Scripture: Mark 5 (entire chapter)
Title: Two Zombies and a Dead Girl
Proposition: In this wonderful chapter, our Gospel writer reveals to us three amazing truths 1. No One is out of the Reach of Jesus 2. The transformative power of Jesus' holiness and 3. The power of faith, belief and obedience
INTRO:
You may not realize it, but you and I live in what could be called The Age of the Zombie. Zombies are all around us and you may not ever be aware of their presence. For example, they star on several TV shows (The Walking Dead, Z Nation and iZombie), they are on the big screen ( World War Z, Resident Evil and Walking Dead), they are featured in video games (Plants verses Zombies, Walking Dead and Z Nation) and in local reality game venues.
Zombies have been around for a very long time. Michael Jackson's song, Thriller, featured zombies and made them cool. Our government has even gotten into the zombie craze. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has used the metaphor of zombies as a way to teach about food preparedness in the time of a national disaster. Some serious astrologists and scientists have conjectured that there has been some type of zombie encounter on so-called dead planets.1 They conjectured that at one time, there was some type of life, but it was wiped out by zombie virus. It appears that we have gone zombie crazy in our modern age.
Now, for those who do not know who or what zombies are, here is a quick definition. Zombies are undead creatures who have by some means come back to life. Typically, zombies are depicted as mindless, reanimated human corpses with a hunger for human flesh; especially human brains. The term, Zombie comes from Haitian folklore (Haitian French: zombi, Haitian Creole:zonbi) where a zombie is a dead body animated by magic. Today, movies no longer use the idea of magic as a way zombies are created. Contemporary zombies are the result of an outbreak of a mutated virus that affects humans ( and in some movies other creatures) transforming them into zombies.
Actually, the whole idea of zombies just grosses me out. I really not into the zombie genre. I generate more to shows like Old Westerns, Police Shows or Mystery Movies. I'd much rather watch an old episode of Gunsmoke, Adam-12 or a CSI show. TV shows like, Murder She Wrote, Inspector Lewis and Poirot are more to my liking. I like shows that I can understand and enjoy a bowl of popcorn. Shows like Walking Dead, Resident Evil or World War Z, I don't understand nor do I understand the attraction or the sense in watching them.
That being said, the Bible passage we are going to examine could be called the Zombie chapter of the Bible. You could say that it involves the stories of a couple of zombies and a dead girl. And if you don't like that title, we could go with an alternative one - The Mad Man, The Malignant Woman and the Dead Maiden.
Mark chapter five, shares how Jesus interacted with some rather unusual individuals and situations that arose as He was preaching the Kingdom of God. Our writer shares with us, all kinds of information dealing with a myriad of subjects. Some of those subjects being:
a. The supernatural b. Demons and demonic possession
c. The Reality of God's Kingdom here and now
d. Consequences of rejecting Jesus e. The importance of faith and belief
f. The importance of obedience g. The importance of courage
h. The importance of determination i. Healing that bring redemption
j. Being raised from the dead k. The power of prayer
There is so much here in this one chapter that it is difficult to get a single handle on an overall theme and yet, that is our goal. It would be easy for us to get lost looking at all the bits and pieces of each pericope. This chapter can be compared to looking at a diamond with a loupe ( those little magnifying glasses). The higher the magnification the more facets, cutlet and table you can see. It's the same way with these stories. If we would take the time and look at each of them very slowly and intensely we would be amazed at all the truths and insights we would gain.
I would encourage each one of us to do that very thing. To take some time this week and spend some quality time allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal His truths in these passages. I would encourage you to sit down with your Bible along with a pen and pad of paper and as you read Mark 5 to jot down all the amazing truths that you discover. Your life along with your faith journey will be greatly enhanced.
We don't have the time to do that in this setting, so instead, I would like for us to take this jewel of a passage and hold it away at a small distance. While we may not be able to see all of its minute facets and beauty, we can still be amazed at its overall beauty. We can still learn a great deal and be amazed at its wonder and majesty.
So, if we take all three of the stories and attempt to gain some overall insight and wisdom where would that lead us? If we look at this passage in broad strokes what can we discover and learn? What overall lessons can we receive from these three stories?
I. First of all, I believe we can understand that no one is beyond the reach, the rescue and the redemption of Jesus. No one or situation is beyond Jesus.
We immediately see that Jesus reaches out to people on both sides of the sea. Jesus reaches out to those that live on the side that was known to inhabit people that followed God as well as the other side that was known for its inhabitants being resistant to God. Jesus reaches out to both sides. It did not matter, Jesus came to seek the least, the last and the lost, no matter where they lived or even how they treated Jesus. Jesus came for all people, everywhere. And these stories share with us this truth and challenge us to do the same.
We also see that Jesus reached out to people who most people would consider beyond help. Jesus reached out to people who were spiritually, mentally and physically believed to be beyond help or even hope.
The story of the man in the tombs is a perfect picture of what the Devil desires for all fallen humanity. This mad man is the perfect picture of what happens when evil is allowed to reign in the hearts and minds of individuals and society. He is a microcosm of a person living a life of hell on earth. He is a an outcast, no one wants to be around him. He is mentally and emotional disturbed. His life is self-destructive and suicidal. He could be seen as a picture of the living dead, of a zombie.
This man (zombie) lives and eats among the dead. He lives in the town's graveyard. He cuts himself and rids himself of anything that would remind your of his humanity. He lives worse than an animal and no one can tame him. The town has tried over and over to either help him or restrain him, but to no avail. By the time he meets Jesus, local society has written him off and are simply waiting for him to die. He is the town zombie, the crazy man who lives in the graveyard. He is the ancient boogey man.
However, Jesus reaches out to him. To Jesus, this man is a precious soul to be redeemed, restored and renewed. He is not beyond the love and the reach of Jesus. While he may look and act like a human zombie, Jesus sees a potential disciple. Jesus knows that His Heavenly Father can free him and redeem this man.
The same could be said as well, about the woman in Mark's sandwich story that includes a dead girl as well. Like the mad man, this malignant woman was a perfect candidate to be among the walking dead, the zombies of the area. Her disease, no doubt some type of cancer, was entering into stage four. Her bleeding could no longer be controlled much less cured. She was an embarrassment to her town and a woman to be shunned.
She reeked of the smell of rotting blood. Nothing she could do would make her clean. Nothing could cover that smell. Her blood disease made it impossible to be around family and friends. She was a part of the unclean community. Soon she would have to live completely isolated or in a leper's colony. Anyone who touched her or was even around her could themselves become unclean.
Loving people had once tried to help her. Doctors and care takers had done all they could but they simply did not have the right medicine or knowledge to help her. By the time she meets Jesus, her money was gone and her hope was quickly slipping away. All she knew to do was to reach out in desperation for Jesus. All she knew to do was to reach out and attempt to touch the hem of his robe. Perhaps by touching him or his robe she could be healed.
And like the mad man, Jesus was there for her as well. She was not beyond his love and his reach.
Even the dead girl in our third story was not out of the reach of Jesus. Jesus was able to reach out to the Mad man, the malignant woman and the dead maiden. He was able to do the impossible in all of their lives. He brought back order, healing and hope. That is the power of our Jesus, both yesterday, today and tomorrow.
And it is the power of Body of Christ, the Church. For we are to understand that no one, no situation, no set of circumstances is beyond the redemption and healing power of God. No one is to be seen as beyond the reach of the Church and its love. We are never to run away from mad men, malignant women or even impossible situations. Rather, like Jesus, we are to reach out. We are to reach out and do what we see Jesus doing next:
II. Jesus' holiness is transformational
Did you even know anyone who had a cleaning compulsion or what is called a cleaning OCD; an excessive need for everything to be clean and be rid of any kind of dirt? Some people are constantly compelled to wash their hands. Some people are compelled even go as far as constantly changing clothes and wearing gloves so that do not get contaminated by any type of dirt, grime or muck.
The Pharisees at the time of Jesus, were spiritually OCD. They were determined to avoid being around anyone or anything that they considered to be unclean. They had these elaborate washing rituals and societal rules that they thought would keep them clean. They did their best to stay away from things, situations and people that they deemed unclean. They were spiritual OCD people.
All three of the people in our stories were unclean and would have never been seen or approached by the religious leaders of Jesus' day. They would have been avoided at all cost. No Levite, priest or Pharisee would ever have visited the man in the cemetery. In fact, they would have considered it an act of God for him to simply die.
No Levite, priest or Pharisee would ever have allowed the malignant woman to touch their clothes. They would have never talked to her, touched her or given her any spiritual comfort at all. To have done so would have endangered their own personal holiness.
No Levite, priest or Pharisee would have gone into the same small room with a dead body. They would have left that task to others who did not care about their own holiness.
The ancient idea of holiness held by many Pharisees of that time was to do all they could to steer clear and stay clear of anything and anyone unholy, unclean and unrighteous. We can't completely condemn them for this kind of thinking. After all, the Bible does tell us to abstain from all appearances of evil. All appearances of evil but not all evil people.
We can't win the world unless we communicate, unless we rub shoulders and unless we befriend those who are unclean. The holiness taught in Jesus' day would never have reached out to the mad man, the malignant woman or the dead maiden. He would have been left to die among the dead, she would have been removed to live among the lepers and the young girls family would have had to grieve outside of the loving arms of the righteous.
But that is not what Jesus taught. Jesus revealed and taught that the Kingdom of God had and was arriving. No longer, Jesus taught does holiness need to be on the defensive. Jesus possessed a holiness that was on the offensive. Jesus believed that it was possible for holiness to transform those around them rather than the opposite happening. While sin infected all those around, Jesus believed that God's holiness could cure and redeem.
Jesus portrays a whole different way to live for God than had ever been seen or witnessed. Everyone living at the time of Jesus, did all they could to be OCD spiritually clean. They insulated and isolated themselves from evil or from evil people. They put up barriers and stop gaps to keep uncleanness and ungodliness away. They believed that evil was so strong that the only way to live a holy life was to rid oneself of all evil.
Take a moment and look back over these stories and see what the actions of Jesus. Jesus walks right into the enemy camp of Satan and rescues the mad man. Jesus throws off the shackles of spiritual bondage that has held this man captive. Jesus does his best to free both the man and his community of evil. Sadly, his community does not join the man in following Jesus.
Jesus reaches out to the woman crippled socially, mentally, spiritually and physically with this horrible disease and brings wholeness and healing. Instead of her disease infecting him, Jesus' holiness infected her life and transformed her life. Instead of her making Jesus unclean the opposite happens. Through Jesus she becomes clean.
Jesus walks right into a room full of sorrow, grief and the loss of hope and brings back life. This little girl at her age was just about to be engaged/espoused to her husband. Twelve, thirteen year old girls at that time were getting ready for their engagements. I know we may not understand that in our culture but it was a reality in ancient Palestine. Most people did not live past 35 including women who many would die giving birth. If one generation was to be alive long enough to raise the next generation at that time it meant that one had to marry young, bear children young so that you would be around long enough to see them grown.
Jesus walks into a room overwhelmed with death and sorrow and instead of allowing it to infect Him, instead His holiness affects the room and its people. Before Jesus, there is all kinds of mayhem and commotion. After Jesus they are celebrating and getting ready for an engagement party in a few weeks or months.
And what is true of Jesus is to be true of us as the Body of Christ. Church is not some kind of OCD sanitized house of worship. Instead, the body of Christ are to be transforming agents of holiness. We are to infect and affect all those around us, where we live, where we shop and where we work. Instead of them changing and transforming us, we are to transform them.
Many years ago, Rebekah and I had the opportunity to work with some children that lived in a very difficult situation. They lived across the tracks so to speak. But they loved to come to church. Their fathers were not in the picture and their mothers let's say had a great many boyfriends.
And the children did not have quality clothes and what they had a times did not fit nor where they church appropriate. Their language was not the best and they shared way too much "home life" at times.
But God helped us and in fact, while we were reaching out to them our church doubled in size. But then one day we had an encounter with a group of parents. They were tired of these other children. Their language, their clothing, their appearance was causing a great deal of trouble. It seems that one of the "church children" had learned a bad word from these other children. And it was not appropriate for the other children to see how unholy and inappropriate the older girls were coming to church. It wouldn't be long that they would be attracting their children to look at and think the wrong things.
So, we offered to allow those parents to partner with us in providing clothing, mentoring and reaching out to these children. It had seemed like we were making progress with them and we knew in time through the influence of good people we would see some great changes.
But it never happened because individuals went to the children and others and soon they were no longer coming to church. No longer was there any danger to our church children, they were once again in their protected and OCD spiritually clean environment. However, we also lost half of the church. In the end we were safe but in a few years safe ended up closing the doors.
We can' t be afraid of sin or sinners. Instead, the devil and sin should be afraid of us, just as they were afraid of Jesus. Jesus didn't mess with sin, he called it what it was and then cast it out. He cleaned up lives and towns and He sent His Holy Spirit to help us do the same.
You and I are called to allow our holiness to be transformational. Don't be on the defensive at home, work or play. Instead, allow God to work through you and change the culture around you.
III. Finally, Mark 5 shares with us the necessity of faith and obedience
As with all things there are some requirements even when it comes to spiritual matters. Grace is free but we have to accept it. Healing is there for us to experience but we have to be open and receptive. We can experience a life of holiness but we must surrender our lives to Jesus and live out a life of obedience.
All three individuals - the mad man, the malignant woman and the dead maiden all had to be open, receptive, believe, surrender and be obedient to Jesus.
For the mad man there was this intense struggle. When we deal with deep spiritual issues there is often a deep intense struggle. It was no different for this man who battles a war inside his heart and mind. The Bible tells us that he is captive to a legion of demons. And while we may want to change the names of the demons to some type of medical condition, the reality is simply this: "We have renamed the demons of the past, but we have not exorcised them." (Quote - F. Leenhart from "An Exegetical Essay, Mark 5:1-20 - in the NIV Application Commentary by David E. Garland). We may change the names of these demons but do not solve the man's condition. Only Jesus can do that and Jesus gives His Church the same authority and power.
But the man had to accept Jesus' freedom and at first we see that he hesitates. He begs Jesus not to send his demons too far away. He seems to not want complete freedom. Many counselors today can testify of this same feeling by patients that deal with overwhelming addictions and mental issues in their lives. On one hand they seek deliverance and yet on the other hand they find security in those same demons and addictions.
Thankfully, Jesus gives them permission to leave and allows them to confine themselves to unclean pigs who under the leadership of the demons rush to their deaths. From a Jewish perspective this is a good thing; unclean spirits and unclean animals are both wiped out in one fell swoop and the prize is that a human being is cleansed and made whole.
The woman reached out in faith for her healing. She took a big risk. She was just desperate enough to find a way through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus' robe. At first she thought she could do it without being seen but Jesus does not allow her that privilege. Instead, Jesus will not allow her to disappear. Instead, Jesus calls for her to testify about her healing. Jesus knows that she is capable, she is worthy of such an honor and His Heavenly Father is more than worthy of the praise.
I have known people and have known about people who were healed by the LORD but would not give God praise. They wanted it kept quiet. And some of them found themselves back into the same pain and even more trouble than before their healing. When God heals someone unless otherwise instructed they are to give God praise. Not to draw attention to themselves but to draw attention and praise to the LORD.
This lady was not harmed for having to testify. Instead, her story is a part of the Gospel story. Jesus does not harm her, he blesses her in verses 33 - 34 and announces that it was her faith, it was by her faith that she received her healing. He restores her back to health and then sends her on her way back to her family, back to her friends and back to her ability to attend worship. Jesus blesses her with wholeness, prosperity and friendship all because of her faith, her testimony and her obedience.
And then we see the faith of the young maiden's mother and father. How easy it would have been to tell Jesus that is enough. While she was alive there was hope but now she had been prepared for death. It would have been easy to turn Jesus away and joined in with the others in grief. The matter is determined and it looks like her death is now God's will. We must simply accept that all we can do is to honor her memory and give her a good funeral.
But if Jesus is in the room then even death can't hold someone. Jesus says - Only have faith and believe. Even when things look impossible:
+When our dreams seem to die
+When the doctors tell us there is no hope
+When it looks like there will be no Revival
+When people look like they will never find Jesus
We must still continue to believe and have faith. We will never know what God will do and we will never know unless we have faith, believe and be bold enough to ask for His Help.
Does this mean that every dream is resurrected, every disease is cured and Revival will suddenly fall out of the sky?
No, but it doesn't mean that it will not happen either. God tells us to ask in Jesus' name and then place it in His hands. Then it is up to the LORD whether there be healing on this side of immortality or on the other side. Our responsibility is to believe, have faith and obey.
Two zombies and a dead girl. That is how the chapter begins to fold out. In the end we have three completely healed and spirit filled people - a man, a woman and a young woman. We have a host of family and friends that are rejoicing and who now about the power of God.
SIDE NOTE: Some scholars see the woman with the blood issue and the young girl being mother and daughter. In that case the "sandwich miracle" is the bringing together of father, mother and daughter. It is based on the fact of the girl's age (12) and the duration of the woman's illness (12 years). Can it be proven. Perhaps not, but what a concept and what a wonderful miracle story of the healing of an entire family. Just a thought!
1Astronomers Stephen Kane and Franck Zelziz, who together represent the quite serious-sounding institutions of San Francisco State University, the Center for Global Extinction Pandemic Control and the Planetary Defense Institute, wrote in a research paper “there could be more than 2,500 zombie-infested planets” in our solar system.
Oh, SNAP! And I really mean that. Oh, “SNAP:” Spontaneous Necro-Animation Psychosis, the “scientific” name for zombie-ism. Kane and Zelziz say in their report “prevalent life in the universe presents a serious danger due to the risk of spreading SNAP. As such, it stands to reason that this could be a cosmic-wide phenomenon.” http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2014/04/space_zombies_sounds_like_a_ho.html
