Mark chapter 5, we're in the midst of a series of narratives that Mark has selected, as does
Matthew and Luke, in order to display the power, divine power, of Jesus of Nazareth. And so what we
come to today is the third installment of these four narratives that are supporting Mark's
proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Now all four of these events, as we
study them, include or deal with elements of life that are entirely beyond human control.
So think about that for just a moment. We started with the calming of the storm. The disciples are
caught in the storm. It's completely out of their control. They have no control over the existence
of the storm. They have no control over the severity of the storm. They really have no control over what
the result of the storm would be. They're hopeless in that moment. And yet we see Jesus having much
greater power than them and actually having the ability to harness that storm and to control it,
something that's beyond our control. And then we move on to what we studied last week, and we see
something similar. We see this man who is possessed by a legion of demons, something that he could not
control, something the people of the town could not control, something that the disciples could not
control. And yet there was one who could control it, who had the power to command the demons, and they had no
choice but to obey. Though rebellious against the Lord, of course, they had no option in that moment. Why?
Because Jesus not only has power over nature, he has power over demons, over Satan, and we take great
comfort in that. Well, then we get to this one, and we find that Jesus not only has power over nature and
over the spiritual world, but he also has power over disease. That's the focus of this particular
narrative as we come to it. And so though you may not find it exactly easy all the time to personally
relate to the extremes of natural disaster, as we saw in the storm on the lake, perhaps you have
difficulty finding a way to personally relate to the extremes of the demonic influence and the demonic
possession of the man from the region of the Gerasenes. Every single one of us, though, can relate to the
reality of sickness and disease. Not one person of us today can come to this passage and not say,
I don't understand that, or I can't relate to that in some way. All of us can do that. Why? Because we all
get sick. And the more we understand the pervasiveness of disease in the world, the more we come to fear
suffering from it. And if you haven't considered it much up to this point in your life, you certainly have
considered it in the last year because everybody in the world has been forced to, even if you didn't
want to. You had to at least consider it, that sickness and disease and ultimately death is a
reality for all of us. And the fact is there's thousands of diseases that exist that the human
body is susceptible to. I read an article from the Washington Post this week and just researching a
little bit about this. I got distracted, to be honest with you. And I read an article from the Washington
Post. It's from a number of years ago. I think something was going on in the political spectrum.
This was even before the election of Donald Trump. It was still during the Obama era. And there was a
bill with Obamacare that was trying to be passed. And the thing that was being influenced in or
emphasized, at least in our government, was the fact that there are 10,000 potential diseases,
but only 500 potential cures. And I don't know how specific or how accurate that is. Some say there's
more, some say there's less. But the reality is there are thousands and thousands of potential illnesses
and sicknesses and diseases and plagues that the human body is susceptible to that we all have the
potential of contracting. And many of them are completely beyond our control to prevent or even to
treat. The prevalence of disease doesn't mean that it's natural. Right? We would say things like this,
and I would even say things from the pulpit from times to time. I think we did it a couple of weeks
ago, that you're guaranteed taxes and you're guaranteed death, right? Death is a reality of life.
But death is not a natural thing. All of us are guaranteed, really, if we're honest, we're all
guaranteed sickness in some form, disease in some form. But that doesn't mean that disease is natural
because God didn't create us to have this susceptibility to disease. When you study the
Bible and you see the perfection in which God created everything that is and the perfection and
the perfect world in which he placed Adam and Eve in the garden prior to their fall, we see that it was
not the natural order from God's perspective that we would be susceptible to these things. And though we
grow accustomed to it in a fallen world, we should never think of it as natural. It's not a natural
thing for us. And it's important because illness and disease are emblematic of a much greater problem
than the actual disease. They're emblematic of our sin because that's why it exists, right?
If God created everything and at the end of it, he said in his own words, that have to be truthful,
he said it is very good. There is no sin. There is no disease. There's no sickness.
Then what is it that brought about the sickness and the disease? Well, there's only one thing that
changed in the process of that narrative, and that was man sinned. Now, that's not to say that every
time you get a cold that it's God judging you for a specific sin that you've committed. That's,
of course, not what we mean by that. What we mean, though, is that the very existence of disease and
illness and sickness is a result of the fall. We are fallen people. We live in a fallen world.
And so long as we are in this world, bones will still break. Hearts will still break. We will still
be susceptible to the various diseases that plague us and plague our loved ones. So the critical question
then is this. Has anyone conquered death and in so doing made it possible for anyone else to triumph
over sickness and death? And the Bible has a resounding answer to that. And that answer is yes,
in the person of Jesus Christ. And we can go all the way through the scriptures and find this over and
over. It's perhaps summed appropriately for us at this time in the book of Romans. You know this verse,
Romans 6 23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Eternal life in what way?
Well, eternal life through Christ Jesus. And so we need to realize then as we come to passages like
this and we're thinking on the reality of sickness and the reality of disease and the inevitability even
of each of us suffering from it at some point, we need to realize that Jesus's miracles and his miraculous
works are not merely about healing. And it would be easy enough for us to come to this passage and be
overwhelmed by the compassion of our Lord. And without a doubt, these miracles and these narratives reveal
his compassion for those who are suffering. In fact, Jesus even healed many, many people who did not
follow him in faith. When we get to the end of Jesus's life and his time on earth, there's just a handful of
people that have stuck around. In fact, of all the crowds that gathered around to see some miracle or to
experience some wonderful thing in the compassionate heart of Christ, when he began to teach, most of
them began to leave. They wanted the miracles that he had and they benefited from the miracles that he
had, but that didn't mean that every person that was healed of their physical illness actually came
with the faith that would bring salvation. So why were they then healed? Because Jesus is a
compassionate Savior. And his heart is for sinners and for sufferers. But his healings and his miracles
are not just about healing. His physical healing wasn't the primary objective of his works of mercy.
And to be honest, due to the advancements of medicine these days, especially in the last 150 years,
from what I understand, there are those of you that work in this field and you could correct me on this,
but from what I understand, it's only been within the last 150 to 200 years that any kind of real cure
has been developed medicinally for disease. Meaning that the vast majority of people in history
really had no hope when they got sick. But things are different now, aren't they?
In fact, due to those advancements, many people aren't very concerned about the miracles of Jesus.
They're not necessarily impressed by the healing that Jesus brought to some people.
Some might even say that many of the people that Jesus healed, if it was really just a product of
their time, had they been born in this time, they would have never even been in need of this kind of
attention. Maybe we think about this woman with her issue of blood. We would think, well, this doesn't
seem like that big of a deal to us because for us, it would be as simple enough as calling your family
physician and getting an appointment, finding some type of treatment that might, could benefit you in
that moment. Well, the woman didn't have that. She tried that, but she didn't have it. And so the
advancement of technology, the advancement of medicine, many times causes us to not really think
about Jesus's power, at least not care very much about what he did. But Jesus's healing serve a deeper
purpose. If it's true that all of Jesus's miracles are really just about the miracle itself, then there's
no reason for us to be concerned with him now. But his healings are not just about healing. They serve a
deeper purpose. They're pointing us to the reality of who he is. They serve the purpose of showing us that
in his healing power, he has proven that he has a power that is far greater than the needs that meet us
physically. He actually has a power and actually has the compassion to deliver us from the thing that
no doctor could ever deliver you from, that no drug could ever deliver you from, that no other thing can
benefit you with. And that is the reality of your sin. Sickness is a result of sin. Therefore, the treatments
that you would be prescribed by your doctor are not enough to benefit or correct the problem of your sin.
In fact, if disease was your greatest problem, there would be a reason for you to settle for your neighborhood
doctor. But our problem is much worse than COVID-19. It's much worse than heart disease. It's much worse than
diabetes. It's much worse than cancer. Our problem is sin. And only Jesus can help us with that.
And so why did Jesus do all of these healings? Well, he had compassion on the people. He hates sin. Therefore, he hates
the results of sin. And he was correcting those things everywhere that he went. But it's more than that. He's showing
that he actually can help us with our greater problem. And only he can help us with that greater problem. And so by now,
we're getting used to these literary sandwiches that we've called it, that many people call them actually, that Mark employs
in his writing. The remainder of chapter five, as we just read a portion of it, is really two stories in one.
Mark introduces us in the beginning to a man whose daughter was very sick. But then he quickly interrupts
that story to tell us about this woman who had suffered from a particular illness for many years.
And at first, these two stories really focus in on Jesus's power over disease. But as you read a little
further, if you were to read further than what we read just a moment ago, you will see that the man's
daughter actually died. Jesus didn't make it to their house in time, at least as we would calculate
that time. He didn't get there prior to her death. And so she died. And that story actually becomes about
Jesus's power over death. And so we're going to save that for next week. This particular narrative
is really focused on Jesus's power over disease. And we'll focus on the sickness of this woman. So
let's take just these first four verses first and just use them to set the scene. And then we'll deal
with them maybe a little more thoroughly next Sunday. Look with me at verse 21. And when Jesus had
crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him and he was beside
the sea. One of the interesting facts about this, as we study this section of Mark's gospel,
is that all four of these incredible events really took place in just the matter of a couple of days.
This narrative really traces all the way back to the beginning of chapter four. As you remember,
Jesus moving out to the side of the lake and he was teaching from the boat. Well, he hasn't really
left the boat very often since then. He finished his teaching that day and they go to the other side of
the sea. And it's on that journey that they encounter the storm. And it is that destination
in which they encountered the demoniac. And they couldn't have been there more than a few hours,
maybe a day or two days. Couldn't have been much more than that because the people came from the town
and they demanded that he leave. And so where the narrative picks up is right in the same part,
Jesus has gotten back into the boat with his disciples and they've headed back across the lake.
Probably, though it's not stated explicitly here, probably back to Capernaum. And so they make
their way back and were immediately met by another large crowd. In fact, Luke's account of this says
that the crowd actually waited. If you do some research, and I would encourage you to do this,
if you would Google the Lake of Galilee or the Sea of Galilee, you'll see exactly how this area
is designed, is the way it's been created. It's different than Lake Norman. So we could go over
to Lake Norman here on the side, one of these inlets perhaps, and we could have a meal at Hello
Sailor today. And we would see a very small portion of Lake Norman. We wouldn't be able to see over where
Terry's house is in Denver. We wouldn't be able to see up to the northern part of Mooresville near
where Andy and Amy are. We wouldn't be able to see any of that. We just see this part. Well,
the Sea of Galilee is very different than that. It settles down very low, a few hundred feet below
sea level, if I understand correctly. And it's surrounded really by hills and mountains. So you
can be on one side of the Sea of Galilee, the lake, and you can actually see the other side.
At most, depending on which direction you're looking, at most it'd be 10 or 12 miles. But then when you're
looking at the path that Jesus and his disciples actually sailed across the lake, you're looking at
about a six-mile journey, which would have clearly have been easy enough for the people to
see the other side. So perhaps these people have been waiting on the seashore. They've seen Jesus
and the disciples leave, and they've just waited around long enough to see if he'll be back very
soon. And so those who were watchful and vigilant noticed that it was only a matter of hours later,
perhaps, that they noticed that the boats were coming back. And so by the time Jesus and his disciples
actually make it back to the lakeside near Capernaum, there's already a bunch of people because you
got to have assumed the way that this worked, the people that were watching out for the boat,
as soon as they saw it coming, sent their messengers to say, all right, go let everybody know he's coming
back. And so by the time Jesus gets there, he's immediately met by this large crowd. And as always,
Jesus willingly and lovingly greeted the people and suffered really the inconvenience of being mobbed by
the crowds. Look at verse 22. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing
him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, my little daughter is at the point of death.
Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And so Jesus was engaging with
the crowd. And suddenly a man named Jairus urgently pressed his way to Jesus with a message, an urgent
one, that his daughter, 12 years old, as we see in verse 42, 12 years old, was very sick, was at the
point of death. And according to Matthew's account, perhaps his statement was even, she's very sick.
She's about to die. In fact, by the time I've made it to you, she may even already be dead.
So it's an urgent message. But then we're told that Jairus wasn't just an ordinary citizen.
He's a ruler of the synagogue. That may not mean much to us at first, but as we begin to think about
who this man was and what his connections would be, then we understand that there's an interesting
dynamic to this conversation. These rulers of the synagogue, they were well-respected laymen in the
community. They weren't necessarily always the teachers in the synagogue, but they were tasked
with overseeing the events that surrounded and took place in the synagogue. And that's important
because as we understand Jewish culture, especially in that time, the synagogue was really the center of
civil and religious life. So this Jairus, he wasn't just an ordinary man. He would have been elected by the
community because of their respect for him to serve in this way, which meant that he was tied in with
the religious establishment. And that's really the point here. Jairus is tied in with the religious
establishment, which up to this point, and really even beyond this point, had never really been friendly
to or accommodating of Jesus. Now the text doesn't say this explicitly, but it wouldn't be hard to figure
out that there's probably been some time in Jairus's life where he maybe was antagonistic against Jesus.
He's seen the miracles that Jesus has done. Perhaps it was in his synagogue when Jesus cast out the demon
in chapter one. We don't know, but what we do know is that he was a ruler of the synagogue, which means he
was probably tied in with the Pharisees, which means he had certainly been influenced by them to be at least
nervous about Jesus of Nazareth. But having witnessed these miracles that Jesus had done,
Jairus runs to Jesus in his most desperate moment. And there's a fantastic amount of faith here.
Did you notice that? For a man that likely was at one point an enemy of Jesus, what is it that he says?
He falls on his face before Jesus. Jews didn't bow to anybody. They didn't bow to anybody but God.
And this respected religious man falls on his face before Jesus, and then he makes this claim.
He says, my daughter's dying, and I know if you will just come and lay your hands on her, she will live.
She'll live. There's an extravagant faith here on Jairus's part. And it's really quite amazing.
It's proof that even the hardest of hearts can be transformed to follow Christ in faith.
You say, we just don't understand. I've got this family member. Maybe it's my spouse or my parents or my
children, and they've been in Roman Catholicism their whole life, and they just won't leave it.
Their hearts are hardened toward the truth of grace and the gospel of grace. And well, Jairus is actually
proof that even the hardest of hearts can be transformed. Jairus didn't seem to care at this
point about whatever loss he might have endured from the religious community. He only cared that
Jesus could save his little girl. And that's really the point of desperation that we all eventually get
to, isn't it? It's not that we have everything figured out, and it's eventually we come to a point
when we really get impressed with our sin that we don't really care what anybody thinks anymore.
We just know that we are desperate, and he can help. And that's where Jairus is.
But then even more fascinating than that is verse 24.
Jairus is a great crowd. And he went with him. And then we get this note for the narrative's sake
that a great crowd followed and thronged him. But I want you to just think about that for just a
moment. And he went with him. And Jesus went with him. Even more remarkable than Jairus' willingness
to trust in Jesus is Jesus' willingness to accept Jairus. Can you let that sink in for just a moment?
We think how amazing. Someone who perhaps at one point, maybe even weeks or months before this,
was just an enemy of Jesus, and now all of a sudden their heart is transformed. And some of us maybe
would even be critical of that, but how can we be critical about someone coming to Jesus,
whatever that condition is? And they come to Jesus. But then even more than that is the fact that this
man, this God that has been rebelled against and has been hated and has been pushed against,
so willingly accepts him. There's a crowd of people around, and Jesus stops with the people in order
to address this man and help this man who may not have even cared for him up to this point.
And we again see Jesus' compassion. It doesn't matter how many times we have rejected or denied Jesus
in our lives. He stands joyfully willing to accept, forgive, and help you when you come to him in faith.
That's the wonder of his grace. You say, you just don't know how many times I've messed up.
I don't care to know how many times you've messed up.
When you come to Jesus on his terms, it doesn't matter how many times you've denied him up to that
point. When you come to him, he says, I won't cast anyone away. It's amazing. There's really two
things that we take from this, just as a quick note, since we're 20 minutes into this already.
We'll make it quick. The first thing is this. Jesus will never deny you if you come to him in humble
faith. Never. Because his compassion knows no limits. And it doesn't matter how many times you
have denied Christ at this point in your life. You say, I've just been, I've been playing games with
this my whole life to appease my spouse or my kids or whatever. And I'm just kind of going through the
motions. Let me tell you, it doesn't matter if you come to him today. He will forgive you. He'll accept
you. He'll love you. That's the first takeaway from this. The second takeaway is for believers.
Believers, we need to mimic our savior in this way.
Do you see the compassion and forgiveness that Jesus shows to Jairus? It's the same compassion and
forgiveness that he has shown to us because after all, by nature, we are all enemies of Christ.
And it's because of that forgiveness and compassion that we have been shown,
that it is not only our responsibility, but it is our joy to show that same compassion
and that same forgiveness to others. We are expert grudge holders. If there's anything that we're
really good at as humans, it's that. When you cross me, we're done, right? We live our lives that way.
It's our nature. It's hard not to. But our savior was so different than us. He was perfect,
holy. You say, I could never attain to that kind of perfection. You're exactly right.
You're exactly right. That's why he died for you. Because in taking on your sin, he then gives you
the power to exhibit his righteousness, which means that because of Christ and the work of the Holy
Spirit, you can indeed forgive the way that Jesus forgave. You can indeed show compassion in the same
ways that Jesus showed compassion. And we need to mimic our savior in this. So Jesus immediately left
for Jairus's house. The crowds, eager to see what would happen, followed along. This wasn't an orderly
line going down the streets of Capernaum. In fact, the word that is used here for thronged means that it
was actually quite violent, probably for a number of reasons. There's probably a few people in the crowd
that they are trying to get to Jesus for their own benefit. There's others who are in the crowd that
really are just trying to get the best seat in the house, really, because they know Jesus is going to
do something. They want to see it. And so everybody's jostling is what this means. They're jostling,
violently clamoring to get to Jesus and to be close to Jesus so that they can witness whatever it is
that he's about to do. So you can imagine working through this crowd. People are all over you.
You're getting pushed around. You're getting beat up. It was unruly. It was dangerous.
And this is the scene in which this story unfolds. It's not a complex story. It's very simple,
actually. A woman comes to Jesus with a desperate need. She displays a very strong but a very simple
faith. And then she discovers that Jesus was not just a powerful healer. He was actually a personal
savior. And so let's just work through her story here quickly. Number one, we see her desperate need.
Her desperate need. Look with me at verse 25. There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years
and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better
but had rather grown worse. So before we discover what this woman did, we learn about the nature of her
condition. And just as Jairus was desperate to get to Jesus to help his daughter, so was this woman
desperate in her position as well. She had suffered from a hemorrhage for 12 years, according to the
passage. Some form of internal bleeding that had caused her many issues for the entire duration of
Jairus' daughter's life. Think about that. For all we know, Jairus' daughter had lived a fine life
up to this point, and she has only recently grown ill and was in danger of death. But for the entire
duration of her existence, this woman has suffered from this ailment. I can only imagine how many times
she pleaded for God to heal her of this ailment. Have you ever been there? 12 years. It makes me think
of people like Wanda Pinder, who for years and years and years has just suffered physically. And how many
times perhaps had this lady gone to the Lord and prayed to the Lord, would you please help me? And yet
help never came. Would you please heal me? And yet healing never came. And you say, that's awful cruel of
God, isn't it? Well, I don't know. Because when we get to this passage here, had she been healed in a different
way? We wouldn't have known. There was a purpose in Jesus healing her in this way. We can learn from it.
Jairus was able to learn from it in that moment. The disciples were able to learn from it.
It wasn't convenient for her, but it was the will of God.
Well, in relation to her condition, she's physically weak and anemic, but it had also caused her to live as
a social and religious outcast. According to Leviticus chapter 15, the law had required that
this type of issue made a woman unclean. And there was a series of cleansings that she would have to go
through after this time. And this woman was just never able to be clean, which meant that she couldn't
be near anybody in the town because anything that she touched became unclean. Any place that she sat
was considered unclean. Any person that she touched then themselves had to go through a series of
cleansings and rituals in order to be ceremonial clean. She had become a social outcast, not because
she was a terrible person, but because she had a terrible disease. She was a religious outcast.
She was expelled from the synagogue. Can't go to the synagogue. Can't go to the temple. So it's not just that
she has a physical condition. It's that there are other issues that come along with it.
Not only did she have a problem, but really, as far as society was concerned, she herself was a problem.
And then to add to her physical and social and religious suffering, she also had a financial
problem. She was broke. She had gone to all the doctors she could. She had spent all the money that
she had in search of some kind of remedy for her sickness. It didn't matter what kind of doctor it
was. I'm sure she saw anyone who said that they could help. The problem was that there was no remedy
for her condition, but that didn't stop anyone from taking her money. And so she was out. So when it says
that she had suffered under many physicians, when we understand the history of this, we find out that
these doctors would have caused her to do all kinds of ridiculous things in hopes of getting healing.
In fact, let me read you this. This is from the Talmud. This would have been a Jewish religious
guide for how to deal with this. And this is what they said to do with a woman with this type of
hemorrhage. It said, take of the gum of Alexandria, the weight of a small silver coin, of alum the same,
of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood.
And if this does not benefit, take of Persian onions, three pints, boil them in wine, and give
her to drink and say, arise from my flux. Can you imagine this? You're not feeling good. So you go see
your doctor and your doctor says, here's what I'm going to do. I got some onions here and I'm going
to nice them up real fine. I'm going to put them in this glass of wine and then we're going to boil it
here in the office. And then you're going to drink it. And I know it's going to smell bad and it's probably
going to taste even worse, but you're going to drink it. And then while you're drinking it, I'm going to
say, arise from your flux. And this is somehow going to help your bleeding problem. But it's what they
did. And then it goes on. It says this, if this does not cure her, set her in a place where two ways
meet, crossroads. Let her hold a cup of wine in her, this is funny, it's sad, but it's funny. Let her hold
a cup of wine in her right hand and let someone come behind and frighten her and say, arise from
my flux. It's kind of like getting rid of the hiccups, right? That's what people say. They say,
if you have the hiccups, somebody needs to come behind you and scare you. And if you get scared,
you'll be healed of your hiccups. It's basically the same principle. You're going to go to a crossroads.
You're going to hold wine in your right hand. Someone's going to scare you. And then they're going to say,
arise from your flux. And then you're going to be healed. But none of those things work.
In another place, the towelman recommended that the afflicted woman carry barley corn
that had been taken from the droppings of a white she donkey. And somehow this was to benefit her.
And we laugh about it. It's humorous, but this was real. This lady had a real problem. And she was
going to the doctors of her day. And this is what they were telling her to do. And then they were
taking her money. And she had nothing left. So in the end, all of this left her emotionally
devastated. Why? Because after all of this, 12 years, no help. She's broke. No one can help her.
And what does it say? She doesn't get any better. She actually gets worse.
And it's a fair picture of our sinful condition, isn't it? We do all that we can to find a cure for our guilt.
But nothing works. We're told to do all kinds of things. Some of them seem reasonable. Some of them
seem absolutely ridiculous. But we're foolish to think that anything other than God's mercy and grace
could ever cure our sin problem. In all four of these stories, the people involved had come to the
end of their rope. They tried everything. The disciples had bailed as much water as they could,
and it didn't work. They had no more options. The demon-possessed man had been shackled time and time
and time again. Nothing would work. He couldn't be helped. This woman had gone to every doctor that she
could. She spent all of her money on whatever remedies were available, and nothing worked.
But despair is often a prelude to grace in the scriptures. In fact, according to the Bible,
it's only when you realize how truly desperate you are that you come to Jesus in true repentance and
faith. Isn't that the picture of a genuine heart? It's not about playing games.
It's not trying to hide my sin from anyone anymore. It's not trying to figure out if I can just be good
enough to get by. It's not about any of that anymore. It's I realize now how sinfully depraved I am,
and I can't be good enough to remedy it. Knowing my family can help me with this.
Only Jesus can help. And that's the heart of faith that receives the grace.
It's what Jesus meant when he told the Pharisees a little earlier in the book that he noticed that
only sick people come to the doctors, right? Because whole people don't need a physician.
Of course, Jesus wasn't saying that some people don't need him. He was saying that it's only those
who recognize their need that come to him. And this lady came to him. Why? She recognized a desperate
need that she had. Let's move on. Number two, we see her simple faith. Her simple faith. Verse 27,
she had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
For she said, if I touch even his garment, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried
up and she felt her body that she was healed of her disease. So this woman had heard of how Jesus had
healed others. And perhaps these specific reports related to the fact that he was back in town and
she was trying to get to him. We don't know if she was a part of the crowd that waited or if perhaps
Jesus had just come by her area on the way to Jairus's house. We don't know. What we know is that she
sees the opportunity she had to get to him. Somehow in the way that the events unfolded, even in her
frail condition, she was able to get close to Jesus. She was able to push through this crowd
and full of faith, I believe, she pressed through the crowd, believing that if she could just touch his
clothes, she would be made whole. The emphasis here is not so much on what she did. It's on the faith that
led her to do it. And it was a simple faith. By simple, I don't mean that it was weak because her
faith certainly wasn't weak. What I mean by simple is that it was uninformed. She didn't know everything
there was to know about Jesus. And there's even a hint of religious superstition here.
Perhaps it's possible that she did not deny the power of Jesus, but she was thinking superstitiously
that if I could just kind of like a relic, if I could just touch his clothes, that the power would
transfer from his clothes to me and I could receive this healing and perhaps be undetected in the process.
So it's not that her faith was weak, but it was simple. It was uninformed. She wasn't theologically
advanced. As far as we can tell, she wasn't even theologically concerned. All she knew, like Jairus,
is that she was desperate for help. And based on the reports that she had heard,
Jesus was the one that could help her. Now what's so wonderfully helpful and encouraging
is that Jesus met her where she was.
He didn't refuse her healing because she had a lack of understanding. Aren't you thankful for that?
Sometimes we get this idea and perhaps, perhaps sometimes I'm, I can be guilty of even maybe
causing people to think this, but we get this idea that I have to have everything figured out before I
can come to Christ. That I have to, I have to understand everything there is to know about him.
And I have to understand all of these theological equations and I have to have it just all figured
out. And then once I have figured out, then Jesus will be willing to bestow grace upon me.
But then what you're doing is just taking this faith and you're making it a work.
And you're just saying, if I just have enough of this, then Jesus will respond to me. But that's
not exactly how this works. Jesus met her where she was. She didn't understand everything there was
to know about him. She even had a mixture of error in what she was thinking at this point.
But he gladly met her at the point of her faith. And he opened her eyes to grow in that faith.
And this is what Jesus does for all of us. This is why Jesus referred to saving faith as a childlike
faith. You don't have to know everything there is to know. You just have to come to Jesus trusting that
he is the only savior you have. And he takes over. He meets you where you are. He responds.
You said beginning faith is often uninformed. However, such foggy understandings are often the beginning
of a deep, informed, trusting God. One does not need to have it all figured out to possess a faith
that pleases God. This is why a child can come to Christ. This is why God often saves those who know
virtually no theology. It doesn't minimize deep understanding, which is meant to foster a profound
faith, he says. But the point is that faith that pleases God does not belong only to the informed elite.
She actually had a strong faith. Though it was simple, Jesus responded, how wonderful of a savior.
Here's the thing.
Her faith was always strong. But it only at this moment found the right source.
In fact, faith is only as good as its object.
She had trusted all of those crazy methods that the physicians had convinced her to try.
The problem wasn't that she didn't believe in them, but what she believed in was powerless.
And so it is with our spiritual lives. There are so many people in our culture today that will tell us
that it's just about faith, that it's faith almost for the sake of faith, that it's not really about
what you believe in. It's just that you believe in that God won. Well, no, that's not true.
That's not true. Saving faith is not faith in faith. It's only as good as its object.
It's faith in the one true God and the forgiveness that can only be found in the death and resurrection
of Christ. So plenty of people in the world have faith, but without Jesus as its object,
faith is utterly worthless. And the only thing that can be gained from it is eternal hell.
There are a lot of sincere people that go to hell because it's not about faith. It's about the
object of that faith. And without Christ, faith is meaningless.
Let's look at the last point here, her personal savior. Look at verse 30.
Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd
and said, who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, you see the crowd pressing around you,
and yet you say, who touched me? He looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what
had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
Jesus' initial reaction here is a little confusing, isn't it? How could he be God and not know who
touched him? Of course, Jesus knew. He had willed it to unfold in the way that it did.
But everything that Jesus did and said had a purpose. In this case, he wasn't looking for
information. He was drawing the woman out of the crowd. And I think there's a specific intention for
this. Her uninformed faith thought that Jesus' power could somehow be separated from his person.
That if she just touched his garment, that the healing would come from the garment. Now, she didn't
say that it was absent of Christ, but she had a misunderstanding of exactly what was happening
here. Jesus is clarifying that misunderstanding, I believe. And he stops so that she doesn't think
that God is this distant being, that Jesus in his power is some kind of distant power from her
personally, that he is nothing more than a powerful healer. He stops and he says, who touched me?
And what we find is that Jesus isn't just a powerful healer, but he's a very personal savior.
He was personally involved and in tune to this specific woman in this specific moment. And she needed to know
that. He knew her. He loved her. And she needed to know that he had knowingly shown compassion on her.
And I think that the indication of this text is that her faith is almost immediately matured from its
beginnings. Because at first she touches him and she almost kind of gets out of the way.
And Jesus stops and he says, who touched me? And I think there's some emphasis here because
Luke says it's Peter that says, what do you mean who touched you? Everybody's touching you.
And indeed, everybody that was close probably was. But Jesus had noticed this woman out of all the
touches. He noticed this one and he stops and he says, who touched me? Not because he was trying to
figure out who it was, but because he needed to make a point to her. And perhaps the crowd parts,
I don't know how exactly this unfolds, but the woman in that moment realizes, he knows me.
He knows it was me. And the reason she knows that he knows is because she'd been healed.
She had realized in that moment, she was healed. She felt very different, different than she had felt
in 12 years. And she recognized something has happened to me in her eyes, more fully focused on
Jesus in this moment. And she begins to understand, okay, he's not just a healer. There is more to him
than what I thought. And what does she do? She runs to him. And when she runs to him, just like Jairus,
she falls on her face in fear and trembling. The same fear and trembling of the disciples after the storm,
the same fear of trembling with a different result as the people that came out to see the demoniac
healed of the demons. And she comes with fear and trembling. And what does she do? She tells him
everything. She unloads in that moment. Isn't that the comfort that we feel from our savior?
At the moment that we realize that he is our personal savior, he's not just this distant deity,
but he is our personal savior. We feel this compassion and this comfort now to come with fear and reverence,
but then we confess because we realize there's nothing to hide. And that's exactly what she does in this
moment. And she realizes that he is my savior. He's mine. And I am his. It's personal. And then we conclude
with Jesus' statement. He confirms it. How does he confirm it? He says, daughter.
This is the only place in the entire gospels that Jesus ever refers to a woman as daughter.
And there could be a few explanations for this. I think it's because Jesus is making a note that this
is not about your issue of blood. This is about your spiritual condition. He is welcoming in her
into the family of God in this moment, I think. Secondarily, there's another man who at the same
time that this is happening with this woman, somebody from his house runs up and says, don't
bother him anymore. She's dead. And what does he hear from Jesus' mouth? Daughter, your faith has made
you well. Your faith has made you whole. The word that's used here for whole is not the typical Greek
word for healing. The typical Greek word for healing is theropuo. It's the same word we would get
therapeutic. And that, in just generally speaking about healing, that's the word that's typically used.
This one though is sozo. It's the word that we use for save. It literally reads, the faith of yours
has saved you. And of course, she had this physical healing, but it was more than that. Why? Because her
issue was more than a physical issue. Her issue was a sin problem. And she realizes in this moment
that Jesus is more than a healer. And she comes to him and what does he say? Daughter,
your faith has saved you. And then he says, go in peace and be healed of your affliction.
Disease there, it means scourge. It's more than just the issue of blood. It's everything that comes along
with the issue. What was he saying? You're recovered back to society. Be recovered back to health. Be
recovered back to synagogue. Be recovered back to God. Why? Not because she wasn't sick anymore,
but because he had forgiven her. What a wonderful Savior. Jesus certainly had compassion about these
issues. I don't mean to minimize that. But if you think this is about healing, you're missing it.
Because she got more than she came for. It's not the first time in Mark that that's happened.
The leper from chapter one, same thing. He thinks he's going to get healed from his leprosy and he
actually ended up getting more than healing. The paralytic comes to Jesus. He's lowered through
the house. He thinks I'm going to get my legs back. But what's the first thing Jesus says? Your sins are
forgiven. Jesus is far more concerned than our physical need. It's not that he doesn't care.
What he's concerned with most is our spiritual need. That's why he came.
The narrative, we see this divine power. That's really its point. We learn that we don't have to
have a perfect faith to know Christ. It just has to be an authentic faith that's founded on him alone.
He meets us where we are. And he's a personal Savior. All of those things are worthy of our summary
here at the end. But there's a different way that I want to conclude.
As believers, we recognize this. Sometimes maybe we get distracted and we forget about
how all of this works and our faith and the reality of disease. And that healing is not always the will
of God for our lives. And that's true. Just because Jesus healed this woman doesn't mean he's going to
heal you of your physical ailment.
But then as believers, no matter whether he heals us now or later, we look forward to the day when we
will receive an eternal healing. In Revelation 21, we read about this. John writes,
Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning.
Nor crying. Nor pain anymore. Why?
The voice from the throne says, For the former things have passed away.
What former things? The sinfulness of this world.
The fallenness of this world. The sin that plagues us day by day.
That results in our sickness and our disease and our death and a hundred other things that are
not what God intended for us in the beginning.
And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.
And he told John, Write these down.
For they are trustworthy and true.
And so what I want to leave you with today is hope.
Not the hope that the ailment that you suffer from today, whatever it may be, will be healed.
At least not in this life.
But because of our Savior, what we do know is that it will eventually be healed in eternity.