seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Mark 5:1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” 13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. 17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” 20 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis[b] how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”
36 Overhearing[c] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” 40 But they laughed at him.
After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.
a. Mark 5:1 Some manuscripts Gadarenes; other manuscripts Gergesenes
b. Mark 5:20 That is, the Ten Cities
c. Mark 5:36 Or Ignoring
I'm going to start with bible-studys.org.
“No man could bind him”: Multiple negatives are used in the Greek text to emphasize the man’s tremendous strength.
This country of the Gadarenes had a place of caves where they put those who were mentally deranged. This insane man was living in the caves used as entombment for the dead. This man was obviously possessed of an evil spirit so ferocious that it was impossible to chain him.
It appears that like most insane people, this man was not only harmful to others, but to himself as well. This man's malady, as many insane people of our day, was a spiritual problem. Sometime during his life unclean spirits had entered into him, and now, they were in total control of him.
This man really had no life. Being possessed of these evil spirits caused him to be totally alienated from society.
“Crying … cutting himself with stones”: “Crying” describes a continual unearthly scream uttered with intense emotion. The “stones” likely were rocks made of flint with sharp, jagged edges.
Probably this demoniac man had been watching the boat as it came across the water. The man ran to Jesus and fell down and worshipped Him. Even the demons bow at Jesus' feet. All are subject to Him. This voice that came from the man was the voice of these unclean spirits. They were demons (fallen angels).
They were fully aware that Jesus has power over them. You see again that they know who Jesus is. They do not want to be put in the lake of fire, which they know is their final home.
This fear that came upon these men was because the power of God had come among them, and they did not know what to do. Here, they saw the man who just an hour earlier was insane, and he was totally restored to his sanity and was worshipping Jesus. They had never seen anything like this before. People fear what they do not understand.
A synagogue ruler was a layman who helped oversee and plan the synagogue services, and also saw to the care of the building. Jairus may have had previous contact with Jesus, who attended synagogue regularly.
We see here, one of the elders of the church came to Jesus. "Jairus" means "he will illuminate". This was a very difficult thing for someone from the Jewish synagogue to do. He humbled himself to Jesus to save his daughter's life. The same account in Matthew says she was even now dead. The account in Luke said she lay dying.
At any rate, her condition was hopeless unless Jesus intervened. The love of this parent overcame all the fear of his friends' laughter. Jairus had seen the miracles in the synagogue and he knew that just one touch from the hand of Jesus did miracles. He wanted his daughter to live and he had come to Jesus as a last resort.
“Thronged” stresses that people were physically being pushed up against Jesus.
We see here, that the instant Jesus stepped out into the street, the people surrounded Him. The word had traveled far and wide that Jesus was healing and doing all of these miracles.
“Suffered many things … many physicians”: In New Testament times, it was a common practice in difficult medical cases for people to consult many different doctors and receive a variety of treatments.
The supposed cures were often conflicting, abusive and many times made the ailment worse, not better. Luke the physician (in Luke 8:43), suggested the woman was not helped because her condition was incurable.
This same account of this woman's illness in Luke said that she had spent all of her money trying to find a cure for this hemorrhaging. This had been going on twelve years and she had given up on help from the physicians. Her only hope was Jesus.
The instant she touched Him, she was healed. She was expecting healing and she received it when it came.
Jesus is immediately aware that God has exercised His power “(virtue),” through Jesus. The woman’s faith has been rewarded.
Jesus knew that healing virtue had gone out of Him. He asked who had received healing. You know there were masses around Him who wanted to be healed. We might ask ourselves why God chose her to heal. It was because of her great faith. Faith pleases God. Jesus felt the healing power of God surge out of Him.
This is so interesting, because so many touched Jesus physically; they were pressed all around Him. Only one touched into His healing power. Her touch was a touch of faith, knowing within herself that one touch would make her whole. Healing is a spiritual gift, but many times it comes with a physical touch of the hand. This touch was the act of faith that it took to activate the miracle.
The disciples express impatience or annoyance, perhaps resenting Jesus’ delay at a critical time for Jairus’ daughter.
We see that Jesus wanted her to publicly proclaim this miracle. She felt as if maybe Jesus would not have bothered with her if she had asked, and she had received this blessing kind of without permission. She was not aware that Jesus would heal or save whosoever will.
In the midst of Jesus' ministering to the woman with the issue of blood, we see the men come to tell Jesus that Jarius' daughter was dead. There must be an impossibility before there can be a miracle. Here they tell Jarius, don't bother Jesus any further, your daughter is dead.
The mourning had already begun. Jesus saw all of this crying and commotion in the house.
The girl was in fact dead. But Jesus knows her death will be reversed.
We learned, in another account, that this girl was about 12 years old. Jesus was actually telling these people that breathing life into this child again was nothing for Him. He is life.
“Laughed him to scorn”: This could more literally be translated, “laughing at him” or “were laughing in His face.” They understood Jesus’ words literally and thought they were absurd, so “laughing” most likely refers to repeated bursts of laughter aimed at humiliating the Lord.
This reaction, although shallow and irreverent, indicates the people were convinced of the irreversible nature of the girl’s death and underscores the reality of the miracle Jesus was about to do.
“Put them all out”: This was an emphatic, forceful expulsion which showed Christ’s authority and was done because the disbelieving mourners had disqualified themselves from witnessing the girl’s resurrection.
Then He took Peter, James, John and the parents to the bed where the young girl was lying.
“Talitha cumi”: Mark is the only gospel writer who recorded Jesus’ original Aramaic words. “Talitha” is a feminine form of “lamb,” or “youth.” “Cumi” is an imperative meaning “arise.” As in other such instances, Jesus addressed the person of the one being raised, not just the dead body (Luke 7:14; John 11:43).
Telling her age tells us that this girl was not a baby, but fully old enough to walk. You can imagine how surprised they were when this supposedly dead girl arose and walked.
“No man should know it”: Knowledge of the miracle could not be completely withheld, but Christ did not want news of it to spread until after He had left the area, because He knew such news might cause His many Jewish opponents in Galilee to seek Him out and kill Him prematurely.
He also wanted to be known for bringing the gospel, not as simply a miracle-worker. Jesus was no doubt concerned that the girl and her parents not be made the center of undue curiosity and sensationalism.
The crowd would eventually know, of course, that the girl had been raised from the dead. Jesus wants the fact to be concealed for the time being, giving Him time to depart and avoid ostentatious acclaim.
Also, the parents will still be able to keep the details of the resuscitation secret from the scornful unbelievers outside the door. Jesus’ custom all along was to make Himself known to earnest seekers, but to conceal His true identity from skeptics.
What a day.... He started on one side of the Lake.... where He through legion of demons into a couple thousand head of pigs. He was asked to leave there because the people were "scared" because they didn't understand, according to the commentary. I think it was money.... the man up in the caves was an annoyance, no doubt, but loosing 2000 pigs would be a big financial hit even in today's market.Then He ran into one of the workers at the Temple. The guy said his daughter was dying..... I bet there was no hurrying Jesus along with all that crowd around Him. The commentaries complain that a woman in the crowd slowed Jesus down..... she touched Him..... and she was healed..... and that made Him stop. Wait... He was on His way to save a little girl and then He just stopped in the middle of a crowd.... and asked "who touched me".
If I was that woman.... I would have freaked out. She had been battling something for as long as that little girl had been alive. She had been through all the doctors and all their conflicting cures. Maybe she lost her belly button like I did. She was coming to Jesus because she heard He could heal her. The difference was.... unlike the others who were in the crowd to see what this guy was all about.... she knew that just touching Him was enough. The commentary implies it was God Himself that healed her and Jesus was God's implement. Interesting.... but I still would have freaked right out if I were her, regardless of Who healed me.
The little girl was dead..... the mourners had been arranged and they were already bellowing..... they knew dead when they saw dead and when Jesus said He was there to heal her.... they laughed in His face. Jesus only took the parents and three disciples into the room where the young lady was lying in repose. If He healed her in front of everyone.... the crowds would have gotten a lot worse.... and He wouldn't have been able to move around.
If those Pharisees, Sadducees, Roman government leaders, and leaders of the Temple found out that Jesus was raising people from the dead.... they would have been on Him like butter on rice. He would have been on the Cross way before He had completed His preliminary mission [healing and teaching]. So maybe instead of staring down the professional mourners who were laughing in His face..... and bringing the child back to life right in front of their eyes.... it was better to do it privately and let them off. After all they were wrong..... no need to rub it in..... and by being nice to the mourners who laughed in His face.... the crowd wouldn't get so rough..... right?
What a day.... three miracles in two towns....
