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Notes on Mark 5:21-34

Due to the cancellation of our Wednesday Bible study due to the Corona Virus, I have attached the following notes so that you can study in the convenience of your own home.

5:21-43

V.21 It is understood that Jesus returned to Capernaum after crossing back across the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum is where Jesus lived as he carried out his mission. Most of the chapters in the New Testament describe the time he lived in Capernaum – from his baptism to the last week of his life. It was also the hometown of the apostles Peter, James, Andrew and John, and the tax collector Matthew.

This would mean that the people living in and around Capernaum would have known about Jesus. He even taught in their synagogue. It’s no wonder that there was a great crowd of people awaiting Him.

Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers, must have been pretty desperate as he came to Jesus. Leading members of the surrounding synagogues had conspired to kill Him.

The full measure of Jairus’s desperation is seen when he bows down publicly at Jesus’ feet and begs for the life of his daughter. Jairus was obviously willing to place his reputation and position at Jesus’ feet for his daughter.

Jairus must have seen or at least heard of Jesus healing others as he displays a modicum of faith.

“Come and lay Your hand on her”

“That she may be healed”

“And she will live”

At this point of the narrative we are introduced to a woman. She is another desperate person. A secretive desperation drove this woman to reach out and touch Jesus. According to the law of Moses her hemorrhage made her unclean. So, she approaches Jesus from behind, hiding among the crowd. Perhaps she hoped to escape notice and not to incur any more shame that she had already incurred. She simply wanted to merely touch Jesus’ clothing, be healed and steal away unnoticed.

Hers was a faith of desperation; “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well” (v.28).

How many of us have come to Jesus with a faith born out of desperation?

But her act of faith does not go unnoticed.

The word immediately is used twice in this story, first in the woman’s action, then in Jesus’ quick response. Both the woman and Jesus simultaneously knew what had happened. While the woman sought to disappear into the crowd, Jesus turned and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” Jesus wanted to clear any confusion she may have had that her healing came about simply by touching Jesus’ garments. It was not any magical quality in His clothing, but His divine will that had made her well.

V.31 No one else was apparently aware that the healing had taken place. The disciples were distracted by the crowds, but Jesus’ attention was on the one who, in the midst of the crowd, had reached out to him.

Q: What might this say to us today?

Sometimes our focus is caught up with the crowds, when all the while there may be someone reaching out in desperation for Jesus.

V.32-33 She has been exposed. What she feared most has happened. She falls in front of Jesus trembling with fear, telling Jesus her story. Most of those who were part of the crowd would have known her and may had even been aware of her condition. But now it cannot be hidden.

Jesus’ reply to her is telling. At this point Jesus did something that is not repeated elsewhere in the Gospel of Mark. He called the woman daughter.

This is not the first time Jesus had spoken in terms of family. When His mother and brothers tried to exercise some measure of control over Him (3:31-35), Jesus announced a new definition of the family. His family consisted of all those who did the will of God. Here is a new definition of family. The bond that unites people who do the will of God is set above the kinship of blood.

In this woman who had suffered so much and who had violated the law of Moses, Jesus found a daughter. She had done the will of God by reaching out in faith. Her faith made the difference, for it was correctly placed in Jesus.

It is important to note that faith itself does not heal; rather, it is the proper object of that faith, Jesus, who heals.

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