Bloodwork (Pt 2) Who Touched Me? Series

Today, we are in part 2 of a 3 part series called Bloodwork.

RECAP:

A couple of weeks ago, we examined Mark 5:25-34.

I explained that after I read this passage, I had 3 questions:

The first question was: Why was this story so important that God authored it and included it in His Word?

After all, when we read the last chapter and last verse in John, we are told “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” John 21:25.

So, as a quick recap:

The answer to this question for me is: God wants us to understand the sanctity of blood as described in Leviticus 17:11.

We also examined:

Genesis 4:10 where the word blood was first mentioned. We’ll cover another first mention today.

Exodus 12:1-14, specifically pulling verse 13 out where we learn 3 things:

Blood was proof of distinction for the Israelites as the separated people of God (Exodus 11:6,7)

It was a pledge of mercy-Israelites firstborn would be spared-they would be Passed Over.

The blood was protection from judgement.

We also identified 10 verses that explains the bloodwork Jesus did for you and for me.

Today we will examine the 2nd question I had:

Why did Jesus ask, “Who Touched Me?”

Omniscient: having infinite awareness, understanding, and insight. Possessed of universal and complete knowledge.

Omnipresent: present everywhere at the same time. He is every when!

So obviously, He didn’t ask that question because He needed an answer.

Let’s dig a little and see if we can discover why He asked this question.

Title of todays message is “Touchy Questions”

So, the first question is:

During the meet and greet, do you shake someone’s hand or hug someone for the first time?

How about this week, did you shake a strangers hand or hug a friend you haven’t seen in a while?

Psychologists tell us that we have several emotional responses from a human touch, which include:

A touch signals safety and trust, it soothes.

A touch can calm cardiovascular stress.

It activates the body’s vagus nerve, which is involved with our compassionate response.

Think about this woman, although she did not touch His skin, she touched His garment, which in this circumstance, it was essentially the same.

How many times have you heard pastor Jeff say “if you need a touch from Jesus”, or “if you just need to touch His robe”.

I was just thinking about meet and greet this past week and it made me think of how powerful a touch can be, just among us mere mortals!

Let’s go to Luke chapter 8. We will begin in verse 40.

Stand with me while we read Gods Word. Luke 8:40-48- (read from my bible)

Set a visual for the crowd:

They were pressing in. The bible describes it as “throngs of people”. Everybody wanted to get a selfie with Jesus!

Have you ever been in a massive crowd of people? For instance; when leaving a Cowboys game? Everybody in a crowd of 70,000 people wants to get out of the stadium at the same time. It can be a bit overwhelming.

These people are pressing in on Jesus as He is trying to make His way to this 12 year old girl.

Then suddenly, uninvited, this desperate woman touches Jesus’ robe!

Let’s look at who made us this crowd:

Some were undoubtably strict religious leaders. They were avid practitioners of Mosaic Law.

We know this because several verses tell us this about the crowds He drew. John 7:32

Luke 5:17

Luke 23:35

And as we see in these verses, they had their own agenda.

There were also needy people, you know; people like you and me, needing a miracle or blessing from Jesus.

There were also the socially neglected, such as the woman with the blood issue.

Jairus-synagogue leader. Very influential person. He was also a desperate person.

Re-read verse 41 “And behold, there came a man named Jairus and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house”.

The disciples- We’ll get to them in a bit.

So, all these people are pressing in, and the woman touches His robe, and He immediately asked “Who touched me?”

Parents, have you ever asked your child a question that you knew the answer to?

When our oldest son Brig was about 3-4 years old, I was walking into the kitchen as he was walking out of the kitchen. On the corner of his mouth was a smeared piece of chocolate chip. I asked him “Did you get into the chocolate chip cookies?” He shook his head as to say no, and sort of mumbled with a half mouth of cookies “NO”.