Theological Commentary: Click Here
Mark 5 gives
us three terrific healing stories. In
each of these stories, we get to see real life mixing with the divine. This chapter gives us a great glimpse at how a
fallen and broken world interacts with a perfectly divine being.
In the first
story, we have a man with an incredible amount of demons healed of the
demons. The man responds favorably, going
about and teaching people about how Jesus has saved him. The world of the Decapolis, the region where
the healing occurred, can’t handle what happened. They ask Jesus to leave. They don’t want Him interfering with their
lives. He’s already shown he can change
the life of a man nobody else could control.
Who can say what Jesus would do to their lives if they give Him a chance? Rather than risk it, they send Him away.
In the next
story, we meet a woman who is also in need of healing. She simply reaches out to touch Jesus. She has such faith in Jesus that she merely
knows that contact with Him will change her reality. Jesus turns and demands to know who had such
faith. Jesus’ disciples show their humanity
and complain that such a question is unreasonable given the density of the
crowd. Jesus, however, knows that the
disciples are missing the greater point.
It’s impossible to know all of the people who bumped Jesus, but it is
not impossible to know the one person who touched Jesus with
intentionality. It’s not impossible to
know the one person who did exactly that for which Jesus is looking. He wants to know who has a faith that will go
deeper and try to understand what He is doing and teaching.
In the last
story, we meet a young girl who dies.
The world around her moves to mourn her death. When Jesus comes along, they laugh at His
declaration that she isn’t dead. They don’t understand; they aren’t even
willing to understand. Jesus puts them
out of the house and doesn’t even give them the opportunity to see Him at
work. The little girl is saved, and
Jesus’ disciple get to see an incredible moment of divine work.
Each of
these stories gives us an example of faith at work. In each story we see a person who goes deeper
with Jesus. In each story we also see a
greater world that misses the picture.
This is the reality in which Jesus lives. Jesus doesn’t stop doing ministry and trying
to reach out to the world simply because ministry takes place in a world that constantly
misses the point.
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