He says, “You know what? I think she’s hungry. Hey, someone go get her some Chick-fil-A. Okay? Go get her something to eat.”
Almost like this is a small feat, such is My greatness. And that’s the point. Jesus says don’t tell anyone, don’t give it away, don’t give the plot away just yet. You get to see the premiere, more is coming, because of course the miracle was intended to point to a greater miracle, that of the resurrection of Christ Himself. And of our salvation and rescue from death.
Two very different people come to Jesus, desperate and helpless, under the weight of the most extreme things we could possibly imagine, under the weight of sickness and under the weight of death.
What do we learn? Jesus is gracious. He meets us in our desperate and helpless condition whatever it is. Listen friends, no matter your need, no matter your status, you might be on the inner religious circle, you might be on the outside of the religious circle, no matter how big or small your faith is, He does not turn us away when we come to Him in faith and repentance and maybe you need to hear that this morning.
He is gracious. Come to Him in faith and repentance.
And maybe the very things you see as hindrances to you coming to Christ are intended to be the very things to bring you to Him.
Come in faith. Reach out to Him. Open yourself up to Him. Touch Him, not with your finger but with faith.
Jesus is gracious.
Number two. Jesus is greater. Here’s the good news for us, people of God. Our condition is no match for Jesus. Jesus is greater than that which infects us, our sin, no matter how unclean you think you are, no matter how irreversible you think your condition is, you can be clean, you can be made clean by the blood of Christ because Jesus swallowed up all of that in His death and in His resurrection. He is greater.
Jesus is greater than that which infects us. Jesus is greater than that which afflicts us, sickness and even death.
It doesn’t mean that He’s going to heal every malady or sickness. It just means that one day He will. That is our hope.
So He says to us, no matter what condition you are in, don’t be afraid, just believe. Trust Me. I am gracious, and I am greater, and if you have Me, you have everything. Do not worry. So long as I have your hand, you cannot fail.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your great compassion that we see on display in this passage. Thank you for Your greatness that we see on display in this passage. Lord, we pray that You would help us to inwardly digest these things, that we might open ourselves up to You more fully, that we might trust You more fully, that we might follow You more completely. We pray, O Lord, that You would work in our hearts these things in Christ’s name. Amen.