Death is sleep

In Mark 5 Jesus raises Jairus’ dead daughter to life.  A little while before Jairus, a synagogue ruler, approached Jesus, the itinerant preacher, for help.  The request was highly irregular:  Jairus was a respected, honourable man in that culture.  Yet, he falls (quite unceremoniously) at the feet of a homeless, poor, miracle worker’s feet and begs Jesus to heal his desperately ill daughter.  Jesus agrees to go with Jairus to his house.

On the way they hear that the girl has died.  Jesus surprisingly says that she isn’t dead, but only sleeping.  Why did Jesus say that? Was he mistaken? 

Jesus wanted to make a point about death.  Human beings view death as permanent and sleep as temporary.  You go to sleep expecting to wake up.  You anticipate being alive the next day.  Death is the opposite. It’s permanent. No anticipation. No expectation. You’re dead.

Next Jesus goes into the girl’s room and takes her by the hand. This was a controversial act as Jewish law said that a corpse was ceremonially unclean and anyone touching a corpse became unclean.  Jesus then says, “Little girl, I tell you, get up”.  As we see throughout Mark 4-5, creation must obey it creator.  The storm must quiet down, the legion of demons must leave and the little girl must become alive again.   Mark wants us to understand that Jesus is not a spiritual teacher, but God with us, in the person of his Son, Jesus.  Jesus is God.  All other views about Jesus are blasphemous.

One of the learnings from this account is that death to Jesus and to the Christian is sleep.  Death is not the end and it’s not permanent.  It is temporary and transitory.  Jesus died and rose again on the third day destroying the power of death over his people.  When we finally lay down our heads it is in the expectation and anticipation of being in the presence of Jesus.  We remember that Jesus said to the dying man next to him on the cross: Today, you will be with me in paradise.

Jesus and animal activism

Don’t misunderstand me.  God cares for animals and part of our cultural mandate as human beings is to be good stewards over the earth, including the animal kingdom.  Cruelty to animals is wrong.  The last verse in the book of Jonah tells us that God was concerned for both the people and the animals living in Nineveh.

Mark 5 contains therefore a very surprising account of Jesus’ encounter with a demonized man.   In fact, the naked, bleeding, howling man is possessed by a legion of demons. The demons immediately recognise who Jesus is and beg Jesus not to send them to hell (the place of ‘torment”, v7).  Jesus instead sends the demons into a herd of two thousand pigs, which then immediately run off a cliff and drown.  Animal activists might be upset at this point. 

Human beings more important than animals

Why did Jesus do this?  Did Jesus dislike pork? Firstly, I think it must be said that we must acknowledge that according to the Bible human beings are more important that animals.  Humans are made in the image of God, not animals (Genesis 1).  Rather than getting worked up over two thousand dead pigs, we should thank God for the saving of one precious life created in his image.  One person is worth more than two thousand penguins or two thousand dolphins.  Perhaps we need to re-prioritise our thinking at this point.

Operation destroy

Secondly, I think that the reason Jesus diverted the demons into the herd was to visibly show his disciples and us what Satan’s intention was with that man – and every human.  Satan’s aim is to kill and destroy you and your children (John 10:10).  That’s why the man was cutting himself with sharp stones.  Satan may use direct possession, or he may use lust, drugs, jealousy, divorce, money or something else – but the overall goal remains the same.

Yet, after the man’s encounter with Jesus he is totally transformed.  He is sitting down, dressed and in his right mind (v15). He is forgiven and freed.

You may not be demon possessed, but without Jesus you are also in a desperate situation.  Satan is seeking to destroy you.  Jesus is the one who has conquered Satan through his death for sin and his resurrection to new life.  Like that man, you need to have an encounter with the stronger man who binds up Satan (Mark 3:27).