Source/Author: Dr Michael Dalseno

If genuine faith lies in the good soil of the human heart, then God can help and assist man in times of desperate need and during his darkest hours. We very briefly explore Mark Chs 4 and 5 as the gospel writer elaborates on Jesus being Lord over all of our circumstances.

God’s Answer to Man’s Hopelessness               Dr D

Mark writes his Gospel in a vivid and lucid way, typically revealing Jesus not only as an historical deliverer and savior but as someone who is always delivering and always saving. Chapters 4 and 5 are no exception to this, where Mark outlines three instances of Jesus’ intervention into situations when man was completely desperate and hopeless.

Prior to these instances, however, Mark elaborates Jesus’ teaching on the Parables of the Seed (Mk. Ch.4). Essentially, this group of parables teaches that seeds grow and flourish if planted in good soil, and that even the tiniest seed can grow into a tree of previously unimaginable dimensions. Always one to balance the teaching with the practical, a series of events subsequently unravel (Ch 4, mostly Ch 5) in demonstration of the power of this teaching – namely that if genuine faith lies in the good soil of the human heart, then God can help and assist man in times of desperate need and during his darkest hours.  

The first instance was when the disciples found themselves in the midst of a fierce storm on a lake (Mk. 4 35-41). It is soon acutely apparent that they are in a completely hopeless situation; their fear reaching a state of utter desperation when it became apparent the seaworthiness of the boat was suspect  (4.37-38). They woke Jesus up, sleeping calmly at the stern, questioning Him if he even cared (v.38) – a question common to many of us in tough times. Jesus subsequently rebukes the storm (v.39).

But the really crucial verses of this story lay in the final two (v’s 40-41). Jesus asks the disciples two questions: Why were they so timid; and why is it they had no faith? Now the prior teachings on the seed parables come into focus. Where was the good soil of their hearts? Why was the seed of the Word allowed to be apparently stolen by birds, chocked by thorns, or starved through rocky places?

God’s answer to man’s hopeless situation in this story was meant to be activated by man’s faith. There really is no room for unbelief, doubt, wavering and fear in the life of the believer.

The same truths are repeated in Chapter 5 through two other vivid stories; Jesus’ answer to the dominating influences on man’s life (5.1-20) and Jesus’ answer to man’s diseases and death (5.21-43). In the former, Legion was in a hopeless situation, and in the latter, both Jairus’ daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage were in a hopeless situation. Jesus confronted them both, head on, freeing Legion from extreme dominating influences that controlled his life, freeing the woman from her physical and emotional condition, and freeing Jairus’ daughter from the grip of death.

All these episodes in Mark Chs 4-5 demonstrate Jesus’ Lordship over Nature, over things that dominate us, over disease, and over the greatest potential sting of them all – death.  They might all be subject to God’s timing (eg, healing of sickness may be instantaneous, gradual, or even the other side of the grave), but overcoming hopelessness through faith in the good of our soils of our hearts is a certainty.