Jesus Deals with Disease and Death (Mark 6:21-43)

One of the most striking details of this combined account is the use of the number twelve. One assumes that there were twelve disciples with Jesus, but that figure is not significant. Instead Mark asks his readers to look back twelve years from the story he is describing. That year, twelve years previously had been a happy year for Jairus because his daughter had been born. But it was an unhappy year for the unnamed woman because that was when her life-threatening illness had begun. Was there a connection between them? Probably not as far as the families and the public were concerned, but there certainly was as far as divine providence was concerned. Although neither family knew it, Jesus in the same place would bless the child and the woman on the same day. Mark is reminding us to believe in the God of providence.

A second detail that is stressed in this incident is that there is a story within a story, or a story alongside a story. The woman is blessed in between the time of Jairus’ petition and the time when Jesus dealt with Jairus’ problem. This is how God’s kingdom operates and develops. The story of each of us is intertwined with that of others. Jairus would have thought that his case was more desperate, and from a human point of view it certainly was.  Yet God does not always work the way we imagine that he should. Nevertheless the outcome of the combined stories was wonderful beyond words.

In addition, Mark is stressing that Jesus is on the move to bless people who need his mercy. He has just come from across the sea where he liberated the demoniac from Gadara. Now, back in Jewish territory, he continues to deal with people needing his help. It is very noticeable that Jesus here helps individuals whom no one else could help. That was the case of the man from Gadara, and it was also the case with the unnamed women (several doctors had been unable to help her) and eventually with the young girl when she died. Surely we can see that Mark is emphasising that Jesus comes into situations that are beyond the help of the most gifted of humans.  As far as we are concerned, such situations are connected to the experience of divine deliverance from our sins. When we come to a point that we realise that we are unable to deliver ourselves or be delivered by others, then we are at the place where Jesus can help us.

A fourth observation from the passage is that Jesus is on the move. He is making his way around the countryside with the focus of meeting sinners in their needs. Mark is informing us that the Saviour we follow was never inactive. Time was a precious commodity for Jesus and he did not waste it.

The two incidents here have a fifth detail to teach us and they are connected to the fact that the ceremonial law was temporary. Remember that the disciples are watching Jesus in action and they would have observed that each incident has an element that the ceremonial law identified as problematic for the worship of God. The women with the discharge was barred from going into the temple and touching a dead body also prevented a person from participating in public worship until the period for purification was over. Yet here Jesus does not limit himself by those regulations. The disciples should have asked themselves, and perhaps they did do so: ‘Who has the authority to bypass the ceremonial law?’ There is only one answer and that is the Person who originally gave it. Here we can see Jesus revealing his authority as God.

The faith of the unnamed woman

Mark here is describing two people who had inadequate faith in Jesus. As far as the woman is concerned, her lack of faith is seen in the fact that she wanted to remain a secret disciple. She imagined that she could be cured and that no one else needed to know.

Having said that, it is also the case that there were strong aspects to her faith. Here are some of those aspects. She believed that Jesus could do what all other possible helpers failed to do. Instead of their failures causing her to assume that Jesus was like them, she had the opposite perspective. She believed that Jesus could do what they could not do.

Moreover, she believed that Jesus could heal her immediately. She had not believed that about the medical doctors she had consulted. Whatever their competence, she knew their limitations and had experienced their inabilities to solve her problem. But she also knew that there were no limitations with Jesus.

And she also grasped that Jesus could heal her freely. The medical doctors charged for their services and made her poor. Yet she must have heard that Jesus did not charge for giving his benefits and she believed those reports and acted on her faith.

It is good when we find ourselves in such a situation that we believe that Jesus can heal us fully, immediately and freely. Yet no exercise of faith is perfect, and here in this woman we observe an aspect of imperfection in her faith, which was her assumption that she could remain a secret disciple. And Jesus was not prepared to let her have an anonymous faith.

All Jesus did to correct her faith was to ask a simple question, ‘Who touched my garments?’ He had sensed that he had helped someone and he wanted to speak to that person. Straightforward questions usually are the easiest to answer. The question was not an accusation either. Instead it was designed to leader the woman to express her faith.

Mark also describes the approach of the woman to Jesus after she heard his question. His description enables us to see how we should draw near in faith to Jesus. We can see that she was affected intellectually, emotionally and physically. Intellectually she had realised that she had been healed, emotionally she responded in the way suitable for coming into the presence of God in fear and trembling, and physically she bowed down before Jesus.

Is that not the order that we need to have in our responses? The mind should govern the emotions, so while it is essential that our emotions should be involved, nevertheless our response has to be informed. Even when our response is one of great joy it has to be based on a correct grasp of what has happened.

What about the disciples here? Remember that they are in the process of learning about who Jesus is. Yet their response to the question of Jesus to the woman is to suggest that he is asking for the impossible. What must they have thought when they saw a stranger approaching Jesus and responding to him as divine, expressing her reverence for him.

The woman relates to Jesus what has happened. One reason why he would have allowed her to do so would be for the benefit of the disciples, so that they would know what had happened. Yet is there not a pointer here to the fact that it is good for disciples to tell Jesus about the divine grace that has been shown to them, and to do it in the presence of his disciples?

Jesus then gives a word of great assurance to the woman. While she may have found the act of confessing to be difficult, she would have regarded the subsequent words of comfort and assurance as wonderful beyond explanation. She was assured of a special relationship (daughter), she was assured of a wonderful future experience (peace), and she was assured that her problem had been dealt with (healed). Those three aspects are what we need in order to have assurance as well. We want to be told that we are children of God, that we will enjoy peace with God here and hereafter, and that our sins have been forgiven. We usually experience such assurance when we confess Jesus publicly.

The faith of Jairus

We are not told how much Jairus knew about Jesus, although it is interesting that Mark tells us that the man of Gadara, the healed woman and the synagogue ruler each bowed before Jesus. It is evident that Jairus realised that Jesus had divinely-given powers and that what he would do would be God-honouring. Yet he needed to learn that Jesus could do much more that heal people. Because it looks as if Jairus needed to discover that Jesus was the one who could defeat death.

From Jairus’ point of view, events seemed to go from bad to worse after he had spoken to Jesus. He had to endure Jesus taking time to speak comfortably to the unnamed woman, and during that ‘delay’ his daughter had passed away. Had Jesus forgotten about him and his daughter, Jairus might have thought?

Whatever limits of assessment Jairus had about Jesus, the members of his household seemed to have very little understanding of what Jesus could do for the grieving parents. Instead of seeing the moment as an opportunity for continuing to depend upon Jesus for further help they saw it as an appropriate moment to stop having contact with Jesus. They certainly were miserable comforters, who merely judged things by what they could see.

It was good for Jairus that the sensitive Saviour was beside him and immediately directed him how to respond to the devastating news he had received. Of course, Jesus is not advising Jairus to have some vague notion of faith that somehow all will be fine. Instead he is telling Jairus to continue trusting in the One he has asked for help. Jairus has to realise that faith is not to be based on what humans think about a situation but on what Jesus intends to do in a situation. Jairus would have had no authority for believing that Jesus could do anything about the situation unless Jesus had given the specific promises about it. Here Jesus tells Jairus to trust him.

When Jesus reached Jairus’ home he found an undignified situation. The mourners were not family members but others who had gathered to participate in the event. Their hearts were not involved in the bereavement, proved by their quick adjustment into laughter when Jesus explained the situation. Because their heart was not involved in the incident, they could not be either. But who could?

The answer is people of weak faith – Jairus and his wife and Peter and James and John. Each of them needed to have their faith strengthened, and the best way for that to happen is to watch God in action. So what did they see? They saw gentleness (holding the girl’s hand), they saw power (in the effects of his command to the dead girl), and they saw normality (the parents were told to feed the child). Everything Jesus did was so balanced. And they also learned that delays are not denials.