Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Respond to Jesus | Mark | Mark 5.21-43

Starting point is 00:00:05 Welcome to Tim Minna Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. My name is Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Jesus doesn't care about your resume. He isn't impressed with your position or your power or your prestige or your possessions. Jesus desires your faith. We see this play out in the second half of Mark Chapter 5. There's a fascinating combination of two stories that are sandwiched together.

Starting point is 00:00:34 One story is literally inside the other story. And that happens often enough in Mark's Gospel that it has a very technical name. It's known as the Markin sandwich. No joke. That's what it's known as. The Markin sandwich. The story that starts and finishes is about Gyrus, whose 12-year-old daughter is incredibly ill and on the brink of death. If you think of the sandwich metaphor, well, this story about Gyrus, it's the bread. second story, or the inside of the sandwich, is about an old woman who has a menstrual hemorrhage. She's had it for 12 years. The young 12-year-old girl and the old woman with the menstrual hemorrhage, they're both desperate for help. Jairus was the ruler of a synagogue, and that means that he had a respected position in the community. His position gave him general oversight of the synagogue, including building maintenance and maintaining the orthodoxy of faith. Jiris is a man of stature, but his daughter's illness has left him desperate. He's so desperate that he comes to Jesus and falls at his feet and begs him to come to his

Starting point is 00:01:47 house and heal his daughter. He loves her so much. As Jesus tries to leave with Jairus, the crowd presses around him and the older woman with bleeding, Well, she reaches out, hoping to touch Jesus and be healed. Like Jiris's daughter, this woman is in desperate condition. We're told that she's experienced bleeding for 12 years. She spent all her money going to doctors, but they haven't helped at all. In fact, they've only increased her suffering, and now her condition is worse than it's ever been.

Starting point is 00:02:22 As soon as she touches Jesus, this woman is healed. All the bleeding stops. Jesus wants to know who touched him, and the disciples think it's an utterly ridiculous question given the crowd of people they're walking through. But eventually the woman comes forward, falls at Jesus' feet, and tells him the whole story. Jesus tells her that her faith, which is demonstrated by taking action on what she knows about Jesus, well, her faith has healed her. While all this is going on, can you imagine what Jairus is thinking?

Starting point is 00:02:52 He's waiting on Jesus to come to his house and heal his daughter. daughter. I'm sure he's not happy that this woman has delayed Jesus. And then wouldn't you know it? While Jesus is finishing the conversation with the woman, Jiris is informed that his daughter has died. There's no reason to keep bothering Jesus. Jesus over here is what they're telling Jiris and says to him, don't be afraid. Just believe. Faith is always the right response to Jesus. When Jesus gets to Jiris's house, he finds mourners outside. They're crying. and wailing loudly. These were no doubt professionals that Jairus' family had hired for this very purpose. Even poor people were expected to hire flute players and a wailing woman upon someone's death,

Starting point is 00:03:39 and Jiris wasn't poor, so no telling how many mourners had been hired. When Jesus said the little girl wasn't dead but only sleeping, these professional mourners stopped their wailing long enough to laugh at Jesus. These professional mourners, they represent the cynics of every age who doubt that God works in our life. They doubt that God works in our world. Jesus brings this little girl back to life. She gets up, she walks around, and Jesus insists that someone give her something to eat. Now, why does Mark sandwich these two stories together, the story about Jairus and the story about the old woman? What can we learn from them?

Starting point is 00:04:21 Jairus and the old woman, they really only have one thing in common. Both are in a desperate situation, and they have no hope apart from Jesus. Otherwise, their stories are very different. Jairus has a name and a position. As ruler of the synagogue, he has enough clout to summon Jesus to his house. The woman doesn't have any of these. We don't know her name. She has no position. She's only known by her shame. She has a menstrual hemorrhage. She approaches Jesus from behind. Jiris approaches Jesus face to face. Jiris, in other words, is a person of status and privilege. But none of that matters to Jesus.

Starting point is 00:05:00 The woman has faith in Jesus, and in this sense, she becomes Jiris' teacher. This nameless woman pushes through the crowd to reach Jesus, and she experiences healing. Jesus tells her that it's faith that's healed her, and then he looks at Jiris and calls him to believe. What kind of faith must Gyrus have? Well, the kind of persevering cling to Jesus' faith that this woman had. Jesus isn't impressed with the things we are. And 1 Samuel it says that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And that should give hope to ordinary people like you and I. We don't have much status in the world. We don't have much position. We're not important. We're not employed. important people, but none of that matters to God. What matters to God is that we have faith in him. Now, our culture, it teaches us to focus on what separates us. It tells us to separate ourselves

Starting point is 00:06:04 by gender or race or socioeconomic status or education or geography or political party. But what Jesus does is he says that what we have in common is far more important than what separates. us. And what we have in common is this. If we have eyes to see, we should all see that we are in desperate need and that Jesus is our only hope. Doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman or what race you are, if you're rich or poor, if you're educated or uneducated. It doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat or a libertarian or a progressive or someone who's given up on politics. None of that matters, not to Jesus. What really matters at the core of the issue is do we see our need like this woman, like Jiris did,

Starting point is 00:06:55 and do we come to him in faith? Jesus always responds to faith. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Respond to Jesus | Mark | Mark 5.21-43

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.