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Family Sunday School Devotion for June 14
“Jesus Healed a Woman and a Girl” from Mark 5
Listen to- “Books of the Bible (New Testament)” from Seeds Family Worship here:
And “We’re Alive (Ephesians 2:4-5)” from Seeds Family Worship here:
Later, during the Missions Moment, watch “EVERY Missionary Story #1: Amy Carmichael” from Manna Church here:
Supplies Needed- For younger kids: variety of kinds of fabric (can be clothing, blankets, couch cushion, etc.); for older kids: clothespins (or chip clips- you’ll need 2 per family member)
Summary- Jesus healed a woman and raised a girl from the dead.
Introduction Younger Kid Activity- Sort Fabric Set out samples of a variety of fabric. Allow children to close their eyes and then touch the fabric with their fingers. Talk about which feels softest, which is roughest, thickest, thinnest, etc. Say, “Now, let’s feel our own clothes. How does your shirt feel? In today’s Bible story, a woman reached out and touched Jesus’ clothes, but she was not trying to find out how Jesus’ robe felt. Listen to the Bible story to hear why she reached out to touch Jesus.”
Introduction Older Kid Activity- Clothespin Grab Game Give each member of the family two clothespins. Instruct everyone to clip their clothespin at waist level to each side of their clothing. Explain that you will all move around the room, trying to reach out and grab others’ clothespins while also protecting their own. You may not cover or touch your own clothespin, though, but only protect them by turning to keep them out of reach. Say, “In today’s Bible story, a woman reached out and touched the edge of Jesus’ clothing and something amazing happened! Let’s find out more.”
Big Picture Question- Say, “As you listen to the Bible story, keep in mind our Big Picture Question: Why did God create people? The answer to our question is: God created people to worship Him, love Him, and show His glory. This really is amazing. God didn’t need to create people, but He wanted to. He had a plan for the people in today’s story, and He has a plan for us, too.”
Bible Story- Timeline Say, “Jesus came to earth as a baby, but His ministry began when He grew into an adult. He traveled around healing people, teaching about God, and doing miracles to prove He is the Messiah. Last week, we learned that Jesus healed ten men, and one was saved. This week we’ll hear about two people Jesus healed: a young girl and a grown woman.” Open a Bible to Mark 5:21-43. Say, “The Book of Mark is the second of four books called the Gospels. That is where we find today’s Bible story. Everything in the Bible helps us learn about Jesus, but the Gospels tell about things that happened when Jesus lived on the earth. All the stories in the Bible fit together to tell an even bigger story. The Bible tells us the big story of how God rescues sinners through His Son, Jesus.” Tell the story in your own words from this passage (this story is not included in the Big Picture Interactive Bible Storybook-the Bible storybook your younger child received from Sunday School).
Christ Connection- Say, “By healing the woman and raising the little girl from the dead, Jesus showed His power as the Messiah. Jesus died on the cross from sin and death. When we trust in Jesus, God forgives our sins and changes us to be more like His Son. His healing of the woman showed His compassion and love and helped prove His identity as God the Son. That woman must have worshiped God and glorified Him after that. And by arriving after the little girl had died, Jesus was able to show His power, not just over sickness, but over death, too. I think Jairus and his family probably glorified God after their experience as well.”
Key Passage- Open a Bible to Isaiah 53:4-5. Read the verses aloud. Say, “Jesus not only healed sickness and death when He was on earth, He also took our sin and died on the cross for it. When we trust in Him, we gain His righteousness. God forgives our sins and makes us new creatures who will live with Him forever.”
Review Questions- Ask the following questions:
- Who was Jairus? (Mark 5:22-23)
- *PreK- What did Jairus ask Jesus to do for him? (come to his house and heal his daughter)
- *PreK- Who in the crowd touched Jesus’ robe? (a woman who had been sick for many years) What happened to the woman when she touched Jesus’ clothes? (bleeding stopped; Jesus healed her)
- How long had the older woman been suffering with her sickness? (12 years)
- *PreK- What happened to Jairus’s daughter before Jesus got to the house? (she died)
- How did the people outside Jairus’s house react when Jesus said the girl wasn’t dead? (laughed; didn’t have faith)
- What can we do if someone we know is sick or hurting? (Guide kids to think about ways to show love to others who are going through difficult circumstances. Help them see that praying for others is the strongest tool we have against hard times. Remind them that Jesus doesn’t promise our lives will be easy or pain free, but we can trust Him to always do what is right.)
- *PreK-What did Jesus do for the girl? (took her hand, told her to get up, and she became alive again)
- How can we glorify God if someone we love isn’t healed when we ask God to heal them? (Guide kids to see that our hope is not only in physical healing but in the restoration of the world that will come when Jesus returns. Help them see that people who have faith in Jesus will live eternally with God, no matter what hard times they go through now.)
- Why did God create people? (God created people to worship Him, love Him, and show His glory.)
Say, “Jesus healed a woman and raised a girl from the dead. Jesus has power over sickness and death. When we have faith, Jesus raises us to new life in Him and heals us from the damage sin causes.”
For Older Kids- Also, ask the following questions:
- How was the woman with the bleeding problem healed? (read Acts 10:37-38)
- What do we need to do to get Jesus’ help? (Point out that we can look to Jesus for help- no matter what sin or sickness we face. We don’t need to do anything to earn His help. Jesus tells us, “Just believe”. Read Hebrews 12:28)
- How can we seek healing today? (Lead kids to discuss how even though Jesus is not physically on earth today, we can pray to Him in faith and ask God to heal people who are sick or hurting. God has the power to heal, and He brings ultimate healing from our worst problem of sin through His Son, Jesus, by forgiving us. Read James 5:16)
Reflection- Ask older children to answer one of the following questions:
- What does this story teach me about God or the Gospel?
- What does the story teach me about myself?
- Whom can I tell about this story?
Missions Moment- Serving Others Talk as a family about the work of organizations that serve children (or families): for example- Gospel Mission’s Women and Children’s Shelter, First E-Free’s Food Pantry ministry, Operation Christmas Child, First E-Free’s Sunday School ministry, Child Evangelism Fellowship (5-Day Clubs), etc. Say, “Amy Carmichael spent her whole life serving children around the world. She loved them, worked hard to provide for them, and most importantly, she taught them about Jesus. She started an orphanage in India to help children who had no home or who were being mistreated. How can we serve other kids around us?” Decide as a family how you would like to support one of the above-mentioned organizations or another that you know of. This could be as a donation of supplies or money, service with your time or labor, or through prayer or encouragement cards to ministry leaders. (For older children, watch “EVERY Missionary Story #1: Amy Carmichael” video- see above.) “Missionary Amy Carmichael was born in Ireland. She served as a missionary in Japan and then in India. She lived in India for 56 years, serving children in an orphanage and teaching them about Jesus. They called her Amma, which means ‘mother’. Amy believed in the power of Jesus in the children’s lives. She knew about the miracles that Jesus did, like when Jesus healed a woman and raised a girl from the dead. That same Jesus loved the children of India when Amy served there, and He loves them today.”
Pray- In closing, thank God for sending missionaries around the world to tell the good news of Jesus. Pray for opportunities for us to be missionaries in our own community.
Adult Sunday School Devotion for June 14
“Jesus Heals a Woman and Raises a Girl” from Mark 5
Listen to- “In Christ Alone” from Keith and Kristyn Getty here:
and- “Jesus, Your Mercy” from Sovereign Grace here:
Summary- In Jesus’ encounters with the woman and Jairus’s daughter, Jesus calls us to have faith in His power over affliction, shame, and death.
Christ Connection- The woman who pushed her way into the crowd around Jesus was ceremonially unclean, thereby rendering all who touched her unclean. When she touched Jesus, however, her illness was healed. Jesus’ purity was more powerful than her impurity. In this encounter, we see a glimpse of what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross. Through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection, our shame is removed, our guilt is absolved, and God begins His work of making us pure and holy like His Son.
Point 1. Trust in Jesus’ power to remove the suffering of affliction (read aloud Mark 5:25-29).
Note- According to Leviticus 15:25-27, this hemorrhage of blood made the woman ceremonially unclean. She was cast out of Jewish social and religious life. Merely touching another person would transmit her uncleanness to them- so no hugs or a friendly shoulder to comfort her in her suffering. She went to all the doctors, probably all the best of her time. But none of them could do anything for her. She spent all her money searching for a cure and found none. In fact, she was worse off after seeing the doctors. Every attempt at healing only increased her suffering. So her desperation grew and grew.
Respond- What are some ways people try to deal with desperate situations?
Point 2. Trust in Jesus’ power to remove the shame of impurity (read aloud Mark 5:30-34).
Note- As the woman’s issue of blood dried up, her faith was confirmed. But that wasn’t the only healing Jesus had for her. The power that left Him through faith’s touch was not the end; it was only the beginning. She went to Jesus for physical healing, but His power goes far deeper. All who suffer believe that if only their affliction ended, their lives would become whole again. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. A broken body may be healed immediately or in time, but the guilt and shame of sin are eternal, at least until the eternal God gets involved. God’s involvement for our spiritual healing is what Jesus brings. We may come to Jesus for a healing touch, thinking the cure we need is simple, but He knows the truth. He knows our hearts. He knows that without His turning toward us in mercy and grace, we may walk away healed but not truly well. Jesus aims to give us more than we bargained for. We’re looking for a quick fix, but He’s looking to save us body and soul.
Respond- What are some effects of shame in a person’s life?
Note- When the woman came out of the crowd, she told Jesus “the whole truth”. She may have told Him everything that had happened to her in the past: her struggles, her pain and suffering, her feelings of shame and despair, and her exhaustive attempts at finding a cure. She was laid bare before the One who healed her, perhaps wondering if He could take away an affliction from someone as shameful and presumptuous as she. Yet she had believed that Jesus could heal her. Therefore, Jesus reversed this woman’s shame into glory. The very disease that cut her off from others brought her to Jesus, and by Him, she was fully healed through faith. She was healed, but greater still, she was saved!
Faith: Biblical faith is the resting, or trusting, in Christ alone for salvation (see John 3:16-21). More than being simply a mental agreement of historical facts, genuine faith begins with a recognition and confession of the truth of the Gospel (see 1 John 4:13-16), followed by a receiving of Christ as Lord and Savior of one’s life (see John 1:10-13). Biblical faith is not blind faith, for it rests on the historical life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Point 3. Trust in Jesus’ power to remove the curse of death (read aloud Mark 5:35-36, 39-42).
Note- The previous narrative about the woman being healed actually took place while Jesus was going somewhere with an important purpose. A synagogue leader named Jairus had asked Jesus to come to his home to heal his twelve-year-old daughter who was dying. But after the “interruption” to affirm the woman’s faith, Jairus received bad news. Jairus had come boldly to Jesus, fell at His feet, and pleaded for his daughter’s life. He and the sick woman were vastly different in social standing, but before Jesus, there wasn’t an ounce of difference between them. Both were needy for a power they did not possess, a power no one else had access to, a power that could heal disease with merely a touch. For all their differences, faith bound them together, and faith kept them going, even amidst the worst possible news.
Note- When something in our lives doesn’t go well, it can become difficult to trust that God has a plan of glory for Himself and good for us. But biblical faith is more than trusting Jesus for physical healing or an advantageous immediate outcome. It is not the temporary healing of this life for which Jesus wants us to trust Him. If we put all our hope in this world, no matter how long we live, suffering still wins because we all will die. Biblical faith is trusting Jesus for an eternal resurrection to come and that He always does what is good and right in the meantime. Jairus was looking for a quick fix to his crisis, and understandably so; Jesus, however, was directing him to a lasting hope, a resurrection hope, because the greatest healing from Jesus is an eternal one. It’s to that hope we must look. It’s to that hope which this passage points. It’s to that hope which Jesus gladly calls us to believe without fear.
Respond- What are some ways the resurrection power of Jesus frees us to live by faith and in obedience?
Conclusion- Trusting Jesus is the proper response to all troubles, physical and spiritual. We can never make ourselves whole; only Jesus can. He healed a woman and raised a girl from the dead. We want that kind of power coming toward us. In one way, it already has come to those who have placed their faith in Jesus. Yet the Gospel also promises we will experience Jesus’ healing and resurrecting power in a fuller way. One day this dying body will be raised to newness of life. God will give us a glorified body that will never hurt and never die again. Until that day, we look to Jesus for hope, knowing that the promise is sure because of His own resurrection. By faith we have died with Christ, and by faith we will be raised again. Trust Him. Don’t fear. Only believe. And share the news.
Apply- Because Jesus has taken away our shame and made us pure and holy in God’s sight, we boldly proclaim Jesus as Savior to the world and call on others to have faith in Him.
-How will you respond in faith to Jesus’ power over sickness and death?
-What are some ways your family can reach out to people who are suffering from shame and isolation?
-Who will you call to faith in Jesus for the eternal healing of salvation and resurrection?
(Take some time to pray for opportunities to share the Gospel with family, friends, and neighbors. Give thanks to God for His work in your life- taking away your shame and assuring you of eternal life.)
