Well, we're going to read about the dead being raised, the sick being healed in Mark chapter 5, beginning to read at verse 21. Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to him and he was by the sea. Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live. So Jesus went with him and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment for she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Immediately, the fountain of her blood was dried up And she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus immediately, knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? But his disciples said to him, you see the multitude thronging you and you say who touched me? And he looked around to see who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. While he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid, only believe. And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly. When he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they ridiculed him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha Kumi, which is translated, little girl, I say to you, arise. Immediately, the girl arose and walked, for she was 12 years of age, and they were overcome with great amazement. But he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given her to eat. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. And I pray that you would open up these scriptures to us and enable our hearts to respond appropriately. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I love following a map and seeing how Jesus traveled from place to place. Many times it opens up passages and gives insights that we might otherwise miss. For example, we saw previously with the Syrophoenician woman. that Jesus went way out of His way, 52 miles north, outside of Israelite territory, so that He could interact with that Canaanite woman. And then He came straight back. And that shows to me that He really was not a reluctant Savior. He was going there for her alone. She was the only reason for that trip. His discourteous language was actually designed to draw out her faith, but it was the geography that shows that this was a special trip that he made for her. And this is similar in this situation here versus chapters 4 through 5. This special trip was made to heal a demon-possessed man. In chapter four, Jesus had actually been in this same location where Jairus is coming. That's probably why Jairus came, hoping to meet him, and he's not there. And he had, in chapter four, verse 35, it says, on the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. Now, to cross over at night would be very inconvenient, but after a full day of ministry would be even tougher. In fact, Jesus is so tired that he falls asleep in the boat, and even though waves are washing over the boat, he is not waking up. He's got to be absolutely exhausted. And these disciples wake him up because the boat is ready to sink. And he does the impossible with a word. He calms the storm and they land on the other side of the lake. And then chapter five shows him healing a Gentile madman who had a legion of demons inside of the man, a man who went from being stark naked, cutting himself with stones, no shackles, being able to hold him to a man who was Completely healed clothed in his right mind and a follower of Jesus. So Jesus made That trip especially for that man Okay, that's the reason he Braved the storm and he went at night. It was to heal this man and then he comes immediately back and verse 21 picks up at our story and Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him, and He was by the sea. Now, Jesus was always deliberate. We saw this previously. He had finished his business among the Gadarenes, and now he is returning. And the reason I find this interesting has to do with timing. If he had stayed there the previous day, Jairus' daughter would have been able to be healed, and there would have been not the same crisis that was happening on this particular day. But God makes sure that Jesus is delayed by the Gadarene demoniac, and he's not available on this side of the Sea of Galilee. And he did so, so more glory would go to his name. Now, here is the point. Nothing in life is by accident. Even delays are ordained by God. Your traffic delay that you were fretting over might have actually saved you from a car accident. And it's not something to get frustrated over. It's something to thank God for. And in faith, we can thank God even if we don't know the reason for the delay. I was reading this past week Whitfield and Wesley and John Wesley one time got stuck in the mud in his cart and it was so stuck that they were going to either be late or maybe miss the next meeting that he was going to completely. And despite that, Wesley is just praising the Lord. God must have a purpose here. And sure enough, as a result of that delay, a desperate man came to Wesley, whom he would have completely missed otherwise. And he was about to lose everything. And Wesley had put, God put on his heart to set aside some money for a poor man. It was just the amount of money this man needed. And there were a number of other details that show God was in this delay, getting him stuck. with that mud. Delays are a kind of divine providence, and every one of you has experienced providential delays. The question is, how do you respond to those delays? Are you frustrated? Are you angry? Are you upset? Or are you able to thank the Lord and look to the Lord? Okay, Lord, there must be something that you have in store for me as a result of this providence. Verses 22 through 23 show the desperate condition of Jairus' daughter. And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet and begged him earnestly saying, my little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and she will live. Now Jairus is called one of the rulers of the synagogue. Synagogues like churches, remember we've seen in the past that Church really is a carryover of the synagogue system, but synagogues like churches had a plurality of elders ordinarily, with each elder being assigned between 10 and 20 families. But he was the head pastor, and from what we can piece together from the various accounts, he appears to be quite well-off, quite well-to-do. He was a man of status, a man of wealth, but wealth can't always buy you health. God can bring any of us to our knees, no matter how prepared we might think we are. He was certainly desperate. Here he says, my daughter lies at the point of death. The Greek is eskatos eche. And in the parallel in Matthew 9, where liberals always say there's a complete contradiction, He says, my daughter is right now come to the end. The Greek is arti etel yutesen. Now, it's mistranslated. She had already died. Putting the two accounts together, it says, my daughter lies at the point of death. She is right now come to the end with the implication to the end of her life. And so there is no contradiction between the two passages. Two different words are used to clarify how serious the condition was. Death was imminent. But Jairus has faith that even at this late stage, Jesus can heal her. He appears to be a believer in Jesus. Now, we know from other accounts that there were quite a number of rabbis who were opposed to Jesus, looking to see if he would heal on the Sabbath and were out to get him. Jairus is not one of those. He appears to have already been a believer. Maybe he even believed the message of John the Baptist and had been baptized by John the Baptist. There were a number of rabbis who had. But the text here says, when he saw him, he fell at his feet. Matthew adds that he fell at his feet and worshiped him. No Jew would ever worship a mere mortal. This shows something real special about Jairus and his family. He had a faith. He had insights into who Christ was. He understood that Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God. And so there was something special about him. In any case, I believe he was a believer that his daughter may have shared in her father's faith. But here is the application I make. painful things happen to believers too. We tend to like to think if I'm faithful to the Lord, nothing tragic, nothing difficult is going to happen to me. And yet believers get cancer, believers get into car accidents, believers have stock losses, they've had quite a number of bad things. quote-unquote bad things. Everything works together for good, right? But if it was left up to us, we would just do away with all difficulties that we might have to faith, and we would not want any of these kinds of accidents. But here's the point. Don't question God's love for you simply because you are experiencing difficult providences. Those difficult providences are often designed to stir up our faith. just like God used that for Jairus. Anyway, Jairus traveled alone to Jesus, because he obviously can't bring his daughter. She's sick in bed. She can't travel. And he needed to get Jesus to her right away. Now, unlike the woman in the next story, who doesn't think Jesus has to touch, he somehow feels Christ has to lay hands on his daughter in order for her to be healed. And it's interesting how people sometimes assume the way things are in the past have to be the way things are going to happen in the future. It's not always the case. This text says she was a little daughter to him. She's his baby, so to speak. It's an endearing term, showing that she's very, very special to him. Well, Luke adds that this was his only daughter and that she was 12 years old. Okay. His earnest begging shows how serious the situation with his daughter was. He was about to lose his only child. And verse 24 shows that Jesus agrees. So Jesus went with him. And so Jairus is no doubt relieved. He's filled with hope. But verse 24 shows two more things that delayed Jesus, a delay that was no doubt somewhat frustrating to Jairus. He was perhaps waiting at the shore of Galilee. Oh, wow. He gets there. Christ is gone. And he's waiting, waiting, waiting with the crowd. And so that was the first delay. There are two more delays that God orchestrates for His own glory and in order to strengthen the faith of Jairus. First one is in verse 24. It says, a great multitude followed him and thronged him. So this is the first additional cause for delay. The Greek word for thronged means to be so pressed between people that it's almost impossible to move. The Lexham research lexicon defines it simply as, quote, to squash in around on all sides. He's squashed between people. BDAG dictionary defines it as to crowd around so as to leave little room for movement. So this would have been frustrating to Jairus as well because time was of the essence and they're making slow progress. They're so squished in in this crowd that they have a hard time moving forward. But God controls crowds to his glory. He controls traffic jams to his glory. The second delay was caused by this woman with the flow of blood, and Jesus stops to talk to her. Jairus was perhaps getting anxious with these delays, but he didn't say a word. He trusts, and this is something I needed to learn decades ago. Those of you who drive with me know that I like to get places quickly. I'm not as bad as Jehu is described as a man who drives furiously, you know. But I am very goal-oriented, and this is something that got me in trouble many years ago, where I would really get frustrated in any kind of slowdowns in traffic. And I'd be thinking, come on, come on, come on, we gotta get there, you know, what's going on up there? I'd be talking to myself. And especially if I was gonna be late to a meeting because of a traffic jam, I'd get very, very anxious. And the Lord convicted me that this was actually a sin that I needed to repent of. And I did, and there were different ways that the Lord helped me to overcome this sin. One of them was to, any time a traffic jam happened, to say, thank you, Lord, for this traffic jam. I know you've got something in this for me. And the second thing that kind of helped me was I would always carry in my pocket, like Gary Duff would do, cards for memorizing scripture or for Greek and Hebrew. And I would whip those out and start memorizing, and in the back of my mind, thanking the Lord for the extra opportunity for memorization. And it really did help to lower the stress a great deal. And then I would also just keep my eye out for what divine providential contacts the Lord was maybe opening up through this at the doctor's office, dentist's office, wherever the slowdown might be. Anyway, if you do a study sometime, and I've done this, if you do a study on the providential delays that the Lord strews all through the Scriptures, I think it'll open your eyes up to realize there is no accident in the delays in your life. It'll help you to really appreciate God's sovereignty and to rest in that. Now let's pick up on this second desperate woman who was sandwiched into the story of Jairus' daughter. Jairus is not the only one who is desperate. And we do have a tendency to forget about the desperate conditions of other people when we're wrapped up in our own desperate situation. I think Jesus is giving Jairus a broader perspective here, and coming out with an appreciation that will increase his faith. Anyway, verses 25 through 26 start by describing the sufferings that this woman endured, and wow, did she have a lot of suffering. First of all, she had a medical condition that produced some degree of menstrual flow nonstop for the last 12 years. Many have tried to make guesses at what this might be, whether a fibroid tumor, infection, hormonal imbalance, something else. We're simply not told. But in addition to the inconvenience and the mess, this would have no doubt made her very weak and very anemic. And Scripture is not shy about talking about the complications of women's plumbing. I think the Scripture talks about this not only to let us know that God knows, God cares, but also to make men more sensitive to the struggles that women go through. I think this is a great story for us men to think about. Anyone who knows the ceremonial law also knows that this would have made for major social suffering as well. Let me read the section of the law that talks about this, and then try to paint a picture for what would probably have been her daily experience. This is from Leviticus 15, verses 25 through 27. It says, if a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity, She shall be unclean. Every bed on which she lies all the days of her discharge shall be to her as the bed of her impurity. And whatever she sits on shall be unclean as the uncleanness of her impurity. Whoever touches those things shall be unclean. He shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. So this issue of uncleanness was a major, major inconvenience. She couldn't share food with other people because if she touched the food, it would render it unclean. When she went to get water, she would have to have somebody else get the water and pour it into her bucket because if she touched the rope of the common pail, it would make it unclean. Anything she sat on and somebody else sat there, it would make them unclean and inconvenience their lives. And so I mean, even the commentators say she could not have sexual relations with her husband. Before long, everyone would become aware of her uncleanness, and many would not want to be around her. Now some people have wondered, why on earth did God even make ceremonial laws like this? And the answer is that humans are so thick-headed and think so well of themselves that God had to drill into their consciousness the sinful state of their hearts and why it is that they cannot approach to the Lord. And so he filled their lives with these pictures, these ceremonial laws. that would constantly make them see, yes, I recognize, I'm a sinner, I need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pharisees actually thought that they were pretty good at keeping ceremonial laws, but the Apostle Paul, who was also a Pharisee, said, no way. Nobody was able to keep the ceremonial laws completely. They were a burden, but they were a burden to show us of our need of Christ. But in Christ's day, the Pharisees made certain kinds of uncleanness of a higher order. God hadn't authorized that. but women's menstrual uncleanness was treated on a higher order by the Pharisees, and so there was definitely social suffering for this woman. Now, because the text says that she had spent all she had, instead of saying all that she and her husband had, some have thought that her husband had left her. Now, I'm not sure we can say that for sure, but it is true that the Pharisees allowed for divorce for trivial reasons, completely contrary to God's law, they would have allowed a husband to divorce such a woman. In any case, she's single, she has social suffering, and the trembling that she has implies she was in danger of some sort, perhaps fearing that the crowd would turn on her, be roused to anger that she had ceremonially defiled them. Because she would have been brushing up against all of them as well, right? So it doesn't take much imagination to know that she experienced social ostracism and suffering. But that same uncleanness would have kept her out of the temple and out of the synagogues. Josephus says, and this is in the time of Christ, quote, the temple was closed to women during their menstruation, unquote. And so there was religious suffering. She wasn't even able to go to worship. She was really hurting in the back. My battery going out? She was hurting in a bad way. I'm very grateful that those ceremonial laws are no longer binding on women. They had their purpose, especially as we've seen, teaching us about sin and of our need of cleansing grace. But there is a reason why Paul said that no one was able to keep them, why they were a And so she had suffering from illness, social suffering, religious suffering. Next we see her medical suffering in verse 26. It says, and it suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had, was no better, but rather grew worse. Now I've done some reading on the traditions that the scribes and the Pharisees had regarding medicine for this particular condition, and it is bizarre. It is really bizarre. Talmud gives a lot more remedies than I'm going to read to you. Some of them absolutely gross. I'll give you the easier ones. Rabbi Yohanan says, take of gum, of Alexandria, of alum, and of crocus hortensis, the weight of a zoosie each. Let them be bruised together, given in wine to the woman that hath an issue of blood. But if this fail, take of Persian onions, nine logs, boil them in wine, and give it to her to drink, and say, arise from thy flux. But should this fail, set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her hand, and let somebody come behind her, and affright her, and say, Arise from thy flux. But should this do no good, take a handful of cumin, and a handful of crocus, and a handful of fenugreek, Let these be boiled and given her to drink and say, arise from my flux. But should this also fail, dig seven trenches and burn in them some cuttings of vines not yet circumcised, vines not four years old. And let her take in her hand a cup of wine and let her be led from this trench and set down over that. And let her be removed from that and set down over another. And in each removal, say to her, arise from my flux. One of the remedies was to take a grain taken from the dung of a white donkey and carry it around. I won't say where. Anyway, these were the easy remedies. The ones that were invasive, I can see why very, very useless. Actually, when you read all of the medical treatments that were in the Talmud, you realize why many people in that day preferred to die than to go to a doctor. There was one wag who wrote somewhere around the first century and he said, going to a doctor is no better than going to an undertaker or going to a gladiator. He said, there's not much difference. We've come a long way in medicine. I am so grateful to be living in the 21st century. Now some of the treatments in her day would have produced the suffering itself, and obviously there were good physicians among the Jews, but those who followed the Talmud were not. Talmud is absolutely chock-filled with occult superstition. And even today, there are times when the cure is worse than the disease. There are many people who have gone through endless tests and treatments and have gone from doctor to doctor, with some of the doctors actually saying, it must be in your head, there's nothing wrong with you. We need to be sensitive to even the medical suffering that some have gone through and not assume that simply because the doctors can't fix it, it's not a medical condition, right? This passage shows Jesus cares about medical suffering. This verse also hints at her emotional suffering. She's obviously not married, and she would generally have been sequestered. She was lonely and isolated. She had endured this for 12 years. Every visit to the doctor's office would probably be embarrassing, and the loss of hope would have taken a toll on her emotionally. We don't often think about the emotional pain that people go through. I'm here to tell you, sometimes the emotional pain that people go through is worse than physical pain. loneliness, hopelessness, anguish of soul. These are the kinds of things that God's grace specializes in ministering to. Verse 26 also mentions her financial suffering. It says, she has spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. She didn't have any more funds left for doctor's remedies. She's at the end of her rope with her life draining away. And there are people with similar suffering today. It may not be medical, but they have financial, social, religious, emotional suffering. And you, as a friend of that sufferer, are probably just like those doctors at your wit's end. You don't know what else you can do, what other advice you can give. Nothing seems to work. And we shouldn't have to wait till things are hopeless before we turn to Jesus. That's the lesson that I learned. Pray to the Lord Jesus before you take the aspirin, and while you're taking the aspirin, and after you've taken the aspirin, right? If there is one thing that the book of Mark teaches us, it's that there is nothing too hopeless for the Lord, amen? I've seen people anointed with oil and prayed over completely healed of things that doctors could not heal. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our healer, praise God. Well, this woman becomes convinced that this is the case. She comes up with a plan, and this is actually kind of a strange plan that she came up with, because from any of the information we have, nobody has ever been healed simply by touching Jesus' clothing. So why she thought of this, who knows? But it's probably a situation where she doesn't dare let the crowd know. She doesn't dare let Jesus know. She just is going to try to get close to Him, and she thinks she's going to be healed. Well, she's right. Verses 27 through 28, when she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment, for she said, if only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well. So she's convinced this is going to work, even though there's no history of it. She knew she'd be in deep trouble if the crowd discovered she's been jostling up against them, getting them unclean. It'd be too risky to ask Jesus outright. So she blends in, touches the hem of the garment. And interestingly, the word that she uses for healing is the Greek word sozo, which can also refer to salvation. She's hoping to be saved from her sickness. Jesus is going to introduce her to a far more comprehensive healing, the healing of her soul. By the way, she was taking a great risk because she probably would have been subjected to verbal abuse. But she was desperate, and desperate people do desperate things. Sadly, it's often not until people give up hope on themselves and give up hope on others that they go to Jesus. Jesus is really the last resort that they have. The Holy Spirit must convince us of the truth of Acts 4.12, which says, Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So do, by which we must be healed. Anything, any salvation. Holy Spirit must convince them of the truth of John 14, 6, where Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So she is desperate to find salvation from disease. Jesus is going to introduce her to a far more comprehensive healing. Now just as a side note, Mark says that she touched his garment, but Matthew and Luke specify that she touched the cross pedome of his garment. The cross pedome are the tassels that Numbers 15, 38, Deuteronomy 22, 12 required every Jew to wear on the four corners of their garments. It was a ceremonial law. a ceremonial law that has passed away. Now, why do I bring that up? Well, I bring it up because there are so many people that assume that Jesus broke the Sabbath, Jesus violated the ceremonial laws, and that He did away with them, that's why we can do away with them. Nothing could be further from the truth. That would be premature. It was not until Christ's death that the ceremonial law could be done away with. What Jesus was breaking was the unbiblical civil laws about the Sabbath that the Pharisees had instituted. He was breaking the unbiblical civil laws concerning cleansing that the Pharisees had instituted. By the way, that gives us permission to break laws that are unbiblical as well. You do have to count the cost, but really the civil government does not have authority to go beyond what God has given them authority to do. But anyway, the point is Jesus upheld every law of the Old Testament, both ceremonial and civil, including the wearing of these tassels. And we keep the ceremonial laws really by trusting in Jesus. Anyway, in verses 29 through 34, we have the story of the cleansing of this unnamed woman. She no doubt had her head covered, was bowed down to avoid recognition. She pushes her way toward Jesus, and she would have had to push through quite a number of people to do this, because remember, the word that was used indicated that Jesus was squashed in from all sides. Okay, a picture I have in your outline absolutely does not do justice to this. I couldn't find a picture that does justice to how crowded things were. Anyway, she managed to push her way close enough, she was able to reach out and touch a tassel of his upper garment hanging below his waist. And the moment she touched it, she was completely healed. Verse 29, immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. Now here's something curious to notice. There were tons of people crowding Him and touching His clothing, but She is the only One who was healed. I find that remarkable. Verse 30, and Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? Healing flowed from Jesus without any conscious effort on his part. It was the Holy Spirit who was healing through him. This is something similar to what happened with Peter in Acts 5, verse 15, where people lined the streets in the hope that when Peter passed by, if just his shadow would touch them, they would be healed, or if they touched a handkerchief that he had touched, they would be healed. It's not Peter who's even doing it. It's the Holy Spirit working through Peter as his vessel, and that's what's going on here. The other interesting thing is that Jesus felt power leaving him. And many people who have prayed for healing have experienced this. It's almost like electricity going through your body into the other person. It's the Holy Spirit. It's not us who is doing this. Now, keep in mind, Jesus did not ordinarily use his divine power to heal and do miracles. As our representative, he chose to do miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it illustrates that God is the sovereign dispenser of healing when and where He chooses. Many people touched Jesus, but only one touched Him with faith and was healed. And He's the sovereign giver of faith too, isn't He? He gives faith as well as healing. But Jesus ensures that there's more than just healing of the body that happens. He stops and He says, who touched my clothes? He knew what had happened, but He's going to draw her out. But his disciples said to him, you see the multitude thronging you, and you say, who touched me? He just kind of ignores their comment. His eyes found her. He looked around to see who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. She's trembling because she has broken the law. She's trembling because she feared rejection. Rejection has been a part of her persona, had been for 12 years. She trembled because any ordinary man would have been rendered unclean ceremonially until evening. But he was not an ordinary man. I remember in the story of the leper, The change in purity did not happen to Jesus. Purity flowed to the leper, and it's the same thing here, but she didn't know that, right? So she trembled. Jesus was not going to let this be an anonymous healing. He had more to do in her life. He wants to usher her into a far more profound healing, a spiritual healing that has either already happened or is about to take place, the healing of her soul. And in her confession and telling of the whole truth, he must have gotten from her the confession he wanted to hear. And he's able to say in verse 34, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. These would have been incredible words of comfort. Rather than rejection, he calls her daughter. Commentators say this is the only time that Jesus ever addressed a woman as daughter. He talked about the daughters of other people and the daughters of Zion, but this is the only time he spoke of her as daughter, in other words, as his daughter, right? And to me, this speaks volumes about Christ's insight into the needs of this woman. He is calling her an adopted daughter, and He treats her like His daughter. Daughter. I think those are words—that is a word that would have melted her heart. He goes on, your faith. Those words from the lips of Jesus also speak comfort, because only the elect could have true faith. He sees her faith. Your faith has made you well. That speaks to healing. It's gonna be a permanent healing. Go in peace. Wow, those words are far more than a mere formality. Go in peace. We've seen in the past that the word shalom, and in the Greek, reine, peace, is the reversal of the effects of the fall. Okay, so it no doubt reversed her poverty, her social standing, her health, even her worldview. Go in peace is more than simply healing of the body. Then it says, be healed of your affliction. Now that word for affliction is the word for scourging or punishment. It's literally be healed of your discipline or of your whipping. That's very interesting. In effect, Jesus was saying this flow of blood was a discipline that came from God's hands. Have you ever thought of your diseases as possibly—not always, there's about 21 reasons for suffering that we go through—but as possibly being a discipline from God. The BDAG dictionary defines the word this way, a flexible instrument used for lashing, whip or lash, with a metaphorical meaning being, a condition of great distress, torment, or suffering sent by God to human beings. So this is freeing her from something more than the disease itself. It's either freeing her from discipline from God, or from the demonic, or both, since God frequently uses the demonic as a means of discipline. And by the way, that the demonic is often connected with diseases, all you have to do is read the Gospels. It's strewn through the Gospels. In any case, her condition was like being whipped, and Jesus wants her to be completely freed from that. Now, by doing this in front of everyone, it also frees her from social shame. Who's going to treat her like scum when Jesus has just piled word upon word of His affirmation, His acceptance of her? Jesus ministers not only to the body, He ministers to the emotions and to the mind. The fall negatively affects the entire person, including the emotions, and restoration involves social acceptance and emotional restoration of a person as well. They're drawn in just like a daughter would be. And if you are one who trembles and doubts whether Jesus loves you, this story assures you that he will receive you. Jesus became flesh to redeem those who are in the flesh. He suffered to minister to our suffering. He was rejected so that we would not have to be rejected. So do not delay. I would encourage you metaphorically, reach out your hand and touch the garment of Jesus and receive his healing. and His love. One minute this woman was an outcast, and the next minute she's adopted into the family of God. She is a daughter. Now all of that was an interruption to the main story of Jairus' daughter, but what a glorious interruption it was. It was a worthwhile interruption. I think it was an interruption that probably increased Jairus' faith because if Jesus could heal just with his garment being touched, how much more so when he is coming to my home, right? So now the first story that was interrupted is resumed, but it's resumed with words that would have made him feel it's too late. Verse 35 shows that she was dead. While he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? Well-meaning comments can kill our faith. I have seen this happen many, many times where a person finally gets some weak faith and then there's a negative comment that dashes the faith to the ground. So verse 36 says, as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid, only believe. Faith and fear are opposite sides of the spectrum. When we cast off fear and put on faith, that faith enables us to face our trials, sometimes escape from our trials or go through them. But regardless of the sovereign outcome, it clings to Jesus. The great man of faith George Mueller said, God delights to increase the faith of His children. I say, and I say it deliberately, trials, difficulties, and sometimes defeat are the very food of faith. We should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us." I love what he said there. Trials, difficulties, and sometimes defeat are the very food of faith. They increase our faith. Now, if we had a choice, we would just avoid all trials, difficulties, and defeats. But God is far more interested in our growth than in our comfort. God had deliberately made this delay so as to strengthen this man's faith. He tests Jairus' faith with his call to put off fear and to only believe. Verse 37. And he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, John, and the brother of James. Now up to this point, Jairus has been leading the way to the home. Now Jairus and everybody else are following Jesus. And I also find it interesting that Jesus didn't feel the need to make this a public healing. He's going to make it a private healing. Not even all of the 12 were with him. Verse 38, when he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw tumult of those who wept and wailed loudly, When he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping. Now that is a phrase that has puzzled many, many people. Was the girl merely in a coma? Most commentators say no. When you compare the various passages, it's clear that she is dead. So why would they say that when Jesus clearly says the child is not dead? Well, let me read from Hendrickson and Kistemacher's commentary, because I think they explain it quite well. They say that Jesus cannot have meant that the child had merely fallen into a coma is clear from the following. First, Luke 8.53 declares that the people knew that she was dead. Second, Luke 8.55 states that at the command of Jesus, her spirit returned. It is clear, therefore, that there had been a separation between spirit and body. Third, in John 11, verse 11, we have something similar. Jesus tells his disciples, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But in verse 14, he affirms, Lazarus died. In both instances, the meaning is that death will not have the final say. Not death, but life is going to triumph in the end. Also, just as natural sleep is followed by awakening, so this child is going to become awake, that is, is going to live again. Now, the professional mourners, they've seen death a lot of times. They know she's dead. And verse 40 says, they ridiculed Him. The word for ridiculed is katagalao, and it means to laugh at with ridicule and scorn. Okay, the fact that they could instantly go from crying and mourning to laughing, scorn, and ridicule shows the hypocrisy of their mourning. And people can tell the difference between true empathy and worthless fake compassion. Theirs was a worthless mourning. So verse 40 says, Jesus put them out. The literal rendering of Hecbalo is he chucked them out, he drove them out, he forced them to leave. He does not want their ridicule killing the faith of the family. Jesus was not approving of these fake mourners, but when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him and entered where the child was lying. Then he took the child by the hand and said to her, Talitha Kumi, which is translated little girl, I say to you, arise. Immediately the girl arose and walked for she was 12 years of age and they were overcome with great amazement. But he commanded them strictly that no one should know it and said that something should be given her to eat. Now, when you compare this girl to the previous woman, you find a number of interesting parallels and contrasts. The woman was healed by her own faith. This girl was healed because of Jairus' faith, her father's faith. The woman is unknown and poor, whereas Jairus has social standing and apparently was wealthy. The woman approached Jesus shyly from behind. Jairus approached him boldly, face to face. Neither one had a human solution. Twelve years were involved with both. There was probably twelve years of joy in that family, Jairus, and there was twelve years of misery with this woman, the same twelve-year period. The woman was penniless, Jairus was apparently more wealthy, but both the rich and the poor could be just as subject to sickness and hopelessness. In both situations, Jesus was very sensitive to the needs of the sick person. With the woman, he was sensitive to her social and emotional pain. With the girl, he not only raised her from the dead, he healed her of her disease, he gave her sufficient strength to be able to stand and to be able to walk. But he was also sensitive to the fact that she had likely been without food for some time, being as deathly sick as she had been, so he asks them to feed her. And to me, this shows that God's miracles do not replace common sense human care. She needed food to strengthen her body. Now, obviously, Christ could have nourished her body miraculously so that she didn't need to eat any food, but God lets us do what we can do, right? He doesn't do everything for us. He doesn't put the fork, you know, up into our mouth. He expects us to do what we can. And this factors into the use of medicine as well. While we can always pray for miraculous healing, God also works through means, such as nutrition and medicine. But he tells them not to spread this story. Jesus was not about publicity and fame and fortune. He was not a megachurch preacher. You know, he was not using the sick to get himself wealthy or to buy himself a private jet. No, he was about them. They were not lost in a crowd. And so this story of two desperate women shows Christ's remarkable care for the hurting. And it also shows that He cares for all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. First five chapters of Mark show He's the Lord of all. He's the Savior of all kinds of people. He's the Lord of demons, storms, sickness, and death. He's the Savior of hated tax collectors like Matthew, of crazy demoniacs, of men and women, young and old. And I would urge you to cast off all reservations about whether Jesus cares for you. If you've had the metaphorical 12 years of misery, know that God put you through those 12 years because He loves you. He cares for you. Despite those things that God has providentially given to you, He invites you to come. Come to Him for healing, and may you come out the other end stronger in your faith as this woman and as this little girl did. Amen. Father, I thank you for your Word, and I thank you that your Word applies in our lives, and I pray that you would teach us more and more how to, by faith, receive from your throne the things that you have ordained for us. You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and so frequently we lack the faith to receive what we need for our day-to-day living. And so I pray that you would teach us to be like this woman, like Jairus, to have faith that we can indeed ask and receive with our cups being full and overflowing. And I pray for those overflowing cups in each one here. In Jesus' name, amen.