In the last part of Mark chapter 5, we find two intertwined stories of not just miraculous healings by Jesus, but of amazing faith on the part of a sick, unclean woman and a distraught father. We also have a resurrection from the dead. Let’s dig in…
Mark 5:21-43 – Jesus Heals in Response to Faith
Note: Jesus had just finished casting out the Legion of demons from a man on the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee. They are back on the Jewish side.
21 Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. 22 Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, 23 pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
24 Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. 25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
35 While he was still speaking to her, messengers arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. They told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.”
36 But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith.”
37 Then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn’t let anyone go with him except Peter, James, and John (the brother of James). 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing. 39 He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”
40 The crowd laughed at him. But he made them all leave, and he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples into the room where the girl was lying. 41 Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means “Little girl, get up!” 42 And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed. 43 Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what had happened, and then he told them to give her something to eat.
Humble Faith
There was a crowd of people following Jesus wherever He went. They were eager to see miracles — like a bunch of groupies. Definitely, not all of them were believers.
First, Jairus, a leader in the synagogue humbles himself before Jesus, pleading Him to heal his daughter who is very sick. Moreover, it’s odd that a religious leader, probably an elder in the synagogue, would have so much faith in Jesus. He BELIEVED.
The Unclean Woman
Suddenly, Jesus feels some of His healing power flow out of Him. He knows who touched Him, yet He asks so that the woman would confess. Let’s look at her situation. She…
- had been bleeding for 12 years. That’s 12 years that she couldn’t…
- Go and worship in the temple because she was unclean. According to Jewish law, a woman had to wait 7 days after her monthly period stopped and bathe in the mikveh to cleanse herself, before she could enter the temple.
- Marry. If she had been married, her illness was grounds for divorce.
- Because she was unclean, if she had children, she could not take care of them. She could not touch anyone without making them unclean. It was as bad as leprosy. Except JESUS.
- had faith and was convinced that Jesus could heal her. There was a bit of superstition here as many believed that a garment worn by a prophet or holy man could heal miraculously.
- blended into the crowd. She didn’t want to be seen or didn’t expect attention.
- was instantly healed. She felt it the moment that Jesus felt the power leave Him.
Immediately, she knew that it was more than superstition — Jesus was legit! He stopped and His response to her was 100% compassion and kindness. He addresses her as “daughter”. Notice, too, that her touching Jesus didn’t make Him unclean because He is the origin, the ultimate source of purity. Furthermore, He healed what no doctor could heal in 12 years. Let’s look at some notes from one of the Bible Study Plans in the free YouVersion Bible app…
I’ve come to realize a few powerful truths in this passage:
1. Jesus, who knows all things by His power and nature as God, knew exactly that the woman who touched Him was healed.
2. Nothing is done without His knowledge or apart from His will. Therefore, this woman couldn’t just siphon off some of His divine power apart from His participating consent. It was done entirely by His power, with His permission, and for His purposes.
3. This emphatically shows us the power of Christ. A prophet needs to call on God to heal because the power is not their own. But because Christ is God, He is the source of all power, including every miracle performed by Old and New Testament prophets and apostles, and thus doesn’t need to call on anyone but Himself for power to perform a miracle.
Danny Saavedra, The Gospel of Mark (Part Three):
https://www.bible.com/en/reading-plans/25017
If Jesus cared about this nobody, unclean woman, He cares about YOU!
Back to Jairus
In the meantime, messengers come from Jairus’ house to tell him that his daughter is dead, and not to bother the teacher. Jesus, overhearing this, told them that she’s not dead, but only asleep.
In true Christianity, a born again person doesn’t die, but just goes to sleep. As Paul writes…
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number are asleep.
1 Corinthians 11:30 NASB
50 Now I say this, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:50-52 NASB
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 15 For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB
When we are born again, we can consider death as asleep in Christ.
“In Christianity, death is the wrong word because they are just sleeping.”
Pastor Mike Winger
In other words, death does not exist for a born again Christian. There is no need to fear death!
Back to Jairus’ daughter
Here are some interesting points as we finish our story…
- Jesus touches a dead body. For Anyone else, that would have made them unclean. Not Jesus! See, He fulfills all of those religious laws!
- He didn’t just heal her, He had power OVER DEATH. It was a resurrection like over in John 11 when He raises Lazarus from the dead.
- Just TRUST JESUS
To tell or not to tell
Back in the last story of Jesus and the demoniac, after He healed him, Jesus told him to go and tell everyone. With Jairus and his family He says the opposite. Why?
- The demoniac was a Gentile in Gentile territory. There it didn’t matter
- Over in the Jewish area, if word got out of what Jesus was doing, it would have hastened His crucifixion.
- Jesus was controlling the time of crucifixion.
It’s ALL in GOD’S TIMING not ours!
One more thing. Is it a coincidence that the woman was bleeding for 12 years and the girl was 12 years old? God only knows — again, it’s HIS timing!
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
Believe. Repent. Be Baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit.
- Believe — have Faith — that Jesus is the Christ and He died taking your sins away forever and that He rose from the dead 3 days later.
- Repent of your sins — stop sinning! Do a complete 180-degree turn in your life and surrender your life to Him. When you ask Jesus to forgive you He will. ALL your sins will be wiped clean — past, present, and future! And All means ALL!
- Be Baptized by water baptism — show the world and yourself that you have died to your old life and are born again in Christ.
- Receive the gift of Holy Spirit in your heart.
Invite Jesus into Your Heart and Receive the Gift of Grace, Joy, Peace, and the Confident Hope of Eternal Life…
Rise Up
Wake Up Sleeper
The Gospel of Mark Chapter 5:21-43
Top image by Good News Productions International from FreeBibleImages.org. (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
