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Jairus' Daughter and the Woman who touched Jesus' Cloak

Mark 5:21-43

Good News Translation (GNT)

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21  Jesus went back across to the other side of
   the lake. There at the lakeside a large crowd
   gathered around him.
22  Jairus, an official of the local synagogue,
   arrived, and when he saw Jesus, he threw
   himself down at his feet
23  and begged him earnestly, "My little daughter
   is very sick. Please come and place your
   hands on her, so that she will get well and
   live!"
24  Then Jesus started off with him. So many
   people were going along with Jesus that
   they were crowding him from every side.
25  There was a woman who had suffered terribly
   from severe bleeding for twelve years,
26  even though she had been treated by many
   doctors. She had spent all her money, but
   instead of getting better she got worse all the
   time.
27  She had heard about Jesus, so she came in
   the crowd behind him,
28  saying to herself, "If I just touch his clothes,
   I will get well."
29  She touched his cloak, and her bleeding
   stopped at once; and she had the feeling
   inside herself that she was healed of her
   trouble.
30  At once Jesus knew that power had gone
   out of him, so he turned around in the crowd
   and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
31  His disciples answered, "You see how the
   people are crowding you; why do you ask who
   touched you?"
32  But Jesus kept looking around to see who had
   done it.
33  The woman realized what had happened to
   her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at
   his feet, and told him the whole truth.
34  Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith has
   made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of
   your trouble."
35  While Jesus was saying this, some
   messengers came from Jairus' house and told
   him, "Your daughter has died. Why bother the
   Teacher any longer?"
36  Jesus paid no attention to (a) what they said,
   but told him, "Don't be afraid, only believe."
37  Then he did not let anyone else go on
   with him except Peter and James and his
   brother John.
38  They arrived at Jairus' house, where Jesus
   saw the confusion and heard all the loud
   crying and wailing.
39  He went in and said to them, "Why all this
   confusion? Why are you crying?
   The child is not dead-she is only sleeping!"
40  They started making fun of him, so he put
   them all out, took the child's father and mother
   and his three disciples, and went into the
   room where the child was lying.
41  He took her by the hand and said to her,
   "Talitha, koum," which means, "Little girl, I tell
   you to get up!"
42  She got up at once and started walking
   around. (She was twelve years old.)
   When this happened, they were completely
   amazed.
43  But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell
   anyone, and he said, "Give her something to
   eat."

   Footnotes
   Mark 5:36 paid no attention to;
   or
   overheard.

*************************

Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

A Dead Girl and a Sick Woman

     Mark Chapter 5:21-43

After healing the demon-possessed man, Jesus left that place as the villagers had asked, and crossed back over the lake. Jesus did not stay in a place where He was not welcome.

A synagogue ruler, that is, a Jewish elder, named Jairus came to Jesus and asked Him to come at once to heal his daughter. "My little daughter is dying," he said.

According to Matthew 9:18, Jairus tells Jesus, "My daughter has just died." In Jairus' mind, she was as good as dead. Only Jesus could give her life again.

On the way to Jairus' house, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years followed Jesus in the crowd. Any woman with such a disease was considered unclean by the Jews.
Now, after touching Jesus' clothes, she was completely healed.

The woman was healed not by the contact with Jesus' clothes, as if by magic; rather, she was healed by Jesus' power working through her faith.
Many people crowd around Jesus but receive no blessing or benefit.
Only those who accept Jesus as Lord and put their faith in Him in a personal way can be healed and saved.

The disciples were amazed when Jesus asked who had touched Him.
But Jesus kept looking for the person who had touched Him. He wanted the woman to come forward, so that she and others would understand that it was by His power and her faith in Him that she had been cured.

Faith alone, without Jesus, is blind faith. On the other hand, without our faith Jesus cannot help us.
Both Jesus' power and our faith working together are necessary for us to be healed and saved.

The woman with the bleeding had caused a delay.
In the meantime, Jairus' daughter had died.
But Jesus said to Jairus: "... just believe. You came to me in faith; don't stop believing now. Continue to believe."

At Jairus' house there was a great commotion going on. Just as singers are hired for a wedding, so in Jesus' time mourners were hired when someone in the family died or was about to die.

A rich man like Jairus could afford to hire many mourners. These mourners had probably been called before Jairus had gone to find Jesus.
But Jesus said to them, "The child is not dead but asleep".

Luke, in his account of this event, says that her spirit returned; this means that she had been dead.

But the mourners laughed when Jesus said that the girl was not dead. They were false mourners - one moment crying, the next moment laughing.
They didn't want the child to live; if she lived there would be no more need for mourners. They would be out of a job. They would get no more pay.

After the mourners had been put out, Jesus raised the girl to life.
Jesus had power over demons, over sickness, even over the wind.
Now we see that He had power also over death. For believers, death is like sleep
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

Peter surely learned from watching Jesus at this time. Later he, too, raised a woman, Tabitha, from the dead.

Jesus gave strict orders not to let anyone know about His raising this girl from the dead.
He did not want to become famous as a miracle worker, or else people wouldn't concentrate on His preaching.
His main purpose was to teach people about the kingdom of God and to show them the way of salvation.

There was another reason why Jesus did not want news of this miracle to spread everywhere.
If it did, people would begin to think He was the Messiah, and would try to make Him their king.

But He had not come to be an earthly king;
He had come to suffer and die. His kingdom was a spiritual kingdom.

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