Mark Study 24
The Sick and the Dead
Mark Study #24 by Michael Spencer
Step into the study, pour yourself a cup of coffee, get comfortable and let's enjoy the Gospel of Mark.
Our scripture this week is Mark 5:21-43
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake.
22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet
23 and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live."
24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him.
25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.
26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."
29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?"
36 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James.
38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly.
39 He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep."
40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.
41 He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!").
42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished.
43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
This passage provides an example of literary construction that most of us miss upon first reading. The healing of the sick woman is "framed" between the two parts of the raising of a little girl. Mark is taking two stories and arranging them for dramatic effect, much like a movie director arranges the visual components of his script. These small touches of literary design remind us of the role of Mark and the other evangelists in creating the gospels and how the inspired picture of Jesus comes to us through a unique medium. We also see evidence of topical constriction. The larger purpose of the evangelist is often apparent in these evidences of literary forethought. In this case, I believe Mark is increasing his focus from description of Jesus as the mighty, victorious Son of God to a new element- the centrality and nature of faith. Even as Mark introduces Jesus to his readers, he also keeps in mind that faith is the means of entering into the Kingdom that Jesus brings. We will watch for this as we examine this section of the Gospel. We have seen Jesus as mightier than the elements and mightier than demonic power; now we see Jesus victorious over death- certainly a preview of his own great resurrection victory. But in these miracles, it is not the lack of faith of others that we see, but the faith of those who approach Jesus.
Individual healing stories are so commonly referred to that they suffer from over-familiarity. First and foremost, these types of stories speak of the supernatural power that came in Jesus and the compassionate use of that power to show what the Kingdom of God is like. If it were not for the supernatural nature of Jesus' ministry, he would have been forgotten. Those who are currently seeking to remake Jesus into something compatible with current liberal scholarship miss this point- a non-supernatural Jesus would have been a non-event. The centrality of these miraculous episodes in the Gospels is no accident. It was these very sorts of things that made Jesus such an awesome and unique presence in human history. Any attempt to boil these kinds of accounts down to myths, legends or exaggeration finally turns the disciples into dupes and liars. Contrary to modern prejudice, people of the ancient world were just as skeptical as we would be today. Even Jesus' enemies and the opponents of the early Christian movement had to contend with Jesus' established reputation as a worker of mighty miracles. None of these opponents denied that Jesus worked miracles, but called him a "magician." Yet modern critics seem to think they can deny the miracles altogether and preserve a Jesus of pristine moral character in the midst of a group of exaggerating and imaginative disciples. In fact, if Jesus was the "David Copperfield" of his time, he was an evil man and not worth anyone's consideration as the founder of a major religion.
Jesus again crosses the sea and is met by a great crowd. He is approached by one Jairus, a "ruler" of the synagogue. Such a man was an important person in the local community. If we are back in Capernaum, it would have been an important man indeed, since the synagogue was among the largest in Israel.Contrary to popular belief, synagogue services were not often conducted by trained rabbis. There simply were not enough. The ruler (or president) and the assistant (attendant) were both layman. Jairus would have been the most prominent religious person in the community and his approach to Jesus contrasts sharply with the usual reception Jesus received from religious leaders. (Luke 13:14) To fall at someone's feet was a formal gesture of prostration; a recognition of that person's authority and superior power. Jairus' approach to Jesus reveals his willingness to cast aside the expected social standings and come to Jesus as one who believes he is a man of God's power and authority. Just as much indicative of his faith is his declaration that the little girl will live if Jesus comes and Mark's description that he begged earnestly. Any parent can feel this man's desperation.
Having created the drama of whether Jesus will arrive in time to heal the daughter, Mark now inserts the story of Jesus healing a woman, purely through her own faith in Jesus. This story has several unique features and phrases that indicate it probably existed on its own and is being incorporated by Mark as part of a theme: Jesus healing those who are ritually and socially unclean. Some have pointed out that the number twelve occurs in both stories and that may also indicate why Mark related the two at this point. I tend to think the topics of an unclean woman and an unclean corpse are on Mark's mind, but more important is two people demonstrating desperate faith. Jairus and the woman, in very different ways, reach out in faith and experience the compassion of the Kingdom. Mark also creates drama as Jesus pauses to talk to the woman at the expense of the time needed to reach the little girl!
This woman represents so much about the social and religious place of women at the time of Jesus. Simply as a woman she had a diminished status. If the bleeding problem had started with puberty and she had bled for twelve years, then half her expected life was spent with this disease. The law disqualified such a woman from marriage and religious participation. (Leviticus 15:25-30) No pious Jew would have touched her. Physicians of the time would have had little recourse in such a case. The woman had probably been subject to all kinds of superstitious and painful remedies. She would have been treated as a sinner, cursed and punished by God for someone's sins. It is quite possible that she was, like the girl, near death and was acting out of desperation. Touching Jesus would have made him ceremonially unclean, and recognizing her touch meant announcing that he was unclean to the crowd. For the woman to be in the crowd was a great risk, as was Jesus' response to her touch.
Mark allows us to hear the voice of faith inside the woman's mind. "If only I may touch the His clothes, I will be made whole." We hear again the sort of certainty that has no doubt who Jesus is or what he can do. This woman and Jairus sound presumptuous to many of us, but what would we say or think in the same situation. Faith, as Jesus recommends it, is simple. It knows what God can do. It knows its own desperate need of God's help. If, as in some cases, that particular sort of help does not arrive, true faith never doubts the ability or goodness of God, even as it accepts a deeper understanding of His plan.
We are told that she touched the hem or bottom of Jesus's garment, but some have suggested she was touching the tassel of a prayer shawl. Either way, the touch is not even to the body of Jesus, yet power immediately heals her. Mark says "Immediately, the fountain of her blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction." a powerful phrasing that allows the reader to almost experience the miracle in a few words. Mark is known for expressing the compassion of Jesus, but this sentence shows that he also appreciates what the power of God means to human beings who experience the compassionate power of the Kingdom. This use of "immediately" is followed by the use of the same word describing Jesus' reaction. (All of us struggle with not overusing our favorite word, even inspired authors ;-) The phrase "power had gone out of him" occurs nowhere else in the New Testament and is a vivid Markan expression. Certainly the "surprise" nature of this miracle is unique, but it serves to highlight how important faith really is.
The disciples' reaction adds to the picture Mark draws of disciples who seldom "get it" where Jesus is concerned. They take Jesus' statement as almost crazy because of the great number of people who must have touched Jesus as he moved with and through the crowd. While it is easy to think that Mark simply wants to portray the disciples as foolish and laughable, I believe Mark is preserving an accurate memory of how difficult it was for the disciples to understand a man like Jesus, a person who defied every normal definition and expectation. We tend to think that it would have been simple to understand and appreciate what Jesus meant, but doesn't it make more sense to consider that every day would have been a confrontation with teachings we could not understand and miracles that seemed unbelievable? We ought to have sympathy for the disciples, even as we smile.
The woman is terrified- "fearing and trembling"- that she is about to be exposed for her audacious venture out among normal society. She falls down before Jesus as Jairus had done, in this case hoping for mercy. She tells Jesus what has happened and Jesus does several extraordinary things. First, he addresses her in a personal and affirming way. It is safe to say that most pious Jewish teachers would not have even spoken to a woman in public at all, much less one obviously cursed by God with disease. Secondly, He credits her faith- obviously faith in Jesus- as the means of her healing. And then he announcing her healed of her affliction, something only priests or doctors could have pronounced. And in all of this, Jesus was identifying himself as one who would speak to and touch the unclean and the outcast. He teaches a great deal about the Kingdom in this very emotional scene.
My own Baptist roots strongly affirm the importance of faith alone as the means of salvation, but we are guilty, as are most Christians, of subtly attaching some sort of ritualism or legalism to faith as proof it is genuine. In my tradition, this can often be seen in evangelistic methodology, invitational manipulation and conditions such as "praying the prayer" or "walking the aisle." This story reminds us that faith knows its needs and believes in Jesus. Period. End of the entire discussion. This woman had to publicly proclaim her faith- but reluctantly. Her personal encounter with Jesus was based upon nothing beyond faith. Her faith is genuine and saving and commended by Jesus. It warns all Christians to offer this Christ to people and not the Christ that waits at the end of a church aisle. I once heard a youth evangelist tell a stadium full of students that Christ was "right here at the front." How far we have come from "Who touched me?"
Mark skillfully weaves back into the story of Jairus with an interruption by those coming to say that disease has given way to death. The girl is dead and, of course, this is far beyond Jesus' ability to help. This gives us a window into the fact that healers were not unknown in Israel, but a prophet that raised the dead was unknown, yet the Gospels tell us that Jesus raised the dead and that it was after the raising of Lazarus (John 11) that his doom was sealed with the religious leaders. We don't hear of Jairus' reaction because Jesus takes control of the conversation. He takes the lesson of the woman and applies it directly to the synagogue ruler: Don't be afraid, believe. (I have always appreciated Pope John Paul II's use of Matthew 28: 5,10 as a theme for his papacy.) In a world of fear, faith is the Christian hope.
Mark provides the detail that Jesus forbids the crowd to go any further and only takes James, Peter and John. The mention of these three disciples as a separate "inner circle" has been noted throughout the Gospels. Jesus desire for privacy for some miracles is also noted in 7:33 and 8:23. The death of a young girl of twelve, before she had enjoyed adulthood or been married, was considered a severe tragedy. Professional mourners were dispatched immediately to a death scene and Jesus arrives in the midst of much noisy mourning. He announces that the mourning is inappropriate because the child is not dead! She is sleeping. What does Jesus mean by this? The mourners and others ridicule anyone who would say such a thing. Imagine someone saying it around a deathbed today. Many have noted that Jesus treats the girl as if she were in a coma and the family is unaware of the difference. We should certainly appreciate that the entire story happens in a prescientific age when the distinction between death and near death may have been impossible to distinguish clearly. This does not diminish the miracle in any way. All that being said, I think it is fairly clear that the term sleeping here is meant in the same sense as sleeping in I Thessalonians 4:14, i.e. a synonym for the death of the righteous.
One of the nicest touches in Mark's work is his preservation of Jesus' original Aramaic words at key places. Here and in 7:34, 14:36, 15:34 Mark preserves precisely what Jesus says. The purpose for this is unclear, but I cannot help but think Mark simply passes along words that never faded from the disciples' memories; words that were engraved in their consciousness. Gospel critics, say what you want- this is the human touch that indicates reality. It is like being there, because the apostles were there. Certainly verse 43 preserves an understatement. Great amazement can't begin to touch what the family and disciples must have felt. Surely one greater than Elijah is here!
Verse 43 contains another instance of the so-called "Mark's secret." The usual scholarly explanation of this is that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah and Mark is preserving the primitive tradition. If this is so, Mark is a very confused author for the person he is portraying Jesus to be in this Gospel is far beyond merely Messiah. It is the divinely victorious Son of God. A better explanation is that Jesus is already being pressured by his success and reputation into appearing to be something he is not- a political or social Messiah. He is working against this because he knows that the cross, the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit are all necessary to understand who he is and what God is doing through him. This "secret" needs to be seen as a counterpoint to his increasing popularity and not a means whereby Jesus defines himself as less than the Messiah.
We have passed through the first great section dealing with the miracles of Jesus. More miracles will come, but other events come first. In the meantime, Mark has done much to establish the presence and reality of the Kingdom's invasion of our world in the person of Jesus the Son of God. He has shown his compassion, his wisdom and his mission. Jesus is victorious over nature, disease, demons and death. Despite the increasing suspicions of the religious leaders, the common people follow him in mass, for they recognize that something is happening by the presence of this man in human history. Mark's portrait of Jesus is majestic and simple, leaving no doubt to readers of the Gospel that Jesus is the central figure of all time, the key to the conflict of Kingdoms that is human history and the one who holds the answer for our lives. And what does he ask of us? Faith. Simple and vulnerable trust of all that we are to all we know of him.
Questions
Michael has noted that many Christians react negatively when evidence for composition, editing and arranging is pointed out in Gospel texts. How does the idea of the inspiration of the Gospels mix with the editorial and composite work of the author?
Why would Mark be concerned with showing examples of faith?
Do you sense that healing stories are often overworked? Do they suffer from a lack of appreciation because of this?
Do stories such as those we have read today teach a kind of presumption in regard to healing, i.e. if I believe hard enough God has to do it? Why do some Christians feel that if you are not healed it is a lack of faith?
Is it possible to remake Jesus without the miracles? What is the result? What is the motive?
What kind of people find it hard to humble themselves before Jesus? Do you think God is insulted when people only show up in times of crisis?
Do the ideas of ritual and ceremonial uncleanness translate into our society? What kind of persons might Mark write about today?
How do you see these stories related in Mark's larger purpose? What similarities strike you?
Develop a definition of faith from these stories.
This woman's courage is an essential part of her faith. Notice Revelation 21:8 where the "cowardly" are excluded from the New Jerusalem. How is courage a part of faith? How is a lack of courage a hindrance to faith?
Have you ever felt cursed by God because of personal tragedy?
Examine closely Jesus' response to this woman. What does it tell us about Jesus' love for each one of us.
What sort of extra and unnecessary things often attach themselves to simple faith as a condition for salvation?
Michael often speaks against evangelistic methods that tell lost people to do something other than believe in Jesus. Are practices such as aisle-walking or praying the sinners prayer really that big of a deal?
Jesus raised only a few people from the dead. Why not more?
Why do you believe Mark preserved some of Jesus words in the original Aramaic?
What could have been Jesus' motive for keeping this miracle a secret?