Mark 5:21-43

Bringing the sermon home:

This passage picks up in the middle of a series of four miracles. Having seen Jesus calm a storm and liberate a man possessed by a “legion” of demons, we now see Jesus heal a woman with a 12-year-old bleeding problem and raise a 12-year-old girl from the dead. In short, with these four miracles, we see that Jesus reigns over disasters, demons, diseases, and even over death.

Each of the four miracle-accounts present a contrast between faith and fear. In the final section, the father of the deceased girl is explicitly told to fight fear with faith, as Jesus commands, “Do not fear, only believe.” Again, this is not a promise that no harm will come to us if we simply muster enough faith. Instead, it’s a call to find peace in the midst of trials by trusting (1) that God is with and (2) that He has a purpose in each trial.

In quick succession, we see the faith of the dying girl’s father, Jairus, followed by the faith of the bleeding woman. Multiple cues in the text show us that their faith in Jesus to provide physical healing is intended to be a picture of faith in Jesus to provide spiritual healing. Their example teaches us that saving faith is (1) a desperate faith, realizing that you must be saved from death, (2) a confident faith, certain that Jesus can save, and (3) a public faith, unashamed of identifying with Jesus.

May our lives be marked by the faith to “be made well” and to “go and tell” others about our Lord and Savior.

(See follow-up article here.)