May, 2007
Overcoming the Hindrances of Life
Mark 5:21-34
INTRODUCTION: In this scripture, people were already waiting for Jesus before He even stepped off the ship. Right away there was an emergency. His first request was from a man, Jarius, a ruler of the synagogue, to go lay hands on his only daughter who was at the point of death. Jesus said that He would go. As He was making His way through the crowd, He was interrupted. Jesus stopped and asked, “Who touched me?” The disciples were a little bit irritated by this question because there were so many people in the crowd that any number of people could have touched him. And besides they were on their way to a “real” emergency. They were going to pray for the daughter of an “important” person. They didn’t have time to stop for this. But Jesus said, “No, I felt healing power (virtue) go out of me to someone.” The woman, trembling with fear, came forward and told Jesus everything.
Background Information on the Woman:
What do we know about this woman? She had a serious medical problem. Scripture tells us that she had had a chronic problem for 12 years, and she had gone to lots of doctors, had spent all of her money, and she still wasn’t well. She, in fact, was worse and would probably continue to get worse.
The account in Luke 8:44 tells us that the woman walked up behind Jesus and touched the border of his garment. Why did she do this? She did not want to be detected for two reasons:
1. She was probably embarrassed by her problem
2. She was considered ceremonially unclean according to Leviticus 15:25
She was not to touch anyone.
She thought she could be undetected in such a large crowd, she could touch the hem, and she could go away healed.
At that time there was a cultural superstition that the power of a person was transmitted to his clothing. This woman may have shared this belief that was common in her day that the power was transmitted to Jesus’ clothing and that if only she could touch the hem of His garment she would be healed.
She was probably not the most spiritual person at that point in her life. Really, Jesus was her LAST RESORT. She had tried everything else first.
But she did have her measure of faith. She had heard about what Jesus had done for other people. At her starting point she may have had a mixture of faith and superstition because she touched the hem of His garment.
Why did Jesus take the time to stop and call her out?
Jesus wanted her to come forward not to rebuke her but to show her two things:
1. that it was her FAITH that had made her whole and not the superstitious act of touching the hem of His garment.
2. also to allow her to make a public confession and to cancel the uncleanness ritual of society that had been on her.
Jesus wanted to take the faith she already had and fan it into a flame of higher faith.
Then Jesus said to her, “Go in Peace.” This was a traditional Jewish formula of leave taking. The woman was completely healed, she was now in a right relationship with God, and she also had Jesus’ blessing upon her as she left. I think this was a great day for her, don’t you?
TRANSITION: Hindrances in her way
In spite of the fact that Jesus was in town, this woman had to overcome several hindrances before she actually got to Jesus. Let’s look at some of the hindrances that could have kept her from receiving her healing.
1. Lack of Money: She was financially a poor woman by now. She had spent all she had on doctors. She could have said, “I don’t have any money to get there. I can’t afford it. She may have said, “I’m on a fixed income.” How many people say this? A lack of finances could have been a very big hindrance to her.
She did not allow this to hinder her because at the beginning of the scripture reading she was there in the crowd. She had gotten from her home and at least was a part of the crowd.
2. Giving up on her problem: In spite of the fact that Jesus was in town, this woman had to overcome a hindrance that could be more powerful than a lack of money. She had already done all she could do and she still wasn’t well. She could have been to the point where she was ready to give up and just say, “I don’t think anything will help, and I’m not going to try anymore. I don’t think there is an answer to my problem.” What are your feelings about what can or can’t happen in your life? Has that become a hindrance for you?
ILLUSTRATION: There was a woman who found out she had cancer. Her friends said, “Oh, she doesn’t care that she’s dying. She’s lived a good life. Pray for her.” She seemed content to let cancer take her life. And she died about a month later at age 66.
The woman in this scripture could have thought this way. But no, she said, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.”
3. Psychological Isolation: Another hindrance was that she was in a crowd of people who were pressing in. It was not easy to get to Jesus. She had to inch her way along. People were in front of her, behind her, and on each side of her. She could have thought, “This takes too much effort to go to Jesus. I’m sick, I’m weak, and I’m just exhausted. Besides that, crowds make me nervous. I just can’t do it.”
She may have become psychologically isolated from people over the 12 years since she was considered ceremonial unclean. It may have been difficult for her to push herself out among people even if she had felt better. She may have felt awkward, and her anxiety level may have gone higher and higher as she approached the crowd.
ILLUSTRATION: A neighbor whose husband died of a heart attack over a year ago, stays home most of the time. She won’t go to church or anywhere except when she has to. She says she doesn’t feel “comfortable” in a crowd. She has not been back to church since he died.
But the woman in our story overcame the hindrance of being in a crowd. She did not let people hold her back. She was focused in saying, “if I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.”
4. Procrastination: She could have said, “I’ll go to Jesus when the timing is better. Next week may be a better time or maybe when He comes back in the spring the weather will be better. But this woman had a sense of urgency. She was not going to be hindered by procrastination and of a “Maybe sometime later” mentality. Today was the day for her. She had wasted enough time. She was getting worse. She couldn’t go on any longer in a downward spiral. She said, “If I can only touch the hem of His garment--TODAY--NOW, I will be healed.” In this story you don’t have any indication that she would be hindered by putting it off until another day.
5. Lack of Help: She may have thought, “I don’t have anyone to help me get to Jesus.” She had to go it alone. Many people say, “I can’t go to church because I would have to sit by myself. Or others say, “I don’t have a way to get there.” This woman overcame this hindrance by slowly moving out in the direction of Jesus, by herself, taking ONE step at a time. She didn’t know how long it would take her to get there. She didn’t know how many times she would have to stop and rest on the way. That didn’t matter. She said, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be well.”
6. Taking a Risk: As she was making her way toward Jesus, she knew that she was planning to break the ceremonial rule by touching Jesus. She was willing to take a risk in order to regain her health.
She may have experienced and overcome many other hindrances before she finally got to Jesus. One thing for sure was that she stayed focused on getting to Him. It was a priority to her. No matter how much people pushed and shoved, no matter how crowded was the road before her, she continued to inch her way toward Jesus.
The question I would like to ask you is, “What is keeping you from getting to Jesus? What is keeping you from getting your needs met?”
We live in a day when there are many, many things that hinder us from being what we want to be for God. Things hinder us from getting to Jesus. We need to be aware of how Satan operates. Scripture tells us that Satan comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. That’s what he was trying to do to the woman in our story. We do not have to let him do this to us.
What is hindering you? What is pressing in on you from every side?
There are things that you need today in your personal lives as well as needs in this church, but you are allowing Satan to rob you of your answer. Some of you need better jobs, some of you need people in your family to be saved, some of you need to begin to do new ministries that the Lord is speaking to you about. Some need to become more committed to growing in the Lord. There could be any number of things that you desire to see changed, but you feel too weak to see it happen.
We are all needy in some area of life just like this woman was.
Just what are some typical hindrances that we can identify in our lives and overcome today?
1. Wrong priorities--not putting God first in our lives
2. Busyness
3. Family criticisms and comments that hold us back
4. Lack of time--too many demands on us
5. Lack of energy--being exhausted all the time
6. Lack of money
7. Fear of people
8. Friends--laughing at us
9. A lack of spiritual perception of what God really can do and wants to do
You can probably identify things on this list that are hindrances to you. To crowd out distractions and overcome hindrances, we need to press in closer to Jesus so that we can hear what He is trying to say to us. We need to press in to show that we really mean business and that we make it our top priority.
Just as this woman was so focused that she could say, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed,” we must be close enough to Him in order to touch Him. We can’t be following Him from afar off. There is a cost to pressing in, but the woman in our story found it well worth any price she had to pay.
Today is the day for you and for me to overcome our hindrances. Let’s touch the hem of His garment and be made whole.
Let us Pray:
“Lord, make yourself real to us. Help us to focus
on You as we begin overcoming the hindrances in our lives. Assure us that no problem is too great
for You to handle and that You will meet us at our
point of need today. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen”
