Jul 30 2023 - Mark - Some Miracles of Jesus

Sue – Today, I’m talking about Mark 5:21-43 – 2 miracles Jesus did. One is the most unique and amazing miracles He did – and the other, has impact on our daily lives.

Jesus is in the crowd, teaching at the water’s edge -

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.

All these people – why are they there? They have heard of Jesus; He has fed thousands; They don’t want to miss what He is about to do.

In this crowd is a woman who is hemorrhaging for 12 years – so she is unclean, and shouldn’t be in this crowd. She heard about Jesus – and probably anytime she heard any possibility – she was there…

²⁷after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His cloak.
²⁸For she thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will get well.”

I picture her saying again and again – if I just touch His garment… And she did!

²⁹Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Now, you might think – how does she know? Okay – she has had this for more than 4000 days and nights. I’m sure she knows when something changes in her.

At that moment she was healed. At this point – Jesus has never heard of her – seen her – never touched her. He has no knowledge of this woman who has just been healed of His power. That is amazing!

To try to define faith is like trying to hold water. It is something you can’t see, but you have felt the effects of it.

Faith is ultimately faith - Faith is ultimately faith,
which means to believe and to know –
without experience and without feelings.

Richard Rohr, What the Mystics Knew

This woman heard of Jesus healing. She didn’t know if there were rules, or a format, or verses, but she heard and believed. When I was young, I believed in Jesus – but I saw others who were different – I called them Happy Christians – unlike me. I would pray – and think – I don’t feel anything – why didn’t it work? I was expecting these feelings to signify something. When I did come to the Lord, I saw an illustration – that feelings are not what demonstrate that God has come into my life. And I have never doubted since then.

Jesus, having never seen this woman… Unlike the centurion – Jesus had heard of him – and healed his servant from a distance. The paralytic – being let down – Jesus saw Him and healed him.

Somehow, this faith this woman had made a connection with Jesus.

³⁰Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”

So, He perceived that His power had gone forth. Her faith – somehow – I don’t know how! – Somehow, that faith makes a connection to God and His power. We are connected to God and His power is made available to us.

That is the first healing.

Next, we see – who touched my garments…

³¹And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”

Seems a tad disrespectful, but okay…

³²And He looked around to see the woman who had done this. ³³But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

Not her doctrine, not her sympathy cry, her faith has made her well. He gives her a benediction… go in peace and be healed of your affliction.

I like to think of this as a first century text message:

³⁵While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” ³⁶But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”

In the Bible, this present tense – only believe – is translated in the present continuous – be believing…

Do you love me?

Matthew 7:7 – ask and you shall receive, knock – a better translation – keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking – and that is a whole different feel – a different impact of how we approach God.

Next,

³⁷And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. ³⁸They came to the house of the synagogue official; and He *saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing.

As you expect – can you imagine, your child dying? I can’t imagine.

³⁹And entering in, He said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep.” ⁴⁰They began laughing at Him.

Because, come on – they know dead when they see dead. This is similar to the disciples’ response – what do you mean, who touched you?

Jesus was okay with these responses. He didn’t need their respect. He knew Who He was and He was fine. He knew they were learning – and He gave grace.

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.

⁴¹Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”. ⁴²Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded. ⁴³And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this,

So, she is healed. Two healings. When Jesus healed the paralytic, He didn’t add that six months of physical therapy should take care of this – and with Lazarus, he didn’t say to stay away from fatty foods and exercise – when they were healed – they were healed.

, and He said that something should be given her to eat.

He was inviting her parents to join Him in the work of healing. They had a part. What Jewish mother wouldn’t want to feed her child?! It was a joy!

Sometimes we look at a privilege that Jesus gives us as a burden, because we take that yoke upon ourselves – but He has invited us along to participate with Him. NOT – if we don’t do what we are called, someone will go to hell…

In Esther 4:14

There was a decree to kill the Jews – but Mordecai had encouraged Esther to go see the king – which could mean death since she wasn’t invited…

¹⁴For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”

In other words, God’s will is not thwarted by us – His will WILL be done – and Him inviting us to join Him is a privilege and honor and opportunity – but rest assured, He will accomplish His purpose – He is the one shouldering the responsibility.

These are miracles. I am sure you have heard there are explanations for miracles – some come up with elaborate explanations – like Jesus swooning on the cross – He didn’t really die… - or the woman with the hemorrhage – like the last treatment just kicked in…

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein

My view of the world – it all functions together – it keeps on working – and no one is doing it. Our bodies – each part functioning is so important. But God is doing the miraculous every day. Today is an ordinary day and He is still doing miracles and inviting us to join with Him.

Whether it is feeding someone or giving a word of encouragement – we can join with Him any day and every day – and those are two miracles!

Mike – As I looked at the woman with the hemorrhage – the boldness that came from her out of desperation. Sue talked about her situation – and the determination to just touch Him.
Jesus heals her – and then Jesus says – the disciples come –

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?'"

He makes her stand up publicly and say – that was me. Some commentaries say Jesus is calling her out in public as a final step of faith. That may be accurate in some ways. But I think – like Sue said – she was unclean and should not have been in a public situation – so, she spent 12 years of her life having to hide. I think Jesus was saying – Welcome back!

With the woman and Jairus – the emphasis is on faith – and faith borne of desperation. Not spirituality – and that is not it – just a story of desperation.

Here is a similar one:
Mark 7: 24 Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice.

Tyre is the most northern part of His travels – the southern part of Lebanon – Phoenicia - this was an enemy of Israel in the Old Testament – a land where Jews and Gentiles mingle – and we don’t know why He went up there… Maybe to get away from the crowds…

25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race.

Land of the enemy – Matthew refers to her as a Canaanite – despised and hated by the Jews – so that He could show that she is the perfect disciple! The perfect disciple is going to be the most hated and despised of all.

She falls at His feet – a sign of showing His authority – and could be a sign of worship.

And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

She is pleading – it is out of desperation. This is not “This is the right way to pray – to get God to listen”

I think, we think we have to be overly spiritual for God to answer our prayers. But I think a key characteristic is that of DESPERATION! That is what you need for God to answer. You don’t need to be cool, or spiritual – just desperate.

Prayer is not just a discipline. It is okay to have the discipline of prayer. Our granddaughters are up this weekend – if one cries for help – it is out of need or pain! The key is not what is said, but who they are crying out to. That is what really matters.

There are times they will cry out because one of the parents has thwarted them – and who do they go to at that point? The people who matter – you can guess who that is.

Prayer is a spiritual thing that we tend to over-spiritualize.

27 And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

As Spock would say – Fascinating! OR maybe disturbing! Jesus is saying that He has come as the Messiah of the Nation of Israel first – the seed of Abraham – and then when He says the dogs – that would be an insult – the people of Israel’s favorite way to insult the Gentiles -but this is not of malice – but I think it is a parable, or a metaphor – He is identifying this great divide between Jew and Gentile. He is revealing, through this parable, this great theological truth about salvation. We sang about it in Psalm 67 – God be gracious to us, and bless us…

God promised Abraham that he was blessed to be a blessing.

God blesses us – why? That we might be a blessing to the world.

I am not ashamed of the gospel – the power of salvation to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile

Jesus is saying – there is a process here. I have come for the Jews, but this is also going to work out for the Gentiles. Across the board, the people of Israel missed this – very rarely did they realize they were blessed to bless the whole world.

I think we miss it too –

The purpose of being a Christian – is to be a blessing to those who are not Christian.

When we make people we consider to be outsiders or enemies, rather than our calling, we miss what God wants for us. Who do you view as an enemy or an evil one in your world? That group is your CALLING! WOW! Maybe you struggle with immigration and immigrants in our culture? Guess what?! God is calling you to bless them!

Now, the woman’s response is amazing – utterly incredible. Remember, it is a parable, kind of… Last week, we talked about – the parable is so that the outsider won’t get it and turn to me and be saved…

But SHE GETS IT!

Children vs. dogs? She gets it! She is a theological powerhouse. She finishes the parable:

28 But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs (the Gentiles) under the table feed on the children's crumbs." 29 And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter." 30 And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.

Not because of your faith – because of your understanding – I am going to do this!

I think that tells us that faith is not about God accomplishing our will, but faith is about us – and this goes with what Sue was sharing – participating in accomplishing God’s will.

Lord, thank You – these stories are just amazing. We have to become a part – to see our lives connected with these stories. We all will be a Jairus – who, someone we love is dying… the woman – having some issue that hinders our lives. We will all struggle like the Gentile woman. Desperation. It is okay to be desperate and call out to You for mercy. Help us to be humble to cry out to You in our time of need.