When do you go to Jesus with your problems, concerns, heartaches, and conflicts? In today’s longer section of Mark, two individuals make a desperate decision. The passage for today is Mark 5:21-43. I won’t reprint it here because of space, so please read it in your Bible.
Jairus is a synagogue ruler in the local town, very possibly Capernaum. The Jewish synagogue system was much like our churches. It was a local place where folks gathered to pray, worship, and read the scriptures. According to commentaries, his responsibilities would be similar to a lead pastor. But his larger concern when we meet him is his daughter, who is sick and dying.
Imagine the conflict Jairus went through. How would it look for the local synagogue leader to seek help from an itinerant preacher who didn’t always follow religious expectations? And yet word of Jesus’ miracles must have reached Jairus. He undoubtedly followed the normal actions, such as praying and asking others to pray. Perhaps he sought medical help. But nothing worked. In a moment of desperation, he overcame his concerns about the synagogue, sought Jesus, pushed through the crowd, and fell at Jesus’ feet to plead for his daughter. “My little daughter is dying. Come and lay your hands on her so that she can get well and live.” (Mark 5:23, CSB) Jesus agreed.
As Jesus and Jairus moved towards the leader’s home, the crowd continued to push in around them. As they are going, we meet the second person who made a desperate decision. The woman is unnamed in scripture. We know she was an outcast because of her constant hemorrhaging, like a menstrual period that hadn’t stopped for twelve long years. According to the Jewish law, she was unclean and made others ritually unclean if they touched her or she touched them. Being unclean meant that you couldn’t worship with others in the synagogue or the Temple.
Perhaps afraid of rejection or fearful of the crowd’s reaction or embarrassment over her condition, she chose a stealthy path. “For she said, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I’ll be made well.” (Mark 5:28, CSB) We are told in the other accounts that her goal was the fringe of Jesus’ outer garment. More specifically, one of the four tassels at the bottom edges of the garment. Those tassels were both strategic and symbolic. They were the point of the garment farthest away from Jesus’ person.
The tassels were a symbolic reminder to follow the commands. “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout their generations they are to make tassels for the corners of their garments, and put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the Lord’s commands and obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.” (Numbers 15:38–39, CSB)
The woman pushed through the crowd towards Jesus. At some point, she fell to her knees, reached out, touched one of the tassels, and was instantly healed. Jesus, knowing that something had happened, stopped and asked, “Who touched me?” Many people in the crowd had jostled up against Jesus. “The woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.” (Mark 5:33–34, CSB)
In our next article, we will consider what happened with Jairus. Right now, I want to focus on the decision both of them had to make to go to Jesus. That decision was a struggle for both of them. There were many risks in choosing to go: social rejection, loss of employment and status, failure, hopelessness, loss of faith. What is keeping you from going to Jesus? We do not need to wait until desperation gives us no other choice. Give up the pride, go to Jesus, fall at His feet, and open your heart to Him.
- Mark – Go To Jesus - June 16, 2025
- Mark: An Unclean Legion - June 11, 2025
- Mark – Be Still - June 9, 2025
