Jesus raises a dead daughter (Mark 5:35-43)

What do we do when it seems that no hope is left?
How do we react when people despise or ridicule our hopes?

This is the heart of faith. The heart of our relationship with God is the key here. Either we decide to see with the eyes of the world, to let the mockers pull us away from our relationship with God, or we come to God with our shaken hope that needs to be revived or redirected.
We cannot live without hope, it is part of the fabric of humanity. When all hope disappears, true humanity vanishes and sadness destroys.

The synagogue ruler, Jairus, came to Jesus with the last remnant of hope for his daughter. He came to Jesus as the last one who could help. Jesus accepted to come, yet it seemed too late.
The news was already coming that Jairus’ daughter had died. Yet, Jesus did not pay attention to this piece of news and instead pressed on. This attitude, when it is not bathed in an intimate relationship with God, can announce foolishness and unnecessary added pains. Yet, when it is forged in the midst of a real walk with God, learning to listen to His voice in all we say and all we do, with a tender and obedient heart, then nothing is impossible. Even death has to bow down in front of  the all-surpassing love of God. This was the case with the daughter of Jairus. Jesus would bring life where there was no more hope, he would bring laughter where only pain and tears ruled.
Three years ago, one of my colleagues, Gavin, was stretched by God to believe in the impossible, praying for a man that seemed death. Was he dead, was he not? What was sure is that everyone around was crying and wailing, like in the story of Jairus’ daughter. Gavin came, pulled by two of the children of this man, and following the promptings of the Holy Spirit he prayed for him, and saw the man raise to life and glorify the name of Jesus. Out of this miracle a church came to life. You can read about this story here:
http://engagemagazine.com/content/ask-my-name
Does it mean that we also can see such miracles in our lives today? Yes.
Does it mean that all we want to see will happen? Probably not.
Here, humility is key. So often, we confuse our hope and God’s voice. Pride can lead us to be angry at God for not doing what we wanted him to do, for mistakenly believing it was God’s voice who spoke of miracle. Then, this same pride will tell us to stop trying to listen to God and rather limit ourselves to go to church and forget about these impossible miracles, or in some extreme cases to altogether reject faith in God. If you observe what happens in such journeys, it is often our humility that is lacking. Humility implies that we recognize we can make mistakes, that we are learning and therefore that failure is part of the landscape.
Are we ready to let the Holy Spirit shape our hopes and to follow His leading? Or do we rather want the Spirit of God to just breathe life in our dead projects? God’s Spirit is like a free bird, like a light breeze that blows but cannot be controlled by us. Either we learn to recognize where the Spirit is leading, or hopes will often be broken and destroyed. The one lesson we are invited to learn in this world is to discern the direction of the Spirit and to follow His direction. Then, hopes will receive life, struggles will bring beautiful fruits.

As humans, we don’t want failure and we don’t want to be told what to do. Yet, if we want success, long-lasting success, we will have to learn to bow down with our own will in front of the living God and to receive guidance from Him. Then, as a tree planted by the streams of water that brings its fruit in its time, all we do will succeed. This is the crazy promise that God gives in texts like Psalm 1.
Are we ready to learn to develop this intimate and obedient relationship with God, so that we see miracles of God’s love bloom on our path?
Do we want to see joy wipe the tears of many Jairus during our lives?
Do we want this strongly enough that we take the steps to learn to bow down our wills, to die to our selfish desires and let God breathe His life-giving Spirit in us?
This is the full sanctification that Jesus came to earth to announce and to embody. This is the listening attitude to the Spirit of God that he came to teach us.
Out of this comes the resurrected life that is our hope and promise in Jesus.

Jesus Heals a Lonely Sick Woman (Mark 5:21-34)

Is the doctor the first person we turn to when something goes wrong in our body?
Do we have someone who loves us enough to care for us, even when we are not doing well?

We tend to see ourselves as machines, and the doctors as the repairmen for these bodies. We still have ways to go if we want to have a ‘holistic’ approach to our health, learning how our 'inner' life and our 'outer' bodies are intimately connected.
The truth is, our major health problem is that we want to do whatever we want, and then ask a doctor to fix it without making any comment on how we have handled our body in the meantime.

Our real disease is deeper and yet simpler. We are trying to control our outside world without God. We do what we want, without first learning to align our will with God’s will, without letting God tell us what are his better plans of love, without listening to Him. For the fools, their own plans always taste the best. And in this domain, we are quite a large group of fools.
When it comes to our bodies, we don’t have control over them, and often look for someone to fix this. The doctors then become our little gods, that we will obey completely, as long as they don’t ask us too personal questions - often the real questions that would bring the real answers and more long-lasting healing.

In some western countries like France, we can go to the doctor today without paying a cent, which looks like divine generosity, but can become sheer foolishness. My father worked in France, in the 1980s, as a doctor for the social security, proposing to the state reimbursement policies. When the proposal to have free health care came, he fought against it, arguing that even a very small amount paid for each doctor appointment would help avoid people coming without real need. Like many, his advice was not welcomed and the advent of free medecine came to France.
In such countries, doctors end up with many people who don’t really need them, and can’t help first those who are in real need. Queues are longer, taxes are higher, and medicine then becomes a very imperfect idol that hides deeper problems. If doctors are very good helpers, they are very poor gods.

Today we read the story of this poor woman, who went to the doctors when she had this very problematic flow of blood, a flow that prevented her from even eating with family, according to jewish purity laws.
She gave all her money to doctors, yet she felt rather worse. Then, better than these doctors, she heard about what was happening to people touching Jesus and regained some hope. She wanted to have her flow of blood fixed, and did get healed when she touched Jesus. It seemed that for her the story of her suffering was over.
Yet, Jesus had much better in store for her, a more long-lasting healing.
He had been contacted by Jairus, the father of a very sick little girl, who was very concerned for his daughter.
The woman with the flow of blood had nobody caring for her, she had only doctors as long as she had money, but nobody else. When Jesus searched for her in the crowd, when he found her, it was for a purpose. Jesus was there to invite us in healthy relationships, first and foremost in a healthy relationship with the loving Heavenly Father.
Jesus' first word to the healed woman was: daughter. She, who had nobody caring for her, found in Jesus someone who cared for her, showing a gracious fatherly love. Then, Jesus praised her faith, rather than his miraculous power, and spoke words of love. "Your faith has healed you, go in peace."
This peace, shalom in Hebrew, was not about the absence of war but rather a harmonious relationship with others. With this healing, with this encouragement of Jesus, this woman was encouraged to find again peaceful relationships, as she could again be welcomed in the community. Her physical impurity was removed, she could now have a harmonious life, she could be loved an love again.

Mark 5:1-20 Jesus Heals a Man with Unclean Spirits

Are unclean spirits still roaming around in our world today?

If it is the case, how could we recognize it and what can be done? In the story, why did the people send Jesus away? (v. 17) Why did Jesus not allow the freed man to come with him? (v. 18-20)

I invite you, if you have the time, to first read this Gospel story of Mark 5:1-20, and to pray about it. Ask Jesus if there is something he would like to teach you about it, and listen for the words or images that you then receive in your heart. You can also ask him the questions I mentioned above, as a pathway to welcome his answers.

As C.S. Lewis rightly presented in his book 'The Screwtape Letters,' impure spirits are still messing up with many in our world today. It is just that, in the 'Western world,’ there are more spiritual oppressions than possessions.

In order to know what to do, we can learn many lessons from stories like this one in Mark 5:1-20.
A first lesson is that the impure spirits were leading the man to tombs and to harm himself. Still today, many young people are trapped in morbid attractions toward death or wounding themselves. If we look at what is considered today ‘teenager books’ in bookstores, we find many stories of vampires, ghosts, and other death focused subjects.
What if, at least in some cases today, there was a need of deliverance from an impure spirit? What if the stories of deliverance in the Gospels were still needed for us to understand how to handle key present situations?
A lesson we can pick from this story is that the impure spirits are trying to lead people toward focusing on death and destruction - a destruction of others or of self.
In this story, Jesus takes authority with simple words, and commands the impure spirits to go away.
Last week, I was speaking with a young man who could pray and help a friend to be delivered from an impure spirit, with simple words, and without any shouting. The friend helped could then find freedom in a domain where he felt trapped and unable to move away. The friend could then act freely and leave behind his harmful behavior.
In the same way, we have to learn to recognize when we are in such a situation and to pray in the name of Jesus. We can then discover with simplicity how much Jesus still delivers today from impure spirits.

Yet, if I may put a word of caution here: it important, for those who want to pray for someone else's deliverance, to be free themselves.
How do we recognize if we are spiritually free? Through the quality of our relationship with Jesus. Through the ability to communicate clearly with Jesus in prayer (John 10:27), remaining in Jesus' peace during the day - this peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7).
If you are not there yet, I encourage you to ask the Lord if there is anything that hinders a deeper communion with Him, and begin to turn away from any such hindrance with God's help - that’s the joyful path of repentance, a path leading to more freedom in Christ. Perhaps you will need to ask a mature Christian to pray with you or to go to a revival service in a church where the preacher leads people to entire sanctification. This sanctification helps us become temples of the Holy Spirit, where the Spirit that was in Christ dwells in us and guides us simply.

In the story, why did the people send Jesus away? (v. 17)
They sent Jesus away probably because they did not like what had happened. They were not happy of the many killed pigs, a big financial loss. The freed man had less value in their eyes, they did not see it as a positive result. In the same way, many people today value more money than people's happiness. We ourselves have to honestly ask in prayer: Lord, are there areas in my life where money or possessions are more important than you or relationships with others? It is often more common than we would like to acknowledge. As Jesus highlighted, we cannot serve both God and money (Mt 6:24).

Why did Jesus not allow the freed man to come with him? (v. 18-20)
In the end of the story, Jesus sends the man back. It can appear heartless and harsh. Yet, if we look at history, the testimony of this delivered man was so powerful that after Jesus' death and resurrection, this was one of the first regions that welcomed openly and joyfully the faith in our risen savior Jesus, becoming a 'Christian region’ already in the first century.

God's ways are better than our ways, and what seems sometimes logical is not always the most fruitful direction. As Isaiah wrote so eloquently from the Lord:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things for which I sent it. (Is 55:8-11)

Jesus said: you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32) And this truth is nothing else than Jesus himself, who also said to his disciples: I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6).
Let us welcome Jesus' loving presence and guidance in all we are, in all we think, in all we do and in all we say.
He will help us to be free indeed, and in turn, we will be able to minister his presence to others and help many to be free to love and rejoice in God's wonderful creation.