On March 6, 2011, it was my privilege to preach Mark 4:35–5:43 at Kenwood Baptist Church: “Jesus Controls Nature, Demons, Disease, and Death.”
To this point, Mark has announced that the time has come (Mark 1:1–13) and shown a day in the life of Jesus (1:14–45), which prompted five controversies (2:1–3:6). Then Mark summarized the ministry of Jesus (3:7–12), showed Jesus naming 12 Apostles (3:13–19), and presented two false conclusions about Jesus: his family thought he was out of his mind, and the Jerusalem scribes thought him demon possessed (3:20–35). Mark next presented Jesus answering the question raised by the controversies and false conclusions: if you’re the Messiah, why isn’t everyone celebrating you? Jesus answers that question in the parables of Mark 4:1–34.
Then to validate the claims of the parables and assert that Jesus really is the Messiah and everything Mark has shown him to be to this point, Mark shows Jesus exercising authority over nature, demons, disease, and death in Mark 4:35–5:43. In each of these episodes Jesus encounters people who are hopeless to the point of desperation:
Men who make their lives on the water who think they are in their last storm (Mark 4:35–41).
A man possessed of so many demons he can’t be bound (Mark 5:1–20).
A father whose little girl is dying (Mark 5:21–24, 35–43).
A woman who has spent all she has on doctors only to get worse (Mark 5:25–34).
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Out of deep darkness light did shine.
From the grave the Son did rise.
So hold to hope, and look to the east,
As lightning he’ll come for the marriage feast.
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