A woman touches Jesus' robe and is healed. A young girl is raised from the dead. Listen in as Thomas Terry breaks down a beautiful passage of Mark's gospel.
Transcript
Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. This morning’s scripture passage comes from Mark chapter 5 verses 21 through 43. Mark chapter 5 verses 21 through 43. It begins,
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live. And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
— Mark 5
(ESV)
And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in a crowd and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch even his garment, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt it in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, and fell
— Mark 5
(ESV)
down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear. Only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with
The Sovereign Authority of Jesus
him and went in where the child was,
taking her by her hand. He said to her, Talitha kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age. And they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat.
— Mark 5
(ESV)
Trinity Church, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, this morning, we’re picking up where we left off in our sermon series on the Gospel of Mark. Now, I know it’s hard to think back on anything prior to the pandemic. But just by way of reminder, the last time we were in the Gospel of Mark, we were looking specifically at the sovereign authority of Jesus, his sovereign authority over creation, as well as the demonic forces.
If you remember, we first looked at Jesus and his disciples while they were sitting in the boat. Of course, Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat when all of a sudden a violent storm breaks out. The disciples in a panic, they wake Jesus up and say, Jesus, how could you be sleeping right now? Your lives are in danger. And so Jesus gets up and with only his words, he quiets the winds and he speaks the storm into submission, exercising his authority over creation. Then the next day, Jesus and his disciples safely arrive at the other side of the shore. The moment Jesus steps off the boat and his feet hit the shoreline, Jesus is confronted by a man who is possessed by thousands of demons, a man whose life and dignity was completely ruined because of this demon possession. But Jesus, full of compassion and pity, exercises his sovereign authority over the demonic forces.
He rescues this man from this demonic oppression by casting the demons out of the man, pushing them into pigs, and then pushes the pigs into the sea where they drown. And this morning, we will again see the sovereign authority of Jesus over sickness and death. So whether you know it or not, this narrative is relatable. It’s tangible, it’s close, and it’s personal. Because every human, to varying degrees, wrestles with a human body that is broken or a body that will eventually break because of the effects of sin. Every human at some point will wrestle with profound grief and sorrow in the face of losing a loved one, especially if that loved one is a child. These are real issues that Mark retells, and it touches at the core of the human experience. We all have heard stories of people who suffer from chronic illness. We all know the stories of people who have lost children, and the truth is, many of us
are currently walking through chronic illness, and some of us have had to deal with this very dark and devastating experience of losing a child. And so this passage is meant to put the sovereign authority of Jesus on display, that he has the power to heal sickness and the power to raise dead people to life. But this passage is also meant to show us the character of God, his love, his compassion, and his faithfulness, so that when we deal with these very heavy and hard situations, we can look to this narrative and reflect on the character of God, to see his love, to see his compassion, and to see his faithfulness, whether he heals us or not. This morning we will see Jesus miraculously heal the chronic bleeding of a desperate woman, and we will see Jesus raise this desperate man’s daughter from death to life.
But it’s more than just a narrative of these two women who are saved from sickness and death. This is a picture of God’s kingdom. This is what his kingdom is like. Through Jesus’s earthly ministry and his powerful miracles, we get a glimpse of his coming kingdom, a kingdom that brings ultimate healing from humanity’s most significant sickness, sin, and freedom from humanity’s greatest threat, death. But before we begin to look deeply into this beautiful passage this morning, let’s take a moment to pray and to ask for the Lord’s help that we might see what he has for us in his word. Let’s pray. Our Father and our God, we approach your word this morning desperate. We recognize, Father, that we can do nothing without your help. Just as this woman was so desperate and this man whose daughter was dying was so desperate, we right now are completely desperate and dependent on you for help.
A Desperate Father’s Appeal
And so, Father, we pray that you would send us the help of the Holy Spirit to meet us this morning, that we might see what this passage means about the character of God and what this passage means for us. Help us, we pray. In Jesus’s name, amen. Well, I want to begin first by explaining a few things that I think will be helpful for us as we walk through the text. This here in our text is what we call a Markian sandwich. Now, we’ve seen this before in Mark’s gospel, and just in case you forgot, a Markian sandwich is where we have one story with another story sandwiched in the middle of it. And again, you have this ridiculous graphic to help you to understand what a Markian sandwich is. And second, I want to point out some interesting similarities as well as some contrasts in
this story. So first, let’s look at the similarities. Both of these accounts deal specifically with women who are suffering. Both of these women are hopeless and helpless. They can do nothing on their own to be relieved from their suffering. Both women, in many ways, are considered ceremonially unclean, which means there is a certain degree of isolation and separation from their community. Both of these situations involve touching with the result of healing, even though they’re both considered unclean. And both in this narrative are identified as daughters. Another interesting similarity is that the dying daughter is 12 years old, and the woman with this chronic bleeding issue has had this issue for 12 years. So there’s some symmetry in Mark’s storytelling that demonstrates the creative beauty of God’s ultimate story. Now let’s see some of the contrast. First, there is this social and economic difference between the two women.
One woman is poor. In fact, she is made poor because of her suffering, and she is without resources or support. The other one comes from wealth. She has a support and an advocate, namely her father. One is considered to be part of higher class society. The other is regarded as an outcast. One woman’s situation is chronic. The other woman’s situation is critical. And so having these things in mind are going to help us as we walk through this passage to get the full scope of the story. I’ve also broken this passage up into three scenes because I think this might be helpful for us as we move through it. So in verses 21 through 24, we’ll see the desperate appeal of a hopeless father. In verses 25 through 34, we’ll see the desperate actions of a helpless woman. And then in verses 35 through 43, we’ll see the miraculous raising of a dead daughter.
So let’s begin with the desperate appeal of a hopeless father in verse 21. And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she might be made well and live. And he went with him. As Jesus again reenters the Jewish region on the other side of the sea, he is once more confronted by a large crowd, which is typical for Jesus in these Jewish parts. Everybody wants something from Jesus. Jesus’s life was one marked by high ministry demands. Jesus was exceedingly popular. Wherever he went, there was a crowd that followed him.
But the crowds were filled with equal parts celebration, conflict, as well as controversy. For some, Jesus was a miracle worker. For others, he was kind of like this carnival entertainer. And for the religious leaders, he was a threat. Now we’ve seen a lot of this conflict and suspicion come from the Jewish leaders, especially within the synagogue. But it’s important to know that not all Jewish people who attend the synagogue approach Jesus with the same suspicion. In fact, here you have Jarius, the ruler of the synagogue, who approaches Jesus in a posture of complete desperation. See Jarius here is part of the upper class Jewish society. He’s not a scribe. He’s not a Pharisee. He’s simply an administrator. He was the one that administered all the affairs for the synagogue. And to be an administrator of a synagogue required a certain level of respectability and influence in the Jewish community.
These rulers of synagogues were typically among the educated, the affluent, and respected. Many of these men were entrepreneurs that helped to subsidize the costs associated with operating a synagogue. So there’s no doubt that these rulers of the synagogues rubbed shoulders with the religious leaders and they were probably privy to some of the discussions that the Pharisees had. So Jairus likely heard about Jesus and his ministry secondhand through these Pharisees. He probably heard them talking about how Jesus continues to heal people and how Jesus continues to exercise demons, even though they don’t understand why or how. But Jairus, whose daughter is on the brink of death, is completely desperate. And he’s heard that Jesus is healing people. Now he might not understand all the nuances of how this works, but he’s confident that Jesus can help him to heal his daughter. And so in a bold move of desperation, in a move that could potentially cost him his influence
among the Jewish leaders, his job, his career, his wealth, he literally throws himself at the feet of Jesus and begs Jesus to help his little girl who is dying. Now any parent, any parent with a child would understand this kind of desperation, this deep agony, this utter helplessness, this fear and heartache. Jairus’s heart was broken. He likely promised his daughter thousands of times that he would always protect her, that he would keep her safe, that he would never let anything happen to her. But here he is, completely helpless, hopeless. He doesn’t have enough money that can buy her health. No amount of political influence with the Pharisees can bring her healing. Luke’s account of this story tells us that this is his only daughter, which in some twisted way raises this level of desperation. So Jairus says to Jesus, please come and lay your hands on my daughter that she might be
saved from death and live. Jarius can’t do anything to save his daughter, but what he can do is bring his desperate and hopeless appeal to the one who alone has the power to save his daughter’s life. And this desperation should be a model for us. This isn’t altogether too different from what we must ask Jesus for our kids. Jesus, please come and lay your hands on our kids so that they might be saved and live. We can’t do anything to save our kids, but what we can do is bring to Jesus our desperate appeal to save them. This should be a template for us at Trinity Church, whether you have children or not. We as a church should be praying that Jesus would lay his merciful hands on our kids, that they might be saved. We should approach him in complete desperation to save our kids because he is the only one
who can save them. And so Jarius brings this most desperate plea to Jesus, and Jesus goes with him. Jesus is responsive to his plea. Now, you can imagine the intensity of the situation, the pace at which Jairus is walking to get Jesus to his daughter. With each step forward, Jarius is filled with more and more hope that his daughter will be spared from death. There is no doubt tears of hope, tears of gladness, and as hope begins to flood his heart, the fear of losing his daughter slowly begins to subside. Jairus is full of hope and expectation. And as they quickly make their way to the house of Jairus for Jesus to heal his daughter, there is this inconvenient interruption which brings us to the second scene, the desperate actions of a helpless woman, and we see this in verse 25. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him, and there was a woman who had
A Helpless Woman’s Faith
a discharge of blood for twelve years, who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garments, for she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. As Jesus and Jarius make their way to this dying daughter, the crowd begins to push in on Jesus. And you kind of get this picture of this chaotic crowd moving all around Jesus like some kind of snake pit. And as the crowd pushes in on Jesus, this woman touches his garment. This woman, for twelve years, has suffered from a chronic bleeding disorder. She has suffered not only physically, but also financially. She suffered not only because of her condition, but also because of these cures that were
costly. Doctor after doctor, prescription after prescription, with no resolve, no help, only disappointment, only bills and financial loss. She sought help in every place she could, but she found nothing to help her condition. She’s not only suffering physically and financially, but she’s also suffering socially and spiritually. See, because of her bleeding disorder, because of this discharge of blood, and because she’s Jewish, she’s considered to be unclean. Now we don’t know for sure what this discharge issue was. The text is not clear. It’s likely that it had something to do with her monthly cycle, but we don’t know for sure. But one thing we do know is that according to Leviticus 15, a woman or a man who has a discharge of blood is considered to be unclean. And because this woman’s issue had been going on for twelve years, she was considered by her Jewish community totally unclean.
So she had no religious community, which means then, in this culture, she had no social community It’s highly unlikely that she had a husband or children. This woman was ostracized in every possible way by the people in her religious community because of her health issues. Her condition made it so that she could not be around people. She couldn’t touch people. People couldn’t touch her. She couldn’t engage relationally with people. She was completely cut off. So she was hopeless. But she heard about Jesus. That he heals people from sickness and disease. That he is a miracle worker. And because she has already lost everything, she has nothing more to lose. Surely she thinks Jesus is powerful. He must be for him to perform all these miracles. And so her superstition leads her to believe that if she could only touch his garment, if she could only touch his garment, that it would be powerful enough to fix her condition.
No one even needs to know. So she quietly and covertly blends in the crowd. And at just the right time, when the opportunity avails itself, she shields herself from the other bodies in the crowd and she stretches out her arm just enough to touch the garment of Jesus. And look at verse 29, and immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed from her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you and yet you say who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Immediately after she touches him, immediately after she touches him, she is made well. She begins to feel her body restore in real time. And despite her every effort to remain anonymous, to receive this healing without the knowledge of Jesus, he notices. It doesn’t catch Jesus off guard. Not only does he feel this woman’s faith, he felt the power go out of him to heal her body. Now, some people say that Jesus didn’t really know what was going on here, that somehow he was unaware of this woman who touched his garment and that the healing power of Jesus went out from Jesus without his knowledge. And they point to the humanness of Jesus that kind of limited his knowledge. But I’m not convinced that this is the case here.
I think what we see here is that Jesus is fully aware of this woman’s faith. He’s fully aware of this woman who touched his garment and he wants to help her. So he turns to look for her in the crowd and he asks his disciples who touched my garment because he wants to pursue her. But his disciples, they’re clueless. Besides, they only see things from a human perspective. They look at the crowd and they say, are you serious? Everybody’s touching you in this crowd. But Jesus knows the woman. He knows her condition. He knows her faith. He’s looking for her because he’s not done with her. Not only does he want her body restored, but he wants her dignity restored. He wants her to understand that her healing is holistic. She’s been an outcast for so long. For 12 years, she’s been considered unclean by her religious community.
And Jesus wants her to know your body was only part of your healing. Yes, that’s what you wanted for a body to be made well, but you needed something so much more than physical healing. You needed to be made clean. And by virtue of me physically healing your body, you’ve also been made spiritually clean. Because I’ve healed you, because I’ve healed your body, you now have access to your religious and social community. Your spiritual and relational life has been restored. Your isolation is done with. Your fellowship has been restored. And I’m the reason for it. See, this is the other reason why Jesus calls her out from the crowd. He wants her to know that it had nothing to do with superstition or with some abstract magical garment that she reached out to touch. She did not receive healing because she secretly touched him. She received healing because of her faith in Jesus, and he wants her to know that.
And this woman who receives from Jesus this miraculous healing, she responds by coming clean, by telling the whole truth in fear and trembling she admits what she did. Now why would this woman approach Jesus in fear and trembling after this healing? Well, remember, she was considered unclean. She was not to come in contact with anyone, especially with a rabbi, with a holy person. She was unclean when she touched Jesus, so she likely thought that she would be treated like all the other religious people in her life that rebuked her for any attempt to get close to a rabbi. She had suffered so much socially from her religious community that it was only natural for her to fear what Jesus would say to her. But Jesus doesn’t rebuke her. In fact, look at the compassion of Jesus. Listen to what he says to her. He says, daughter, your faith has made you well.
And you can hear the gentleness of Jesus in the way that he addresses her. He calls her daughter, and this is the only time in the New Testament where Jesus addresses someone as daughter. This is the affection of Jesus to this woman who has been so mistreated, who has suffered for so long at the hands of incompetent physicians with all of their bogus prescriptions. See, Jesus, the great physician, heals her holistically, and he calls her daughter even though she was unclean when she touched him. Maybe you’re watching this and you completely resonate with this story. You are afraid to come to Jesus because of what you think Jesus might say to you. Because you are unclean. Because you consider yourself unworthy. Because you’re so far removed from being a moral person or a religious person. Maybe you’ve had horrible experiences with so-called religious people who reinforce
this false idea that one must clean themselves up before they can come to Jesus. Listen, if that’s you, you need to know that you don’t have to clean yourself up to come to Jesus. You don’t have to somehow make yourself more presentable or less dirty. You come to Jesus in all of your unworthiness, in all of your uncleanness, and he will extend compassion and mercy to you. He will make you clean. Jesus is the only one who can make you spiritually clean. In fact, all of your attempts to clean yourself up spiritually will ultimately fail you. You need Jesus to clean you up. He’s compassionate. He’s merciful. He’s not concerned whether you’re clean or worthy to approach him. Jesus makes you clean. And when he makes you clean, he calls you a son or a daughter. See this story here shows you the compassion and the mercy of Jesus to unclean sinners
like you and me. This woman is healed from her life of deep suffering, but more than that, she is spiritually made whole. She wanted from Jesus to be made physically well, but Jesus pushes up the ante and he makes her spiritually whole. And this is how Jesus oftentimes works on us. We come to Jesus to get something we think we are desperately in need of, and he ends up giving us what we actually need. And so Jesus, in his compassion, sends her off with a restored body, with restored dignity, with restored fellowship, and with this beautiful benediction. He says, go in peace and be healed of your disease. And see in this benediction, this is not just a goodbye from Jesus. This is Jesus speaking spiritually to her. This is him saying peace, shalom, which means go in wholeness, both body and soul. This is such a beautiful story of the power and compassion of Jesus.
Raising the Dead Daughter
Tim Keller, when addressing this passage, he says this, when the woman touched his garment, Jesus had a sensation of weakness, a draining. He knew that there had been a healing. He had lost power so that she could gain it. And I love how Tim Keller says this, because this here is the gospel in miniature. Jesus became weak, drained even. He lost power so that we might gain it. He gave up his life so that we might be saved and have life. This is what God’s restoration looks like. Sometimes it results in physical healing, sometimes. But if you place your faith in Jesus, he will always, always heal you spiritually. And as Jesus is giving this woman a benediction, some people from the house of Jairus approach him with devastating news, which brings us to the final scene, the miraculous raising of a dead daughter. Verse 35, while he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said,
your daughter is dead. Why trouble this teacher any further? Now try and put yourself, if you can, in Jairus’s shoes for a moment. What devastating news to hear. Hope was so close. They were on their way to save his daughter. They were filled with so much hope. Healing was right within their reach. It seems as if all this was for nothing because now it’s done. It’s final. It’s over. She’s dead. And you can imagine what’s going on in Jairus’s mind as he’s beginning to process this news and grief, as he begins to retrace his last steps with Jesus. Jesus, if you wouldn’t have stopped to help this woman with her bleeding issues, you could have saved my daughter. Jesus, you should have helped my daughter first and then this woman. My daughter’s situation was critical. I told you that she was on the brink of death.
But instead you stopped to help someone that could have been healed tomorrow. She’s been dealing with this disease for 12 years. She could have waited a couple days. She could have waited another year to experience healing. There’s some priority issues going on, Jesus. Imagine an EMT driving an ambulance to the home of someone under cardiac arrest, someone who is actively dying from a heart attack. And while en route, the EMT notices someone on the side of the road suffering from asthma. And so the EMT pulls the ambulance over to the side of the road to give this person a breathing treatment. Or imagine a surgeon in the emergency room who gets a call that someone is in critical condition and is in need of surgery right away. But instead of the surgeon going directly to the emergency room, he instead takes the elevator up to the third floor to help someone with chronic back pain.
Now, both situations are good. Both are noble. The ultimate aim is to help hurting and suffering people. But there seems to be a priority issue here. Their priority is off. I mean, it only makes sense to first stabilize the person in critical condition and then go and help the person with a chronic condition. I mean, this in our context would be considered malpractice in every stretch of the word. We have procedures and structures in place to help us to prioritize these medical issues. The timing and the priority seems off. Now Jarius doesn’t have a framework for EMTs or hospital policies, but it’s evident to Jarius that this is, humanly speaking, in some ways, negligence. From a human perspective, Jesus should have healed the one in critical condition first. But God is not and does not need to be confined to our timelines or our priorities.
He is God and sits sovereignly above time and priorities. And more importantly, he sits sovereignly over sickness and death. So this situation here is in no way a threat to the sovereignty of Jesus. And we see this plainly in verse 36, but overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not fear, only believe. Jesus said to Jairus, don’t fear, but keep on having faith. Now just to be clear, this is not a rebuke from Jesus. It’s hard to understand the nuance when we’re reading these words, but this here is the compassion of Jesus that is calmly speaking into Jarius’s fear and overwhelming grief. This is Jesus gently deescalating Jarius’s emotional volcano that’s just about to erupt. Jesus is essentially saying to Jairus, listen, you came to me in great faith because you believed that I can and would heal your daughter.
I’m asking you now to put aside your fear and continue to have great faith. And look at how this whole thing unfolds in verse 37. And he allowed no one to follow him except for Peter and James and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of Jairus and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, but he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. So Jesus and his inner circle of disciples, this here, by the way, is the first time we get a reference to his inner circle. They go to the house of Jarius where people are weeping and wailing.
Now in this culture, especially among wealthy people, when a person in a family died, the family would hire professional mourners. Now I know this sounds crazy, but that’s what’s happening here. People were actually paid to make a scene of weeping and wailing over the death of this daughter. And this by way serves as proof that the daughter was actually dead because the family wouldn’t go to this much trouble of hiring professional mourners if the daughter was simply in a coma or sleeping. The daughter was actually dead. And so these hired professional mourners come in to mourn the death of this daughter. But Jesus responds, not to the family, but to the paid mourners. He says, why are you making a commotion? The child is not dead, but asleep. Now what does Jesus mean when he says this? Was she sleeping or was she actually dead?
Well, sleeping in this culture was a euphemism for death. And for believers, it is the temporary state until we are resurrected to life. So Jesus says she’s asleep. And so the paid weepers, these mourners, they move from mourning to mocking, which speaks to the superficial nature of their tears. They weren’t really mourning in a genuine way. They were being paid to do it. And that’s why they were so quick to turn from crying to laughing at Jesus, because it was fake. And so Jesus pushes these fake mourners away from the house and takes the father and the mother and his disciples into the room with this dead daughter. And look at how Jesus deals with this situation. Verse 41, taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha Kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and
they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this. Jesus here does the impossible. Jesus, the creator and sustainer of life, sovereignly raises this little girl back to life. He sovereignly stitches back together soul and body and gives her back her breath. Jesus here does what only God can do. See, this here was not a timing issue or a priority issue. This was not even a reaction issue. Jesus was always in complete control of the situation. In fact, his timing and his priority were both instruments that Jesus used not only to raise this little girl back to life, but to raise Jairus’s faith. See, it’s one thing to heal this man’s daughter from a near-death experience. It’s something altogether different to bring someone back from death to life. See, God operates according to his own timelines, to bring about his own purposes.
And listen, those purposes are always for our good. We oftentimes question God’s time and priority, thinking to ourselves that we know what’s best for us. How many times do we get frustrated with God’s timeline because he didn’t do what we wanted him to do when we wanted him to do it? We get frustrated with God. But listen, brothers and sisters, this should show us that we rarely know what God is doing when our timelines and priorities are being challenged. Listen, one thing is for sure. God is always working, maybe not according to our timelines or our priorities or even our preferences, but he is always working to grow our faith and to build our character. This is how sanctification works. He’s working all things together for our good, even when it doesn’t seem like it, even when it feels like he doesn’t care because of how much time has gone by.
He is working and making us better and oftentimes uses the tension of time to do it. Jesus, when raising this daughter, says these words, Talitha Kumi. And in these words, in these words, you hear the compassion of Jesus. This is an Aramaic term of endearment, this sweet term of endearment. In our context, it would be like us saying to our little children who are asleep, wake up baby, it’s time to get up. One minute this girl is dead, the next minute Jesus with only his words gently calls her to wake up and she begins to walk around the room. Jesus powerfully spoke the winds and seas into submission with his words. Jesus powerfully drowns a thousand demons into the sea with only his words and here Jesus powerfully but gently calls this little girl to wake up and she does. This is a beautiful picture of the power and compassion of Jesus.
Faith Born from Desperation
His words are aggressive when he speaks to creation, his words are aggressive when he speaks to demonic forces, but his words with his children are gentle. This is the character of God, his compassion for his children. And at the end of verse 43, you see even more of his compassion and he told them to give her something to eat. Not only does Jesus raise this girl to life, but he’s also concerned about her well-being. He gives her something to eat and I love this because it shows us that not only does Jesus care about the big things like death and suffering, but he also cares about the small things like food when we’re hungry. In this story, we definitely see the sovereign authority of Jesus over sickness and death, but we see so much more. We see Jesus’ care for desperate people. In both of these accounts, you see desperation and faith.
And what’s interesting is that there’s such a close connection between the two. In many ways, desperation kindles the flame of faith. I mean, think about your own experiences. The times when you are in desperate need, when you’re hopeless and helpless, how you cling to God and his word differently, how your prayers are shaped differently, how your hope is different, how your trust in him that he will keep you and carry you through the situation is different. As Christians, our faith comes alive precisely when everything else seems like it’s falling apart. Faith and desperation work together. It’s only when we recognize our desperate need to be saved from our sin that we can come to faith in Jesus Christ. Also in this story, you see that Jesus gives us more than what we think we need. Jarius came to Jesus in faith to heal his daughter, but Jesus came to raise her from
death to life and give Jarius what he needed the most, greater faith. The woman with chronic blood issues came to Jesus in faith to heal her body. Jesus pursues her to give her what she needed most, healing for her soul. They both came in faith, desperately seeking what they thought they needed the most. But Jesus not only gives them what they thought they needed, but what they actually needed. And finally, this story of healing from sickness and freedom from death gives us this beautiful picture of restoration and new life that comes from Jesus. Even if we don’t experience the physical healing that we think we need, by trusting and having faith in Jesus, we will be healed spiritually. Because of Jesus, we are healed from our greatest sickness, the sin that sits in our hearts, the very sickness that separated us from God in the first place.
Because of Jesus’ broken body on a cross, our broken relationship with God is restored. Because of Jesus, we have already been raised from death to life. We might not get what we think we need from Jesus, but in Jesus, we actually get what we need, which is restoration and new life. Let’s pray. Oh, Father, we are so thankful for this text, because in this text, we see not only your power and your authority over sickness and death, but we see your compassion for your desperate children. We see how you are working things together for our good, even if it doesn’t correspond with our timelines and our priorities and our preferences. You are a good God who has done all the work in Jesus to save us from the sickness of sin and to save us from death so that we might be brought into a life with you for all of
eternity. And for that, Father, we thank you and we praise you. We pray that this text would serve as a reminder when we are going through dark and difficult days that we might see how you care for us and how you are compassionate and how you are powerful. We pray all of these things in the mighty and compassionate way. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.