Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 2 Study # 5
March 15, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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(211)
Thesis: Mark's inclusion of the number "twelve" indicates "a complete representation" (three sets of four) as a presentation of the "non-negotiable" nature of God's insistence upon "faith".
Introduction: When we first began to look at this record of two stories blended around one thesis, we saw that Mark's "point" for the disciples was that in their "representation of Jesus by proclamation", they were to aim for the establishment of "faith" in their hearers by making sure that they understand that God will not accept anything less/else. Paul's use of
Habakkuk 2:4 in
Romans 1:17 is
exactly this as Paul revealed by his "by faith for faith" issues regarding the obtaining of a righteousness from God that can/will stand the test of examination. The
message is that there is a righteousness of God that a person can obtain that will make him immune to the searching examination of "Law", and that message is to be
proclaimed in
order to
produce the very faith that is required for a person to find him/her self in that happy condition of immunity.
Mark takes the tack of telling two stories blended into one that both make the same point: "faith" is the determining issue of God's active response in "grace". The disciples must be clear on this, but such clarity very often requires a good bit of time (look at how long it took the Church in Jerusalem to settle on this "Gospel" in view of the 16 years of tolerance in that Church of the false "gospel" of justification by works). The problems involved in a continuous believing are very great because of the inconstancy of the thinking of men as the moments continue to carry us into more and more complexities. It is to our great benefit that God has taken on all of these problems and given us an awareness of Him and His works on our behalf. In these days, as in the days of Mark's record, we are at extreme risk because of Jesus' declaration in Matthew 24:12. And, in the face of this risk, Mark's focus upon God's immutable insistence upon "faith" is a great encouragement.
- I. Beginning At The Beginning.
- A. The first "player on the stage" is a "man" who is an established "influencer" as a "ruler of the synagogue" (this plays into Mark's fixation upon man's penchant for 'the mountains of arrogance' in his early thesis that "faith" is impossible in the face of pride so that "repentance" must precede its benefits: John 5:44).
- B. The second "player on the stage" is a "woman" who is a "drained down nobody" who is "unclean in her culture" and who, by law, must self-ostracize because of her condition (and this complements Mark's fixation upon man's penchant for 'the valleys of despair' in his early thesis that "repentance" must deal with the doubts which crowd the minds of those who are 'failures').
- C. The "following crowd" was, in no way, "following Jesus" in the original sense of Mark's usage: 1:17-18.
- 1. This was "a great crowd" that indicated the greatness of Jesus' popularity,
- 2. But this great crowd also paraded the problem on a large stage for all to see: "self-centered afflicters", not "loving believers".
- a. We had our introduction to this reality in 2:4; the crowds are always thoughtlessly selfish (a fact similarly declared in 3:9 and ramped up in 4:17).
- b. This crowd's behavior sponsored a short-tempered reaction by the disciples in this very context (5:31), which is, itself, a mild illustration of the principle of Matthew 24:12.
- c. This crowd was "acting in concert" (sunthlibo) to attempt to get their way.
- II. The Details of This Second "Player On The Stage".
- A. She "is being".
- 1. The verbal form is a present participle in an historical narrative.
- 2. This verb indicates a "state of being" as different from a "characteristic of identity".
- B. She is being "carried downstream by a 'flow of blood' that she has been subjected to for twelve years".
- 1. The use of the medical term ("hemorrhage") takes away from the imagery.
- 2. In many texts of the Old Testament we are told that "the life is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:14) with the point being so great that to ignore it and "eat" blood was sufficient to get one expelled from the nation.
- 3. A "flow" of blood means a "draining of Life".
- a. In this woman's case, the "flow" was just over the amount of replacement that her body could generate (5:26).
- b. In this sense, the "flow" was slowly carrying her life away.
- 4. The duration of twelve years...
- a. "Twelve" is significant on many levels.
- 1) First, as a number, it was a combination of the significance of two numbers (four and three).
- 2) Second, as a number in respect to Jesus' "Large Plan", The Twelve, which He "made" in 3:14, were presented as Jesus' future representatives to the world in His absence so that they were the adequate presentation of God in the Gospel.
- 3) Third, there are 15 references to "Twelve" by Mark, 11 of which refer to "The Twelve", two of which refer to the number of baskets of left-overs from the feeding of the 5,000 men, and two of which show up in this blended record.
- 4) Mark's point in this record is that both the "woman" and the "man", who illustrate the point of the non-negotiable status of "faith" with God, have come, in 12 years, to the point of the "faith" to which God responds: in other words, "a complete representation of the necessity of faith" is being presented by two opposite types of persons who have been brought to this "faith" by significant difficulties.
- b. This is not to say that "twelve years" is "required", or "magically productive"; it is only to say that Mark deliberately used the same twelve year period to illustrate that the "fulness of the needed time had come" for "faith" to be revealed as the issue before men in respect to the message of God.
- 1) The "man's" great problem is that his "little daughter" is being destroyed in the face of his 'status' as a man of overweening pride whose theology tells him that her destruction is his fault.
- 2) The "woman's" great problem is that she cannot produce such a "little daughter" because she is perpetually having that ability washed out of her body month by month and her culture tells her that she is unacceptable to God or anyone else.
- C. Mark's "Point".
- 1. Though the problems, on their face, are "opposites" to each other, both are rooted in the fact of "impossibilities" that cannot be solved by those subjected to them.
- 2. God's solution to these "opposite" problems is the same: a repentant faith that turns to Him in desperation and finds in Him "grace to help in time of need".
