Are you familiar with the woman who had an issue with blood for 12 years? If not, you can find that in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 5 Verses 25–34.
We’ll pick up the story after this woman had reached out to touch the cloak of Jesus –
Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. And this woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet, trembling with fear, and told him the whole truth. She had to have been tormented. She came into this experience desperate and interrupted Jesus, whom she might have thought God would continue tormenting her like everybody else. But instead, she met Jesus, the liberator, and he freed her from this bondage of this illness that had been preventing her from living life for twelve years. And so he said to her, daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.
Man, can you imagine being Jairus, this guy who may or may not have even known what he was doing, but out of desperation, came to Jesus and experienced in this moment Jesus the tormentor. Because the very thing that he called this woman, that Jairus would have cast out of society was the very thing that Jairus was wanting him to say. Daughter, your faith has healed you. Friends, can you put yourself in Jairus shoes here? Can you feel the desperation that would have been coursing through his brain at this moment?
While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairuse, the synagogue leader, and said, your daughter is dead. Why bother this teacher anymore? Overhearing what they said, Jesus told them, don’t be afraid, just believe. Now, he didn’t let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John, the brother of James. And when they came to the house of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion with people crying and wailing loudly after the service.
I want you to Google Middle Eastern women wailing at a funeral, and that will put a context of what this looks like. But this was pure chaos, pure, absolute grief in audible form. He went in and he said to them, why all of this commotion and wailing? This child’s not dead, but asleep. And they all laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him and went in where the child was.
Moms, can you put yourself in the shoes of this mother like your daughter is near death. She’s already dead at this point, but when she was near death, she sent her husband to go and grasp at straws for this guy that they had heard about that could do miracles. Now when he gets to the room, he had the audacity to say, she’s not dead, she’s just asleep, moms, can you imagine the pain?
In that moment? He took her by the hand and said to her, talisa Kum, which means little girl. I say to you, get up. In that language, little girl can also translate to, you guessed it, daughter. Immediately, the girl stood up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old. Did you catch that? So her entire lifespan was the exact amount of time that this woman had been bleeding. From the moment that this young girl took her very first breath, this woman had been tormented for the same amount of time. And in one afternoon of interruptions, Jesus introduced himself as Jesus the liberator. And in both scenarios, he went from death to life, from spiritually dead to spiritually alive, from unclean to clean. Because when Jesus steps in and is interrupted, he doesn’t just stay interrupted, he becomes the interrupter. He liberates, and then he becomes the interrupter, and he sends other people out on his behalf to interrupt the lives of others around them, to share his good news.
He gave strict orders to not let anyone know about this and told them to give her something to eat. And then we’re not getting chapter six here because we don’t have time. But right after that, Jesus leaves and he goes to his hometown, and he’s got another interruption because in his hometown, they don’t even like him. The Gospel of Mark is a gospel of interruptions. It’s just story after story of Jesus being interrupted and then stepping in as, as the tormentor, the liberator, and the interrupter.
So let’s wrap this up. I’m going to ask you a hard question. Are you following Jesus’ example? Are you allowing yourself to be interrupted for the sake of the kingdom? It’s a hard question to answer. We have a friend that has a line and it goes, I decided to follow Jesus and I’ve been tired ever since. Following Christ is not easy, and it requires ourselves to allow ourselves to be open to interruption.
We say it every week – Keep your eyes open. Looking for ways to show people Jesus through your actions. Well, that’s interruption. We don’t like being interrupted. And yet, as His ambassadors, Jesus has set up his church to be interrupters. Not only should we be open to interruptions, but we should be out actively looking for opportunities to interrupt other people’s lives with the good news of Christ. Are you allowing yourself to be interrupted for the sake of the Gospel?