“Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
As always the question to begin:
Do you have the faith to believe God will perform a miracle in your life?
We continue in our series on Supernatural Springs, and this morning is our last sermon on The Supernatural Spring of Peace and Rest.
Today is also the fifth Sunday of the month so it is a Healing and Wholeness Service.
What I want us to do is consider together the blessing of peace that Jesus gave to a woman after she was miraculously healed of a condition that had plagued and afflicted her for twelve years.
A woman whose name is not even mentioned in the Bible but the miracle that occurred in her life is recorded as an example to us of the miracles that can happen by placing our faith and trust in Jesus for Healing and Wholeness.
Mark Chapter 5 and I’m reading from the New Living Translation:
25 A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. 26 She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.
27 She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind Him through the crowd and touched His robe. 28 For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I will be healed.”
29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
30 Jesus realised at once that healing power had gone out from Him, so He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 But He kept on looking around to see who had done it.
33 Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realisation of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done.
34 And Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Mark 5:25-34 25
Here is a woman who has experienced internal bleeding for twelve years.
Guys, you don’t know how fortunate we are that we don’t have to experience a period each month.
Apparently for most ladies, the average bleed lasts for between three and five days each month.
But this woman had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding.
Jewish women were actually allowed a rest from daily duties during their period because according to the Written Laws found in Leviticus they were declared ceremonially unclean.
Leviticus 15:19 says “Whenever a woman has her period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.”
and Leviticus 15:25-27 says “If a woman has a flow of blood for many days, unrelated to her period, or if the blood continues beyond the normal period, she is ceremonially unclean... the woman will be unclean as long as the discharge continues. Any bed she lies on and any object she sits on during that time will be unclean... If any of you touch these things, you will be ceremonially unclean. You must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.
This woman had two serious problems to contend with - the first was a medical condition that had probably made her anaemic and physically weak.
The second problem was that according to Jewish law she was not welcomed in society. She was unclean, defiled, and impure. And if she touched someone they also would become unclean, defiled, and impure.
Not a good place to be in. Not a place filled with joy and hope, not a place of rest and peace.
This is a woman who desperately needed physical and emotional healing in her life.
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In 1st Century Palestine there were places that were sort of like hospitals.
Unlike today there would have been no method of transfusion to replace loss blood supply.
Doctors, for lack of a better name, charged high prices for very sub-standard care.
A doctor would prescribe herbs, perform some basic surgery on external wounds but fixing internal bleeding would have been far beyond their ability.
Verse 26 tells us She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.
Here was a woman who had, humanly speaking,
tried everything to get well,
maybe she had tried some seriously unpleasant treatments,
maybe she had tried every possible herbal remedy,
maybe she had even let some of the doctors experiment with strange and pointless surgical operations
Over the years she had spent everything she had and nothing had worked and in fact her condition was getting worse.
Bleeding for twelve years - that meant she had been unclean for twelve years.
Unable to touch anyone for twelve years and in fact anything she even touched was also considered unclean.
Her clothes are considered unclean.
Her furniture is considered unclean.
Her home would be considered unclean.
No visitors. No friends. Maybe if she had any family they had also abandoned her long ago.
She would have been banned from worshipping in the synagogue just in case she accidentally touched someone else.
This woman needed to be healed, she needed to be made whole.
And perhaps it was in her darkest moment, when it felt that there was no cure, no options, no hope, that she heard about Jesus.
Jesus, the hope for the hopeless, the divine physician, the great healer.
She hears about Jesus, and she knows He is her only hope for healing, her only hope for peace from twelve years of suffering.
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Maybe she disguised herself, the people knew she was ceremonially unclean.
If she had been spotted out in a public place she would have been harassed, rejected, driven away.
She needed healing. This was her last chance.
Perhaps she never realised just how large the crowd around Jesus would be, all those people surrounding Him, pressing in to touch Him.
The crowd was extremely large. There was no way for her to speak to Jesus. There was no way for her to approach Him and look Him in the eye and asked to be healed. She knows Jesus is her only hope and she thinks to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”
Something inside told her just one touch of the King would change everything. Then she sees her opportunity and she takes it.
The woman manages to get behind Jesus... She reaches out her hand and touches Jesus robe.
Mark 5:29 Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Immediately the bleeding stopped. She instantly felt the healing.
For the first time in twelve years she felt whole.
For the first time in twelve years there was peace, real peace in her heart. No pain. She was healed.
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All she wanted to do was disappear back into the crowd. Maybe change her clothes and then go to see the priest in the Synagogue for him to declare her fit to worship.
Twelve long years but now she had could rebuild her life.
Then suddenly she stops and listens to Jesus call out.
Can you imagine the woman’s peace turn to fear as she hears Jesus ask “Who touched my robe?”
I can just imagine the look on the disciples faces when Jesus spoke those words.
I can hear them say Jesus, “Did you notice the crowd? Do you realise how many people are touching you? How can you ask, ‘Who touched my robe?’
Jesus continues to look, I believe He already knew who had touched His robe, but He wanted the woman to reveal herself to the crowd.
Luke 8:46 reveals what He said next “Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”
I believe Jesus knew who had been healed. Jesus knew who was unclean who was now clean.
Yet the woman was fearful, remember according to Jewish law, she had been unclean, her touch would have made Jesus unclean.
As a woman she was restricted from touching a man in public.
She saw His eyes looking for her.
Should she run?
If she ran would she lose her healing?
If she confesses she would face death for breaking the sacred laws.
She trembles and drops to her knees in front of Jesus.
Mark 5:33 “Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realisation of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done.”
Can you imagine the crowd pulling back as this unclean woman comes forward.
Those who had been trying to get close to Jesus draw away with a look of horror on their faces,
Hear them murmur and shout,
“That’s the bleeding woman.”
“Twelve years unclean”
“Keep away from her, keep her away”
The woman is trembling, the woman is afraid.
Maybe head bowed down she manages to stammer out what she has done.
She tells Jesus everything, pours out all the details.
She has fallen at Jesus feet to beg for mercy and yet she also worships Him for what He has already done.
Now imagine Jesus standing over her, His face not full of horror or anger but radiating the very love and peace of God.
Then Jesus speaks, maybe with a smile on His lips and probably with His voice full of compassion and love.
Mark 5:34 “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”
Jesus speaks and utters the words many still hear today, My daughter, my son, my child, your faith has made you well.
Go in peace. Your suffering is over.
The woman who expected punishment is given a blessing of peace and Jesus confirms for the whole crowd to hear, she is well, she is clean her suffering is over.
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There is something important for us to note about Jesus calling this woman daughter.
Jesus was not referring to himself as her father, Jesus was reminding her of the fact she was a “Daughter of Abraham.” She was one of God’s chosen.
The other thing that is really important is that Jesus wanted this woman to know it was her faith that had made her well, had healed her.
This woman had the faith enough to seek Jesus.
This woman had the faith to reach out knowing just a touch of Jesus robe would heal her.
Jesus told her Go in peace. Your suffering is over
She had suffered for twelve years.
That was in the past. It was time to leave the bad days, the bad months, the bad years behind.
It was over.
She was healed. She was whole. She had peace.
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So how can we apply this to our own circumstances and situations?
What can we see of ourselves in this woman?
Maybe you have tried to find peace and satisfaction in the things of the world.
Maybe you have tried some of the many “cures” this world tries so hard to convince people are the right cures, the right answers, the right ways.
Maybe you have pursued pleasure, intellect, physical beauty or strength.
Maybe you have tried different philosophy’s or religious systems.
Maybe you have discovered the same as this woman did - the best things the world can offer are pointless and empty.
Pursuing anything or anyone other than Jesus will only leave you worse off than when you began.
Jesus said: in Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Can you see anything of yourself in this woman?
Have you been afflicted with something that makes you feel broken or unclean?
Is than an infirmity in your life that is causing you to draw away from God or draw near to Him?
Do you look alright on the outside but inside your heart is bleeding?
There is only one who can truly bring healing. No matter what you are going through Jesus can work in that situation.
No matter what circumstance you are in, Jesus can bring you out of it.
When you feel like the world is against you, and you feel like there’s no way out, Jesus can bring release.
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For that woman, in a single moment her life was changed and transformed.
She reaches out to Jesus in trust and faith and the healing happens.
Do you need to reach out to Jesus this morning?
Just one touch from Jesus and years of misery, disappointment, discouragement, fear, and anguish are turned into joy, peace and thanksgiving.
Lots of people in the crowd touched Jesus that day, but only one got healed.
Maybe you can feel like you belong in the crowd, but do you have real faith to reach out to Jesus?
It is not enough to stand in the crowd and hear Jesus is the answer.
You need to step out of the crowd – reach out your hand to Jesus, your Lord and your saviour.
Do you have the faith to step forward and reach out to the great physician for Healing?
All we can ever want or need is there if we just step forward and reach out and touch.
Reach out and touch Jesus for healing.
Reach out and touch Jesus for wholeness.
Reach out and touch Jesus for peace.
Reach out and touch Jesus for life in all its fullness.
Reach out and touch Jesus for eternal life.
Reach out to Jesus in faith.
Prayer
