An Urgent Issue

Mark 5:21-22, 25-29, 3

There are two things going on here. Jesus is going to the other side of the lake under the Father's authority with a divine mission. In the going from here to there, your purpose can be found. God has the capacity to bring to you your mission and divine assignment too while you are going about your daily business as in Luke 2:49. Immediately on arriving to the other side, Jesus transitioned from travel to ministry. Here he switches to handling people in divine ministry. How you handle this switch can determine your blessing. If Jesus had not been ready or had handled these different people wrongly, the results would have been catastrophic. How many times though do we mess up things that it takes God to fix. 2 Timothy 2:4 says be ready even when it is not convenient because you never know how God can have need of you. Matthew 21:2-3 tells the story of a donkey and a colt resting together for whom the Lord sent to fulfill his divine purposes. If God can use anything from the dumb animals to the demonic in the first half of the chapter to accomplish his will, it will always prevail. All he needs is a ready vessel, a carrier of his majesty and glory if you will. If you have been sent after the Father had need of you, he will empower you to do the task assigned.

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.

A large crowd gathered to meet Jesus before he had even gotten there. Who told them about his coming? He went from an area of faithlessness to one full of faith. Mighty works were done here because of their seeking and believing in Matthew 13:58. How many of you know that when you seek and believe God, things happen. He had not even gotten there, and they were already believing that he would come because there were needs to be filled. These needs were not just physical but rather spiritual. It is not that he does not care about the physical as in Mark 4:38; the spiritual condition is just more important than the physical. He does not dismiss their physical needs, however. The synagogue ruler, Jairus, required his presence to heal his very ill little girl as seen in the following verses. Jesus was on his way to attend to Jairus's physical and spiritual needs when he was suddenly interrupted. He was attending from one task to the other.

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.

Notice Jesus never strayed from his original assignment until it had been completed despite the interruption. He did not brush off either the religious ruler or the woman with the issue. Had he done either, the method of delivery would have negated his divine assignment. He is attending to an earthly ruler who believes in him yet is interrupted by a woman of no position who did not want to bother him yet wanted his healing. It is likely she had been seeking him for quite a long time having no other source of earthly help from the priests to the doctors. The woman of no position was as important to him as the ruler because of his power. Had he brushed her off or pretended this miracle had not happened, his name would have been discredited along with his assignment and divinity. Note the position of the ruler who called him. Jesus is not like earthly people who have misplaced priorities.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

The woman healed herself with her faith and his power. Notice the situation; here was a spiritual leader whose position was offering God's help to the woman with the issue. An urgent issue indicated the need for pressing care. Yet she had suffered under the doctor's care for twelve years without healing. Where was her spiritual care? Where was her community care? There was a large crowd of witnesses gathered. Jairus's people from the synagogue were laughing knowing he had been delayed and why. Jairus's daughter was not more important than the woman with the issue. Look how it is when the situation is in your own house as opposed to someone else's.

He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was.

He said Jairus's daughter was not dead but sleeping. This is a matter of perspective. Notice his humor at a negative situation. "Why all this commotion and wailing, the child is not dead but asleep." He "put them all out." I expect he did. I would be highly offended too if I was attending my spiritual leader's death of his beloved child that I cared about because of her connection to him; then some funny guy showed up late after being stopped by a hussy on the street who is now telling jokes. The divinity of God can lead to socially upsetting situations. See the people's misplaced focus. This is why Jesus would not let anyone else in to witness the miracle. It was a matter of privacy rather than publicity. God's purpose was not stopped by man's delays. Seeing how he handles people is important to help us know how to handle the same people and situations. The same power was for both; they both had the same healing whether it was a long sickness or a short one. The healing was the same; the timing of both was delayed. You see, God will put some people out that his power might come. He gave the parents strict orders not to tell anyone. He gave the same sentence to Jairus's daughter that had been of the woman with no position. In doing this, he gave the woman of no position her elevation. Imagine one person not being able to tell anyone what God had done for you yet another being able to tell everyone. This is the God of the turnaround. He heals the body as well as the psychosocial issues. There is justice delivered. Had the woman with the issue been pushed aside according to Levitical law of man? Had man prevented her from coming to God's house for healing which should have been hers? God's ways are not our own and he is always just according to Isaiah 55:9. At the command of God, the cross destroys the social sentences as well as the justice of man administered by Satan.