Faith has been illustrated in many ways, some of the illustrations successfully illustrate faith and some are not so successful.
I remember seeing a friend of my wife and I in a wheelchair. When we asked her what happened she explained she took part in a faith exercise. She was asked to jump off a platform and let the group catch her, to demonstrate faith. They dropped her and her leg was broken.
It demonstrated faith alright, but it demonstrated why you need to put your faith in one who is trustworthy.
Jesus uses some great lessons on faith. One faith lesson sandwiched within another. It is the story of the woman with bleeding who touched Jesus and was made whole. This is found within the story of Jairus the synagogue ruler and his daughter raised to life.
Both get was they wanted and both receive this through faith. Jesus acknowledges faith; even weak faith is able to make a person whole. Jesus honors faith.
Mark 5:25-34
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
The story begins with a synagogue ruler approaching Jesus about his daughter who is dying. On his way to bring blessing he blesses another. As Jesus was walking along the people thronged around him. But only one touched him. There is a difference.
There may be crowds of people interested in Bible study and attending church, in a sense throng around Jesus but they need to touch him. A saving faith is needed. The crowd is large but the gate in narrow.
The woman had a problem with hemorrhaging, a serious condition of bleeding. She was subject to bleeding for 12 years. According to Leviticus 15:25-27 she was unclean and whatever she touched was unclean. Mark tells us she spent everything she has on doctors and just got worse. Dr. Luke just says it was incurable.
She was by all reasonable thinking a hopeless case. But there is someone to turn to when everything seems hopeless. Jesus is the great Physician. That is who she went to.
Here faith was incomplete and a little misguided, she thought touching Jesus clothes would heal her, but her faith was genuine. The crowd was merely rubbing shoulders with Jesus, but this woman touched him. What she did was different that the crowd.
When she touched Jesus in faith power (Greek word: dunamis) went from him and made her whole. Jesus said, “who touched me?” Jesus draws public attention to her.
The disciples could not understand this. The disciples did not understand this, but it is important that we understand this. There were so many people pressing in on Jesus, only one touched him in faith.
She was helpless and needed help and turned to Jesus. He would help this woman perfect her faith. Jesus wants this woman to receive the full blessing of openly expressing her faith before the people. We encourage a public profession of faith. She is not to remain a secret believer.
The woman knew that Jesus meant her. She felt the power of God enter her body, just as Jesus felt it leave his. She came to his feet trembling and told him the whole truth. She was scared. Her touching someone causes uncleanness, would she be rebuked?
Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law. Instead of a rebuke Jesus commends her faith. Jesus calls her daughter. She was trembling, she was unclean and she was afraid she would be in trouble for touching Jesus, making him unclean.
Her faith had made her part of the family of God. That word, daughter, must have been very encouraging to her. Accepted by Jesus, welcomed to the family of God.
When you place your faith in Jesus you are adopted in the family of God. You are in the royal family.
Jesus said your faith has healed you. Your faith has made you whole. None of us will ever know the fullness, wholeness that God intends without faith in Christ. We do not come to Jesus by our good works. Salvation is a free gift and Jesus already paid the price when he died on the cross.
We need like this woman to see our need. We are helpless, only Jesus can bring salvation to the lost. We need to turn our lives totally to him.
Go in peace. Be free from suffering. There is a peace when we meet Jesus. Don’t be one who rubs shoulders attending church or reading the Bible and does not touch Jesus by faith.
This woman had one opportunity and she seized it. She took the opportunity of faith. Receive the peace and wholeness Jesus offers. It was a hopeless illness that brought this woman to Jesus.
A soldier wrote his mother, this war had to occur that I might be saved.” The woman showed the letter to her pastor. He said not only the war had to occur but Calvary, Jesus death had to occur to save your son.
What will it take for you to turn to Jesus by faith?
