01/04/25

The Tension Revealed: Competing Demands in Mark 5

The boat’s keel scrapes against the shore of Galilee again as Jesus and His disciples return from the Decapolis, where a dramatic encounter with a demon-possessed man has left an entire region talking about God’s power. 

The impact there has been undeniable – one transformed life positioned to reach ten cities with the gospel message. Yet again, it’s exactly the kind of moment that most ministry leaders would want to capitalize on, to build upon, to leverage for greater influence.

Yet a clarity about Jesus’s strategy is about to be demonstrated again. 

As the crowds press in from every side, a desperate father pushes his way through the throng. Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue, falls at Jesus’ feet. His words come out in rushed gasps: his little daughter lies at the point of death. Would Jesus come and lay hands on her, that she might live? 

The request carries both urgency and opportunity – a chance to minister to someone of influence while meeting a desperate need.

Jesus begins to follow Jairus through the crowd. Every step matters now; every moment could mean the difference between life and death. 

The disciples help clear a path through the pressing masses, understanding the gravity of the situation. This is the kind of urgent ministry that demands immediate attention.

Then Jesus stops.

“Who touched my clothes?”

The disciples can hardly believe their ears. The crowd surrounds them on every side, people pressing in from all directions, and Jesus asks who touched Him? Their response reveals how easily we can miss kingdom priorities: “You see the people crowding against you, and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?'”

But Jesus keeps looking, scanning the faces in the crowd. 

A woman steps forward, trembling. For twelve years she has suffered from constant bleeding, spending everything she had on doctors who couldn’t help. In desperation, she had touched Jesus’ cloak, believing that even this minimal contact might bring healing. 

Now she falls at His feet, telling her whole story.

The moment stretches out. 

Precious minutes tick by as Jesus listens to her full account. Then messengers arrive from Jairus’s house with the news everyone has dreaded: “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”

In this sequence of events, we see Jesus operating from His foundational commitment: “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5:19). 

When He stops for the woman despite the urgency of Jairus’s request, He’s not merely choosing between competing needs. 

He’s demonstrating complete alignment with the Father’s active work in that moment. His commitment flows not just from a general mission to seek and save the lost, but from constant attentiveness to where and how the Father is working.

The second tension appears in how Jesus handles competing opportunities. 

Both situations present legitimate needs. Both offer chances for ministry impact. Yet Jesus doesn’t treat them as equally urgent. He takes time with the woman, ensuring complete transformation rather than mere healing. 

Then, even after hearing of the girl’s death, He maintains unhurried attention to faith development, bringing only Peter, James, and John into the house.

The third tension emerges through Jesus’ consistency amid pressure. Despite the emergency with Jairus’s daughter, despite the crowds pressing in, despite the critics watching His every move, Jesus maintains the same careful attention to genuine transformation. 

He doesn’t let urgency override thorough ministry or crowd pressure dictate His approach.

Through these intertwined encounters, Jesus reveals something profound about kingdom impact. Effectiveness flows not from responding to every need but from discerning and aligning with where the Father is actively working. 

When Jesus stops for the woman or takes only three disciples into Jairus’s house, He’s not simply making strategic choices. He’s demonstrating moment-by-moment dependence on the Father’s guidance, showing that genuine kingdom impact flows from seeing and joining what the Father is doing rather than initiating ministry independently.

Watch carefully how Jesus navigates these competing demands. His response will establish principles that challenge our assumptions about effective ministry. He doesn’t rush past the woman to reach Jairus’s house. He doesn’t maximize the public impact of the miracles. He doesn’t allow urgency to override discipleship development.

Instead, Jesus demonstrates that genuine kingdom impact flows from three interrelated elements: commitment to clear mission, focus within defined boundaries, and consistency in reproducible patterns. 

The costs prove significant. Some good opportunities must be declined. Critics will question His priorities. Not every need receives immediate attention.

But the fruit proves transformative. Lives change deeply rather than merely receiving help. Disciples develop through careful observation. Patterns establish themselves that can multiply beyond His direct ministry. 

These tensions surrounding Jesus that day mirror the pressures every kingdom worker faces – the pull of urgent needs, the allure of broader impact, the demand for immediate results.

The crowds still press in. Jairus still waits anxiously. The woman’s story still needs to be told. 

And through it all, Jesus demonstrates patterns that will shape everything about how His kingdom advances through those willing to embrace His approach to ministry impact.

The Pattern Emerges: Jesus’ CFC Approach

Having just demonstrated dramatic power in the Decapolis, faces the competing demands of a desperate father and a suffering woman. 

Yet behind these immediate tensions lies a deeper truth He would later express: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24).

Through the intertwined encounters with Jairus and the woman with bleeding, Jesus demonstrates how genuine kingdom impact flows from the integration of commitment rooted in divine mission, focus within clear boundaries, and consistency in reproducible patterns.

Divine Commission Drives Commitment

Jesus’s commitment flows directly from His clear understanding of the Father’s mission. “I have come to seek and save the lost” wasn’t just a ministry slogan but a divine mandate that shaped every decision. When the crowds press in with competing demands, Jesus maintains unwavering alignment with this mission.

Watch how this plays out in Mark 5. 

When the woman touches His cloak amid the urgent journey to Jairus’s house, Jesus stops. The disciples’ reaction reveals how easily legitimate pressure can pull us from mission: “You see the people crowding against you, and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?'” 

But Jesus’s commitment to “seeking and saving” overrides even urgent demands. This mission-driven commitment shapes His response to both the woman and Jairus. 

He doesn’t just heal; He ensures genuine transformation occurs. 

With the woman, He creates space for her full story to emerge, moving her from an anonymous touch to public testimony. With Jairus’s daughter, He maintains focus on faith development even when others pronounce the situation hopeless. In both cases, His actions flow from absolute clarity about His Father’s mission.

Geographic and Relational Focus

Jesus’s ministry demonstrates remarkable focus, both geographically and in strategic relational investment. 

His stewardship is to the house of Israel, and within that He intentionally bases His ministry in Galilee. Specifically around Capernaum. This wasn’t arbitrary but strategic – a crossroads location where kingdom impact could naturally spread through existing networks of the Jews and trade routes to the ends of the earth.

Within this geographic and people group focus, Jesus maintains clear priorities in identifying and developing disciples as leaders. 

When entering Jairus’s house, He takes only Peter, James, and John. This selective attention wasn’t about favoritism but about focused development of key leaders who would carry the mission forward. 

Even in moments of dramatic miracle, Jesus creates space for deeper training of those who will multiply His work.

His focus extends to how He engages people within His target area. With both the woman and Jairus, Jesus moves beyond surface-level healing to develop genuine faith. 

He’s not trying to minister to everyone equally but investing strategically in those who demonstrate readiness for deeper engagement. The woman’s initiative in touching His cloak and Jairus’s humility in seeking help become opportunities for focused kingdom investment.

Consistency Creates Reproduction

Through both encounters, Jesus maintains patterns that His disciples could observe and reproduce. His consistency appears not in rigid methodology but in unwavering principles that work across different situations.

Notice how He handles both cases. Whether addressing a public healing or a private resurrection, Jesus demonstrates the same attention to faith development. 

He creates space for personal engagement despite pressure. He moves people beyond physical need to spiritual transformation. He involves key disciples in the process.

This consistency serves a greater purpose than mere efficiency – it establishes DNA His followers can reproduce. 

The disciples observe how divine authority operates in both public and private settings. They see how genuine transformation requires unhurried attention. They learn patterns they can implement when it becomes their turn to carry the mission forward.

The Integration of CFC

Together, these elements – commitment driven by divine commission, focus within clear boundaries, and consistency in reproducible patterns – create the foundation for genuine kingdom multiplication. 

Divine commission provides the unshakeable commitment needed to maintain mission amid pressure. Geographic and relational focus creates space for genuine transformation rather than scattered impact. Consistency in patterns ensures others can carry the work forward.

Jesus demonstrates that effective ministry flows not from frantic response to every need but from:

• Unwavering alignment with divine mission
• Strategic focus within defined boundaries
• Consistent patterns others can reproduce

The results appear throughout the gospels. Lives deeply transformed. Leaders effectively developed. Ministry patterns that could multiply beyond His direct presence.

The invitation extends to every generation. Will we align our work with divine commission, maintain focus within clear boundaries, and develop consistent patterns developed in emerging leaders long enough that can reproduce?

Or will we either engage too broadly for sustained growth or continue reacting to every need while developing no one?

The pattern stands clear though costly. Kingdom impact flows from commission-driven commitment, strategic focus, and reproducible consistency. Every other path leads to exhausted workers and limited fruit.

The Pattern Emerges: Jesus’ CFC Approach

Through the intertwined encounters with Jairus and the woman with bleeding, Jesus demonstrates how genuine kingdom impact flows from the integration of commitment rooted in divine mission, focus within clear boundaries, and consistency in reproducible patterns.

Divine Commission Drives Commitment

Jesus’s commitment flows directly from His clear understanding of the Father’s mission. “I have come to seek and save the lost” wasn’t just a ministry slogan but a divine mandate that shaped every decision. 

When the crowds press in with competing demands, Jesus maintains unwavering alignment with this mission.

Watch how this plays out in Mark 5. 

When the woman touches His cloak amid the urgent journey to Jairus’s house, Jesus stops. The disciples’ reaction reveals how easily legitimate pressure can pull us from mission: “You see the people crowding against you, and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?'” But Jesus’s commitment to “seeking and saving” overrides even urgent demands.

This mission-driven commitment shapes His response to both the woman and Jairus. He doesn’t just heal; He ensures genuine transformation occurs. With the woman, He creates space for her full story to emerge, moving her from an anonymous touch to public testimony. 

With Jairus’s daughter, He maintains focus on faith development even when others pronounce the situation hopeless. In both cases, His actions flow from absolute clarity about His Father’s mission.

Geographic and Relational Focus

Jesus’s ministry demonstrates remarkable focus, both geographically and relationally. He intentionally bases His ministry in Galilee, specifically around Capernaum. This wasn’t arbitrary but strategic – a crossroads location where kingdom impact could naturally spread through existing networks and trade routes.

Within this geographic focus, Jesus maintains clear relational priorities. When entering Jairus’s house, He takes only Peter, James, and John. 

This selective attention wasn’t about favoritism but about focused development of key leaders who would carry the mission forward. Even in moments of dramatic miracle, Jesus creates space for deeper training of those who will multiply His work.

His focus extends to how He engages people within His target area. 

With both the woman and Jairus, Jesus moves beyond surface-level healing to develop genuine faith. He’s not trying to minister to everyone equally but investing strategically in those who demonstrate readiness for deeper engagement. The woman’s initiative in touching His cloak and Jairus’s humility in seeking help become opportunities for focused kingdom investment.

Faithfulness in the Mundane

Beyond the dramatic moments of healing and resurrection, Jesus demonstrates something profoundly important about kingdom work – the power of steady faithfulness in routine obedience. His consistency isn’t primarily about maintaining reproducible methods but about faithful persistence in the daily work of kingdom advance.

Day after day, Jesus walks the same roads, teaches in the same places, invests in the same disciples. Most of His ministry involves ordinary moments – meals shared, conversations held, questions answered, lives quietly touched. 

The dramatic encounters with Jairus and the bleeding woman emerge from this foundation of steady, faithful presence.

This faithfulness in the mundane shapes His disciples more deeply than any dramatic demonstration could. They observe not just what Jesus does in crisis moments, but how He maintains unwavering obedience in ordinary times. They learn that kingdom impact flows not primarily from spectacular events but from steady investment in people and places over time.

The Integration of CFC

Together, these elements – commitment driven by divine commission, focus within clear boundaries, and consistency in reproducible patterns – create the foundation for genuine kingdom multiplication. 

Divine commission provides the unshakeable commitment needed to maintain mission amid pressure. Geographic and relational focus creates space for genuine transformation rather than scattered impact. Consistency in patterns ensures others can carry the work forward.

Jesus demonstrates that effective ministry flows not from frantic response to every need but from:

• Unwavering alignment with divine mission
• Strategic focus within defined boundaries
• Consistent patterns others can reproduce

The results appear throughout the gospels.

Lives deeply transformed. Leaders effectively developed. Ministry patterns that could multiply beyond His direct presence.

The invitation extends to every generation. Will we align our work with divine commission, maintain focus within clear boundaries, and develop consistent patterns that can reproduce? 

Or will we continue reacting to every need while developing no one?

The pattern stands clear though costly. Kingdom impact flows from commission-driven commitment, strategic focus, and reproducible consistency. 

Every other path leads to exhausted workers and limited fruit.

The Pattern Reproduces: Paul’s Implementation

Step back into Ephesus during Paul’s third missionary journey. The bustling commercial center presents endless ministry opportunities. 

Religious seekers crowd the synagogues. Philosophical discussions fill the marketplaces. Magic practitioners peddle their influence. Every corner offers a chance for impact.

Yet watch how Paul implements the same pattern Jesus demonstrated – not just in commitment, focus, and consistency, but in the willingness to be like a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies in order to bear fruit (John 12:24).

Embracing Death for Kingdom Life

Years later, reflecting on this period in Ephesus located in the province of Asia, Paul would write: “We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself.” (2 Corinthians 1:8). 

This wasn’t mere rhetorical flourish. The daily dying required by kingdom work had brought him to the end of himself.

But notice what follows: “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:9). Like Jesus’s grain of wheat, Paul’s death to self created space for resurrection life. 

His willingness to be buried in the mundane work of daily teaching, to disappear into the task of developing others, to die to his own reputation and comfort, became the very soil from which multiplication grew.

Death-Embracing Commitment

Paul’s commitment in Ephesus flows not just from his Damascus road commission but from embracing the cost of that calling. “I die every day,” he would later write (1 Corinthians 15:31). 

This daily dying appears in:

• Moving from synagogue prominence to a borrowed lecture hall
• Accepting criticism of his unimpressive speaking
• Letting go of broader ministry opportunities and staying longer than he had before
• Disappearing into the task of developing others

His decision to stay and teach daily in the Hall of Tyrannus meant death to more visible forms of ministry. Other leaders criticized his lack of rhetorical skill and impressive presence. 

But Paul understood, like Jesus, that kingdom multiplication requires the burial of a seed.

Focus Through Self-Denial

His geographic and relational focus in Ephesus required constant death to self. Rather than traveling throughout Asia establishing his reputation, he limits himself to one city. 

Instead of building his own platform, he creates space for others to emerge. The believers who “spoke contemptuously” of his presence and speaking ability (2 Corinthians 10:10) reveal how completely he embraced the grain of wheat principle.

This focused limitation produces extraordinary fruit. 

“All the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10). How? Not through Paul’s personal prominence but through his willingness to decrease so others could increase. 

His death – to recognition, to broader influence, to personal comfort – created space for multiplication through others.

Faithful unto Death

Paul’s consistency in daily teaching demonstrates not just persistence but willingness to disappear into the mundane. 

Day after day, he shows up. He engages in discussions. He answers questions. He invests in whoever comes. 

There’s nothing spectacular about most of these days – just the steady dying to self that kingdom work requires.

The riot in Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41) reveals how completely Paul embraced this death. When Demetrius and the silversmiths rise up, Paul’s willing to face literal death for the sake of the gospel. His friends have to restrain him from going into the theater to face the mob. 

This readiness for martyrdom flows naturally from a life already embracing daily death to self.

Priscilla and Aquila: Living CFC Through House Church Ministry

In Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, and back to Ephesus again, one couple consistently appears, always opening their home as a center for kingdom multiplication. Aquila and Priscilla, tentmakers by trade, demonstrate how Commitment, Focus, and Consistency work in everyday spaces to advance God’s kingdom.

Their journey begins in Corinth, where they welcome Paul into both their home and business after being expelled from Rome. 

This wasn’t mere hospitality – it was strategic kingdom engagement through natural networks. Their tentmaking trade created daily opportunities for gospel conversations while their home became a gathering point for the emerging church.

Watch how they implement Jesus’ grain of wheat principle in each new location. 

Moving to Ephesus with Paul, they don’t arrive demanding recognition or platform. Instead, they quietly establish their business, build relationships, and open their home for gatherings. When they encounter Apollos teaching an incomplete gospel, they don’t publicly correct him but invite him into their home, where their patient investment transforms him into a powerful movement leader.

Their focus becomes clear through their consistent choices. 

In each city, they establish the same pattern – set up their tentmaking business, open their home for church gatherings, and invest deeply in the obedient few that can multiply the gospel. This wasn’t random activity but strategic engagement that leveraged their natural networks for kingdom advance.

Consider the cost of their consistency. 

Paul notes that they “risked their lives” for the gospel (Romans 16:3). Opening your home as a center for an illegal religious movement carried real danger. Yet in city after city, they maintain this pattern. 

When Paul writes to the Romans, he mentions not just their devotion but “all the churches of the Gentiles” being grateful to them – suggesting their impact had rippled far beyond their direct ministry.

Their example reveals something profound about how CFC works in practice. Their commitment wasn’t to a program or method but to creating space where kingdom life could flourish naturally. 

Their focus wasn’t on gathering crowds but on developing leaders through life-on-life investment. Their consistency wasn’t in maintaining religious activities but in reproducing disciples who could multiply the pattern.

The fruit of this approach appears throughout the New Testament. Apollos emerges as a powerful movement leader through their mentoring. Churches establish themselves in multiple cities through their pattern of home-based gatherings. Their very presence in various letters suggests their example became a model others sought to reproduce.

For modern disciples, Priscilla and Aquila’s pattern remains remarkably reproducible. They demonstrate how ordinary spaces – homes and workplaces – can become centers for kingdom advance. 

Their bi-vocational approach shows how business and mission can integrate naturally. Their consistency in opening their private space for gospel purposes challenges our tendency to separate spiritual and personal life.

Most significantly, they show that CFC doesn’t require special position or platform – just faithful presence in the places God has placed us. Their tentmaking trade wasn’t a limitation but a launch point for ministry. 

Their home wasn’t just living space but a center for multiplication. Their relationships weren’t merely social but strategic for kingdom advance.

Like Jesus’s grain of wheat, their impact flowed from their willingness to decrease so others could increase. They didn’t build their own brand or establish their own movement. Instead, they consistently created space for others to grow, learn, and multiply. 

Their legacy isn’t in buildings named after them or programs they established, but in the countless lives and churches that grew through their pattern of faithful presence.

The invitation remains clear though costly. Will we use our homes, businesses, and relationships as they did – not just for gathering but for genuine kingdom multiplication? Can we embrace their pattern of creating space where others can grow rather than building our own platform? 

Are we willing to decrease, like the grain of wheat, so that real multiplication can occur?

Their example proves that CFC works in any context when we’re willing to align our everyday spaces and relationships with kingdom purpose. The only question is whether we’ll count the cost and embrace their pattern of faithful presence that leads to genuine multiplication.

The Pattern Validated

Aquila, Priscilla, and Paul’s implementation proves Jesus’s pattern works not just in its outward elements but in its core requirement – the willingness to be buried like a grain of wheat. Paul’s “sentence of death” in Asia becomes the very means by which resurrection life spreads throughout the region.

When he writes to Timothy years later, we see the fruit of this death-embracing approach:

• Indigenous leaders developed through his decrease
• Churches established through his willingness to disappear
• Movements multiplied through his burial of self

The pattern stands validated. 

Genuine kingdom impact flows not just from commitment, focus, and consistency, but from the willingness to fall into the ground and die. Paul demonstrates that Jesus’s grain of wheat principle reproduces in every generation – but only through those ready to embrace its cost.

The invitation remains clear though costly: Will we let ourselves be buried like seed for the sake of kingdom multiplication? Can we embrace not just the disciplines of ministry but the death it requires? 

Are we willing to decrease that Christ’s life might increase through others?

The choice shapes everything about our kingdom impact.

Case Study

Kika

The Call to Kingdom Impact: Embracing CFC in Our Generation

Consider the faithfulness of Jesus. His willingness to die – to self, to recognition, to visible success – undergirds every element of Jesus’s CFC pattern. 

His commitment flows not just from seeing the Father’s work but from embracing the cost of joining it. Even when that cost leads to the cross. 

His focus accepts not just geographic limitations but the death of broader opportunities and recognition.

His consistency requires daily dying to the allure of more impressive ministry paths.

Like a grain of wheat falling to earth, Jesus demonstrates that genuine kingdom impact requires burial before harvest. He lets go of immediate influence for lasting multiplication. He accepts misunderstanding and opposition to produce genuine transformation. 

He embraces obscurity and limitation to create space for others to grow.

Paul embodies this same pattern in Ephesus. His daily teaching in the lecture hall meant dying to more visible forms of ministry. 

His focus on developing others required letting go of personal platform. His faithful persistence in routine tasks meant burial of his own gifts and abilities so that others might bear fruit.

The invitation stands before us today, but now we see its full cost. 

Will we align ourselves with what the Father is doing, even when it means dying to our own vision of ministry? Can we accept the limitations of clear focus, letting good opportunities and recognition be buried for the sake of genuine multiplication? Are we willing to be the grain of wheat that falls and dies through mundane faithfulness?

The costs run deeper than we often acknowledge:

• Death to our need for recognition
• Burial of our gifts so others can grow
• Acceptance of misunderstanding and criticism
• Willingness to disappear so others can emerge

Yet this very death produces genuine kingdom impact through:

• Lives deeply transformed because we stayed small
• Leaders developed because we made space
• Movements multiplied because we decreased

The pattern stands proven – first in Jesus who literally died to bear much fruit, then in Paul who embraced daily dying for the sake of multiplication. But the same principle challenges every generation: Are we willing to be the grain of wheat that falls and dies? 

Will we embrace not just the commitment, focus, and consistency of kingdom work, but the death it requires?

The crowds still press in. Good opportunities still compete for attention. The pull toward visible impact still tempts us. 

But Jesus’s pattern remains clear: Kingdom multiplication flows not just from faithful CFC, but from willing death. Only the seed that falls and dies produces lasting harvest.

The only question is: Are we ready to fall into the ground and die? 

The invitation awaits. The pattern is clear. The potential for genuine kingdom impact stands before us. 

What will we choose?