March 23, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
Mark 5:24b-34
Seeking Help
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
As we continue the exploration of our Lenten theme of “Seekers,” tonight we consider one of the very frequent reasons why people seek out Jesus. We are seeking help.
The help we need might be for a problem relationship. It could be for financial hardship. We seek the Lord for help in times of sickness or when facing grave peril. We may be in need of strength or endurance. We pray for help with patience and to improve our character. We need help in so many ways.
People have been seeking help from the Lord ever since they began calling on the Lord’s name. The Psalmist repeatedly calls upon the Lord for help:
• You are my HELP and my deliverer, O Lord, do not delay! (Ps. 70:5)
• Our HELP is in the name of the Lord, (Ps. 124:8)
• I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where will my HELP come? My HELP comes for the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Ps. 121:1-2)
We hear tonight of a woman who had suffered from a gynecological bleeding issue for 12 long years. She had already sought out help from many doctors. None of them had been able to resolve her issue. In the process, she had spent all of her money on a cure that was not to be.
But now Jesus had drawn near. The great healer was passing by. She’d heard of his ability to cure the sick and even cast out demons. And now he was near at hand. So she seeks his help.
Let’s just pause here and consider: Is seeking out Jesus’ help your first choice or your last choice? Do you look for help from every other possible source of help but only fall upon the Lord if nothing else works? May we readily come to the Lord for help with our troubles in all things!
This woman’s gynecological problem renders her religiously unclean. For 12 years she hasn’t been allowed to participate in religious ceremonies. If she touches another person, she makes them religiously unclean, too.
This has left her extremely isolated. But when she hears that Jesus is near, she dares to risk touching him. She says to herself, “If I but touch the hem of his garment, I’ll be made well.”
In his fame, Jesus is surrounded by crowds wherever he goes. The woman dives into the scrum of people and elbows her way behind Jesus. She touches his outer cloak and feels herself to be healed immediately.
When this power of healing leaves Jesus, he senses that some of his energy has gone to someone. He stops and asks, “Who just touched me?” He’s surrounded by people and has been jostled from every side. But the woman knows that her very slight touch has been detected.
When we come to Jesus seeking help, our presence and request does not go undetected. Believe and trust that you are known by Jesus and precious to him! Your requests are heard!
The woman publicly confesses that she’s the one who touched him. She, who is not allowed to touch other people, has dared to touch the holy man! She tells him “the whole truth.” She tells him everything. She spilled out her whole story, of the 12 long years of suffering, of seeking help, her lonely isolation and financial desolation.
And Jesus listens. He hears her whole story. He calls her “daughter.” She, who has been so isolated and lonely, is now kin to Jesus.
Jesus wants to hear your whole story, too. Sometimes we can be hesitant as to what qualifies as “prayer worthy.” We shouldn’t trouble the Lord with our petty problems and concerns. The items we want to bring before him seem trivial or even selfish. We think, “A better person would not ask for such things.” Or we think, “I already brought this to the Lord, not only once, but on several occasions. I shouldn’t bother him with it again. I don’t want to be a nag.”
But friends, pay attention to what Jesus calls her: “daughter.” He calls her his daughter. And you know how small children are. You’ve heard how they’ll babble on and on about the most trivial things to their parents. They are unfiltered! If it’s on their heart, they say it.
And didn’t our Lord tell his disciples, “Let the little children come to me!” And he took them up in his lap and blessed them.
When we pray to Jesus, when we seek him for help, let us not hold back! Respond with the faith of the woman who touched Jesus’ cloak. Tell him everything. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
