Mark 5:21-43

Jesus Demonstrates His Power and Authority Over Life and Death (5:21-43).

Having demonstrated His power over nature, and then over the world of evil spirits, Jesus will now demonstrate His power over life and death by the raising of Jairus' daughter. That she was truly dead is quite clear, and she was said to be twelve years old. In conjunction with the fact that the woman with permanent bleeding had suffered it for twelve years the number is probably significant. Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel. They were both therefore pictures of Israel in its need.

Quite apart from the certainty of all the people involved, including the family, all of whom knew that she was dead, if Jesus had known that she was still alive He would not have taken His three favoured disciples in with Him in secret, for He only called on them in this way when something very special was involved (e.g. His transfiguration and His prayer in Gethesemane). The fact that He said that she was only sleeping is not significant, for Jesus used the same expression of Lazarus before bluntly stating that he was dead (compare John 11:11). But although she was dead, when He left her she was no longer dead. She was gloriously alive.

However, the account does not stand on its own but is interwoven with another occurrence, the healing of the unclean woman. She too was dying, and she had been dying for twelve years. Indeed we could have headed this section Two Desperate People At The End of Twelve Years. Both were connected with the number twelve, the number of Israel. The daughter had lived from conception for twelve years and was now dying. The woman had had a blood flow for twelve years and she was cut off from the Temple and the people by uncleanness. Both were in their own way representative of the people of God, dying in sin and unclean before God.

But in order to confirm the lesson lying behind this we need to go to a passage in Ezekiel 16. There Jerusalem was likened to a baby, cast out at birth covered in the blood flow of its mother, whom God had commanded ‘in her blood' to live (Mark 5:6). He then betrothed her to Himself, but she remained naked (it is not a natural picture). And when she came to an age for love (i.e. about twelve years of age) He wiped the blood from her (Mark 5:9). So either the idea is that for twelve years she had been covered in vaginal blood, or it is that she was once again covered in blood because of her menstruation, seen as connecting back to her first condition. And now she was His to be restored to full glory. It would seem that this is the lesson behind both the child whom God will make to live, and the woman with a flow of blood for twelve years who will be made clean. The two together, alongside Ezekiel 16, reveal that Jesus (the Bridegroom - Mark 2:19) has come to make clean and give life to His people so as to betroth them to Himself.

The fact that the two stories are intertwined in all the Synoptics demonstrates that it was so from the beginning because the two incidents did happen together, but Mark concentrates first on one and then on the other. This comes out in the analysis.

Analysis of 5:21-34.

a And when Jesus had crossed over again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd was gathered to Him, and He was by the sea, and there comes one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing Him he falls at His feet, and pleads with Him, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. I beg you that you will come and lay your hands on her that she may be made whole and live” (Mark 5:21).

b And He went with him, and a great crowd followed Him, and they pressed in on Him (Mark 5:24).

c And a woman who had had emissions of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things under many doctors, and had spent all that she had, and was not any better but rather grew worse, having heard things about Jesus, came in the crowd behind and touched His clothing, for she said, “If I touch but His clothing I will be made whole” (Mark 5:25).

d And immediately the gushing of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her curse (Mark 5:29).

c And Jesus, immediately perceiving in Himself that power had left Him, turned Himself about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” '

b And His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing in on you. Do you ask, ‘who touched me?' ” (Mark 5:31).

a And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. And the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him all the truth, and He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you whole. Go in peace and be whole from your curse” (Mark 5:32).

Note that in ‘a' Jairus falls at Jesus' feet, pleads on behalf of his daughter so that she might be made whole, and in the parallel the woman falls at His feet, is called ‘daughter', and is made whole. In ‘b' the crowds press in on Him and in the parallel it is pointed out to Him that the crowds press in on Him. In ‘c' the woman touches Him, and in the parallel He asks, ‘Who touched me?' Centrally in ‘d' she is fully restored.