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READ: Mark 5:21
CHALLENGE: Experience the Freedom of Faith
We see the extraordinary power of faith in extreme situations.
- BRING YOUR PROBLEMS TO JESUS IN FAITH
Vv21-26 – When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
There is a large crowd and there are two people who are singled out because they have a faith bigger than their big problems. One is facing any parent’s nightmare – “my little daughter is dying”. Another has suffered greatly and financially drained due to a health problem. THEIR FAITH IS GREATER THAN THEIR PROBLEMS.
We can all understand why Jairus comes to the front of a crowd and drops to his knees. He’s praying for his little girl. The desperation of the situation forces this man push to the front of the crowd and plead with Jesus! He asks Jesus to come to his house and put his hands on her and she will be healed and live.
Faith rises when everything else is sinking. Faith doesn’t evaporate in the heat of troubles! Not anymore than your coat dissolves in cold weather. A coat becomes more appreciated the colder it gets! Problems need faith like a dead battery needs a jump!
One of the great faith stories was when David faced the giant Goliath. He was armed with a slingshot, a few stones, and confidence in God. His faith didn’t fail just because a giant was growling.
Every other soldier heard Goliath daily taunt them. No one had a faith bigger than the giant and that led to a stalemate. They allowed fears to call the shots while David allowed faith to call the shots. And in a large crowd of soldiers, it was faith set David apart.
Jairus bows before Jesus and Jesus follows him to his house while the crowd presses from every direction. There was also a woman with a disease that she had suffered with for 12 years. Is she a story because she had a problem or because she had the faith to overcome the problem? What are we known for? Are we known for our problems or our faith? Deep faith is more rare than problems which are common a midges along Lake Erie in May.
Vv24b-26 – A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
There’s a large crowd and they are crowding Jesus. They are pressing together. For some reason I think of it like pressing a hamburger patty or of pressing snow to make a snowball. There is literally pressure around Jesus as he heads toward Jairus’ house.
One woman who had been bleeding for 12 years wasn’t allowed by law to be around people. This type of disease would have made her unclean. She could not touch people and people could not touch her. And if anyone came into contact with her, they would be considered unclean. She wouldn’t be allowed into the temple. She would have been an outcast from society because of this bleeding disorder. She had to live alone which was sad.
Mark tells us that she had suffered greatly under the care of physicians. Those who specialized in bringing a patient health only made the matter worse. I can only imagine what they might have tried in their primitive understanding of medicine. Think of the barbaric things we used to do. Electric shock treatment. Remember in the old days how they would bleed you because they thought the sickness was in the blood and they needed to get it out of you. Didn’t they kill George Washington with that method? Washington also gargled with a mixture of molasses, vinegar and butter; he inhaled a steam of vinegar and hot water; and his throat also was swabbed with a salve and a preparation of dried beetles. An enema was also used. By late afternoon, Washington knew he was dying and asked for his will.
They also drained out 40% of his blood. I’ve never had my throat swabbed with preparation of dried beetles. I’ve never been bled. They used to put leeches on people. It used to be that the biggest part of all the snake oil they peddled was alcohol. It wouldn’t make you better but you’d feel better.
We can scarcely imagine what they might have done to this poor woman in an attempt to cure her. One remedy was fetching barley grain from the dung of a white mule. We know that she suffered a great deal at the hands of many doctors but her desperation kept her seeking remedies from numerous doctors. She was looking for help in all the wrong places.
She also spent every dime that she had and that would mean that’s she’s now broke. They gave her hope as long as she had money but the fact was that the doctors had never done anything for her but they didn’t mind taking every dime she had. And when you’re sick, you’re desperate, and you’ll try anything. She’s now broke.
Her problem caused loneliness, pain, and financial ruin. People suffer in many ways but we still need a faith bigger than our big problems. We need to come to Jesus! Problems are part of life and we’ve all been there dealing with things much bigger than our chance to control.
- CHASE AFTER JESUS IN FAITH
Vv27-29 – When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
When she heard about the miracle worker Jesus – she pressed through the crowd to get to him. The contrast between Jairus and this woman is super interesting. Jairus bows down in front of Jesus. This woman comes behind Jesus. Jairus speaks to Jesus and pleads. This thinks that Jesus will heal but never says a word. Jairus wants Jesus to lay his hands on his daughter. This woman wants to lay her hands on Jesus. Jairus comes asking for someone else. The woman comes asking for herself as she is sick.
In both cases where will be healing. Both have serious problems. Both come to Jesus and that’s what’s common. But the way they came was completely opposite and that was OK. It’s not a one size fits all when people are coming to Jesus Christ. People come to God in different ways.
- She Chases Across Boundaries
She’s breaking taboo to be in the crowd and definitely to touch him at all but she’s crossing the societal boundary lines of what was considered appropriate behavior. She had no business being in that crowd around healthy people. If she would have asked if she could touch Jesus, she’d have been told to wait outside the town. She has to break some of the written and perhaps unwritten rules to get to Jesus.
Jesus isn’t here physically today but the church is and we are the body of Christ. May people find hope in church! Sometimes you may have to cross some boundaries coming here as well. You might come to church alone without your spouse. You might come to church struggling. You might come to church living in “sin”. You might have an addiction problem. Just come to Jesus and that means, come to church. What matters is that you came out and pressed to find Jesus. It’s not that your perfectly clean because that’s a healing that comes from God. If that’s you made the effort.
Perhaps there are some fears like, what will people say if. What will someone think if I say if I start following Christ? The boundary line of public opinion is one I’m willing to cross!
- She Reaches Out in Faith
First of all, she believed that healing was possible. She believed in Jesus Christ. She had heard about Jesus and obviously thinks that if she touches him, she would be healed. They say this was a popular belief.
She believed that all she had to do was to touch his clothing. Why? Were there other people who did this? Some believe that this is a reference to a prayer shawl a man of God wore. I remember that Elijah the prophet had a mantle and it represented the authority and power of his office as a prophet. He struck the Jordan River with it and it parted. When he went to heaven in the Chariots of Fire, it was left behind for Elisha. There was power in it.
We know that after this story in Mark 6:56 – And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
After this story of the woman, people were begging to touch the edge of his coat and everyone who did was healed. Might this have started here?
Acts 19:11-12 – God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
She believes if she just touches him, she’ll be well. She doesn’t try to get in front of Jesus, she reaches out from behind. Her humble is acceptable to God. In our humble ways we come before the Lord and he knows our heart. Touching a coat fringe doesn’t make sense to me but God is bigger than our precepts. Simple faith in Jesus without it all making sense still works.
I love how Jairus and this woman approach Jesus differently. It would be a mistake to believe that everyone should come to Jesus Christ in exactly the same way. There doesn’t seem to be a one size fits all. The apostle Paul saw a great light. I’ve heard of others who saw something. I remember it was like light in my brain but I would never impose my experience or story onto someone else.
There are things in the Bible that are wild but they worked when combined with faith. Jacob wrestling with an angel would be one. Jesus spitting in dirt and putting on a blind man’s eyes. So many different factors to ponder. Do we really understand the cross? So simple.
I don’t know if my faith could ever be perfect. I would have to assume that I could never fully understand an infinite God with my finite brain. So my theological beliefs are my best attempt to understand something far beyond me. I do like what Jeremiah said – seek God. We should.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 – 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
We need to seek God! I can’t tell you how it all works, but it does. It worked for this woman!
- She was instantly healed
And the suffering was over. This is an amazing thing. She reaches out and touches Jesus and she’s 100% healed from her suffering.
I love the incidental healing too. Jesus is just walking along and He impacts this woman in very indirect fashion. I wonder how many times we make a difference indirectly. It was just that someone is looking at you. They are looking to you. They learned something. They were behind, or out of your view, but along the way, you impacted them as well.
Jesus impacted her along the way of doing God’s work. That’s very important – do what God wants and realize that sometimes someone you aren’t even aware of will be impacted by you. It’s a cool concept to realize that God is always doing more than we expect or imagine that he will do.
Bring your problems to Jesus
- EXPERIENCE PEACE AND FREEDOM THROUGH FAITH
Vv30-34 – At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Jesus instantly knows someone touched him a way that released power from him. A lot of people touched him but apparently no one with both the problem and the faith of this woman. I would say having faith is much less common than having a problem.
A touch is so simple. She didn’t have to tackle him! She didn’t have to put him in a head lock. She didn’t have to wrestle with an angel all night long. She didn’t plead and plead. That word touched is used three times. Jesus felt the healing power go out of Him. He did not deliberately heal this woman which is really wild to think about.
Lots of people would have touched Jesus, that was the take of the disciples. There are lots of people who are touching you. Yeah, but not like that. She had faith. She was looking for healing and she found healing.
Jesus is asking who touched him. The woman came trembling before Jesus because she had broken taboos to even be there at all. He calls her daughter and that’s a very warm term. It’s a family term and beautiful in and of itself.
Now, Jesus, to clarify any other notions said, “Your faith has healed you”. It wasn’t anything magical about what Jesus was wearing. Even the leader of the synagogue didn’t say, hey, let my daughter touch your robe.
The word is saved which in this case means so save you from disease. The tense of the verb is perfect which means it already happened before Jesus said one word to her. That’s remarkable too. Again, Jesus doesn’t deliberately heal the woman. That bleeding she suffered from had already stopped when Jesus met her. And it stopped the moment that faith hit that threshold of reaching out for Jesus. All Jesus could do was to confirm the work that had already taken place. It’s so amazing.
I love that God works in more than one way! This world is a big place and we have a big God. He told her to go in peace and to be freed whole from her suffering. He wished a complete healing for her life. He wanted her to be free from suffering and being free from suffering brough peace.
Peace has that idea of absence from strife but also a sense of completeness. She would have been alone and now to have her relationships restored with her family would be quite a story. Who knows where she lived but it was a story of the pure power of God and trusting that to make complete changes in life.
It amazes me that God works with people in all kinds of ways and He is bigger than us. We would tell her that it wouldn’t work, but how do you know? She reached out and touched the clothing.
Bring your problems to God in faith and watch what He does!