Mark spends a good deal of time describing Jesus healing people. He introduces you to two in Mark 5:21–43. Through their interaction with Jesus, Mark shows you something about the Savior.
Come in faith. Trust Jesus to meet your deepest needs. Appreciate the trust Jairus had that Jesus could heal his daughter. Mark paints a picture of a father who dearly loves his daughter. Notice the diminutive Jairus uses as he asks Jesus to come, heal her. He believes that if Jesus lays his hands on her, he will heal her, verse 23. Mark has let you know of increasing opposition — to the point of seeking the death of Jesus, on the part of the leaders of Israel. He is a ruler of the synagogue, a man who is careful to keep himself ceremonially clean to carry out his responsibilities there. Yet this man is willing to come and seek the help of Jesus. The body language of Jairus said far more in his culture than we might realize. As a synagogue ruler, he was a man of some (at least local) importance. He might be expected to send representatives to Jesus, but he comes himself, and throws himself at Jesus’ feet — a gesture of deep humiliation. Mark has just described “Legion” in a similar posture at the beginning of the chapter. Mark is telling you that Jesus is one whom you can trust, one before whom you can and should bow. He is ultimately trustworthy. Jairus makes his request, and the curious crowd presses around to see Jesus perform another miracle in front of them.
“The new life in Christ, just like all natural life, must be nourished and strengthened. This is possible only in communion with Christ in the Holy Spirit and through the word of Scripture. Enlightened by the Spirit, believers gain a new knowledge of faith. The gospel is the food of faith and must be known to be nourishment. Salvation that is not known and enjoyed is no salvation. God saves by causing himself to be known and enjoyed in Christ.
Biblically speaking, faith is trust-filled surrender to God and his word of promise. In the New Testament, this trust involves acceptance of the apostolic witness concerning Christ and personal trust in Christ as Savior and risen, exalted Lord.”
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4, p. 96
Believe, even when hope seems impossible. Here is a woman in the crowd. Mark once again nests one story inside another, see Mark 3:22–29 inside of Mark 3:20–21 & 31–34. We are never told her name. Jairus is desperate for healing for his daughter. She is desperately hopeful that Jesus can heal her of her illness, the bleeding from which she has suffered for 12 years. Jairus was respectable, prominent, and ceremonially clean, but her affliction left her ceremonially impure. She may have once been relatively well off, given the statement that she had spent all that she had seeking healing. Luke’s Gospel doesn’t mention that detail, or her suffering much at the hands of doctors. Understandably, she is reluctant to approach Jesus in public as Jairus had. She has a deep conviction that Jesus has power to heal. Even if she just touches the hem of his garment, she will be healed. And the pressing crowd gives her the opportunity to do so unnoticed — or so she thinks for the moment. Against the background of the Gerasenes, who had asked Jesus to leave, Mark shows you two very different people who display a deep trust in Jesus.
You don’t trust in Jesus in vain. Go in peace. Go with the assurance that Jesus meets your needs. Stay with the story of the woman. Jesus doesn’t allow her to slip away anonymously healed. In the middle of a curious crowd pressing in, he asks, “Who touched me?” Perhaps he doesn’t want the woman to think that his healing is something automatic, mechanical, or semi-magical. We need to remind ourselves of the same lesson as we come to the Lord’s Table or receive baptism. Although there is deep mystery involved, the sacraments are not something magical or mechanical. Knowing that she has been healed, and knowing that Jesus knows, she steps forward, and tells “everything.” Jesus addresses her tenderly: “My daughter.” He sends her away in peace. Her faith has healed her. Faith is not something mechanical, but is simply entrusting yourself to someone. Jesus does not turn away those who trust him.
“In this personal encounter Christ wants to truly set life free, to redeem it from sin and death so that it may serve God in freedom. Because He was going to make atonement for guilt and had therefore received power over all things, He held the lives of men in his hand.”
S. G. De Graaf, Promise and Deliverance, Vol. 3, p. 225
Go with the knowledge that Jesus rolls back the curse of death. You can imagine the frustration of Jairus while Jesus listens to this woman “tell everything.” Jesus is sovereign over death itself. The conclusion of his interaction with Jairus and Jairus’ daughter is the outer part of the two-part story. But it is also the concluding incident in the series of triumphant acts of the Savior. Seemingly, Jesus is too late, verse 35. But Jesus comforts Jairus, and summons him to believe, to continue to trust Jesus the Savior, verse 36. Jesus tells the mourners that the girl is asleep — which they consider laughable. But, for those who trust in Jesus, death is sleep for the part of us which remains here on earth for that period of unnatural separation, see 1 Thessalonians 4:14 and 1 Corinthians 15:20. (It is not “soul sleep” as Jesus words to the dying thief indicate, Luke 23:43.) In this case it is a very brief sleep. The Savior takes the girl by the hand, addresses her tenderly, and death works backwards! Re-read Genesis 3 about the wages of sin. Skim the genealogy of Genesis 5, and let the force of the repetition sink in, “and he died.” Even in the Old Testament there were occasional glimpses of the life-giving hope of the One who would crush the serpent’s head, as in Isaiah 25. But now, with the Savior on earth we have an anticipation of the power that would flow, not from his robe, but from the Savior himself as the risen Lord, more properly from the ascended Lord. Mark will end his Gospel with a brief account of the resurrection. Here in Mark 5 is the assurance that the power of the risen Lord is something that touches and transforms the lives of those who trust him. Those who trust in Jesus have the certain hope that at death they will be immediately with the Lord. They also have the confidence of the new heavens and earth, with a rich banquet celebrated in the presence of their Lord. The Lord’s Supper is an anticipation of that!
The message of Mark 5 is profoundly simple. Jesus is Lord over, not just the sickness that is one effect of the curse on sin, but over even the heart of that curse, death itself. The words of Jesus to Jairus are ultimately addressed to you: “Don’t be afraid; just believe!”