A synagogue leader paces the shore of the Sea of Galilee watching for a single boat, because a few hundred metres away his twelve-year-old daughter is dying. That same day a woman pushes through the crowd, a woman whose twelve years of illness have cost her her health, her savings and her place among people (Mark 5). The sermon shows that these two, who had absolutely nothing in common, were joined by one thing, desperation at the feet of Jesus. Listen if you are looking for an answer to the question of whom to help when the needs around you are more than anyone can take in.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In Mark 5:21-43, Jairus, a respected synagogue leader, falls at Jesus' feet, and so does a woman shut out of community life for 12 years. What does it say to you that such different people share the same desperation?
- Why might the word "daughter" have meant as much to the bleeding woman as the healing itself? What does this scene show about how Jesus sees the rejected?
- When the servants tell Jairus his daughter has died, Jesus says: "Don't be afraid; just believe." What does faith look like when, humanly speaking, everything is already lost?
- The sermon says it is easy to take God's grace lightly when we feel in control because of money, connections or status. In which areas of your life do you lack a sense of depending on God?
- The speaker stresses that a person's deepest need is a relationship with God, and that meeting basic needs can open the way to Jesus. How can practical help go together with caring about someone's relationship with God?
- "Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone." Who is that one person around you whom you can really help this week, and where will you start?
