Mark 5:21-43
Three Scenes:
Jesus, with Jairus, responds to desperate faith (5:21-24a)
Jesus, with a bleeding woman, responds to deficient faith (5:24b-34)
Jesus, with a little girl, responds to defeated faith (5:35-43)
“How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between.” - N.T. Wright
“God is God, and since he is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere else but in his will, and that will is necessarily infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.” - Elisabeth Elliot
Discussion questions:
In the story, Jairus’ desperation - his daughter is sick, and ultimately dies - is the open door through which he comes to Jesus. In your life, when and how have despair or sorrow opened the door for a deeper experience of the grace and power of Jesus?
What are some signs that the Jesus you are following looks more like the “cultural Jesus” than the “biblical Jesus”?
What habits or rhythms can sharpen our understanding of or deepen our faith in the “biblical Jesus”?
In your life, when and how have you experienced God withholding what you want in order to give you what you need? How do you respond to the Elisabeth Elliot quotation on that very idea: “God is God, and since he is God, he is worthy of my worship and my service. I will ind rest nowhere else but in his will, and that will is necessarily ininitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.”