The message today needs to be shared. It really was a wonderful message from God’s word.
Mark 5:24-34 is the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus’s robe to receive healing.
She had this problem for 12 years. She had spent money on many physicians, all that she had, but she grew worse, not better.
The problem with self help books … we try to do it all on our own. Consider the woman, she had spent all the money she had trying to solve the problem. She would have been an outcast and considered unclean in that society because of the issue of blood. She was alone. Yet she knew that Jesus could heal. So she dared to go beyond self help and to join the crowd surrounding Jesus … imagine what she might have been thinking … if I can just join up with the crowd, be around for a spiritual experience, even touch the hem of his robe, then I will be healed. This is a lot like people who are seeking God and so they go to church, join up in the vibrant music, group dynamic, mountain top high, but they are still just one of the crowd. Finally, they get up the nerve to reach out to Jesus, but surreptitiously, anonymously. They weep on the back row of the church hoping no one will see them as they cry out to God. In the crowd now, but yet still so alone.
In verse 29, note that the woman was immediately healed. So too people come to church, and even if they don’t engage with others, God is gracious to heal them. Yet God does not want people to remain anonymous. Through his son Jesus he is seeking to connect with us in intimate personal relationship. In verses 31-32 Jesus stopped and turned around. He saw the woman, the individual, and called her to him. He doesn’t want people to hide in the crowd.
Verse 33 is very interesting to me and I never really noticed it in this way before. It reads: “But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth.” Now I do not know what she told him that day, but “all the truth” seems to me to imply more than just that she was the one that touched his garment.
This is the next step in healing. First, the woman gave up trying to fix it herself, next she ventured into the crowd but still very alone, then she came to Jesus and told him all the truth. But after that Jesus did not call a holy huddle and ask her to ignore all those around her. No, instead, Jesus noticed this woman, called her to him, listened to her, comforted her, and then said in verse 34: “Daughter, your faith has made you whole, go in peace and be whole of your plague.” Jesus sent her back into her world, to engage those in the crowd, perhaps to reconnect with those who had avoided her in her prior state of considered uncleanliness.
This part caught my attention because she spoke with Jesus “with fear and trembling” as she told him all the truth. Had she tried to tell others the truth and perhaps trust was broken as she had gotten a response of shock and dismay. Did people shun her to the point where she built a wall around her heart and problems? Yet that day she had the faith to go to Jesus with her pains, and she had no need to fear and tremble, she was healed.
Trevor mentioned this is the step we often get wrong. We move past the step of self help, we go into the group, first we try to be anonymous, but then we begin to feel more comfortable, try to decide on certain people to trust, we tell them some things about our lives, perhaps too open and transparent, and sometimes we run into those people who react with shock and dismay … You, No! Really! Trevor pointed out that God will never react that way to our lives … nothing we do can surprise God or catch him off guard. When we give up on the fruitlessness of self help and throw all the silly books away, when we finally venture out into the crowd, the next step should be to go to Jesus … tell him all the truth, and let him heal you.
Then … you are able to go in peace and interact in a healthy way in the group. And this is the goal, to develop group health, so that together we can impact the world, each in our own unique and specific way, as individuals, and as a group.
This was a good reminder and encouragement to me because sometimes I fail to go to the one who is the most caring, loving and safe listener out there. Jesus himself. And he is waiting so nearby … you need simply touch the hem of his garment, just reach out in the slightest way. Jesus will stop the multitudes in their tracks to turn and say “who touched me?” That is how much he cares for you … he loves you, he does not want you to remain hurting, or even when healed, for you to remain anonymous. He wants you to be fully healed and known so you can go forth as a strong follower of Jesus to make a difference in this world.
