Desperate

Mark 5:21-43

Desperate circumstances produce varying reactions in man.

Panic, fainting, fear, flight; all these are natural responses to those circumstances in life we have no natural recourse for. There is no defense, and no offense, and confusion and dismay often envelop those who are desperate.

There is one thing desperation always produces, and that is a laser-like focus on anything and everything that may have even the slightest, remotest, or least possibility of bringing ANY relief to the desperate situation you find yourself in.

This passage in Mark 5 is a study in desperation, and what it produces in man.

There are two people who appear prominently, and both are intensely desperate for anyone who can help. (The problem is there is no one who can…)

We see Jairus, who is the ruler of the synagogue, (most likely at Capernaum,) who is desperate for healing for his 12 year old daughter, and we see a woman who has tried every doctor and spent every dollar she can find seeking a cure for a flow of blood that has kept her physically anemic and ceremonially unclean for 12 years.

Both of them come to Jesus out of desperation. Jesus is not only their last hope – He is their only hope. We do not know the back story about how it is each of them have heard about Jesus, but we do know that what they have heard has produced a degree of hopefulness in the midst of a very dark situation in their lives. Jesus is that ray of Light they have been seeking.

We are left to wonder what may have happened in each of these lives if there was no sense of desperation. If Jairus’ daughter had not been sick to the point of death, would he have sought Jesus? If the un-named woman with the flow of blood had instead been healthy, would she have sought Jesus?

In the same way we may ask: Have you sought Jesus with a sense of desperation? (It changes everything about the seeking process.) Are you PERSONALLY aware of the desperate nature of your sinful condition – and where you will spend eternity unless you come to Jesus?

-Pastor Bill