The Awesome Power and Tender Compassion of Jesus Christ, Part 1 (Mark Sermon 23)

I. “We Are Weak, But He Is Strong”

Turning your Bibles to Mark 5, we continue our incredible journey through this gospel of Mark. When our kids were little, Christi and I would put them to bed using bedtime rituals, and we would sing them songs. For a while, one of the songs that we sang, of course is Jesus Loves Me, which you know very well. “Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak, but he is strong.” “They are weak, but he is strong.” Friends this is a message for everyone. For all of us. To some degree, we all have to become like little children in order to be saved. Jesus said this in Matthew 18:3, , “Truly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

All of us underestimates both sides of that statement, how weak we are and how strong He is. We all have to come to understand both sides of that, how weak we are, how strong Jesus is, but we tend to think of ourselves as so very powerful, don’t we? The tower of Babel, for example, displayed man arrogant because of his technological inventiveness, the ability now to make bricks that could be stacked higher than ever before, and build a tower that reached up to heaven. If anything, the human race is even more arrogant now. We actually have built a rocket and flown to the moon less than seven decades after Orville and Wilbur built the first airplane. So we tend to think that we are powerful. We have ridden the coattails of modern science to defeat countless diseases like polio and smallpox. We think we are powerful. We have flexed our muscles to build ever more devastating weapons, even harnessing the power of the atom to build thermonuclear weapons that can erase whole cities in an instant. We think that we are powerful. We probe the mysteries of the genetic code of nature and develop seeds and genetically engineered living organisms. We think we are powerful. We have unleashed the power of the electron and digital technologies and developed stunningly powerful computers that perform astonishing feats. We think we are powerful, but friends, we are weak.

We have not conquered nature. The wind still blows wherever it wishes, and we cannot stop it. We don’t even know where it’s going. We have not conquered space, for the distance of the nearest star will forever mock our insignificant achievement of going to the moon and back. We’ve not conquered disease for people still suffer daily of diseases, which continue to defy medical science. We have not conquered sin for people still lust and rage and defraud and wage war against one another daily. We have not conquered death for the death rate continues 100%. In the face of this overwhelming weakness, in the face of this, Jesus came to save us and to show us that though we are weak, He is strong, and He is strong for us on our behalf.

We see the awesome power of Jesus displayed in these gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in his miracles. The miracles of Jesus put on plain display his awesome power in ways that absolutely boggle the mind. We’ve seen his power over the wind in the waves simply saying to raging storm, a hurricane, “peace be still” and instantly the wind stopped, the sea became as calm and placid as a mill pond, just at his word. We saw him deal last week with a wretched maniac, I think the most wretched human being in biblical history. No one, I think, was more wretched, more powerless tormented by a legion of demons, maybe as many as 6,000 demons. Despite their overwhelming supernatural power, they knew clearly that they were no match for Jesus. They were terrified of him. They caused the man that they had dominated to run and fall on his knees before Jesus and confess Jesus to be the son of the most high God. Jesus effortlessly commanded those demons with the single word, “Go”, and they went.Tthe 2,000 pigs rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned. Jesus’ power was absolute, complete, effortless. He’s the absolute master over all demons, over every disease, even over nature itself. But what about death? Our final and greatest enemy. What about death? In the account that we will begin this week and finish next week, God willing, we’re going to see Jesus’s absolute power over death in raising a little girl, Jairus’ daughter, from the dead.

We are all weak before the power of death, but Jesus rules over death. He rules absolutely over death. He says in Revelation 1:18, “I am the living one. I was dead and behold I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the key of death in the grave.” Jesus claims absolute mastery in power over death. He did that by his own death and his own resurrection. But in the midst of all this awesome power of Jesus, we also see his tender mercies. We see his relational tenderness, his desire for intimacy with us, the basic promise of the gospel and the most important verse in the Bible for me is Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

I think that word “poor” means “beggars”, so I translated it in my mind. “Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to acknowledge that you are a spiritual beggar. You are weak, powerless, destitute, actually even repulsive. To come to Christ, you have to see him as powerful and capable of saving you, but you also have to see Jesus as tender and compassionate, willing to receive you. This account that we are following today and will again, God willing next week shows two spiritual beggars who have absolutely nothing to offer to Jesus. They’re both desperate and they know it.

“To enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to acknowledge that you are a spiritual beggar. You are weak, powerless, destitute, actually even repulsive.”

First, we have a father, Jairus, whose little 12 year old daughter is dying, and his heart is being torn to shreds. He casts all dignity aside and falls down before Jesus to beg for his help on her behalf. Second, we have a woman with a bleeding problem which has lasted as long as that little girl has been alive, 12 years. She’s physically defiled, she’s spiritually outcast. She is effectively no better than a leper in that society. She’s desperate. She has done everything she could to be healed and has nowhere else left to turn. It’s two spiritual beggars who know that they’re weak and who believe that Jesus is strong, but they’re also going to find out how tender Jesus is in his affections, his mercies toward weak spiritual beggars.

What’s the context of this account in Mark’s gospel? The central message of Mark’s Gospel is declared right at the very beginning, Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God.” The word “gospel” means “good news”, so that Jesus is the son of God is our good news. That’s the gospel. Jesus is the gospel. The attributes of Jesus are put on display so that by reading these accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, by reading them all, we come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that by believing, we may have eternal life in his name, full forgiveness of sins.

Now, we have just read the most astonishing day of Jesus’ life in terms of spectacular displays of his power. It’s not going to get more spectacular than what we’ve seen. The stilling of the storm or hurricane with a word, I mean that’s spectacular. Then the driving out of the most spectacular exorcism recorded in the Word, the gospels in the New Testament, the driving out of a legion of demons. That wretched man has now been saved from the demons, but not just saved from the demons, he’s saved. Like we understand, his sins are forgiven. He wants a relationship with Jesus. He wants to spend the rest of his life with Jesus. Jesus does not let him, but sends him home to his family. He sends him on mission to go to his family and tell them how much God has done for him, and how He has had mercy on him. So the man goes off on his mission.

Tragically, however, we saw also the people of that region, of the Gerasenes, are more afraid of Jesus than they were of this demon possessed, man. They could live with him. They were putting up, they just stayed away from that area, but they didn’t want Jesus there, they ask him to go. Jesus never forces himself on any unwilling people, the demons do that. Jesus never forces himself. Instead, what he does is He makes people willing to have him through the spirit. That’s the transformation of our inner nature. The heart of stone removed, the heart of flesh given, and central to it is, “I want Jesus in my life.” He doesn’t ever force himself.

And now He just gets in the boat and leaves and crosses back across the Sea of Galilee. In this account that you heard read, you have effectively a double account. It’s like one of those wooden Russian dolls. You know those nested dolls, where you take one out and then the next one pops in. You get a miracle within a miracle going on here. Just in my judgment as a preacher, I was like, “There’s no way I want to run through this,” so we’re going to focus on the beginning of the story with Jairus, but we’re going to interrupt it. Then as Jesus was interrupted, we have that second miracle, the healing of this woman, the bleeding woman. Then, God willing, we will finish the account of Jairus, the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter next week.

II. The First Beggar: A Desperate Father

We start with the first beggar, this desperate father. Look at verses 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 rulers named Jairus came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, ‘My little daughter is dying. Please, come and put your hands on her so that she’ll be healed and live.’ So Jesus went with him.” The account begins with something that we should recognize by now as a reality in Jesus’ life, the constant crush of the crowd. This has been a regular feature of Jesus’s ministry. Every day of Jesus’s public life at this point, his life, there are literally thousands of people who want to be around him. The reason for this is his astonishing healing ministry. His reputation as a healer has gone out far and wide. There was no disease or sickness He could not heal. He did it effortlessly. So people came, thousands came.

Beyond this, to some degree, they came because of his reputation as a teacher. There were some people there who just wanted to hear him teach. Mark 1:22 says, “The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law.” Later in John’s Gospel, John 7:46, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” They wanted to hear him give the words of life, so some of them were there for that. Remember how Jesus had to sit out in a boat to get away from the crush of the crowd so they could hear him and enable him to teach? There was a huge crowd, and, in the midst of this crowd is this man, Jairus. He’s a powerful man, a leader in the community, he’s called the synagogue ruler.

The synagogue was the center of Jewish life out in the communities, outside of Jerusalem. So out in the hinterlands, you’ve got synagogue, the place where the Jews would gather together every week on the Sabbath to hear the word of God. The Old Testament, we know it’s the Old Testament read and taught now to be a synagogue. To be a ruler meant to be a leading man of the community, a man of power, a man of piety. Almost certainly. He would’ve been a Pharisee because they really controlled the religious life of Israel. But the Pharisees have already blacklisted Jesus to some degree. We don’t know how official this is at this point, but they are against him because He’s violating their understanding of the Sabbath. He’s already doing things they consider to be blasphemous, declaring people’s sins forgiven, calling himself the Lord of the Sabbath. That’ll do it right there, so already there against him. And I think most significantly, psychologically, they are against him because He rejected their piety. He said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you’re not going to heaven.” So He’s saying they’re not going to heaven as they are. Their righteous is not enough, and they took offense to that. Later, by the time we get the healing of the man born blind in John’s gospel, John chapter 9, it’s clear that the Jewish authorities had already decided that if anyone said that Jesus was the Messiah, they would be put out of the synagogue, blacklisted from Jewish life. So we’re on the way to there if we’re not already there. But Jairus was not thinking about any of that, was he? There was one thing on his mind and only one thing, his little girl. She’s dying, and despite all of his power and all of his piety, he knows he’s weak in the face of this. There’s nothing he can do to save her. Her life is like a flickering candle. It’s about to be snuffed out at any moment. Indeed, it was while Jesus was on route. That’s how close to death she was. Now, Jairus knows Jesus reputation. He’s convinced that Jesus can heal his daughter if only he can come there in time, so he comes and makes a desperate request. Look at verse 22, 23, “He fell at his feet and 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.” He throws himself on the ground prostrate before the feet of Jesus, and in doing this, he has officially thrown his reputation out the window with the Pharisees. They hate Jesus. He doesn’t care about that at all. He’s treating Jesus like a king, perhaps even like the son of God, though I’m sure he doesn’t really understand what that means. The Greek verb here in verse 23 speaks of “desperate treaties.” “He beseeches him greatly,” the text says, “I’m begging you, Jesus, come. She’s at the point of death, right at the edge. She’s been getting worse and worse.” And that was whenever he saw her last. I get the feeling, he was waiting for Jesus to come back from the region of the Gadarenes. He’s right there on the shore waiting for him. Remember that messengers have to come and tell him what’s going on, that she’s died. I picture him waiting there for Jesus to get back. Jairus knows that Jesus is the only one that can save her life.

It’s interesting to ponder, if the people of the Gadarenes had asked Jesus to stay, instead of demanded that He left, and if He had yielded to their desires, she would’ve died, the moment where the window would’ve passed. Everything is orchestrated by the mighty perfect plan of God here. Jesus leaves the Garasenes, goes across and hears Jairus waiting for him. Jairus knows he cannot demand anything from Jesus. He’s a beggar with nothing to offer. His power, his position, his wealth, his piety mean nothing. If Jesus doesn’t come and save her, she will die. There’s nothing that Jairus can do to force Jesus to come if He doesn’t want to come.

So just, I want to say to all of you that are listening to me, stop right there. Put yourself in that position. Do you see yourself as a beggar with nothing to offer God. You have nothing in your hands that you’re bringing that’s of any interest to him. No way to beguile him, to turn his attention toward you. Do you see that if Jesus were not willing to die in your place under the wrath of God, you could never persuade him to do it? “Would you please drink the cup of God’s wrath against me? Would you please shed your blood on the cross for me? So I can go to heaven and not hell, would you do that for me?” There’s nothing you could do to make him do that. If He’s not willing. We are truly beggars.

“Do you see yourself as a beggar with nothing to offer God? … Do you see that if Jesus were not willing to die in your place under the wrath of God, you could never persuade him to do it?”

One of the most moving moments when I was studying the life of Martin Luther was the words of his death. He was dying, he knew it. His final words were in two languages, first German, and then Latin.” We are all beggars. This is true.” Those are his final words, and then he died. Do you see yourself that way? Do you see yourself as a sinner saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ? That’s our gospel. That’s what we’re hoping in. We are all beggars.

Jairus comes with a limited faith. Now faith is not all of one kind. It’s not static, it can grow, it can develop. We can be those of little faith and grow into greater faith. There’s little doubt at the beginning of their encounter, Jairus believes Jesus can heal his daughters. There’s no doubt actually about that. If only can get there in time to place his hand on her, he does not imagine that Jesus can heal her remotely. He doesn’t think about that. He’s got to get there. He’s not thinking at this point that He’s going to raise her from the dead. It’s not on his mind. Jesus is going to work on this man’s faith during their time together. By the end of the entire encounter, his faith will be far beyond what it was at the beginning of the encounter. We also see in this, Jesus’s availability in his humility.Ttime and time again, people come in and treat of Jesus and He just yields to them, He just does what they want. Jairus comes and begs, he just gets up and goes. Jesus came to be, as Mark 9:35 says, a servant of all. Other people’s needs were more important to him than his own. He never refused. He never said, “Can’t you see I’m busy here?” Or thought himself too important for others or sighed and said, “I really think I’ve done enough for one day.” Never. It’s not his attitude. We are so selfish, aren’t we? We pass every request, every opportunity to serve or whatever through the grid of what’s pleasing to us or whether we’re willing or not. Jesus just wasn’t that way. He was serving of all.

Now, the crowd came along too. They’re going everywhere Jesus goes. Look at verse 24, “So Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed and pressed around him.” This crowd was literally crushing him physically. When Christii and I were missionaries in Japan, I had the opportunity one weekday morning, somewhere around 8:15 in the morning to take a local train from Cobe to Osaka in Japan. What was I thinking? Some of you will know how ridiculous and foolish that is because that local train made four stops. The first, when we all got on in Cobe was the most crowded train I’ve ever been on. Those four stops, not a single person got off, but about… It seemed that same number of people got on. There are these Japanese officials with white gloves on whose job is to shove people physically into the train. I don’t have claustrophobia, except I did that day. I was standing there and all of these people are crushing in on me so that I could not expand my rib cage to get the air that apparently my cells needed to stay alive, so I was breathing like I had emphysema. I was panting at the top of my breath, just hoping that ride would continue and then we’d get to the next local stop, but then more people are getting on. Unbelievable. The Greek gives us a sense that that’s kind of what’s going on here. In Luke 8:42, it says, “As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.” The Greek is literally “choking him.” They’re depriving him of air, He’s crushed by these people.

III. The Second Beggar: A Desperate Woman

On route, we see the second beggar, a desperate woman. Look at verse 25, “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.” Let’s talk about her condition. The bleeding problem was almost certainly a female problem, a gynecological problem. It tells us that she’d been suffering in this condition for an incredible twelve years. Clearly, the bleeding was not life threatening, she was not bleeding out, but her condition was life altering in that Jewish context. She was considered to be spiritually defiled because of the blood. In the law of Moses, such a condition rendered her spiritually unclean, unable to participate in Jewish life, Leviticus 15:25, “When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period, or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge.” Long as it goes, she’s unclean. She could not go to the synagogue. Anyone who touched her would be unclean. That’s what made her effectively a leper, not a lot of difference actually. These laws were not just meant for the hygiene of the Jewish people, but also to teach a spiritual lesson. One of the more famous verses in Isaiah, Isaiah 64:6 says, “All of us, all of us have become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” The Hebrew related to the rags as used for such a flow of blood. All of our most righteous acts are defiled in the sight of God. People who think that they’re going to save themselves by their good works, hoping their good works outweigh their bad, they don’t have any good works. Romans 3 makes it plain, “There is no one who does good.” All of our righteous acts are defiled like that. It’s a picture of that.

So this woman was desperate, and she had had desperate measures for years and years. Look at verse 26. I talked to Daphne, me daughter, about this verse driving in. Ponder this story locked up in verse 26, it’s hard to read without emotion what it was like, what her life was like. 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. It’s wave upon wave of sorrow for this woman. It’s a quick sketch of what those twelve years have been like for her. It’s hard to imagine what she’s gone through. The text says, “She had suffered a great deal under the therapies of the primitive doctors of the time.” Their therapies, had caused suffering for her. Physically invasive, humiliating, painful, she’d suffered these treatments. The cures were bizarre, invasive, disgusting and ineffective, and they were costly. What a contrast to the words I’ve given already many times for Jesus’ healings. Effortless, effective instantaneous, and free. He didn’t charge anything for his healings, but these doctors did. The text says the woman had spent all the money she had on these cures, and they were ineffective. Instead of getting better, she just got worse. Can you sense the desperation she must have had? “There’s nothing for me.” She spent all the money she had, she had no money left. Now, she heard the reports about Jesus and that gave her faith. Faith comes by hearing the word.

The reports gave her faith. Look at verse 27, 28, “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.’” The reports had reached her ears of Jesus’s amazing healings. She’d heard of his tenderness toward women in particular; many of Jesus’s most affecting and tender encounters were with women. He treated them with dignity. He treated them with respect, treated them as created in the image of God, treated them with absolute purity. So her faith, when she heard of these accounts was kindled within her, and she made her way to where Jesus was. The text tells us of her faith in his healing power. Her plan was based on Matthew 9:20, to touch the fringe of his garment, the tassel on his garment. These would be down near the ground. Jewish men were required to wear tassels on the edge of their cloaks as constant reminders to keep the law of God. this woman felt all she had to do was get to the hem of his garment, the tassels on his garment, touch them and she’d be healed. She also clearly wanted to avoid the embarrassment of an interaction, so she came in physically low. The fringe of Jesus’ robe would’ve been down near the ground. Picture Jesus, unable to breathe because of the crowd, and she’s down near the ground, trampled. She forces her way through the throng, gets down near the ground and reaches her hand out. Verse 29 speaks of the healing, “Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.” Oh, hallelujah, the power of Jesus to bring about this instantaneous healing. Pain was gone instantly. “She could feel,” the text says, “In her body, I’m healed.” After 12 years. The Greek word translated “suffering”. She was freed from her. Suffering is very strong. “Mastigos”, the same word that would later be used of the flogging that Jesus would undergo for our salvation. John 19:1 uses the same, the flogging, she’d been flogged by this problem, and now it was done. Effectively, Jesus had taken the flogging, her flogging onto himself. It says very beautifully in first Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body, on the tree, on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness by his wounds.” You have been healed. So he takes it into himself.

“Many of Jesus’s most affecting and tender encounters were with women. He treated them with dignity. He treated them with respect, treated them as created in the image of God, treated them with absolute purity. “

But now, the text just goes off into infinite mystery. I believe as a theologian, as a pastor, there is no harder, higher mystery in theology than that of the incarnation. We’ll never get done thinking about it. The rest of this account has the power to trip the circuit breakers of your mind. Just like, I don’t know. I don’t understand this. How is it? Look at verse 30 -34. “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, ‘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.’” There are different ways to read it, but I just really believe the text reads most naturally that he truly did not know who touched him. It wasn’t a trick question. He realized that power had gone through, so something hit him. It wasn’t voluntary on his part. Power had gone through him and He realized that. it came into his mind, “Power has gone through me,” and he was trying to find out who touched him.

So here’s the thing, the central message is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity. The incarnate son of God. That means God in the flesh. As God in the flesh, he has godlike nature powers. Powers over nature, such as controlling the wind and the waves. As God in the flesh, he has godlike healing powers, such as driving out demons and healing, every disease and sickness. As God in the flesh, he has godlike knowledge. He has the ability to read people’s minds. He knows what’s happened far away even if no messengers have come to tell him. He can tell people what’s happened in some remote distant location. He knows in detail what’s about to happen when he goes into the city of Jerusalem, who’s going to be carrying something at a certain moment, amazing. He knows the distant future things that still haven’t even happened about the second coming and about the end of the world. Supernatural knowledge. As God in the flesh, he has godlike authority. He has ability to declare to a sinner, “All your sins are forgiven.” He has the right to interpret the Sabbath, godlike power to interpret the Sabbath. He has all of that. But clearly, as a man, he’s limited physically, He can only be in one place at one time. And as a man, he’s limited mentally in some mysterious way.

What do I mean by that? God, the first person in the Trinity, God, the Father, has never learned anything and He never will. But when Jesus was growing up, it says in Luke 2:52, that He increased in wisdom. That means He was more wise on day X than He was day X minus 10 or something like that. He learned stuff. He also openly says concerning the events of the Second Coming, “No one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the father.” Wow. So the most natural way to read this is this among the things that Jesus didn’t know and had to learn was who had touched him. Then what happened? The power of almighty God went through Jesus to this woman. It’s incredible. Then Jesus stands and begins this inquiry. Put yourself in the disciples place. Jesus is getting crushed, He can’t breathe, and He just stops, and He’s like, “Wait a minute. Who touched me?” This is an interesting moment. Do you not imagine his disciples? They don’t want to say it, but it’s like, “What a dumb question.” They are thinking disparaging thoughts of Jesus, they did it many times. Five minutes later however, after the encounter happened, it’s like, “Oh, something did happen.” But initially, just initially it’s a cautionary tale for all of us, don’t ever question Jesus. He always knows what he’s doing, always. Never doubt him. Never think low thoughts of him. There was a kind of touch that Jesus had experienced. Unlike all the jostling random crushing actions that was going on, this was different. He said, “Power went through me.” As if in our 21st century understanding, He was an electric cable and electric power went through him or some kind of conduit.

Now, we’ve been saying again and again, that all of Jesus’ miracles were done only at the will of his Father. He did nothing apart from the will of his Father. He was never on his own thinking of something. He was always in response to what the Father wanted him to do. He sent him out to do the works of the Father. We also have said that Jesus did not do any miracles except from the power of the Spirit. It says in Acts 10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy spirit and power and how he went around doing good and healing, all who are under the power of the devil, because God was with him by the power of the spirit were all the miracles done.” Why would half of them be done by the spirit?

Does Jesus says to the Spirit, “You can take the day off. I’ve got this day, but come back on Wednesday, I’ll need you then.” It’s ludicrous. He always did his miracles at the leading of the Father by the power of the Spirit. This time, however, He didn’t know. It didn’t pass through his conscious awareness. So we have this inquiry and this encounter. So why does He do it? Why does He stop and say, “Who touched me?” That’s a powerful question, isn’t it? And the answer to me is clear. He wanted a face to face encounter with this woman. I don’t mean to disparage her, but she seems a little bit like a miracle shoplifter. I can understand it, but it seemed like a smash and grab job here; come and get the miracle and go. She wants out. She does not want any interaction. She’s had all that. The doctors, all that. She doesn’t want that, she just wants to get well and be gone. But Jesus wanted a relationship with her. She came up behind him.

What does He do physically? Turns around and says, “Who touched me,” right? He wanted face to face with her. He did not come merely to dispense power, healings. He could have done that from heaven. He came to reconcile us to God that we would have an intimate, close friendship with God.Look at the text, 32-34, Jesus has kept looking around to see who had done it. After his disciples said, “What are you talking about? You see all the people crushing it,” Jesus kept looking 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.” The woman did not want this at all. But I would say, don’t you think when she looked back on this day the rest of her life, the best part was this encounter, and not the healing. The look on his face, the tenderness with which He spoke to her. The way He called her daughter. The text doesn’t say, but I picture him lifting her up to her feet, face to face. He wants that interaction with her and He called her daughter. And it doesn’t just say… In one translation, your faith has healed you. But the word is the Greek word for “saved.” Your faith has saved you. The healing’s temporary. We’re going to die. Our bodies are going to mold in the grave.

IV. Healed for a Personal Relationship with Jesus

All of the healings are temporary, they’re all temporary. But this saving work, now that’s eternal, and that’s what He wanted. So he calls her daughter. I love John 1:12, it says, “As many has received him to those who believed in his name. He gave the right to become whatchildren of God.” We are healed for a personal relationship with Jesus. Sin has estranged us from God. Jesus came to bring about that reconciliation, aright relationship with God. That means an intimate, personal relationship with a loving, tender God, and with Christ who died for us individually. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says that the son of God loved me and gave himself from me personalized. At one time, we were enemies, but now beloved children of God. And he knows us intimately, Isaiah 43:1, “Fear not, for I’ve redeemed you. I’ve summoned you by name, you are mine.” Think about that. The intimacy that I’ve summoned you by name, you are mine. John 10:03, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

So do you know that intimate love? Do you know the closeness that Jesus wants with you? Have you felt yourself, a weak defiled, polluted sinner who Jesus came to die for, and that he did die for. He shed his blood so that we might have eternal life. Do you know that? Do you have that sense of intimacy? Do you know that your sins are forgiven by him? Next week, God willing, we will have the chance to finish the miracle concerning the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead.

“Do you know the closeness that Jesus wants with you? Have you felt yourself, a weak defiled, polluted sinner who Jesus came to die for, and that he did die for. He shed his blood so that we might have eternal life.“

Now we have a chance to celebrate the Lord’s supper. I’m going to close our preaching time and prayer. And as I do, I want you to consider that what’s going on with the Lord’s Supper is a for-taste of a heavenly banquet that we’re going to actually sit, God and man at table. We’re going to sit down and feast with God at the table. And this Lord supper is a for-taste of that. Now, we would ask, this is for believers who have testified to their faith in Christ, by repentance and faith and by water baptism. If you’ve not, we ask that you refrain, but if you have welcome and come to the feast. Let’s close in prayer.

Father, thank you for the ministry of the word, for the things that we’ve learned from Mark’s Gospel. Thank you for the intimacy you seek with each one of us. Thank you, Lord Jesus for your incredible power, but also for your tenderness and compassion and your love. We thank you for all of these things, and we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

I. “We Are Weak, But He Is Strong”
A. Singing a sweet song to our kids

When our kids were little and Christi and I were putting them to bed each night, we followed some repeated patterns. We did effectively the same thing every night. And part of that bedtime ritual was singing the child’s song, “Jesus loves me.”

Jesus loves me, this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to him belong

They are weak but he is strong.

B. Dear friends, that is not just a message for children

1. To some degree, we all have to become like little children in order to be saved

NASB Matthew 18:3 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

2. We all have to come to understand how weak we are and how strong Jesus is

3. We absolutely underestimate both

4. We think of ourselves as so powerful

a. The Tower of Babel displayed man arrogant over his technology, using his intelligence to build a tower to the heavens

b. If anything, the human race is even more arrogant now

c. We have actually built a rocket and flown to the moon less than seven decades after Orville and Wilbur Wright built the first airplane… and so we think we are powerful

d. We have ridden the coattails of modern science to defeat countless diseases, like polio and smallpox… and so we think we are powerful

e. We have flexed our muscles to build ever more powerful weapons, even harnessing the power of the atom to build thermonuclear weapons that can erase whole cities in an instant… and so we think we are powerful

f. We have probed the mysteries of the genetic code of nature and have developed seeds and genetically engineered living organisms… and so we think we are powerful

g. We have unleashed the power of the electron in digital technologies and have developed stunningly powerful computers that perform astonishingly feats… and so we think we are powerful

5. But friends, we are WEAK!

a. We have not conquered nature… the wind still blows where it wills

b. We have not conquered space… for the distance to the nearest star will forever mock our insignificant achievement of landing men on the moon

c. We have not conquered disease… for people still suffer daily of diseases which have defied medical science

d. We have not conquered sin… for people still lust and rage and defraud and wage war against one another daily

e. We have not conquered death… for the death rate still stands at 100%–every single person born will eventually die

It is in the face of this overwhelming weakness that Jesus came to save us

“We are weak, BUT HE IS STRONG!”

C. The Awesome Power of Jesus in His Miracles

1. The miracles of Jesus put on plain display his awesome power in ways that absolutely boggle the mind

2. We have seen his power over the wind and the waves, simply saying to a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, “Peace, be still!” and instantly the wind stopped and the sea became as calm as a mirror-like mill pond

3. Then we saw him deal with a wretched maniac who was locked deep in the prison of his tormented soul by a Legion of demons, maybe as many as six thousand

4. Despite their overwhelming supernatural power, they knew they were no match for Jesus and were actually in terror of him; they caused the man to fall on his knees before Jesus and declared him to be the Son of the Most High God

5. He effortlessly commanded them to “Go!” and they left the man and entered the pigs who drowned in the Sea

6. Jesus’ power was complete… he was absolute master over all demons, every disease, and even over nature itself.

7. But what about DEATH? Death, the final enemy!

8. In this account, we will see Jesus effortlessly raise a little girl from the dead

9. We are all weak before the power of death… but Jesus rules over death

Revelation 1:18  I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

D. The Tender Mercies of Christ

1. Along with that, we are going to see how tender Jesus is toward the weak

2. The basic promise of the gospel:

Matthew 5:3  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, “Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!”

To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you have to see yourself as a beggar—weak, powerless, destitute, repulsive

To come to Christ, you have to see him as powerful, capable of saving you

BUT you also have to see Jesus as tender and compassionate… willing to receive you.

This account shows two spiritual beggars who have absolutely nothing to offer to Jesus, who are both desperate, and they know it

First, a father whose little twelve year-old daughter is dying; and his heart is torn to shreds… he will cast all dignity aside and fall down before Jesus to beg his help for her

Second, a woman whose bleeding problem has lasted as long as that little girl has been alive… physically defiled and spiritually outcast, no better than a leper, desperate, having done everything she could to be healed and who has nowhere else to turn

Two spiritual beggars who know that they are weak… and who believe Jesus is strong

But they will also find out how tender Jesus is in his affections, his mercies toward such weak spiritual beggars

E. Context in Mark

1. The central message of Mark’s Gospel

Mark 1:1  The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2. That Jesus IS the Son of God IS the good news!

3. Jesus’ attributes put on display so that we may read these accounts and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing we may have life and forgiveness of sins in his name

4. We have just read the most astonishing day of Jesus’ life in terms of spectacular displays of his power—the stilling of the storm on the Sea of Galilee and the driving out of the Legion of demons

5. This wretched man has now been saved from the demons and desires to spend the rest of his life with Jesus; Jesus does not let him, but tells him to go home to his family and tell them how much God has done for him

6. Tragically, however, the people in the region of the Gadarenes are more afraid of Jesus than they were of the demons and basically drive him away

7. Jesus will never force himself on unwilling people; the Spirit must first make us willing… and they were unwilling to come to him that they might have life

8. So he crosses back again to the other side of the Sea of Galilee

F. A Double Account

1. To some degree, this account is like one of those nested wooden Russian dolls… like a miracle story within a miracle story

2. As he is on his way to do one miracle, another pops out

3. Too much to handle in one sermon… God willing, today Part 1, next time Part 2

II. The First Beggar: A Desperate Father
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.  22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet  23 and 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.”  24 So Jesus went with him.

A. The Constant Crush of the Crowd

1. This has been a regular feature of Jesus’ ministry

2. Every day of Jesus’ life at this point, there are literally thousands of people who want to be around Jesus

3. The reason is plain: his reputation as a healer… there was no disease or sickness Jesus could not heal; so thousands come

4. Beyond this was Jesus’ reputation as a teacher

Mark 1:22  The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

John 7:46  “No one ever spoke the way this man does”

5. Remember that Jesus had to sit out in a boat to do his teaching because of the crush of the crowd

B. Jairus

1. In the midst of this crowd is a powerful man, Jairus, called the “synagogue ruler”

2. The synagogue was the center of Jewish life in every community; where the Jews gathered to hear the scriptures every Sabbath

3. To be a synagogue ruler meant to be the leading man of the community; a man of power and piety… and certainly he would have been a Pharisee, for they controlled the religious life of Israel

4. The Pharisees had already blacklisted Jesus for his healings on the Sabbath and for his denigration of their piety and their views

5. Around that time, the Jewish leaders would decree that anyone who believed that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue… effectively evicted from Jewish life in all respects

6. But Jairus is not thinking about any of that; he is a desperate man because his little girl, his only daughter, is dying, and despite all his power and his piety, there is nothing he can do to save her

7. Her life is like a flickering candle about to be snuffed out; time is of the essence… he knows Jesus’ reputation and is convinced that he can heal his daughter, if he can only come in time

C. Jairus’s Desperate Request

Mark 5:22-23  he fell at his feet  23 and 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.”

1. He throws himself on the ground, prostrate before the feet of Jesus

2. In doing this, he is throwing his own reputation out the window; severing ties with the Pharisees who hate Jesus

3. He is treating Jesus like a king, perhaps even as the Son of God

4. The Greek verb speaks of his desperate entreaties… he beseeches him GREATLY… “I am begging you, Jesus!!”

a. He says she is at the point of death, right at the edge; she has been getting worse and worse

b. While Jesus was on the other side of the Sea dealing with the demoniac of the Gadarenes, this little girl was literally dying

c. Jairus knows only Jesus can save her life; and he was desperately waiting on the shore for him to come back

d. If the people of the Gadarenes had asked Jesus to stay longer with them and he did, this little girl would certainly have died

5. Jairus knows he cannot demand anything from Jesus; he is a beggar with nothing to offer; his power and position and wealth and piety mean nothing; if Jesus doesn’t come save her, she will die… and there is nothing Jairus can do to force Jesus to come

Stop! Do you understand that this is the same position we all find ourselves in as sinners before a holy God? We deserve to die and be condemned for our sins… we cannot demand salvation, still less that Jesus would DIE IN OUR PLACE to pay the death penalty we deserve for our sins. We are truly beggars!

As the great reformer Martin Luther was dying, his final recorded words were these: “We are all beggars. This is true!”

D. Jairus’s Limited Faith

1. Faith is not all of one kind… it can grow and develop

2. There is little doubt that that at the beginning of their encounter, Jairus believes Jesus can heal his daughter if he can only get there in time to place his hand on her

3. He does not imagine Jesus can heal her remotely, without touching her; and at this point, he is not thinking he can raise her from the dead

4. Jesus will work on this man’s faith during their time together; by the end of the entire encounter, his faith will be far beyond what it is at the beginning

E. Jesus’ Availability and Humility

1. Jairus comes and begs; Jesus gets up and goes

2. Jesus came to be “servant of all” (Mark 9:35)

Other people’s needs were more important to him than his own… He never refused, or said “Can’t you see I’m busy here?” or thought himself too important for others, or sighed and said “What, more healings?? I’ve already done enough for one day!”

We are so selfish, passing every demand on our time through the filter of our own likes and dislikes… Jesus was totally accessible, available, never refusing a beggar who came with a need

F. The Crowd Came Along Too

Mark 5:24  So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.

1. The crowd is literally crushing him

In Japan, I once took a local train from Kobe to Osaka during rush hour. I have never been more crowded in my life! At every stop on the train line, more commuters pressed in, and some train officials have as their job the task of pushing passengers onto the train, to maximize the number of people who can fit. I could not expand my rib cage to take a full breath!

I don’t know if Jesus was this crushed… but it says in

Luke 8:42 As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.

Greek = literally “choked him” … depriving him of air

III. The Second Beggar: A Desperate Woman
Mark 5:25  And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.

A. Her Condition

1. This bleeding problem was probably a gynecological issue

2. It tells us she had been suffering from this condition for an incredible TWELVE YEARS!!

3. Clearly the bleeding was not life-threatening… she was not “bleeding out”

4. But her condition was life-altering, in that Jewish context

B. Her Spiritual Defilement

1. In the Law of Moses, such a condition rendered her spiritual unclean, unable to participate in Jewish life

Leviticus 15:25 When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge

2. She could not go to the synagogue; anyone who touched her would be unclean as well… that’s what made her like a leper

3. These laws were meant not just for the hygiene of the Jewish nation, but to give a picture of the defilement of sin for all people

Isaiah 64:6  All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags

4. The Hebrew in that famous verse is related to the rags used to stanch menstrual flow

5. All our most righteous acts are defiled in the sight of a holy God; that’s what makes us spiritual beggars, with nothing to offer

C. Desperate Measures for Years and Years

Mark 5:26  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.

1. I can’t imagine what this woman has been through

2. The text said she suffered a great deal under the therapies offered by the primitive doctors available at that time; their cures were bizarre and invasive and disgusting and costly and ineffective

3. What a contrast to the words I’ve already given for Jesus’ healings: effortless, effective, instantaneous, and FREE

4. This woman had SPENT ALL THE MONEY SHE HAD on these ineffective cures

5. And all that happened was she got worse and worse

D. Hearing of Jesus Gave Her Faith

Mark 5:27-28  When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,  28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

1. The reports had reached her ears of Jesus’ amazing healings; and she had heard of his tenderness toward women in particular

2. Many of Jesus’ most tender encounters were with women; he treated them with dignity and respect and perfect purity

3. Her faith rose and she made her way to where Jesus was; the text tells us of her faith in his healing power

4. Her plan was just to touch the fringe of his garment (Mt. 9:20)

a. Jewish men were required to wear tassels on the edge of their cloaks as constant reminders to obey the Laws of God

b. This woman felt that all she had to do was to touch those tassels and she would be healed

c. She would avoid the embarrassment of an interaction, which she obviously didn’t want

5. She came physically low

a. The fringe of Jesus’ robe would have been down near the ground

b. I picture this woman forcing her way through the throng and then down on the ground near his feet… risking getting crushed, stampeded by this crushing throng

E. The Healing

Mark 5:29  Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

1. Jesus’ healing was instantaneous as all of them were

2. The pain was gone instantly… she knew right away she was done with that problem

3. The Greek word translated “suffering” is very strong… mastigos, the same word that would later be used of the scourge would shred Jesus’ back in Luke 18:32

4. This woman had been flogged by this affliction for twelve years… her suffering had been incalculable; now Jesus had healed her of it

5. Effectively he would take it onto himself

1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

F. Jesus’ Inquiry and Infinite Mystery

1. The rest of this account has the power to trip the circuit breakers of our minds

Mark 5:30-34  At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”  31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?'”  32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.  34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

2. Jesus did not know who touched him

3. This probes the limits of our capability to understand the incarnation

4. The central message is that Jesus is the Son of God… the incarnate God… God in the flesh;

a. As God in the flesh, he has God-like nature powers, such as controlling the winds and the waves

b. As God in the flesh, he has God-like healing powers, such as driving out demons and healing every disease and sickness

c. As God in the flesh, he has God-like knowledge… the ability to read people’s minds and know what has happened far away or what is about to happen or what will happen in the distant future

d. As God in the flesh, he has God-like authority… to ability to interpret the Law of God as he does, and to forgive sins

5. But as a man, he is limited physically; he can only be in one place at one time

6. And as a man, he is limited mentally… though God the Father cannot learn anything, Jesus can

Luke 2:52  And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men

7. And Jesus himself said he didn’t know the day or hour of his second coming, nor the angels but only the Father knows

8. So, Jesus really didn’t know who touched him.

G. Power Went Through Jesus to this Woman

1. Jesus’ disciples must have thought he was mentally off when he asked “Who touched me?”

2. A huge crowd was pressing in on him, crushing, him, depriving him of air

3. But by the end of their lives, all of his apostles must have learned NEVER QUESTION JESUS… ever! Never doubt him! Never think low thoughts of him!!

4. There was a kind of touch that Jesus experienced unlike all the jostling crushing touching he was experiencing from the crowd

5. He said “Power went through me”… as if Jesus was an electrical cable, a conduit

6. Now I have been saying that all of Jesus’ works were done by the will and command of the Father… but also that all of Jesus’s works were also done by the power of the Holy Spirit:

Acts 10:38  God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

7. So God the Father healed this woman by the power of the Spirit through Jesus WITHOUT JESUS BEING AWARE OF IT

H. The Inquiry and the Encounter

1. So why does Jesus stop and ask “WHO TOUCHED ME??”

2. It is clear… he wants a relationship with this woman…

Jesus wanted personal interaction… He wanted to look her in the eyes, touch her life personally

He wanted to touch her and be touched by her

3. He did not come merely to dispense healings in a mechanical way; the healings were meant to bring sinners into a reconciled, personal, intimate relationship with Almighty God

Mark 5:32-34  Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.  33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.  34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

4. The woman did not want this at all… but I would say that when she lived the rest of her life, she would look back on this brief encounter with the loving, tender-hearted Jesus as the greatest moment of her life, greater even than her physical healing

5. Actually, Jesus said “Your faith has SAVED you”… Jesus healed many people who had no faith; but some were saved by faith

6. Furthermore, he called her DAUGHTER

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

IV. Healed for a Personal Relationship with Jesus
A. Sin Had Estranged Us from God; Jesus Came to Bring Reconciliation… a Right Relationship with God… That Means an Intimate, Personal Relationship With a Loving Tender God… and with Christ, Who Died for Us Individually

Galatians 2:20  the Son of God … loved me and gave himself for me.

B. At One Time, We Were Enemies… Now Beloved Children of God

C. And He Knows Us Intimately

Isaiah 43:1  Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

John 10:3  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Do you know this intimate love of Christ?

Do you know that your sins are forgiven by him?

Next week, God willing: the next miracle, the raising of that little girl from the dead!