Part 2: How To Be Spiritually Healed By Jesus (Mark 5)

Bible Verses:

And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. – Mark 5:3-4

…and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” – Mark 5:23

[The woman who had a discharge of blood] had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” – Mark 5:26

Part 2: Stop Asking Other Sources

It’s pointless to go to other sources for spiritual healing because as Mark 5:4 states of the demon possessed man, “No one had the strength to subdue him.” Likewise, no one but Christ has the strength to subdue our sin.

No human chain was strong enough, no shackles where able to keep the man bound and under control. The demons in the man feared no one but Jesus. Just as Mark 5:26 states of the women with a chronic discharge of blood, “she had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.” When we seek our salvation, our sanctification, or our healing from any other source but Jesus, the wound is not healed but is actually made worse.

Additionally it’s also pointless to seek healing from other sources other than Jesus because you will end up hurting those you seek healing from. The demon possessed man who lived among the tombs with all the dead bodies, the woman who had a discharge of blood, and the dead girl where all unclean according the Old Testament Law. And by touching someone like this, you would be made unclean as well.

Mark 5:23 state that Jairus asked Jesus to “lay [his] hand on” his sick daughter, a request that would technically make Jesus unclean according to the law. Leviticus 15:25 states, “When a woman has a discharge of blood . . . she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge.” Not only was this woman unclean, by touching anyone she also would make them unclean. But Mark 5:28 gives a look into her inner thinking, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” Mark 5:29 then explains, “And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.”

The women had the faith to believe that if she touched Jesus, she wouldn’t make him unclean, but rather Jesus would make her clean.

When you seek healing, relief, or comfort from others when what you really need is Jesus, your wounds are only going to tear others down; others will never be able to bring you up. The infected infect others, the sinful cause others to sin, hurting people hurt people, unclean people make others unclean.

So there’s at least two reason we should stop asking other sources for our healing. One, because we will just bring more harm to ourselves; and two, we will just bring more harm to others.

When people run to pornography for relief, not only do they add to the abuse perpetuated through the porn industry, they make their lustful tendencies even worse, needing to satisfy their dark cravings with ever increasing wickedness (Romans 6:19). When you run from one boyfriend to the next because none of them are healing your wound, not only are you hurting them you are also making your own wounds worse. When you just have to let your gossip out, not only do you hurt yourself but the one listening to you.

Only Jesus has the power to save. Again, according to the law, when Jesus reached out and touched these unclean people, Jesus himself should have been ceremonially unclean. However, this is why Jesus came, to save sinners from the judgment of our sin under the law. When Jesus would touch a dead or unclean body, instead of making Jesus unclean, his touch made them clean. When Jesus would touch a leper, Jesus would not get leprosy; rather the leper would get Jesus’ purity.
Physical healings like these where Jesus’ visual aids to the spiritual healings he sought to give through the gospel he preached. This is what the gospel does:

1 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

The gospel is the great exchange. Jesus takes our sin on him so that he can put his righteousness on us. Jesus took our deaths upon him so that we might take his life upon us. Instead of our sin killing Jesus forever, Jesus takes our sin, pays for it, and then gives us eternal life with him instead.

For our sake and for the sake of others, we must stop going to other sources for our spiritually healing as we will only make things worse. Jesus alone can handle our wounds, therefore we must seek him only as our savior and healer.

(Note: This is a 3 part series on how to be spiritually healed by Jesus Christ. In Mark 5 Jesus heals a demon possessed man, Jairus’ daughter, and women with a chronic discharge of blood. While all of Jesus’ miracles glorify God, their main purpose is to act like visual aids to his sermons about the gospel. His miracles showed physically what he was trying to teach people spiritually. Mark 1:37-38 explains, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And [Jesus] said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” So as we study Mark 5, we’re not going to be focusing on how to receive a physical healing. What we’re talking about is how to receive a Christian spiritual healing, a healing to the heart, from Jesus.)