How To Touch Jesus
Mark 5:21f
Men – Have you ever gone to a ballgame or a fair or concert…. or anyplace where you were caught up in a huge crowd of people pushing each other to get inside… or out?
You are being jostled around… people stepping on your feet, pushing you in the back, cutting in on the side. What do you think about? YOUR WALLET.
I usually take my wallet out of my back pocket and put it in my front pocket… and put my hand in my pocket over it.
Why? Because it is difficult to tell the difference between a push or a bump and a deliberate pick-pocket.
Jesus was in a crowd like that one day.
He didn’t have to worry about his wallet… but he was being touched and bumped and pawed.
Jesus was getting touched all over that day. And like you at the ball game, he paid no attention to most of it.
Then all of a sudden Jesus stops and says, “Who touched me?”
The disciples must have looked at each other like… who touched you? Just about everybody in town has touched you. Do you expect us to identify the person who made one certain touch?
There are many people who touch Jesus every day. And there are many different ways in which people touch Jesus.
Some touched Him superficially, (the crowd)
Some touched Him curiously. (early days of integration)
Some touched Him angrily.
None of those touches were what Jesus was looking for.
None of those touches elicits a response from Jesus.
But there is a touch that is different than the rest... a touch that excites Jesus, that issues forth in the outflow of God's healing power.
IT IS THE TOUCH OF FAITH
Let’s back up and get THE REST OF THE STORY.
In our scripture today there is the story of a woman... a desperate, hopeless, helpless woman. For 12 years she has been sick with some malady, some disease that caused her to bleed. What other women experienced once a month… she lived through daily.
It had ruined her life.
According to the Jewish Law, this “issue of blood” made her unclean. That meant that she was not able to touch anyone else and no one else could touch her…
not ever her kids
not even her family
not even her husband
She became a complete social outcast!!!
Her marriage was over
She had no job
She could not go to church
She could not go to the market
She could not go around other people AT ALL!
She had this crazy idea… if only Jesus would touch her, she would be healed.
But that could not happen because she would defile him.
SO… if he would not touch her… she would touch him.
She decided she would carefully and secretly sneak up through the crowd and ever so barely touch just the very fringe at the bottom of his garment.
He would not know, no one would know because she would go to a different city where no one knew her … but she believed she would be healed.
Everything worked… until she touched him… then it all goes crazy.
Jesus stops and says, “WHO TOUCHED ME?”
Everything goes quiet. Everyone is looking around to see who it is.
She melts into the crowd to hide. She thinks he will soon move on.
But Jesus refuses to move until the person is identified.
He waits. His eyes scour the crowd. His eyes fall on her… and stay there. Like a hot knife… it burns into her heart and she falls on her knees and says, “IT WAS ME!”
What is the lesson we learn from this woman?
You Can touch Jesus in a Hopeless Situation
This woman had endured 12 years of personal pain, shameful disease, and dead end hopes.
She had been to every doctor, every specialist, every quack… tried every home remedy, every myth… and still she continued to be sick.
Surely in those 12 years there were days when it came and went.
Every time it went away, brought great hope that it was over. Only to be dashed again and again with each return.
It had certainly wasted her health and her wealth. It had left her a social outcast, a family shame, probably relegated to some obscure part of the house.
After 12 years she was surely close to giving up all hope.
BUT IT WAS IN THAT HOPELESS SITUATION THAT SHE TOUCHED JESUS.
This may have been her last straw… no more hope if this failed.
But she touched HIM… and she was healed!!!
Some of you can identify with the woman because you too are living with some hopeless situation.
Maybe it is a marriage on which you have given up hope… you have tried to make it work but the other person just does not try. You have tried all you know… and you are ready to walk away.
Maybe it is a financial hopeless situation.
Perhaps you are working in a job that you hate, where you are just miserable, not able to go any higher or ever be more than you are.
Perhaps you are unemployed, laid off, and you have tried everything to find a job. Hundreds of applications… hundreds of rejections… and you have just given up.
Maybe it is medical.
Perhaps you have some condition that is making you miserable.
Cancer, bad joints, old age, cardiac, respiratory… you have tried and tried and just about to give up because you think it is hopeless.
It may be interpersonal
Like some relationship with a child who is recalcitrant, disobedient, out of control, hard to deal with, rebellious and his friends or his language or his addictions are driving you crazy.
Like that nameless woman… you can touch God.
And what is even better is… HE WILL TOUCH YOU.
The story does not record this part but I believe it with all my heart because I know this about Jesus.
When she came forward, afraid and trembling, Jesus heart was touched.
He knew her problem, he knew what the law required, he knew how her life had been destroyed and he knew her pain.
And he did something that was just as important as the healing… he bent down, took her by the hand and helped her to her knees, placed his hand under her chin and lifted it until her eyes met his, and he said, be well.
HE TOUCHED HER! Did you get that? HE TOUCHED HER!
No one had done that for 12 years!
Can you imagine how she longed to be touched, to be held, to hold her children, her husband, her mother?
The deepest need this woman had was to be touched.
HE SHOWED HER LOVE AND TENDERNESS.
You can come to Jesus today, in your hopeless situation, and IN THAT SITUATION God will touch your heart and He will show you how much He loves you.
That hardheaded child may not change his ways… but God will give you peace and love to deal with that child
You may not get a new job, but God will give you a new heart, a new attitude and you can have peace and contentment and happiness in that place.
Her situation was not only hopeless… IT WAS PAINFUL
Perhaps this was a painful sickness… with physical pain.
If not, we can be sure it brought severe emotional pain… to be an outcast... a dirty family secret that they tried to hide from the world... a blight on your loved ones.
It is certain that the religious leaders had branded her a "sinner."
Society saw her sickness as evidence of her sin.
She had not been to the worship in that time, most likely. A person with an issue of blood was "unclean." So, imagine that not only did she feel betrayed by her body and abandoned by her family.... SHE WAS FORSAKEN OF GOD!!!!!!
This woman was in pain.
Some of you can identify with her pain.
Some may know the pain of a failed pregnancy… a baby you wanted, and lost.
Others may be feeling the pain of an abortion, a life snuffed out, and now you carry the emotional scars.
Maybe it is the pain of a failed marriage, a divorce. You may have tried everything you could do… but the divorce has you feeling like a failure.
Maybe you are dealing with the pain of an affair… yours or your spouse’s… now you are feeling like you failed.
Life is full of situations and circumstances that are very painful and may seem hopeless.
BUT REMEMBER: IN HER PAINFUL AND HOPELESS SITUATION… SHE TOUCHED HIM
SO CAN YOU!!!
No matter what you are going through, Jesus will respond to you just as he did to the woman in the story… He will accept you, affirm you and love you.
Some of you are looking for love. You are tired of carrying your load all alone. You feel that no one understands, or worse… no one cares.
Because you feel all alone, and the pain is so deep, and you can’t see any hope at the end… YOU BELIEVE IT WILL ALWAYS BE THIS WAY.
Don’t you know the woman in the story must have felt it would always be that way?
There was just this one little part of her, way down, almost covered up by the doubt and the pain and the failures of the past… It was almost smothered out… but there was a small hope that things could be better.
Do you have that hope: that tiny hope, almost smothered, almost drowned out by your past?
You can do like the woman… you can come to Jesus… reach out and touch him in faith… believe He loves you and will receive you… AND WILL HELP YOU!
One more lesson…
YOU CAN TOUCH JESUS WITHOUT A PERFECT FAITH
Many have failed to touch Jesus because they did not have a perfect faith.
They felt they were disqualified because they did not have all the spiritual answers and faith they should.
She had a little bit of faith... a tiny bit. Not enough to confront Jesus and ask for healing. . . she might risk failure.
She had just enough to touch his garment.
Did Jesus turn and rebuke her for her lack of faith? NO!
Did he ask her spiritual questions to see if she had enough knowledge?
He only asked her to do one thing….
COME FORTH AND CONFESS HER FAITH
And that is all HE will ask of you… come forward, face the crowd… and confess your faith.
Even if it is a tiny faith.
It was not a perfect faith... it was a child-like faith. THAT IS ALL HE ASKS!!!
Jesus will receive you in the same way.
You don't have to have perfect faith. You may have periods of doubts that you will ever be healed. You may go through periods of self-pity and self-loathing. You may have times when you think that He does not care, or does not hear, or is not able.
HE WILL RECEIVE YOU.
All you have to do is come in the strength that you have... in the faith that you have.
AND REACH OUT!!!
I’ve shown you that Jesus will receive you if you reach out and touch Him…Now I want to tell you how to touch Him.
A… Admit… that you are a sinner.
The woman in the story could not be healed of her physical sickness until she first realized and admitted that she was sick.
The Bible tells us that everyone of us is spiritually sick…it is called LOST, we are sinful and disobedient by nature and because of that sin…
We are separated from God… we cannot feel His touch and His love.
We cannot know peace, joy, happiness that He wants to give us because we are cut off… our sins block God’s love and touch.
Admit that you are a sinner and are cut off from God
I’m going to paint a picture now, and all of these things may not apply to any one person… but you may see yourself in this picture…
Jesus I have been living for myself, for my pleasure, for my will.
And I’ve made a mess of my life.
I’ve tried all kinds of things to make myself happy… but I’m not happy.
I’ve chased after the stuff that I thought would make me feel fulfilled… but I’m still just as empty as before.
I have run from one thing to another searching for peace, but there is no peace in my spirit… I have battles on the outside because I have a battle on the inside.
I have fallen into habits and activities that are self-destructive.
I feel trapped and helpless to overcome the temptations and sins… I just can’t break free. They are like chains that bind me.
I cannot become the parent, the spouse or the person I want to be. Instead I have become someone and something I always said I would not become.
When I look in my heart, instead of the joyful, happy person that I once was, now I see a person who is frightened and short-tempered.
I have messed it up… I can’t fix it… and I NEED HELP!
I know it is all because I HAVE SINNED and AM A SINNER!
B… BELIEVE…that Jesus Christ loves you so much that he paid the price, became your ransom, suffered in your place when He came and died on the cross.
Jesus never sinned. He did not deserve to die on that cross.
God knew you sins would separate you eternally and you could not do anything to get rid of your sins.
So God, sent His only Son Jesus, who came to earth in a physical body, to die the death we deserved, to win our forgiveness.
It is not enough to believe there is a God… or to believe that Jesus died on the cross.
We must believe that Jesus died on the cross FOR OUR SINS and that his death paid our ransom, and because of what Jesus did… we can be forgiven and SAVED.
The last step in touching Jesus is…
C… CONFESS… that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Lord means BOSS…and we all know what boss means… He is in charge, not me.
Confess that you are sick of trying to be boss, sick of trying to drive the car because you have made a mess of it
And Say, Jesus, I am ready to get out of the driver’s seat and LET YOU DRIVE.
Whatever you want me to be or to do… I WILL!
I will follow you and trust you to set me free from the bondage of my past, to wash away my sins and to give me the eternal life one day
and the abundant life today.
