Every new season we see the signs up around town. Get your flu shots now while supplies last! If we manage to escape that terrible virus, we certainly cannot escape the relentless common cold. Everywhere we go there are bugs, germs, pathogens, bacteria, and viruses creeping and floating nearby. Recently the threat of the Zika virus has led many to fear mosquitos even more. Some diseases even grow from inside of us and have a life of their own. Cancer is so elusive at times that doctors cannot decipher its origins and don’t know a cure. If these diseases have never left us bedridden yet, we’ve at least sat beside the bed of a sick and dying person. Much worse, we’ve all stood beside more than one coffin bearing the lifeless corpse of a loved one. Why is it that after all our medical advances, this world is still a disease-ridden and life-threatening place? Why is there no safe place to hide from sickness and death? Maybe you’ve never thought about it, but the Bible gives us a very clear answer that carries us all the way back to the first man and woman. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by doubting His good word and rejecting His good commands, they thrust the human race into this tragic cycle of sin and death, and God’s curse brought us to where we are today. So if this is the case, what hope is there for the sick and dying? Enter Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. He offers a certain and eternal hope for sinners like us in a fallen world.
In Mark 4:35-5:43, the evangelist shares four miracle stories from the life of Christ that reveal his kingly authority over nature, demons, disease, and death. Although Jesus had taught four parables regarding God’s kingdom, the disciples didn’t understand how he brings God’s kingdom to earth, so like any good teacher, he took them out on a field trip so they’d see it with their own eyes. His school bus was their trusty fishing boat and his destination was the multi-faceted scenarios that threaten life in this sin-cursed world. After silencing a raging storm with two words and casting out thousands of powerful demons from an unstoppable man, Jesus now revealed his authority by healing a diseased woman and raising a dead girl. The common thread in both of these stories is Jesus’ absolute authority and our need to absolutely trust Him.
The main characters in this story are a synagogue official named Jairus, his dying daughter, and a woman with a bleeding disorder. Both Jairus and the woman come to Jesus on their knees and in both cases Jesus calls them to a deeper faith in his authority. Jesus allows Jairus’ twelve-year old daughter to die in order to urge him to a deeper faith. Jesus allows the bleeding woman to endure twelve years of suffering in order to build her faith in him. In each case, Jesus proved worthy of such desperate faith. At the touch of Jesus the diseased woman is healed and at the touch of Jesus the dead girl comes to life. Like the story of the demoniac in Mark 5:1-20, this story reveals that man is an unworthy source of trust, yet at the touch of King Jesus the age old curse of sin turns back and we see heaven, where we celebrate the funeral of disease and death.
So what does the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the bleeding woman teach us? Whether we gather by the bedside or the graveside, we must remember that Jesus drives us to desperate faith because he alone is a secure source of our trust. Since Jesus absorbed the disease of sin on the cross and tasted death as well, He is able to sympathize with us in our pain. Since Jesus rose victorious from the grave with an indestructible body, he offers us a more certain hope than earthly health. Are you coming to Jesus in desperate faith each day or leaning on some other less-than-secure source of hope? Come kneel at the feet of Jesus with all your problems and trust His power to save. He shows great compassion toward those who come to Him in great need.
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