MARK 5:21-43 Lesson 10
DEALING WITH THE UNCLEAN
I. Greetings:
II. Introduction:
A. The Purpose of Stories about Jesus: they reveal God.
Q If someone asked you what God is truly like, how would you answer that person?
An = List some of their answers and we will read them back at the end of the session.
Note: All of us have experienced that to really know a person, is to know them not only by their words but by their deeds.
Q Can someone give me an example of this? Where have you really learned who someone was by their deeds and not merely their words?
An = Take a couple of examples and then briefly give one of your own.
Note: So who is God? We Christians say we have a record of what God did in the past in the Bible. Best of all we have a record of what Jesus Christ did in the Gospels. Thus our best answer is, what God’s true character is will be revealed by what He did. We Christians claim that Jesus Christ was fully human, but also fully God. So who God truly is will be revealed by what Jesus did. We Christians correctly claim that God never changes and so if God (in human flesh) acted like He did in the life of Jesus Christ He will act that way today. So now the adventure is, WATCH JESUS. The rest of chapter 5 is basically narrative or stories about what Jesus did and thus the rest of the chapter is about who is God!
B. The Application of Knowing Who Jesus Christ is: we know if we can trust Him.
Note: Some of you in the next few weeks and months will be making some crucial decisions in your life. You want to turn to God for direction but you fear what following His directions will do to you. You have heard, “trust God”, but you fear that to follow God could imperil your happiness.
RQ If we let God control our lives, if we really ask Him to be “Lord”, what will happen to us?
Note: What God will do to you is dependent on who God is. Who He is can be found most clearly in Jesus. So again we should Watch Jesus and if we like Jesus, then we will like God. If we do not like what Jesus did, then we will not like what God will do with us. Actions speak louder than words.
III. The Chance of Success: Mark 5:21-24.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:21-24.
Q What did this religious leader want?
An = He wanted help for his child, but the crowds were in the way.
Q What do verses 21 and 24 tell us about the crowds?
An = Jesus had drawn large crowds. Jesus had had a measure of success; at least in numbers of people being interested in what He was doing. He was popular and the crowds were everywhere. He is like a politician, or rock star or a famous athlete or movie star. However, Jesus was not popular with one part of the society….
Q How many of you have done youth work, or been in charge of a ministry?
Q How important is it to please powerful parents?
Note: Jesus was already in trouble with some of the scribes from Jerusalem (3:22). They were already against Him; to heal a synagogue official’s child would help Jesus. Jesus had crowds, but He did not have the approval of a part of the leadership class of His society. Also, these crowds were in the way of Him helping this powerful man.
Note: In the Middle East, and in some parts of the West, children are their parent’s life. To help the child is to bless the parent.
IV. Interrupted by Losers: Mark 5:25-34
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:25-28
A. Jesus’ Curious Speech: A Crazy Question, Mark 5:25-30.
Note: We know Jesus was in a crowd. In 5:24, we know there was a large crowd, and it was pressing in on Him.
Q How did the disciples react to Jesus’ wanting to know who touched Him?
An = They thought it was truly ridiculous to ask, “Who touched me,” when people were completely thronging Him.
Note: Her bleeding was considered to be a continual period, and therefore she was considered to be unclean for the past 12 years.
>>>> Turn to Leviticus 15:25-28 and have someone read these verses.
Note: Jewish Law taught that a woman in her period was not to be touched. Blood was deeply respected, it symbolized “life”. The Law was meant to protect her from physical advances during her period and turn what could be an embarrassing part of her life in one protected by God. This particular flow of blood was unusual (lasting 12 years) and the Law was designed to bless women not isolate someone. This woman was ostracized by her illness or situation. It was not the intent of the Law for this to happen.
Q How do you think she felt about herself?
Q What do you think was her standing in the community?
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:29-30
Q Why did she touch Him?
An = See Mark 3:10, 6:56
>>>> Read to them Mark 3:10 and 6:56.
She wanted to be healed, and she believed that if she touched Him she would be. She, like many, associated the touch of the person doing the healing with being healed.
B. The Motives For the Curious Speech: Mark 5:31-34.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:31-34
Q Why did Jesus ask who touched Him? What was He after?
An = It seems rather ridiculous that He asked such a question. Look at 5:31.
>>>> Have someone re-read 5:31. They certainly did not think Jesus’ question was a good one.
Q Did bringing to the public’s attention that He was defiled work to His advantage or hurt His religious reputation?
Note: This public exposure must have terrified the woman. From a certain point of view, what He did was unkind. Imagine being forced to confess you defiled a popular rabbi? Imagine the condemnation He could be calling down on her to further erode her already low standing in the community. Jesus was not always, to outward appearances, a nice man.
Q How could His question and His calling her out, help her?
An = Perhaps He called her out to further bless her, not immediately to please her in the following ways.
1. She had reached out in faith to God. He let her know what her touching Him truly meant. He interpreted her action for her, to inform her, to teach her.
>> Re-read 5:34.
2. In His speech of verse 34, she was informed how to find God again. What had saved her was faith, not magic. It was faith the Lord wanted, not crowds being impressed by miracles.
3. She would have many more needs in her life, and now she knew how to get a hold of the Lord again. She now knew how to establish a relationship with Him. Jesus was giving her God’s phone number: faith. Faith was defined for her as physical action, an action that was risky. She reached out to God, not in her mind, but by her physical action.
4. He called her daughter and told her to go in peace. He let her know He was not angry. His parting phrase surely communicated that He was not mad she had defiled Him.
Q Is it important to let people know we are not angry? Why?
An = Think of the times when you wondered if an authority important to you was angry with you. It is important to let people know what will hurt them, but it is also important to let people know when you are not angry.
Note: The words “go in peace” literally meant “go in shalom”. “Shalom” or “Peace” in Hebrew means more than just absence of conflict, it means completeness, harmony. He told her: “All is well; you are not only at peace, but in harmony with Me, with God.”
Note: In the Old Testament the “Peace” offering is called in Hebrew the “Shalomim”. The offering symbolized that you, the clergy, your neighbor, and God were in harmony, at peace with one another, in sync with reality. It is often called the “Communion Offering”.
V. Back to Jarius and the Chance of Success: Mark 5:35-43.
A. The Proposal of Sleep: The Hiding of Power
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:35-36.
Note: Notice, the parents were, no doubt, starting to go into terrible grief. Jesus authoritatively told them not to panic, not to fear, but to “just believe”.
Note: Jesus had put the needs of the woman in front of their daughter’s urgent need. Jesus had allowed the interruption. Being kind to a humble woman cost Him time that could have gone to important people in that society. Jesus seemed to be willing to get into trouble with the powerful to take time for what most people would consider as unimportant poor people. This was consistently how the Gospel’s portrayed Jesus. People mattered to Him no matter what their social standing. The Gospels report that Jesus was like the God of the Old Testament (Psalm 103:8).
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:36-40
Q Notice Jesus said the dead girl was asleep, why did Jesus say that?
An = Sleep was a metaphor for death in Hebrew society. For example, let me give you a quote from Paul, who was a Jew, and naturally used this metaphor for death in one of his writings. >>>> Have someone read I Thessalonians 5:10. So when Jesus said she was asleep it could have been taken literally, that she was sleeping, or it could be taken metaphorically, that she was dead. Jesus was deliberately ambiguous. He had a reason. It is tied to something else he did. Jesus could have implied that the girl was not dead but rather that the girl was just in a coma. Why Jesus said that was not, at first, clear, His words seemed puzzling.
Q Notice, in verse 40, He allowed in only the parents and three disciples, why did He do this?
An = He seemed to be deliberately trying to hide what He was about to do. He only let five people with Him into the room where the dead girl lay. He wanted no one else to see what would happen. Why He is doing this will become clearer as we read on.
B. The Display of Power: Resurrection from the Dead. Mark 5:41-43.
>>>> Have someone read Mark 5:41-43.
Note: Jesus touched her. Again Jesus had become defiled by touching a dead person. However, despite becoming ritually defiled, Jesus took her by the hand. Jesus was more interested in people’s well being than being picky about a certain understandings of the rules.
Q Why did He order them to give her something to eat?
An = Jesus was a practically loving person. He certainly showed that He was carefully concerned for the child’s welfare.
Note: This could be the reason He let it seem that the girl was just in a coma and just asleep and not dead. This could also be the reason He allowed only the parents and His closest disciples to see what He did. He then forbade the girl’s being raised from the dead to be spoken about. He did not use this girl as a publicity piece. He refused to let the crowds make a spectacle of this little child. He lets others assume she was merely in a coma. Though this potentially took away from His reputation, it revealed that Jesus wanted to bless, not impress.[:]