Daily Readings
Sunday: Mark 5
Monday: Mark 5:1-13
Tuesday: Mark 5:14-20
Wednesday: Mark 5:21-24
Thursday: Mark 5:25-34
Friday: Mark 5:35-43
Full Text of Mark 5
So they came to the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gerasenes. Just as Jesus was getting out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came from the tombs and met him. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For his hands and feet had often been bound with chains and shackles, but he had torn the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Each night and every day among the tombs and in the mountains, he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him. Then he cried out with a loud voice, “Leave me alone, Jesus, Son of the Most High God! I implore you by God —do not torment me!” (For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of that man, you unclean spirit!”) Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” He begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of the region. There on the hillside, a great herd of pigs was feeding. And the demonic spirits begged him, “Send us into the pigs. Let us enter them.” Jesus gave them permission. So the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. Then the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake, and about 2,000 were drowned in the lake.
Now the herdsmen ran off and spread the news in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man sitting there, clothed and in his right mind—the one who had the “Legion”—and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demon-possessed man reported it, and they also told about the pigs. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their region. As he was getting into the boat the man who had been demon-possessed asked if he could go with him. But Jesus did not permit him to do so. Instead, he said to him, “Go to your home and to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you, that he had mercy on you.” So he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him, and all were amazed.
When Jesus had crossed again in a boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he was by the sea. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came up, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He asked him urgently, “My little daughter is near death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be healed and live.” Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around him.
Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she kept saying, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus knew at once that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’” But he looked around to see who had done it. Then the woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader’s house saying, “Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher any longer?” But Jesus, paying no attention to what was said, told the synagogue leader, “Do not be afraid; just believe.” He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the synagogue leader where he saw noisy confusion and people weeping and wailing loudly. When he entered he said to them, “Why are you distressed and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep!” And they began making fun of him. But he forced them all outside, and he took the child’s father and mother and his own companions and went into the room where the child was. Then, gently taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.” The girl got up at once and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). They were completely astonished at this. He strictly ordered that no one should know about this, and told them to give her something to eat. (Mark 5:1–43 NET)
Podcasts for This Reading
Mark 5:1-20
Mark 5:21-43
RESOURCES FOR THIS WEEK:
There are three stories of healing in Mark 5. With the stories of healing come three different responses from Jesus on how the healed ones in the story should respond about telling others of their healing. Would Jesus’s response to each of these people have something to do with the people they would have an opportunity to witness too? There would be three different audiences, 1. Gentiles, 2. Outcasts and 3. the religious Jewish community.
I heard a preacher from Russia use the story of the outcasts and that man who was possessed. When he asked to go with Jesus, he was told to stay and tell his story. The preacher uses this story as an example for his ministry in Russia. The people of the region now “feared” Jesus and didn’t like him for killing their pigs. They wouldn’t listen/hear Jesus, but would listen/hear tha demon-free man.
@vltaylor1136 You wrote:
Would Jesus’s response to each of these people have something to do with the people they would have an opportunity to witness too? There would be three different audiences, 1. Gentiles, 2. Outcasts and 3. the religious Jewish community.
Great question. Travis Bruno (@travisbruno3) had some good insight on the demonized man on the podcast this week. Travis's conclusion/thoughts through his own study was similar to NT scholar Joel Marcus's thoughts:
Those people are, presumably, Gentiles like the former demoniac himself, and his announcement of Jesus’ mighty act on his behalf becomes for Mark the first proclamation of the good news about Jesus on Gentile soil and an anticipation of the spread of the gospel into the wider world after Easter (see 13:10). It thus symbolizes a significant transition in Christian history, and this may help to explain Jesus’ command that the man not follow him back to Palestine but stay in his own Gentile region. It may also illuminate the story’s replacement of the injunction to secrecy that prevailed in the previous section of the Gospel (cf. Mark 1:25, 34, 44; 3:12) with a direction to tell the news: the “messianic secret” is broken because the story points toward the post-Easter period of open revelation.
Joel Marcus, Gospel of Mark, Anchor Bible Commentary
I've encouraged @travisbruno3 to write a commentary. 😉
@jimmy Hahaha, you are crazy…
BUT - what a moment/shift in this whole story! Mark is telling it like this is the beginning of the good news flowing into all the world… and I feel like this makes it so clear to me that this has been God’s intention all along. It wasn’t for Israel to be an exclusive people, untouchable by the sinners of the world; but His people were always meant to be the example of what living right in this world with others should look like, so that the world could see and understand the goodness of God and his Way.
But when your beloved children lose sight of your plan, your hope to spread shalom to all the world, sometimes you choose to stop forcing it and spread that wholeness outside of your initial chosen ones… (perhaps a bit of reverse psychology?) …in hopes that those who have hardened hearts to your goodness in the world might realize the fullness of your love and mercy and choose to jump in and be a part of the story!
The story of the woman being healed contains interesting interactions between the woman, Jesus and his disciples. But what struck me most was that simple act of healing contained no admonishment from Jesus about sinning no more. This appears to be simply an act of love and kindness without challenging the woman.
We can certainly break this story down and examine what the concept of cleanliness meant to the Jews and how we can think about what it means in our own lives, but that simple act of love represents the very kernel of God's existence and the gift of Jesus. That can all be encapsulated in one word, which is essentially love. I think Mark was briefly bringing it all back to that one central theme before continuing with more complex situations.