True Faith is demonstrated before us, and is shown to
be confidence in the Lord, not sincerity or perfection.
Brief review - Last time
Mark’s theme and Key verse- Written to Romans/Gentiles
to show who the suffering servant, Christ, was. Key verse Mark 10:45
Introduction
What is Faith? Some of the dictionary synonyms are
confidence, reliance, conviction, belief, assurance. Ok, but what does faith
look like? I’ve heard it described by Ray Comfort as a parachute which is put
on. One biblical definition is in Heb. 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”In today’s message you will
see faith - living faith - in not one account, but two corresponding events.
And by God’s grace you will leave today with greater faith than you arrived.
Read the account - Mark 5:21 - 43
21 Now
when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude
gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. 22 And behold, one of the rulers
of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet
23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point
of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will
live.” 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and
thronged Him.
25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
35 While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”
36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” 37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. 39 When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”
40 And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.
25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”
32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
35 While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”
36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” 37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 Then He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. 39 When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.”
40 And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.
Literary matters
Way back in October of 2017 we looked at Mark 3:19-35
and in particular we saw what I called intercalation, or chiasm, or insertion.
One event interrupted by another event. In Mark 3 the two events were Christ’s
family coming for him because he was going crazy interrupted by the Scribes who
accuse him of blasphemy. And at that time you may remember that the two events
were informative one to the other. Christs’ family thought he was out of his
mind and were coming to get him, and the Scribes were shown by Christ to be the
insane party having themselves blasphemed the very Holy Spirit! Today we have
another insertion. We have the account of Jairus requesting help for his dying
daughter, interrupted by a woman looking for help.
Secondarily is the fact that this account is also
found in all three synoptic gospels - so we do have to take consideration of
all the material.
Lexical Notes
Words – (Use Parallels)
There are certain words which have significant
theological meaning behind them and in our account we see a few of them quite
regularly. There are two that we are considering this evening, Sozo -
the Greek word for delivered or saved; and Pistis -
the Greek word for faith.
Matt uses sozo 3 times and pistis once (Matt.
9:21-22)
Luke uses sozo once and pistis twice (Luke 8:48)
Mark however uses sozo and pistis much more
frequently. Sozo 3 times, pistis 2 times, and the usual word for healing, 2
times.
Apparent contradiction
BTW - When we read the account in Matthew it is stated
that Jairus’ daughter had just died - which might look like a contradiction.
However, in Matthew AND in Mark we read that Jairus explicitly says “she will
live” using the same Greek word for live in each case, so it is best to understand
that this girl was dying, at the point of death, crossing over - and by some
accounts had already done so. There is no contradiction.
Gospel to the gentiles
Finally - there is a unique example of Mark
demonstrating his concern for us gentiles - in vs. 41 the Aramaic Talitha
Cumi is translated. Tali signifies a boy, talitha
a girl. Cumi is a command to arise.
Evaluation
• Who
is Jairus? …and his daughter?
• Who
is this anonymous woman?
When we ask these questions consider how the parties
are referred to in the account. Ruler of the Synagogue. “These were laymen
whose responsibilities were administrative, not priestly, and included such
things as looking after the building and supervising the worship. Sometimes the
title was honorary, given to prominent members of the congregation with no
administrative duties attached.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)
And his daughter - 12 years old - and very
affectionately referenced in Mark 5:23 when he calls her his “little daughter”
The Greek term is unique and means one which is like when we call to our wife
or child ‘sweety’.
The anonymous woman is exactly that. The most we can
come up with is a probability that she is a gentile, based upon Eusebius’
Ecclesiastical history. Eusebius was the Bishop of Cesarean and also a
historian who lived from 263 - 339 AD. (76)
Eusebius relates that this woman was of Cæsarea
Philippi, where her house was, and where were still standing (about 300 years
later), monuments of the benefits conferred upon her by Christ; at the door of her
house was a brazen image of a woman in brass, set upon an high stone on her
bended knees, and arms stretched out like one begging; and opposite to her,
another of a man, of the same metal, standing, and decently clothed in a tunic,
and his hand stretched out to the woman... (Eusebius Eccl Hist. l. 7. c. 18.)
We have other history that tells us it was broken and
destroyed by Julian the apostate who reigned from 355 to 360 AD (Theophylact
Simocatta).
Whatever we make of statues of Christ, this woman did
what seemed respectful to her pagan mind at the time to honor Jesus. And if she
was of Caesarea Philippi she was almost certainly gentile.
• What
city are we in? We are not told explicitly, but with some conjecture and based
upon Matt 9:1 we can assert Capernaum.
However, it does not seem to matter.
• Consider
the event as a whole… Though it is recorded as an intercalation by Mark, all 3
gospel accounts give the same order. Mark simply gives us enough detail within
that order to learn a few things.
a. First
- remember that both Jairus and the woman say or think that Jesus can
deliver or save (sozo). While we might see this in the English as healing, that
wasn’t their first thought.
b. Second
- Jesus connects faith, their faith as the causative reason for
deliverance (sozo).
i. Jairus
says to Christ, “Come and lay Your hands on her,
that she may be healed, and she will live.” And he says this after declaring her death.
Verse 36 we see Jesus address him - “Do not be
afraid, only believe”
ii. The
woman says to herself, “If only I may touch His
clothes, I shall be made well (sozo).”
After the healing Jesus says to her, “Daughter,
your faith has made you well (sozo) . Go in
peace, and be healed of your affliction.”
c. Finally
- the woman whose issue of blood made her an outcast, had this malady
from the very time of the little girls’ birth. For twelve years these two
people, who never, as far as we know ever met one another, were tied together
in a theological lesson for us today - just like the book of Job. He never as
far as we can tell ever knew about the reasons for his great trial - God’s
boasting in Job.
We are far too quick to ‘understand’ a persons’ plight
I think. I don’t say that to excuse sin, but often we think we know when
plainly the fact is God does what we cannot see and will not see, until He
determines to do so. Like Joseph said to his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” Therefore he was
not going to take vengeance out on his brothers.
Conclusion and challenge
So how are we to understand these two accounts? What
is God’s message for us?
Faith is the key
Jesus is constantly mobbed. We’ve seen this over and
over. Yet he does not let the circumstances surrounding him drive him over the
brink to anger or abandonment of his work.
Don’t we do that? You have an appointment which you
planned for, but new things have arisen to squeeze that appointment to the
point that you have just enough time to get there and as you go you get a flat,
or the train crossing is busy with a 2 miler. Do you get exasperated and take
it out on the kids or the Doctor? Or do you just abandon your responsibility
with some fatalistic saying?
Look at this woman’s faith -
for more than a decade she pursued a cure. Spending it all - yet she still
didn’t yield to fatalism. Que séra sera.
Somehow, she continued on until this Messiah comes by and she thinks Aha!
Hope! BTW - some commentators I read
pointed out that her idea to touch the hem of his garment to be made well was a
pagan superstition. We read of this sort of thing in Acts 19:12. Now, think of
this, this gentile woman, her faith corrupted by superstition, still finds
herself healed. What does that tell you!
And look at the faith of Jairus
- First off, he is plainly already convinced that Christ can indeed heal his
little girl. In verse 23 he says exactly that. But notice this - he never says
another thing. Not one more word - even though his daughter was at the very
point of death, or as good as dead. His faith is in the Lord. Even when an
unexpected distraction, this anonymous gentile woman delays the whole works!
Do you see where I am going with this folks? Do you
really and truly trust in the sovereignty of the almighty - or when the hard
time comes, when your plans fail do you fatalistically abandon hope, or become
angry? Remember the wrath of man does not produce
the righteousness of God. (James 1:20) James tells us this right after
exhorting us that every good and perfect gift come
down from the Father above. And we know faith is one of those gifts of
God. “For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Eph. 2:8
Jairus even holds his tongue when the report comes
that his daughter had indeed passed on. Dead is dead, and it makes perfect
sense to “not trouble the Master” right? But
Jesus now says only one thing to cheer him - “Do
not be afraid; only believe.” There is our word again - pistis, or
faith.
Marks theme expressed
In the press of crowds, with hardly time to sit and
rest our Lord serves. He patiently waits upon crowds of people with imperfect
faith. Even his own disciples chastise him - you ask who touched me?! Indeed!
This Jesus not only serves rowdy crowds, he teaches foolish disciples - like
you and me… He lets one distraction after another go, without exasperation.
In my day job, when computer systems fail it seems to
be that they fail in droves. I get pretty testy when I can’t focus on one
problem without 2 or more people telling me their troubles. I suspect you are a
lot like me. But we need to have faith. Jairus gives us the example of a near
perfect faith. I know it wasn’t perfect, for nothing a man does is acceptable
to God, but for Christ. And the example of this anonymous gentile woman with
her very imperfect, even superstitious faith also instructs us.
Lastly - let me show you something that tremendously
blessed me. Jairus was a Jewish man of some note. Perhaps nothing more than a
generally righteous Jew he was afforded the title Ruler of the Synagogue. This
reminds us that his daughter also was Jewish and Jairus had great affection for
her.
But notice this last comparison for us from Mark - the
gospel for us gentiles. When Jesus addresses the anonymous gentile woman, he
says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go
in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:34 He says to her - daughter and I can’t help thinking that he
also affectionately loved this woman - despite her imperfect faith.
Challenge
What I want to remind you of is that the essence of
true faith is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. This woman’s faith was
superstitious and even the fact that she hid among the crowd shows she was
ashamed in her actions. Will our faith be better? When the Disciples requested
of Christ in Luke 17:5, “Lord - increase our faith”
his response was that familiar mustard seed illustration. Don’t you see that it
isn’t up to you and the goodness of your effort or the sincerity of your
belief? You have no faith apart from Him!
That is why this woman was healed - God is gracious
toward the sinner! The man whose son was demon possessed and even Christ’s own
disciples could not heal him - this is the man who call out to Christ, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) It’s
not the perfection of your faith so much as it is the confidence of the One in
whom you trust which makes all the difference in the world.
May the Lord help us each one to be more aware of the
sovereign Lord we have and his good intentions toward us, despite the
‘setbacks’ we seem to experience. Every setback is from the Lord and as Joseph
said God meant it for good.
“I have been crucified
with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) Do we believe that?
Oh Lord! May you keep ever before us the faith to
believe - Lord help us in our unbelief! Help us in our faulty belief! Help us
that we keep the faith.
Amen.
