Get Close to Jesus (Mark 5:21-34)
Gary McManus, 03/08/2015Part of the Jesus Came to Restore series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Jesus was handed over for thirty pieces of silver.
Jesus’ value to you?.
Jesus came to restore what was broken in our world.
(Acts 3:18-21, 1 Peter 5:10, Mark 3:5, Galatians 6:1).
Is faith easy? WAS faith easy back then?
Today, a woman who overcame a lot to get
next to Jesus.
This or similar event is told in Mark, Matthew,
and Luke. In the setting of the report, the woman
is actually an interruption in what took place.
The woman has a “flow of blood”; no other details.
Remember, the woman was bleeding—therefore, she was
ritually IMPURE. . .what the Bible calls UNCLEAN.
Clean and unclean in the Bible don’t have anything to do with
sanitation. (They knew nothing about germs.) Clean and unclean
are terms that have to do with God.
God is holy. Therefore, to be in God’s presence, one must
be ritually clean. That was believed by Romans and Greeks
as well.
We get confused because we use water to remove harmful
bacteria but the ancients did not know that.
To them water was purifying. So, was fire. . and blood.
We no longer concern ourselves with this aspect of ritual purity
. This is because of Jesus’ own words .(Matthew 15:11-18, Luke 6:45, Matthew 15:11--18 (NIV)
But that wasn’t the case that day with this woman long ago.
The woman that day WAS unclean. There was NOTHING
that the woman could do to be made pure or clean again.
She had been under the care of doctors but had no relief.
Ancient medicine: doctors were “treaters” and prescribers.
Doctors needed to know you. They didn’t treat conditions.
They treated patients.
The woman faced several problems that day:
--her uncleanness
--touching and being touched in a crowd (a no-no)
--even healing often required touch
(Mark 1:31, 41; 5:41)
--Jesus was already on an emergency run
--Jesus did not know the woman (we are not even
told her name!)
Review this woman’s faith:
--counting on Jesus healing her
--counting on Jesus healing her by touching HIS clothes.
(See Matthew 8:8)
--counting on Jesus healing her without knowing her.
--counting on Jesus healing her without asking
The WOMAN KNEW WHO JESUS was!
Jesus relieved her of her suffering.
The woman was restored.
We must ask: does our faith need to overcome
some of our thinking?
Is it what WE think or is it more important WHO
God is?
Do we harbor any barriers that keep us
from Jesus’ presence?
Like this woman, our complete restoration awaits.
Our complete restoration is possible.
We don’t know what God can do and we don’t know
what God will do. Perhaps we should quit telling
ourselves what God can and will do.
The Lord can restore us in all the ways and in all the places
we need restoration. . .
(Acts 3:18-21, 1 Peter 5:10, Mark 3:5, Galatians 6:1).
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