Opening illustration: Healing of a Hindu gentleman [in the Middle-East] who opened his house for prayer and became a Christian at his time of deepest need and crisis.
Introduction: The story of this woman has always fascinated me for nowhere else in the scripture can we find a healing literally stolen from Christ. What we have here is the power of faith, the kind that does not wait for approval. Now, I wonder if there is a place of such faith in our everyday lives today when the norm is an endless petition often with intentions of subduing the heavens into giving in to what we want for ourselves. Others, of course, with courage seek to receive the will of God but nevertheless wait for what God will give. The woman literally grabs it from Christ. She took it without Christ’s permission.
I believe that there really is such a place for that kind of desperation in our lives today. However, most important is the discernment of what it is that we want for ourselves. It is never an act of pride to believe that we shall receive when what we wish for ourselves is what God wills. In fact, it is humility of the heart that makes us believe, knowing that He truly loves us, we need nothing more from Him for whatever we wish for ourselves is already ours for the taking.
What does it take to touch God?
1. Our DESPERATION/NEED(s) [v. 25]:
What does it mean to live desperate for Jesus? That depends on the Jesus you know. Some of us run to Him when things go wrong and move away from Him when life is smooth, but there's a better way to live. Although most can quote, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled,” many have never truly experienced it—very few are truly hungry and thirsty for God.
Here was a woman who was hemorrhaging for twelve years (an overdue long-lasting problem). According to Jewish law (Leviticus 15:25-27), she was declared to be unclean. That means, she was cut off from attending the synagogue and also cut off from all her relationships. She was to be ostracized from being part of Jewish society. We also learn from Biblical historians that the Jewish Talmud describes eleven different cures for this common disease. We can imagine the devastation of being declared unclean for twelve years. That means, she had been living in isolation for a long, long time. She was an outcast.
Many people don’t doubt God’s ability to heal; they doubt His willingness to heal someone as “worthless” as themselves. You know what, God stopped for her to meet her need. Like this woman, you may be in a crowd, insignificant to the world but God knows you. He knows your desperation and He stops for just you. God desires a people who are desperate for Him. You see that God is attracted to our needs. The Bible tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart.
Illustration: (i) You may have seen pictures of children eating out of trash can in poverty-stricken countries. They are skin and bones with their stomachs touching their spine. Its takes a hunger like that to get desperate for God.
(ii) A woman was desperate to run into a burning building. Her babies were left inside. It took 5 heavy guys to contain her. That is the kind of desperation we need for God.
(ii) A young man comes to Archimedes seeking for wisdom. Archimedes takes him to a lake and pushes him down under the water and puts his hand upon his head preventing him to surface. But after much struggle before he drowned, he brings him up. Archimedes asks him what did he desire most when he was down and under. He said he desired to breathe. Then Archimedes told him that when his desire for wisdom is likewise, he shall have it.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 … the more you search and explore the world to meet your desires, the more you distance yourself from God and gradually go in the deep end, sometimes from where there is no return. Get your heart out of the world and focus on Jesus. You will surely find Him.
2. Life CRISIS [v. 26]:
Most of us get desperate only when we have a crisis in life. The word desperate comes from the Latin word desperados’ which means one who has lost all hope. To be desperate without God is to be lost indeed. But to be desperate in God is to find hope restored.
Many people today have similar experiences. That is, many people visit a vast variety of doctors, trying to find a cure. Many people today spend much of their money on doctors and become medically poor. Many people today do not get better but worse. In ancient days with ancient medicine, we cannot even begin to imagine the primitiveness of medical treatment and its consuming costs. This woman had spent all her earnings on medicine and was worse for it.
“Pliny’s Natural History reveals the generally low condition of medical science in the world at that time. Physicians were accustomed to prescribing doses of curious concoctions made from ashes of burnt wolf’s skull, stags’ horns, heads of mice, the eyes of crabs, owl’s brains, the livers of frogs and other like elements. For dysentery powdered horses’ teeth were administered, and a cold in the head was cured by kissing a mule’s nose.”
From Jewish writings, such as the Talmud, we learn of some of these ‘cures’: “One remedy consisted of drinking a goblet of wine containing a powder compounded from rubber, alum and garden crocuses. Another treatment consisted of a dose of Persian onions cooked in wine administered with the summons, “Arise out of your flow of blood!’ Other physicians prescribed sudden shock, or the carrying of the ash of an ostrich’s egg in a certain cloth.”
To add insult to injury (literally) this woman was also subjected to tremendous social pressures. The nature of this woman’s illness fell under the stipulations of Leviticus 15, whereby she would have to be pronounced unclean. As such she had been an outcast for twelve years. She could not take part in any religious observances, nor could she have any public contact without defiling those whom she touched. She was also forced to be separated from her husband and abandoned from society.
Last of all, this woman lost all her financial resources. Mark tells us that she had spent all her money on doctor bills, with no relief - indeed, with added affliction. And in those days, there was no such thing as a malpractice suit. Her problem was beyond extremity. She was tired of man’s intervention in her life. For you to find God and be desperate for Him, you have to get sick and tired with the world and what it can offer. The lady came to Jesus as a last resort. She had tried everything, every doctor and every possible remedy on earth to cure her. This was her last chance ~ Jesus Himself. She was never disappointed.
Illustration: Here is a story of faith and need from a monastery in Europe which is perched high on a cliff several hundred feet in the air. The only way to reach the monastery was to be suspended in a basket, which was pulled to the top by several monks who pulled and tugged with all their strength. Obviously, the ride up the steep cliff in that basket was terrifying.
One tourist got exceedingly nervous about halfway up as he noticed that the rope by which he was suspended was old and frayed. With trembling voice, he asked the monk who was riding with him in the basket how often they changed the rope. The monk thought for a moment and answered brusquely, "Whenever it breaks."
I think at this point in the ride, it was a need for prayer. After having a life crisis, you need to …
Application: Most of the time we come to Christ when we have a crisis. All the while when everything was going well, we didn’t need Him. We didn’t even care about anything related to Christ. We try every possible remedy, going to the extent of spending thousands of dollars to sort out the crisis but all in vain and that is the time when we come to Christ. The issue here is, after He sorts out our crisis issues, will we still hang on to Him? Is He convinced about it? Because many leave Him or become casual about Him after their happy and comfort days return.
3. Reasoning (culture) says ‘NO’; Faith says ‘YES’ [vs. 27 – 28]:
According to the ceremonial law, the touch of anyone having the disease which this woman had would have defiled the person she touched. Her case was one of shame in the society and culture she lived in. This woman’s faith was almost superstitious. That is, if she touched his hankie, his garment, the fringe of his garment, his hand, she would be healed.
Her faith seems to have been a superstitious faith but that didn’t’ stop Jesus from healing her. Very often, our faith does not measure up to the church’s definition of a high quality of faith. This woman’s faith was not complex, theologically sophisticated, or religiously stylish. Rather this woman’s faith was simple and seemingly superstitious, and that was OK with Jesus. Her act of faith superseded her superstition.
So, this lady slipped up behind Jesus and touched the ‘hem’ of His garment; the Greek word is kraspedon. In the OT this word is translated as ‘fringe;’ in Hebrew the word is ‘zizith.’ These fringes were four tassels of hyacinth blue worn by a Jew on the corners of his outer garment. They were worn in obedience to the injunction of the Law in Numbers 15 and Deuteronomy 22. Matthew refers to them in 14 and 23. They consisted of four threads passing through the four corners of the garment and meeting in eight. One of the threads was longer than the others. It was twisted seven times round the others, and a double knot formed; then eight times; then eleven times; then thirteen times. The thread and the knot stood for the five books of the LAW. The idea of the fringe was twofold. It was meant to identify a Jew as a Jew and as a member of the chosen people, no matter where he was; and it was meant to remind a Jew every time he put on and took off his clothes that he belonged to God. In later times, when the Jews were universally persecuted, the tassels were worn on the undergarment, and today they are worn on the prayer-shawl which a devout Jew wears when he prays. It was the tassel on the robe of Jesus that this woman touched.
Application: We may be in a similar situation. A circumstance of societal and cultural pressures, maybe of shame and something that you don’t want others to know. God knows it all; even before you articulate it to Him. Time to break all walls and obstacles. Time to say ‘YES’ and touch Him in faith.
Note: But in today’s context, how can I touch Him? By your passionate prayers, worship, longing to be in His presence day and night and above all our complete and surrendered obedience and faithfulness to Him. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” [Philippians 4: 6]
What does our desperation for God do? (vs. 29-34)
? Draws God’s attention
? Our needs are met (healing, prayer answered …)
? Builds our testimony
