“BIg Needs & Little Thngs” – FBC Morning Light (2/14/2025)

Well good morning. Today I'd like to encourage you with a few ideas from Mark chapter 5, and thinking about the wonderful expressions of the Lord's compassion. Now usually when we think about how Jesus demonstrated his compassion, we think of the big things, don't we?

We think about how a leper came to him and wanted to be cleansed from his leprosy. He was an outcast of society and in his compassion Jesus touched the leper and said, I want to cleanse you, be clean, and he was cleansed.

And earlier in Mark chapter 4, we saw the occasion when Jesus is out on the sea with his disciples, and he's asleep in the back of the boat, the storm comes up on the sea, they're scared to death, they're afraid they're gonna die, and they come to Jesus to wake him up, and they kind of accuse him, don't you care that we're perishing?

And you know, Jesus gets up and says to the wind and the sea, peace, be still, and there was this great calm. And then you move into chapter 5 of Mark's Gospel, and there then Jesus is confronted with his demon-possessed man, and Jesus takes this man's problem and casts it into pigs, and they go storming down a cliff and off into the sea, and what a tremendously powerful display of the compassion of Christ as he overcomes the demon possession of this man who had been plagued for so long, and it caused so much self-destruction in his life.

And then you move on to chapter 5, and Jairus comes to Jesus and says, my daughter's at the point of death, would you would you come and deal with her? And on his way, here comes a woman that's had this problem for a dozen years, and it's made her unclean, it's a hemorrhaging problem, so she would be considered an outcast in society.

It's a major issue, she's been to every doctor and nobody can do anything for her. But she comes to Jesus, and she says, if I can just touch the hem of his garment, and she reaches up and does so, and Jesus in his power heals her, has compassion on her for this horribly difficult, challenging, debilitating disease.

By the way, it's just a simple note, Jairus was a ruler in the synagogue. This woman, a Jewish woman, because of her disease, she would have to have been declared unclean by the ruler of the synagogue.

Perhaps it was Jairus. And so these two would have known each other, undoubtedly, in this community. She is one unclean band from the synagogue, and he is a ruler of the synagogue, needing to enforce that band.

But Jesus deals with her, and then he comes to the home of Jairus, where his daughter has indeed died. And Jesus has compassion on his daughter, and in his compassion, raises her to life. And so when we think about the compassionate care and power of Jesus, we think of these big things, as he expresses his compassion for the leper, for the demon-possessed man, for the disciples in a storm-tossed sea, for a woman who's had an issue of blood for a dozen years, for a dead girl.

Chapter 5 ends with a very, very touching note of Jesus' tender compassion in the smallest of things. Look at this, in verse 43. It says that, you know, the girl, he says in verse 41, he says to the girl, little girl I say to you arise, and immediately the girl rose and walked, for she was 12 years of age.

That's another interesting little detail, isn't it? That this, as long as this one girl had been alive, that woman had suffered from her hemorrhaging disease. Well anyway, Jesus restores her to life, and everyone was overcome with great amazement.

Jesus says, don't tell anybody about this, and then here's how it ends. He says, and he said that something should be given her to eat. Give her something to eat. Isn't that a fascinating little detail that gives you a sense of insight into the heart of Jesus?

A girl that had been lying dead on her bed, he raises her to life. But his concern is not just for the big thing. He's concerned about her not having a biscuit to eat. Give her something to eat. Jesus cares about all your troubles, the big ones and the little ones.

All your needs. He is there, and he is compassionate, and he cares. We thank you, our Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed cares for all of our troubles, cares for all of our needs. Thank you for that inexhaustible resource of compassion in his heart.

We praise you for it, and praise him and thank him for it, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your day, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.