The Interruption: Mark 5:21-34

While reading the gospels and especially the portion of an event we are looking at in this episode, I wonder if Jesus was ever actually busy or in a hurry. Perhaps this is something that is different in today’s culture than it was at the time Jesus walked the earth, but I imagine that with Jesus’ popularity as a miracle worker, a healer, and a counter-cultural teacher, He would have just as many demands on His time as someone living today. Jesus might have had even more demands on His calendar than the busiest of us. Even though Jesus didn’t travel very far over the course of His life, by the later stages of His ministry, I doubt there was anyone living in Israel who didn’t know something about Him.

However, while my life gets busy pretty regularly, and it is easy to let the busyness sidetrack me from slowing down, when I read the gospels, I don’t even see a hint of Jesus acting busy or stressed out. Throughout the gospels, I instead see Jesus modeling a presence in every moment that is very unusual when compared with our highly distracted societies today, and it might have even been unusual in the first century as well.

One great example of Jesus living in each moment comes in our passage for this episode. We will be reading from the gospel of Mark, chapter 5, using the New Century Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 21, we learn that:

²¹ When Jesus went in the boat back to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him there. ²² A leader of the synagogue, named Jairus, came there, saw Jesus, and fell at his feet. ²³ He begged Jesus, saying again and again, “My daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so she will be healed and will live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed Jesus and pushed very close around him. ²⁵ Among them was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered very much from many doctors and had spent all the money she had, but instead of improving, she was getting worse. ²⁷ When the woman heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his coat. ²⁸ She thought, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Instantly her bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her disease.

³⁰ At once Jesus felt power go out from him. So he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ His followers said, “Look at how many people are pushing against you! And you ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus continued looking around to see who had touched him. ³³ The woman, knowing that she was healed, came and fell at Jesus’ feet. Shaking with fear, she told him the whole truth. ³⁴ Jesus said to her, “Dear woman, you are made well because you believed. Go in peace; be healed of your disease.”

We’ll stop reading here because I want to draw out several things that stood out to me while reading this passage.

The first thing that stood out in my mind is that while Jairus urgently wanted Jesus to come quickly because the situation with his daughter looked very bleak, Jesus was more interested in identifying and drawing out the secret miracle. If we think a little deeper about what happens, it’s likely the woman who was healed, Jairus, and most everyone else present would have preferred this woman’s miracle and story to remain hidden.

But Jesus knows that this story needed to be vocalized, and He wanted to highlight this woman’s faith. We learn that the woman who was healed had a powerful testimony, but an even stronger faith that said she would be healed. While we’ll focus on the woman’s faith later in this episode, Jesus was willing to put the urgent situation of a dying child on hold to focus on the faith of a shy, would-rather-not-be-acknowledged woman.

Whether Jesus wanted to validate the woman, her faith, and the healing that just happened, or whether He wanted to stall long enough that Jairus’ daughter would actually die (which sets up the next part of the story), we see Jesus intentionally being present in each moment, even if the situation would pressure Him to hurry forward.

The next thing that stood out in my mind is that we learn that Jairus is a synagogue leader. This is significant to me because while I get the impression from the gospels that virtually all the religious leaders were opposed to Jesus, I highly doubt that this majority included Jairus – especially after this event.

Looking from the opposite perspective is also fascinating. From Jesus’ perspective, even though the majority of the religious leaders opposed Jesus, Jesus didn’t let the stereotype distract Him from choosing to help someone who needed help. Jesus didn’t let the stereotype that all religious leaders opposed Him stop Him from answering the call for help from one religious leader, and Jesus didn’t let the societal view of women stop Him from focusing attention onto this woman’s story, her faith, and her healing.

The third thing that stood out to me in our passage is the simple equation that Faith + Jesus = a Miracle. We learn from the woman’s story that she had tried everything else without success. She had spent all her money with no improvement. These details are important because the woman had faith in the medical practice of her day – even if the medical standards and understanding was lacking compared to what we know today. This woman had faith, but faith alone didn’t result in healing when she focused her faith onto the medical community.

When the woman shifted her faith onto Jesus, she discovered that was all that was needed. She focused all her faith on simply touching part of Jesus’ clothing, and that would be enough. She probably believed her condition wasn’t as serious as other conditions Jesus had healed, and because of this, Jesus’ direct intervention wouldn’t even have been necessary. She might have also believed that since her condition was less visible than most, that she could get away with a healing that was less visible than most.

The woman’s faith, when focused on Jesus resulted in a miracle and a healing in her life. We can learn from this as well because while there are countless things we could place our faith in, the only One truly worthy of our faith is Jesus – and Jesus is the only place where our faith can result in miracles occurring.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will to leave you with:

Be sure to place your faith onto Jesus. Focus on Him and on growing closer to Him each and every day.

Also, be sure to intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself because only through Bible study can you learn what Jesus is really like. While a pastor or podcaster can point you in the right direction, only through personal study can you grow a personal relationship with God!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or fall away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!