Mark 5:24-34
The Myth and the Magic, The Moment and the Master
Objective:- Show congregation that Christianity is more than a religion or a magical solution to their problems, it is a relationship.
Introduction
The story of the woman who reached through the crowd and touched the hem of His garment is a beautiful and encouraging one.
For all of us who are going through tough times, we can gain hope and encouragement here
The are 3 points in this talk
The Myth and the Magic, The Moment and the Master.
1) The Myth & Magic
a) Humanity
In the time of Jesus, miracle workers and magicians were rife
They would be paid for their demonstrations of power and they had been around for centuries.
In the story of Moses we read about the miracle workers of Egypt who matched many of the miracles that had been manifested through Moses
The difference between their magic and the miracles of God was that it was external and anonymous, whereas the Miracles of Moses were meant to bring the people into relationship with God.
We live in a world that promises instant solutions
Power is the world’s currency and the leader with the strongest voice has the attention of the world
b) Head
In Mark 5 and verse 24 we read the story about the woman who reached out to Jesus
Through the crowd and touched the hem of His garment
She had heard about Jesus, she had seen what he had done, so she decided to go and
find him herself
- Like the world, she looked at Jesus from the outside and believed that she could go and get what she wanted anonymously, without any personal engagement, believing she could just touch the hem of his garment and ‘steal his power’
- What she did not count on was a personal encounter with Jesus
- When we don’t understand Jesus, we treat Christianity like a religion.
- We may join the crowd and go to Church, but we never reach through the crowd to touch Him, so our hearts are never touched.
c) Heart
- Verse 25 tells us that this woman had suffered terribly.
-Physically, she lived with the humiliation of a constant issue of blood. This was a heavy stream of blood.
- The Scriptures tell us that she touched His cloak and she noticed straight away that the bleeding stopped, so it must have been a constant steady stream.
-This woman was lonely and isolated. She was ritually unclean and unable to have contact with friends, relatives, and society in general
-She was completely broke. The scriptures seem to suggest that she had a lot of money to spend on extended medical treatments- so she was probably a woman of some standing before she got the disease
-And she had spent all her money on promising treatments and she had probably tried them all
-She was broken, dispirited, her self esteem was shattered, so much so that she only felt worthy to press through the crowd to touch the hem of His garment
- Yet in spite of all this, as she reached through the crowd she demonstrated a faith that was enough for Jesus
2) The Moment
a) Faith
- Although the woman’s understanding of Jesus was incomplete and distant, she had great faith
- In verse 34, Jesus said to her, your faith has made you well
- What kind of faith is it that Jesus is looking for?
- Paul wrote to the Corinthians in Chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians and verse 8 “I am not laying down any rules. But by showing how eager others are to help, I am trying to find out how real your love is”
- The problems that this woman was facing were very real
- The problems and the grief and hurt that many people are facing today in this congregation are very real
- We spoke about the disciples last week when they were in the boat with Jesus and the wind whipped up and they faced a very real problem
- The challenge that many of life’s difficulties bring to us is the question ‘How real is your love? How real is your faith?
b) Feeling
- The woman touched his garment and her bleeding stopped at once
- Verse 29 says that she felt inside that her troubled had stopped
What a feeling this must have been!
- Faith is an objective thing, but it is also a thing of great and wonderful joy!
- Many of us are from streams of faith that are more than a little suspicious of expressions of joy, to the point where we discourage them
- We like our religion with a good dose of sobriety.
- We may be tempted to look down on some denominations that may be more exuberant in their worship experience
-But, when you get the Glory, you cant hold it in, you’ve gotta let it out, you’ve gotta shout!
-It’s like the Toyota ad ‘Oh, What a healing! What a wonderful saviour! Can you imagine how this woman felt?
c) Fact
When the woman reached through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment what she most probably touched was His Prayer Shawl
-Not just his prayer shawl but the Tzit-Tzit which are the dangly parts on the end of the Prayer Shawl
This part of the prayer shawl has to do specifically with the “Messianic Prophecy” ‘By His stripes we are healed’
There are 39 knots in this part of the Prayer Shawl that correspond with the 39 times that Jesus was whipped
-The woman thought that she could remain on the edge, anonymous, on the outer but the fact is that you cannot remain on the edge of Christianity because it is not just a religion, it is a relationship.
-Trying to remain anonymous, she touched His prayer shawl which symbolised the centre of His power and was immediately drawn into His presence.
3) The Master
a) Past
- Jesus had come from the other side of the lake
- He had a large crowd around Him- this was a man with a reputation, with special abilities
- Jesus had the most profound and powerful effect on the people and the environment around him
- He was on His way to visit the daughter of Jairus and do and amazing miracle of bringing back a girl from the dead.
- Beyond that, was the Cross. He had come from eternity and His life’s mission was to save the world
- These were incredible things Jesus was doing
- Jesus was special, but not magical. He was the manifestation of God’s presence. The clothes of Jesus, the robe of Jesus has no magical or mystical quality
- Going to place where his body laid may help you in your understanding but it has no spiritual significance in itself
- Going to where he has been and hearing someone else’s story may help you but you need to reach out through the crowd yourself
b) Present
- Jesus was, and is the manifestation of God’s presence, He is God with us
- Although He was on His way to do something of great significance He was completely present for those who needed Him
- In Verse 30 it says that “At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of Him, saying to herself that she was healed of her trouble. At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of Him, so he turned round in the crowd and asked, ‘who touched my clothes’ “
- This was an intensely beautiful and private moment between the woman and Jesus
- All the movement and business around her and she was still looking at the place where the blood had issued, stunned by the fact that her problem was now over and now she was free.
- The disciples said to him that many people were shoving around him and he asked who had touched him- this was ridiculous
- Verse 32- is a beautiful, insightful verse it said “Jesus kept looking to see who had done it”
- What was Jesus looking for? Was there a certain something that showed she had faith, that she had got ‘it’, that she had found ‘it’
- Jesus had stopped what He was doing and He was in the moment
- He was scanning the crowd for the tell tale sign of this person who had touched Him
- In verse 33, the woman realised what had happened, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at His feet and told Him the whole truth.
- What a beautiful story, the woman was called into the present with Jesus
c) Perpetual
- The reason that the woman trembled is that she felt like a thief, stealing what was not hers
- The magic men, and the medical men gave her something worthless, but she paid a price
- Jesus had given her something priceless, but it was free
- Jesus wanted her to know that there was more, much more
- This was not just a healing
- Jesus said to her ‘My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your trouble.’
- The woman had found Jesus! We don’t hear any more about her, but that day she had a life changing experience
Conclusion
The Myth and the Magic, The Moment and the Master.
Like many of us, the woman came to Jesus with real needs and reached out through the crowd
She was powerless and vulnerable but Jesus healed her
She thought she could be healed anonymously but Jesus brought her into a right relationship with Himself
