Where Are You? Series

(21) And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. (22) And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, (23) And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: [I pray thee], come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. (24) And [Jesus] went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. (25) And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, (26) And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, (27) When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. (28) For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. (29) And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in [her] body that she was healed of that plague. (30) And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? (31) And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? (32) And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. (33) But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. (34) And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

A little context to these passages before I get into the message. Any time you read your Bible I recommend that you always read the verses before and after those promises we so quickly cleave to, because you will find that there are always conditions that must be met before you can claim those promises. Also, the same should be said of familiar stories in the Bible to better understand what is going on.

You will find this story repeated in Matthew 9:20-22 and Luke 8:43-48 which will help fill in the setting and timeframe of this beloved miracle. All three accounts give us a crowd of people and the woman with the issue of blood. Now to get the full picture we must go back a few verses in Mark 5, Matthew 9, and Luke 8 and we see that before this meeting was the deliverance of the demonic of Gadara. He was the one that was possessed with the Legion of demons that were cast out of the man and they fled into a herd of 2000 swine that then ran violently into the sea of Gailee and drowned and the keepers of the swine run into town and tell everyone what just happened.

When they arrive, they see the man no longer naked but sitting clothed and in his right mind and they become afraid and ask Jesus to leave. Then the one delivered from the demons ask to go with Jesus, but He tells him in Luke 8:39 Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him. In Mr 5:20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all [men] did marvel. Take a mental note now where it says the men did marvel, we will get back to that. Then we go back to Lu 8:40 And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, the people [gladly] received him: for they were all waiting for him. Which sets up my original text.

But before I get into the message, I want to go back to Mark 5:20 where it says that all [men] did marvel. Throughout the Bible you will only find the word marvel or marvelled only 34 times with the bulk of the use found in the New Testament. It is a word that has no association with faith or belief in Christ. That word simply means to wonder, to be astounded, be stunned, be amazed, be dumbfounded. Not once did you read that they believed or accepted Jesus as their Messiah they were simply caught up in a feeling. When Jesus comes back, they are no longer afraid of Him, but they aren’t believers either they came only to see a show. This gathering of people that are pressing and thronging Him would be compared to how the world reacts to a celebrity. To borrow from an old term, they were nothing but a bunch of looky-loos. To me this is heart breaking that with all those people in the crowd there was no faith in Christ except for one, who I will get to later.