The Gospel of Mark/Chapter 5:21-43/Commentary

The Gospel of Mark Chapter 5:21-43 5:21 “And when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered about Him; and He stayed by the seashore”: “Again the scene shifts. Jesus has returned to the west side of the lake. On the east side He had been asked to leave. Here great crowds greeted Him” (Gaebelein, p. 660).

5:22 “And one of the synagogue officials named Jarius came up, and upon seeing Him, fell at His feet”: “This homage is deeply significant, not because somebody falls at the feet of Jesus, but because this man, this member of the school board, this leader in religious matters, does it. As a man of position high in Jewish society, he stands to be disgraced if Jesus could not do exactly what he now asks.

What is most noticeable here is that, while Jesus refused all forms of human ostentation and preached against it mercilessly, He accepted without blush this worship. Who is this that permits such high, respected religious officials to worship Him?” (Fowler p. 183). In contrast, the apostles (Acts 10:25-26) and angels refused to be worshipped (Revelation 19:10). “One of the synagogue officials”: Such men were responsible for looking after the upkeep of the building and supervising the worship.

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5:23 “And entreated Him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, that she may get well and live’”: Mark records that his daughter was at the point of death (5:23), and Luke says that she was dying (8:42), and Matthew says, “My daughter has just died”. Later a messenger will relate to Jairus that she has died. McGarvey says, “he left her dying, and so stated his fears in the very strongest way” (Fourfold Gospel pp. 352353). Lenski notes, “Matthew at once lets us learn the essential fact from Jairus, namely, that his daughter was actually dead” (p. 372). Hence, she was dying when Jairus left, but by this time Jairus is certain that she has died. “That she may get well”: It seems obvious that Jairus had seen Jesus heal people before, for he mentions the method by which Jesus often healed. He is absolutely confident that Jesus can heal his daughter “she will live”.

We need to be impressed with the faith of his man. Here is a man of some importance and leadership, and yet humbles himself before this uneducated Galilean teacher. Many of his synagogue associates don’t believe in Jesus, so there is a tremendous amount of pressure to reject Jesus. Like Nicodemus (John 3:1ff), here we find that there were good hearts in the Jewish synagogue, even among the leadership (Acts 6:7).

5:24 “And He went off with him; and a great multitude was following Him and pressing in on Him”: Mark says that at this time a great multitude was following Jesus and pressing in on Him (5:24). Clearly, many people heard this request followed Jesus to see what would happen. By the time the immediate party of Jesus arrives in the middle of the town it becomes almost impossible to make rapid headway through the people.

5:25-26 “And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse”: This medical problem banned one in a practical way from the worship of God in the temple, since the hemorrhage rendered her Levitically unclean (Leviticus 15:19-31) and contaminated all that she touched (Numbers 19:22). It also would have excluded her from normal marital relations (Lev. 16:24). Mark notes that she was now 2

practically penniless (5:26), having spent more on medicines and doctors than on essentials. Her condition was growing worse and not better (Mark 5:26; Luke 8:43). “Unbelievably desperate after waging this futile battle for twelve years against an illness that left her without her strength, social intercourse, or worship” (Fowler p. 186).

5:27-28 “After hearing about Jesus, came up in the crowd behind Him, and touched His cloak. For she thought, ‘If I just touch His garments, I shall get well’”: This woman’s faith, like that of Rahab, was based on hearing, and not sight.

Apparently, she had never seen Jesus heal anyone, but believed the reports about Him (John 20:30-31).

“What strong faith to expect that even contact with Him, the bare touch of His garment, would carry such Divine Power as to make her whole…She believed so much in Him, that she felt as if it needed not personal appeal to Him; she felt so deeply the hindrances of her making request of Himself, that believing so strongly in Him, she deemed it sufficient to touch, not even Himself, but that which it itself had no power or value, except as it was in contact with His Divine Person” (Edersheim p. 626). Since Jesus praises her for her faith, I don’t see this woman as being superstitious, that is, that Jesus’ clothing had power in and of themselves.

She touched Jesus’ clothing because she believed that the power resided in Him. Her faith is just one step ahead of Jarius, for Jarius thought that Jesus had to come and touch you---this woman knows that she simply needs to touch Him. Yet both did not realize that Jesus did not have to touch anyone. He would simply say the word!

5:29 “And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction”: The cure was instant! She was healed right there on the spot.

5:30 “And immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched My garments?’”: Jesus doesn’t make this statement because He is ignorant, rather He knew exactly who in the crowd had been healed (Mark 5:32). Rather He 3

says this to draw attention to the healing and to bring the woman forward. When it comes to Jesus, one is not allowed to remain a secret follower or admirer.

5:31 “And His disciples said to Him, ‘You see the multitude pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”: In view of all the people pressing up against Him, the disciples thought that this was a rather silly question at the moment.

5:32 “And He looked around to see the woman who had done this”: He immediately finds the woman in the crowd.

5:33 “But the woman fearing and trembling, aware of what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him the whole truth”: Faith will own up and speak up. Faith will tell the whole truth! In spite of her fears, and she is trembling with fear, she moves ahead anyway. One fear that she might have had, it that her disease made her unclean, and if she touched Jesus she might have been afraid that somehow she had contaminated Him. 5:34 “And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction’”: Jesus has no rebuke for such courage and faith, only praise. Consider “how” faith had saved this woman. Faith, in and of itself hadn’t saved her. Only when such faith moved her to act, to reach out and seize the opportunity, to go to the source, did she find any healing. In like manner, faith will only save us when we act upon it and meet God’s conditions for salvation, including baptism (Mark 16:16). “Be permanently whole: an assurance that relief was not temporal, but final” (Fourfold p. 354).

5:35 “While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official, saying, ‘Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?’”

The crowd and the woman had taken valuable time—the daughter is now dead.

“The delay caused by healing this woman must have sorely tried the ruler’s patience, and the sad news which followed it must have severely tested his faith; but we hear no word of muttering or bitterness from him” (Fourfold pp. 354-355).

Note there will be hurdles and challenges to overcome when seeking salvation.

But true faith will overcome any inconveniences. Here we find that Jairus is confronted with the lack of faith on the part of his servants and friends. “They 4

had had enough to believe Jesus could heal the sick, but not enough to believe He could raise the dead” (Fowler p. 193).

5:36 “But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, ‘Do not be afraid any longer, only believe’”: It would appear that during this whole process, Jarius had been fearing the worse. It must have been very frustrating that they had been delayed and could not arrive sooner. Notice that when unbelief rears its head Jesus always has an answer, “Trust Him”. Also consider the fact that courage and faith are linked together. Often unbelief is nothing more than being afraid of what other people think. Many people reject Christ, not because of a lack of evidence, but because of a lack of courage to stand out and stand alone with Him (John 12:42-43).

5:37 “And He allowed no one to follow Him, expect Peter and James and John the brother of James”: “His choice of the nine Apostles to remain with the crowd was perhaps to serve as an example of self-discipline. Physically, the nine men just by standing still easily blocked the passage to all who tried to follow Jesus.

This first step was necessary in order for Jesus to secure the quiet and dignity He desired to surround the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter” (Fowler p. 194).

5:38 “And they came to the house of the synagogue official; and He beheld a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing”: Matthew mentions that “flute-players” were also present (Matthew 9:23). The funeral began even the same day as the death. While in our culture, we want quiet and silence out of respect for the dead, in this culture, they believed in releasing pent-up emotions through loud mourning. Beside such flute-players would be found the hired wailing women with hair streaming, beating their chests and filling the air with loud moans and bursts of sobs. The prominence of this family would have probably called for a good number of such mourners. In addition, in this culture there was the common practice of having paid, professional mourners at a funeral. At the same time, much of this grief may have come from family members.

5:39 “And entering in, He said to them, ‘Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep’”: Now, the text says the child has died, so Jesus 5

is not contradicting the diagnosis. Rather, “They had perhaps viewed her death as a cessation of existence, whereas Jesus affirms, contrarily, that she is very much alive elsewhere and can be recalled as easily as one is awakened out of sleep” (Fowler p. 195). In addition, death to God is nothing more than a temporary sleep. In John 11:14, Jesus called “death” a sleep, not because the soul is asleep, but because the body resembles someone who is sleeping. Talk about guts! To walk into a house where a child as died and then insist that it is not permanent— wow!

5:40 “And they began laughing at Him”: And the same would be true today. If Jesus returned and once again lived as a man, His views would be ridiculed by the world. Note their scornful laughter does serve the purpose of revealing to us that the child was dead, that is, this wasn’t a set-up or some sort of false advertising for Jesus. “If it were a pretended death and revival, we would expect to see an anxiety on the part of Jesus to make it appear that the girl was dead, and a disposition on the part of the unbelievers to question this fact. But the reverse is true: it is the unbelievers who insist that the girl is dead, while Jesus alone raises a question about it” (Matthew-Mark, McGarvey, p. 85). “Without intending to do so, then, these scorners among the mourners established this fact of a real resurrection from the dead beyond all doubt” (Fowler p. 196).

5:40 “But putting them all out”: Sometimes the best method of dealing with unbelief is simply to remove the unbelievers.

5:40 “He took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and entered the room where the child was”: Imagine the tension at this point!

5:41 “And taking the child by the hand, He said to her, ‘Talitha kum!’ (which translated means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise!’)”: Mark gives the Aramaic words that Jesus used. They were the simple words with which any one would awaken a child in the morning. “Talitha kum” (TAL uh thuh KOO migh).

Some liberal scholars have argued that we cannot have any confidence in our translations, because Jesus spoke Aramaic and not Greek, and Greek manuscripts form the basis of our current New Testament. Yet be impressed that Mark knew 6

that at times Jesus spoke Aramaic, and where the Holy Spirit desired, such expressions are cited and then translated. This informs us that nothing has been lost in translation, no matter what language Jesus spoke on any given occasion. In addition, such a claim completely overlooks the power of God and the Holy Spirit’s ability to translate God’s truth in any human language. Jesus would tell the apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all the truth (John 16:13), and in view of the early mss., He decided to reveal this truth in the common language of the first century world, that is, Greek.

5:42 “And immediately the girl rose and began to walk; for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were completely astounded”: Consider the detail.

We are given the precise name of this man, “Jarius”. We know what he did in the town. We know he had a 12 year-old daughter at this time. In the first century, if you wanted to double-check the truthfulness of this account, you could have found this family or someone who knew them. In fact, when Mark writes this gospel, this girl was probably still alive!

5:43 “And He gave them strict orders that no one should know about this; and He said that something should be given her to eat”: In view of the crowds on this occasion and He difficultly in moving from place to place, we can see why Jesus did not want any advertizing. In addition, this is something entirely new!

What if the word gets out that not only Jesus can heal all diseases and cast out all demons---but Jesus can even raise the dead! Imagine the commotion that news will cause! People are going to show up wanting Jesus to go out to the cemetery!

“That something should be given her to eat”: The parents might have been so shocked that they needed to be reminded to feed this daughter.

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