Reach Out To Jesus Series

Reach Out to Jesus

Mark 5:21-43

Introduction

The Healing Touch of Jesus is our current series of messages and we continue to see Jesus at work.

Capernaum was a city on the NW shore of the sea of Galilee which served as Jesus’ Galilean home base after he left Nazareth. It was a relatively small town with about 1,500 residents. It was the home of several of his disciples. James and John and the Zebedee family were prominent residents of this town. It was in Capernaum that Matthew sat at the ‘tax office’ collecting taxes. Many “mighty works” were done by Jesus there including

the healing of the centurion’s servant, the nobleman’s son, Peter’s mother-in-law, and the paralytic, casting out of the unclean spirit. Jesus is no stranger in this small town. It is the setting of our stories today in Mark 5.

Two stories are intertwined in this text. There are two unnamed women.

One suffered for 12 years, and one is only 12 years old.

Both women are daughters, in different ways.

In both stories desperate people fell at Jesus’ feet.

In both stories, reaching out to Jesus is the answer to brokenness and heartache.

Let’s take these stories as Mark tells them.

1. Jairus Begs For Jesus’ Help (Mark 5:21-24)

Mark 5:21-24 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ?--?Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ?--?He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ?--?So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

Jairus is a synagogue leader. Barclay says he would have been responsible for making sure all of the duties were carried out in good order. “The ruler of the synagogue was one of the most important and most respected men in the community.” Jairus appeal for help is not natural, but understandable.

Out of love for his dying daughter, Jairus …

Forgot his judgment of Jesus as an outsider, a dangerous heretic, someone who was to be avoided, hated. Kernaghan: “the breach between Jesus and the synagogues had become irreparable. Leading members of the synagogues had conspired to kill him.”

Forgot his dignity - throwing himself at the feet of Jesus.He has a formal position in town and is highly regarded. Forgot his pride - in public, he appeals to Jesus in front of everyone in town who knows him and respect him. Barclay: “Here was a man who forgot everything except that he wanted the help of Jesus; and because of that forgetfulness he would remember for ever that Jesus is a Savior.”

He asks Jesus to come and help: “So Jesus went with him.”

2. An Unnamed Woman Reaches Out To Jesus (Mark 5:25-34)

Mark 5:25-34 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ?--?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. ?--?When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ?--?because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ?--?Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. ?--?At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” ?--?“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” ?--?But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ?--?Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ?--?He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

This woman faced many challenges.

Health / Medical. Barclay says the Talmud gives at least 11 cures for such troubles. Some are sheer superstitions like carrying the ashes of an ostrich-egg in a linen rag in summer and a cotton rag in winter; or carrying a barley corn which had been found in the dung of a white donkey.

Poverty

Social outcast

Religious outcast

Relationship outcast

Swindoll: “…she eked out a meager existence…. She had been struggling with this illness for as long as Jairus’ daughter had been alive.”

“At this point Jesus did something that is not repeated elsewhere in the Gospel of Mark. He called the woman daughter.” - Ronald Kernaghan

3. What Happened At Jairus’ House (Mark 5:35-43)