Ladies’ Retreat DevotionalMark, chapter 5Help for the Helpless and Hope for the HopelessIntroI.The Man of GadaraII.Woman with an issue of bloodIII.JairusWhen asked to do these three days of devotionals I prayed for the Lord’s leading on a subject that would tie all three sessions together and would also be relevant to us today. This is what was revealed to me. I am eager to dig deep into the lives of three familiar people from Scripture to see what we can learn from them.As most of you know I love history, especially learning all I can about the people who shaped it. We have a number of tools at our disposal to help in our investigation. First and most important, we have God’s Word. Nothing else we think we discover should ever contradict what we are told in the Bible. Second, we have what we know of historical customs, laws, documents and people of the times. Some of this is more accurate than others so we must use caution. Lastly, as the Bible tells us, human nature does not change. What we know about ourselves; the way we think and process, our weakness for sin, our deep love for our families, and our longing for God, conscious or not, we pass down from generation to generation. As long as we remember, as stated above, that only God’s Word is infallible while all else is supposition, we may find additional ways in relating to these people who lived so long ago. I have titled these sessions, “Help for the Helpless and Hope for the Hopeless”. All of these examples are extreme but please look for ways to identify with situations in your own life.Session l The Man of GadaraIn chapter 5 of the book of Mark we find three miracles performed by the Lord Jesus during his earthly ministry. One aspect that ties these three together is the fact that they were all performed within days of each other and the last two on the same day. Jesus had been teaching and healing almost constantly. The disciples were probably looking for a break and Jesus decided they would get into a ship and cross to the other side of the lake. Little did the disciples know that there was no break to be had. A terrible storm developed, the disciples panicked, woke up Jesus (so much for resting), and He calmed the sea. The first miracle in this set of three, occurred when immediately upon landing on the opposite shore they were met with a serious situation. This was Gadara, or the land of the Gadarenes. There is difference of opinion among Bible scholars as to who the Gadarenes were. Some say they were the children of Gad, the son of Abraham, making them Jews. Others say they could not be Jews because even the most unorthodox Jews would not be keeping herds of swine, a forbidden animal in their faith. They may have mixed with gentile pagans so far back that they forgot their Jewish faith. Either way, as the little ship carrying Jesus and the disciples reached the shore, they were met by a man coming out of the tombs where he had been living. He was naked and covered with burns and scars where he had injured himself. He came running straight for Jesus and I’m sure the disciples were horrified. Little did they know that Jesus had an appointment with this man. It soon became obvious the man was possessed with demons, so many in fact that they called themselves Legion. The Bible says nothing about his background or how long he had been plagued in this way, perhaps even from childhood. At times there was an attempt at restraining him with chains in order to protect himself and others. Apparently, the demons were giving him extra human strength to free himself and desensitizing him from feeling the cold and heat of the fire. There is no mention of family. Perhaps they had long since given up on him. It is a wonder the man had lived so long but the demons were looking to torture him not kill him. You are probably wondering how the condition of this man relates to any experience in our own lives. Let’s take a closer look. Often, we read of extreme circumstances in God’s Word to show us that if God gave the victory in their lives, He can certainly give victory in ours. We all pray for people in our families or the families of friends, sometimes for years, that we consider really “hard nuts to crack”. It may be extreme willfulness, a history of bad choices or trauma, or serious mental illness. Sometimes we feel like giving up on them because nothing seems to happen or sometimes it just gets worse. Most of us, here, have been praying for years for the son of our dear friend and sister in this church. She has shared with us many times, her sadness, frustration and sometimes helplessness and hopelessness concerning her son. Yet she continues to pray and so do we. There are many good reasons for never giving up. One reason, like this man of Gadara is that Jesus has an appointment with the person you are praying for. Jesus always keeps His appointments and he is never late. In the case of this man, Jesus cast out his demons and healed him completely so he was presentable, sound of mind, and willing to follow Jesus immediately. But Jesus had a special mission for him. He was to go back to town, present himself and give witness of Jesus to a people that didn’t even want Jesus to remain among them. Now who were the hard nuts to crack? People are often afraid of even a good thing when they do not understand it.When Jesus appeared on shore the Bible says the man ran to meet Him. This was because the demons also had an appointment with Jesus but not in a good way. I do not know how much of the man’s mind was capable of being aware of Who Jesus was but I would like to think that if he could hear the demons conversing inside him, that perhaps he knew this could be his salvation day. We must keep praying to help our loved ones keep their appointments with Jesus. It is their only hope and help.Session llThe Woman with the Issue of BloodJesus had no sooner stepped on shore after His voyage back across the lake when He was approached by a man in dire need of healing for his daughter. Jesus agreed and followed the man along with a great throng of people. We will look into this miracle tomorrow.While Jesus was making His way among the crowd a woman was following from behind attempting to catch up to Him. She had a personal illness that I believe many of us can identify with. Scripture tells us she had an issue of blood for twelve years. Also, that she had spent all of her substance trying to find a cure. God created women with intricate and perfect internal organs designed for bearing children. When sin came into the world our bodies with imputed sin were no longer perfect. They are susceptible to disease, chronic pain and every dysfunction imaginable. When everything goes right it is wonderful, or at least, peaceful. When something goes wrong, it can be life changing. Thankfully, the field of medicine has come a long way and there is help and relief for most things but even so, I think we all know the feeling that sometimes our bodies feel more like our enemy than our friend.As we look at this miracle, I hope we can think about our own situations or perhaps that of a friend or loved one, and how this woman, separated from us by many years, did everything she knew to do and then reached out for Jesus. In this moment she could not have been more helpless but she still had a shred of hope left, and she had an appointment with Jesus.The Bible gives us a few hints about this woman. She had some money at her disposal because she spent it all on physicians. We can certainly identify with that! Medical help is always expensive in every generation. We pay even when there is no help. We even pay when there is no expertise. If we have what is considered a catastrophic illness, no amount of insurance will cover all of it. Next we can surmise some things about this woman by what we know about the human body. Having been in a similar situation, myself, but not for anywhere near as long, her loss of blood must have made her very anemic. This in turn would have made her so weak that moving through the crowd to meet Jesus must have been exhausting. I am sure she had nothing left in her but to reach out with her last strength to touch the hem of His garment. Also, after submitted herself to physicians using whatever archaic, torturous, or further damaging methods common to the time, she also may have been suffering much pain.There is another point to examine that may have been hardest of all. She probably a stigma placed on her for most of her adult life. Jews were still following the strict religious laws against being contaminated by blood. It not only made them unclean but it separated them from fellowship with God. They adhered to separation of menstruating women, ritual bathing and sacrifice. All of this was very inconvenient when women were out of commission even for a short time, and unable to perform their household duties because they contaminated everything they touched. Her bed and all furniture she sat on were unclean. It could also be expensive if any of her duties needed to be hired out, especially if it lasted longer than usual.This woman or her clothing could not be physically touched by any other person without also contaminating them. This was a self-monitoring situation. Women knew when they had to seclude themselves and men trusted them to do it. This particular woman may have been secluded in her own house away from her loved ones. It was all very similar to the laws applied to leprosy. The loneliness must have felt extreme.Now, as we look again at this woman with an issue of blood, we see that even stepping outside the door of her home and mingling with other people was a danger. I am sure that after all of this time, people knew who she was and avoided her. I wonder if she was veiled to disguise herself. As she moved closer to Jesus the crowd must have been pressing so she would not be able to avoid touching others. If she was discovered at this point, the crowd may have turned on her for contaminating them. All I can think of that kept her going is that she had an appointment with Jesus.Finally, she sees Him and, if she reaches out, she could just barely touch Him. She knew in her heart that is all that would be needed to heal her and maybe no one would notice. But Jesus asked the question. He knew she was coming through the crowd. He knew her fear. He knew what she was risking. He healed her using her own faith. That alone should be a lesson to us. But then He called her out. She must be a witness. Trembling, she identified herself and I wonder if for a fleeting moment she thought, “I have just been healed after all this time only to be abused for my actions”. Remember, she was healed but had not been ritually washed and still needed to make her way home through the crowd. But Jesus told her “Go in Peace”. I believe she got home safely with no repercussions, only rejoicing. Jesus kept the appointment because He is the God of the helpless and the hopeless and he is our God.Session IIIJairusAs we mentioned yesterday, when Jesus stopped to heal the woman with the issue of blood, He was already on His way to the home of Jairus. Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue and would have heard Jesus teach on a number of occasions. Also, it would have been his business to investigate anyone who claimed a “new doctrine” as many thought Jesus was doing. Scripture says he fell at the feet of Jesus, which is a worshipful and prayerful position. Doing so, he may have risked his authority in the synagogue because Jesus was a suspicious figure to many of his colleagues. Jairus had a concern that rose above his job security. His beloved, twelve-year-old daughter was dying. In fact, she may even already be dead.When a child is ill and in danger of death, or even if there is a perceived danger, most parents would gladly exchange their own life for their child. In my own life I am very thankful to the Lord for healthy children and grandchildren, but there were times on a number of occasions that we experienced emergency situations that but for the grace of God, I believe I might have lost one of them. Children rarely get through childhood and beyond without something going wrong. I can remember on one occasion, practically threatening a medical person to make him hurry up with the tests to identify what was wrong with my son and start treatment. When my children are in danger, I am at my most aggressive. I deal with the embarrassment later. I have no doubt some of you have your own stories to tell.So, the desperation of Jairus does not surprise me. Scripture does not tell us if this was a long illness or something that came on suddenly. I am sure, like the woman we spoke of yesterday, physicians were consulted if there was time. Medicine in that day was limited to a few herbs and ointments, and sometimes raising or lowering the temperature of the body by external means. None of the antibiotics and vaccines we have learned to rely on today existed at that time. In fact, they did not exist until the last century. Almost any illness was potentially a death sentence.My grandmother told the story that during the time of the Spanish Flu, she was speaking to a neighbor, a young wife and mother, over the fence while they were hanging laundry. The woman in that moment looked like the picture of health and the next morning was dead from the flu. Sadly, this was a typical case at this time.Knowing how quickly death can come I am sure Jairus fought with himself about leaving his daughter’s side on her death bed. He may have been rebuked by his wife or others in the household for taking the chance of finding Jesus. Then he would need to make his way through the crowd to approach Him. What if those disciples who were always around Jesus blocked his way? Surely others with needs as dire as his were on the same mission. How would Jairus convince Jesus to leave the path He was on to follow Jairus home? It was all so risky and I am sure he was feeling so helpless and hopeless. But Jairus did not know that Jesus had an appointment with a twelve-year-old girl who needed Him. Jesus meant to keep that appointment in His perfect time. He always does.We know that Jairus caught up with Jesus Who agreed to go with Jairus to his home. Then the unthinkable happened! Jesus stopped to address a woman that had touched Him in the crowd for healing. Why was this so important? The woman made her way to Jesus on her own two legs. Jairus’s daughter was at home on her death bed. The woman had already been healed. Why was Jesus having a conversation with her? Haven’t we all tried to push our priorities on Jesus? How foolish of us. We forget the Creator of time is never late for anything. We need to trust Him for all the times of our lives.Then the ground fell out from under Jairus. People came from Jairus’s home to tell him it was too late. His daughter was dead. Do not trouble the Master anymore. But Jesus, the God of all compassion, feeling in that moment everything that Jairus was feeling told him, “Be not afraid, only believe.” Jesus knows exactly what to say to the helpless and the hopeless. I am sure they could hear the weeping and wailing as they approached the house. This must have been a much-loved young girl by many. Jesus spoke words to reassure the mourners but Scripture says they laughed Him to scorn. It had been a rough day and they knew death when they saw it. But now Jesus meant to keep His appointment. He went to her room taking none with Him but three of His disciples and Jairus and wife. He said the words, “Talitha cumi”, which means “Damsel, arise”. The young girl kept her appointment with Jesus, the God of the helpless and the hopeless. I am sure we will rejoice with her in Heaven along with the woman who was healed of her issue and the man from Gadara.