HAVE YOU TOUCHED JESUS
MARK 5:24-34
24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well." 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched My clothes?" 31 But His disciples said to Him, "You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ’Who touched Me?’ " 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."
Mark 5:24-34 (NKJV)
There is a commercial on TV that has two children, a brother and sister, sitting of the beach. The boy is pestering the girl by holding his finger about an inch for the girls back and saying, “I’m not touching you” The girl on the other hand calls out to the parents, “He’s touching me”. That brings back some memories of my childhood. We might get a laugh out of that thinking that is the way children are, but we too can be that way as adults.
Some claim they don’t want to be touched. However, I believe that deep down all of us want to be touched. I don’t mean that in a perverted way, but in a healthy wholesome way. We often hear talk about appropriate touch. We know what that means. I learned early on that I cannot do ministry without touching. I have visited people in ICU who had little strength to move, but when I got ready to pray they reached out for me to take their hand. Now I have never seen anyone miraculously healed by holding my hand, but I do believe it made a difference. We know that touch is powerful.
There are different types of touch. Some are very meaningful while others are meaningless. There is the touch of our loved ones and friends that bring warmth and love and there is the touch when we bump into someone or have to stand real close to them in an elevator.
(** Most of the time when I visit Vanderbilt hospital the elevators are full. I have taken the steps, but that takes a lot of energy. I pack in with people I don’t know, and we can’t help but touch. That usually makes people uncomfortable. Most of the time we will all stand and look at the ceiling waiting to get off. )
In this passage we see how touching the Savior change a woman’s life.
Most of us are familiar with this story. That is good, but I believe we can become too familiar. I am not suggesting that we forget it, but that we can miss out on a lot of the meaning and message of the passage when we become so familiar that we take it for granted.
This woman had a disease that made her an outcast. We could call her an untouchable because anyone who touched her would be considered unclean.
She had been ill for 12 years and had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors.
She had spent all she had. She was bankrupt because of her illness and she was getting worse.
When she heard about Jesus she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. She said that if she could just touch his garment she would be healed.
One thing that struck me about this passage is that it is one of the few times when the recipient of the healing did the touching...
A lot of the healings we see Jesus reaching out and touching someone. He touches the leper, the blind man, the deaf man and several others. Here it is the woman with the illness who does the touching. She seems to sneak up behind Jesus to get a cure. She had to do that because of her illness. She was not supposed to come in contact with anyone because she was considered unclean. She takes a chance and makes her way though to crowd just to get to touch his garment. She did and the rest is history. She got healed.
She might have thought that she could remain anonymous and fade into the crowd, but Jesus realized the power had gone out from him and called for the person who had received the healing to profess it. Right out there in front of everybody Jesus asked, “Who touched me?”
When we make contact with Jesus we can’t keep it secret
Let me take a side step from my main point this morning. There are many who like the woman have received the healing power of Jesus in their lives. They have been forgiven of their sins, but they try to fade into the crown without saying anything. They say it is a personal matter between them and Jesus. We must let our faith show. Notice that Jesus didn’t point her out, but called for her to be a witness. She had the choice. I don’t know what would have happened if she has allowed fear to keep her silent. I don’t think he would have taken back the healing, but I believe she would not have been able to really experience the fullness of he healing had she remained silent.
Some may say that they can’t be a witness. They fear what others might thing or say. They might think it was easy for this woman, but she risks it all to confess that she was the one. She fell at his feet and, trembling with fear told him the whole truth.
She stood the chance of being punished severely or even put the death since she had touched others on her way to Jesus and in their eyes had defiled Jesus by touching him, yet she came forward.
She also came in worship. How much worshipping do you and I do?
Another thing that strikes me about this passage is all the others who crowded around Jesus touching him, yet they experienced nothing.
It seems quite obvious that many others touched Jesus that day. Mark says they pressed around him. I believe there were many who touched him as the pressed toward him. We know that surely others must have touched by the response of the disciples when he asked who touched him.
(** I love children and I love getting and giving hugs. Occasionally Linda Rudy asks me to do a devotional at her school. I always get a lot of hugs when I go. I learned the hard way that I needed to have a little order when I got hugs. The first time I went and asked for hugs all the children rushed toward me at once. They were smothering me with hugs, but I didn’t get to talk to them individually. Now when I go and it comes “hug time” Linda tells them to line up and give me a hug one at a time)
When I picture this crowd pressing Jesus I see them getting in his space and touching him. I wonder if Jesus ever put out his hand and told them they had to give him some space.
If one woman could touch his garment with the tip of her fingers and get healed from a devastating disease that had plagued her for 12 years why didn’t all those others in the crown who touched him have some experience? I don’t mean to be sacrilegious but I could picture people touching Jesus and power leaving him left and right. I could imagine a loud sound like when someone touches a power line. But all the others in the crowd though they had an advantage over the woman in that they could come freely and had strength to press forward in the crowd didn’t get it. I can hear some of them later on talk about coming in contact with Jesus and nothing happening to them.
I guess we could say they came in contact but didn’t really connect with Jesus. They were in the crowd with Jesus. They saw him and touched him, but only the touch of the woman really touched Jesus.
This is a very positive story about a healing, but it is also a sad story about all those in the crowd who touched but didn’t make contact. I think of the Pharisees who were always in the crowd. They probable saw more miracles that any body else, and I am sure that they bumped into Jesus a time or two. But they never connected with his life changing power. The came and were in the crowd. They were with Jesus and many even touched him, but when the day ended they returned home the same as they went.
As I think about this picture I become aware of a sad truth, not everyone in the crowd ever had a life changing experience. Jesus was among them, but for the crowd he might as well been somewhere else.
Mark does not mention it, but we can be sure that there was more than one person in that crowd with infirmities.
Looking at that scenario I began to realize that it is still being played out today. There are a lot of people in church who are in the crowd. They come and rub elbows with Jesus, so to speak, but experience very little of his life changing power.
(** We sometime describe a good church meeting by saying that the Lord showed up. That is great and that is what we want, yet we can see here that not everyone connects with Him when he shows up. Sometimes the Lord shows up and people in his presence are still not changed. I have seen this happen on occasion. Revival would start in the church and some would be changed by the power of God while others remained unchanged. *** Some people are always looking for a “Spirit filled” church. That is not a bad thing, but one can be in a spirit filled church and not be aware of it or be changed by it.)
From this passage we can conclude that it is possible for the Lord to show up and be in our mist and we can even touch him and not receive his healing and changing power in our lives. Some might say that is not possible, but that is exactly what we see in this passage.
(** I sometimes encounter people who are always looking to the place where the Lord is. They go from church to church and claim to be where he is. I don’t doubt that, but I am often puzzled at the lack of evidence in their lives that they have been with Jesus. They seem to be carrying the same diseases and sins. Some never become concerned enough to tell others, they seem to have the same and hatreds. To borrow a phrase from the “Celebrate Recovery” program at Buffalo Lick, some still have their same Hurts, Habits, and Hang-ups)
As I thought about this I began to realize that for some it can be dangerous to be in the crowd with those who follow Jesus. No I don’t think Jesus will zap them, but they can be self deceived by being in the crowd. I am convinced that many believe being in the crowd is enough. They have never experienced a personal encounter with Jesus though they might rub elbows with him.
Many people join the crowd in church each Sunday, but go home unchanged. They hear the Word and see Jesus but they don’t seem to get it. Now I am not talking about those who have membership, but don’t attend, but we who are very active can fail to connect with Jesus in a life- changing way. I believe that anytime we meet in the crowd with Jesus and leave unchanged we have failed to connect.
Some of you might think the pastor has started talking about having a healing service at every meeting. That is not exactly what I am suggesting, yet I believe that every time we really touch and make contact with the Lord He brings healing change in our lives.
Many fear or are opposed to change, but the fact is that every time we touch Jesus and make contact he is going to bring change in our lives.
It could be a physical healing. We know that he can.
But it could be even more vital changes.
1. It could be forgiveness of sin. We all need forgiveness. How sad it is to
Meet with the one who has authority to forgive and remain in our sin.
2. It could a change in our attitude or a change of mind. Do you ever need an attitude adjustment? I think if we are honest we will all say yes.
Some might be saying that they have come to touch the Lord and he has not connected with them. This gets stated in various ways. One is to claim to be seeking the Lord and not hearing from Him for a long period of time. Some might cay that the reason we have the story about this woman is that the Lord just picked her out of the crowd.
(** The past few weeks we have been hearing about the life and death of Pope John Paul II. Now I am not putting Jesus and the Pope is the same category, though some other might. I will not go there. But I saw some interviews of people who claimed to have had life-changing experiences as the result of connecting with the Pope. One man said his life was changed as he saw the Pope pass by in a motorcade and made eye contact with him. One young lady told about an experience she did not remember because she was just a baby when it happened. The Pope reached down and picked her up out of a crowd and held her up. The pictures were published around the world.)
The one thing in common here is that it seemed to be a chance meeting or a random selection.
Some have the same idea when it comes to touching Jesus. They go to church and attend meetings. They say if the Lord wants to touch them it is his choice. I agree that the Lord cannot be made to do anything he does not want to do, but I believe he wants to touch and be touched by all of us. He desire to make personal contact and bring personal healing in our lives. The truth is that if we are not coming in contact with our Lord it has to do with us and not Him. We must become active in seeking him.
If the woman would have had the same attitude that many had today she would have died in her illness and we would not have this miracle account.
Let us take a closer look at this lady to see what made the difference in her touching Jesus.
Her touch was a touch of faith. Now that doesn’t mean that she made Jesus do something against his will, but that she believed that he could and was willing if she could just touch his garment.
1. She had a faith fueled by desperation!
Some might object saying that faith and desperation do not go together, but I believe they do. This lady had reached the point in her life where she was convinced that Jesus was her only answer. A lot of the people in the crowd had not reached that point. They still had some other options. They were not receptive to the healing power of Jesus in their lives.
(** I think the greatest hindrance to a might move of God in our day is that we have not become desperate in seeking to connect with Him. We can have the attitude that Jesus is a nice option among many)
I fear that too often we have a take it or leave it attitude. It is nice if great things happen at church, but we are not that concerned if they don’t.
When was the last time you were desperate enough to seek to connect with the Lord above everything else?
Some hold on to sinful pride at the cost of really connecting with the Lord and letting Him meet their need.
(** We seemed to have done away with the altar in our churches. I don’t think it is because we have no need for them. I think it is pride and self sufficiency. Some refuse to let anyone think they are desperate. The woman was past that. She did not care what others thought as she pressed and struggled to get to Jesus. We can see others examples of this. Jarius was a ruler of the Synagogue, but when his daughter lay dyeing he lost all pride in desperation. The Syrophoenician woman came in desperate humility. She was willing to take the crumbs)
2. Her desperate faith caused her to take an active role in seeking to touch Jesus.
She knew her need and was convinced that Jesus could meet it, so she took the initiative to get to Jesus. She was actively reaching out to Jesus.
A lot of people in the crowd take a passive role. If Jesus want to touch them that is okay, but they refuse to take action.
(** I sometimes counsel people. I realize that my counseling is only
as effective as they are willing to take some personal initiative.
Some seek a passive quick fix)
Have you touched Jesus lately and experienced his changing power in your life? I did not ask if you were in the crowd rubbing elbows with him, but have you really connected with him...
Are you ready to reach out to him and touch him?
(HBC 4/17/05)
