Mark, chapter 5, verses 21 -34, comments, Jairus pleads with Jesus

 

Mark 5:21 ¶  And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. 22  And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23  And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. 24  And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. 25  And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26  And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27  When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28  For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29  And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30  And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31  And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32  And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33  But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34  And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Let’s look first at; 21 ¶ And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. 22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.

We’re going to have two examples, two types, of the Christian who gets saved in these gospel passages. This man believes in faith that if Jesus will just touch his sick daughter she will be healed. Now, we must remember that Jesus is physically present on this earth in a human body, which He has not been in that regard since His ascension. His Spirit resides in millions of human bodies today but He in His ministry of physical care for the Jewish people is not in evidence. The typology here is to our salvation, not physical healing. God can heal anyone He chooses to without anyone laying hands on them but a doctor or perhaps no one at all, but through prayer and humility.

We do not live in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry nor do we live in the age of the Apostles. But, thinking of Jesus’ physical healing of the Jewish people and contrasting it with our salvation we can make several appropriate points. Jairus had faith that Jesus was enough. He, a man of responsibility and authority, believed that Jesus alone could make his daughter well. He is an example of a parent today who prays mightily and persistently for his child to be saved.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Now, with regard to the physical body, we live in a fallen world in fallen bodies, dying every moment, slowly aging or deteriorating from disease. We await the adoption, the redemption of the body but it is not here yet.

Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

There are some Christian groups who insist that if you just have enough faith you can be healed of any deadly disease. This is also humanism, the have faith in your faith crowd. They will proceed to the gospels written under the Law to Jews with a physical Jesus healing physical sicknesses in a foreshadowing of healing the spirit. Or they will thumb through Acts looking for the signs of the Apostles who are all gone now, and maybe wander on over to the book of James speaking doctrinally and anoint dying people with oil in a desperate hope that they will be healed. When their demands on God are not met because what they want is not Biblical, not of God, their faith is destroyed. There is no promise in the current church age that you will automatically be healed of a physical sickness just because you demand it.

Christians are funny folks. A young man who seeks a mate in bars and nightclubs will say, “well, I guess it’s not God’s will that I meet a nice girl.” God isn’t even in his search for a suitable partner but suddenly its God’s will that he be single. A person will clean up their act temporarily assuming that the sickness a loved one faces is a punishment for the lifestyle of someone else, something not even mentioned in the Bible. When their “reform” fails to heal the loved one they revert to their former self but in a magnified wickedness because they are now mad at God for not doing something He didn’t promise to do.

In like manner you might have a loved one who is enchained by the bondage of wicked pornography, destroying his or her family and self-worth. You might have a loved one wrapped in the arms of the mistress, alcohol. We shudder to think that like Israel who had gone to Assyria rather than God for help, then gave up their material worth to Assyria to obtain that help and then lost their own bodies and nation to Assyria, our loved ones have looked to an evil for comfort, something other than God, not of God, an evil which will take everything they have and then take them as well. We pray for deliverance to Christ. We plead with Jesus for help. We believe that Jesus is enough. We often don’t consider the willfulness of the person for whom we are praying in trying to resist God’s will.

Now, let’s look at Jairus’ daughter. She is helpless. She can’t heal herself. She is unable to resist healing or to resist death. Jairus himself is helpless. There is nothing he can do to save his daughter. He can only seek Jesus. That is all we can do, knowing that Jesus alone is sufficient to save our child. All his daughter can do is to receive the healing that Christ alone can give. He comes to fall at Jesus’ feet, which is the physical act of worship.

Psalm 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. (see also Revelation 3:9; 19:10; & 22:8.)

Jairus acknowledged that only Christ could save his daughter. The only hope for your loved one is Christ. Pray that it be His will to overcome any resistance to that salvation because it is God’s will that every person be saved.

Matthew 18:14 Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Typologies always break down eventually. The comparison between Jairus and his daughter and you and your child’s salvation breaks down when it is realized that Jairus’ daughter is helpless and couldn’t resist being healed any more than she could resist dying. Your child can simply set his or her face against God and refuse to be healed spiritually, in spite of the protestations of the Calvinists to the contrary. Pray that Christ will break their will not to be saved or delivered from their chosen bondage. Pray fervently and without ceasing. Trust me, He hears you.