Mark 5:43 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 5:43

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‘And he charged them straitly that no man should know it’, though it got out soon enough, and it would spread around. But the Lord himself damped down the spreading of information just for the time being, because, if he hadn't done, the scribes and the Pharisees would have redoubled their attempts to seize him and to execute him, before the time to which he was working, when his execution would take place outside Jerusalem. Christ ‘commanded that something should be given her to eat.’ She had been wasting away, not eating. You wouldn’t say to someone who had just recovered from the brink of death, ‘Here is a three-course meal,’ but this girl who had actually died was completely healed and now hungry. Although he had just raised her from the dead, he had left them something to do that lay within their power. She has to be maintained with food, but she is perfectly healed. This simple direction would highlight in their minds the difference between what they could do and what he could do. He could raise the dead; they could feed a living little girl. And of course they did it with great love because she was a beloved member of the family. The father had gone to Christ for help which only he could give. At times fears had crowded in upon him, but by Christ’s power she was no standing and walking before them all.

Application

There’s a lesson in this practical command. Christ saves you. He gives you life. You have a new mind: you understand the things of God. You have a new nature; you have a new conscience. All departments of your being: your mind – your reasoning faculty; your heart – your affections; your will – your volitional aspect; all these things are changed. You love the Lord. You still have sin in you, but you long to be righteous. But consider this: he saves you by grace. He saves you by a miracle. You contribute nothing. But once you are saved, once you have a new life, once you walk with him and know him, you are given something to do. You are to cooperate with him and work with the Holy Spirit to resist your ongoing sin and to be made more righteous. Sanctification involves your effort.

The purposes of God are not known to this lost world and their imagination cannot stretch to the wonder of them. God indeed has wonderful purposes, but these are revealed to his children alone, and, even then, only in part in this world. Knowing the tendency of fallen human nature to want to revel in human glory and fame, Christ knew there would be a strong inclination in them to publish this raising from the dead at the level of human wonders, but he had something much higher to reveal to the world in his person and work. He knows that a very firm direction is needed to prevent them going ahead and charges them straitly not to make this known.

God takes away many evil things from our lives and makes us new people. Conversion is not gradual. How casually the Lord says it – ‘give her to eat.’ They would probably have forgotten about food in their wonder at the miracle. He makes it sound so easy, and indeed, to him it is easy. He can change lives that have become deeply corrupted by sin. It is a picture of how we need spiritual food after we are converted. We have spiritual life now, but we need to grow.

The ruler humbled himself. He met with hindrances on the way, but he pressed on, and with Christ’s encouragement he continued to believe that the Lord could help her. We have to see the worst about ourselves. Christ takes away sin and gives us life. We must let him save us. We must receive his blessing by faith.

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Mark 5:43 Commentary and Bible Study