Sermon Central
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A Touching Moment Series
Contributed by Carl Allen on Jul 15, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: As we read the text of this sermon, we see a poor, diseased woman who with a grain of hope pushes her way through the crowd to be healed, but receives so much more once she touches the Master.
Moments with the Master Series
A TOUCHING MOMENT
Intro
Mark chapter 5 is brimming with impossible cases. It has been called the Bible home for incurables. There are three cases given in this chapter which are absolutely, humanly speaking, hopeless and impossible. There was the Demonic Man, there was this Diseased Woman, and then there was the Dead Girl. All three of these cases were considered impossible in the Lord’s day and they still are in our own day as well.
For instance, the Demoniac would be assigned to a mental institution, this poor woman would be assigned to a terminal care unit, and the girl, of course, would be carried somewhere for burial in a cemetery.
But as you move through the events in this fifth chapter of Mark you discover that Jesus is more than adequate for every situation, there are no incurables with Him. In every circumstance mentioned, we see that Jesus was more than enough: to the man who was demonized, Jesus became the Great Psychiatrist; to the woman who was diseased, Jesus was the Great Physician; and to the girl who was dead, Jesus was the Great Pediatrician.
Today, I want to consider the account of the healing of the diseased woman. This portion of Scripture is kind of like a pause in the action. Jesus is on His way to heal the daughter of Jairus and He is interrupted as He goes by this woman who comes and touches the hem of His garment.
As Jesus was journeying this day, He was surrounded by a crowd, the people were pressing all around Him, but in that crowd there was a weak, timid, dying woman who reached out and touched Jesus Christ, when she did, her life was transformed. There are those in this church today who need to reach out and touch Jesus! You need a transformation in your life and you can have it, if you will only touch Him! Let’s take some time to look into this passage and talk about A Touching Moment.
I. THE HORROR SHE ENDURED (vv. 24-26)
A. Her Symptoms (v. 25)
• We are told that she suffered from “an issue of blood”.
• This literally means that she was hemorrhaging, or bleeding, from some part of her body.
• Whatever may have caused this internal hemorrhage, she was a very sick woman.
B. Her Sufferings (v. 26)
• A constant flow of blood, such as this, would have caused this woman untold suffering.
• Let’s take a moment to examine some of the areas in which she suffered.
1. She Had Suffered Physically
• From the constant blood loss, this poor woman would have been weak.
o She would have been pale.
o She would have had no energy at all.
o The least of efforts would have worn her out.
o She would have been a weak, pathetic creature!
o Her disease was like a scourge, constantly beating her down, day by day!
• We are also told that she had tried all the remedies of all the physicians of her day.
o We are told that she “suffered” under their care.
o She suffered because those doctors weren’t doctors, in the sense that we think of doctors.
o They were a bunch of quacks, trying out one superstitious remedy after another.
2. She Had Suffered Socially
• She could not be married, because, through physical contact, she would defile her husband.
• If she had ever been married, her husband would have been forced to leave her.
• She could not work around others because of the danger of defilement.
• This reduced her to a life of begging for scraps of food from a distance.
• Her condition left her on the fringes of society.
3. She Had Suffered Emotionally
• Since the Bible says that she had been this way for 12 years, and considering the average life span in those days, it is safe to assume that she has probably been this way since her teens.
• She has lived her life moving from one rejection to another. She is lonely, isolated and desperate!
4. She Had Suffered Religiously
• Under the Law, Lev. 15:19; 25-27, this woman was to be considered unclean.
• Anything or anyone that she touched was also considered unclean.
• As a result, she could not mingle with people in public, or she would cause them to be defiled.
• She could not go to the Women’s Court of the Temple, because she was unclean.
5. She Had Suffered Financially
• The Bible tells us that she had “spent all she had”.
• The doctors and their useless remedies had not helped her.
• All they had done was drain her bank account dry.
