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I love to visit Nam-dae-moon market in Seoul.
I enjoy the crowds, the shopping. I can get really good bargains there. Of course, one of the first things people notice there is the crowd of people. There is maybe a centimeter of space between people. Sometimes I think all 14 million people in the Seoul area have come to that market to shop.
It reminds me of the Luke tells about Jesus in Luke chapter 8.
Jesus is going through a narrow street, and the crowd is pushing and shoving. They are each trying to get a little closer to the man from Galilee. They all want to catch a glimpse of his face.
Suddenly Jesus says an almost unbelievable statement,
Somebody touched me,
Indeed hundreds had. But there is one woman especially who had touched him for healing and she had received it.
Thats familiar story to many of us, but lets look at it again in Luke 8 (Mark 5). You can turn there now in your Bibles.
There are many faces in the story, but I want us to focus our attention on at least three of them: the face of the woman, the face of Peter, and then if we can, the face of Jesus.
I believe that if we could see the woman in the story, we might be shocked by her frail and weak appearance. She had had an uncontrollable hemorrhage for 12 years, a flow of blood that could not be stopped. A person cannot have a disease for 12 years and not be affected by it, physically. Her energy, her health would be drained.
Likely shed be weak and very thin. Something that Mark tells us that Luke does not is that she was also drained financially. She had spent all her money on her illness.
She had gone from doctor to doctor, but she was no better, but grew worse.
Luke, the physician, for some reason, omits that part.
And how she must have been drained emotionally!
You see, with the disease came also a ceremonial uncleanness.
All the way back in the Old Testament, in Leviticus 15:19-33, were told that her condition pronounced her unclean. And anyone who came into contact with her and touched her would be unclean. That meant that she was barred from the Temple and the synagogue. She must be divorced from her husband, and could not have a family (according to Rabbinical law).
A complete isolation from society, a social outcast.
You can see her need here. You understand the human hurt and anguish.
We cannot imagine her loneliness, her nights of weeping.
One of the greatest human needs is the need to belong, to find a place.
And this woman had no one and no place.
So we can see her desperation. We know why she would spend what she had, go from hospital to hospital; seeking, seeking, thinking perhaps this one, perhaps the next one. Thousands of times she must have said to herself, If only.if only.maybe this will work..maybe that will work.
How similar this is to the world today. So many people would give any thing, pay any price, to achieve personal happiness and peace. And yet, how many are like the woman. They try this and they try that whether its alcohol or drugs or sex, or experimentation with this lifestyle of that lifestyle, or spend one more dollar hoping that it will bring them what they want.
-The Lottery.just one more ticket! Maybe this will be the winning number.
Americans have gambled for years. Almost every state now sells lottery tickets. Gambling in America has become national industry that is draining the lifes blood from family after family. The promise and the hope are so great.
But it takes just one more purchase of a ticket...
Just one more will be the one, Im sure of it.
Or Lets just stay here in this gambling place for five more minutes. Im sure Ill hit the jackpot.
And no wonder it is as Mark tells us, they are not getting better (life isnt any easier), its getting worse!
Jackpot is hit by so few.
So many go home thinking, Why didnt I stop 30 minutes earlier? or Why did I come here?
There are claims that the increased income from the gambling industry will provide help for schools and education. Actually, only a small amount really gets used that way.
Whatever income is promised is matched by the hundreds of thousand of lives that are shattered. Families are broken and lives are thrown all over the countryside.
Now is no longer the time to stand back, and laugh, or say, Well, look where you are now. Didnt we tell you? We tried to warn you, but you wouldnt listen.
Its not a time for laughing.
Its a time for weeping!!
My friend Yang in Seoul was walking up a mountain behind Seoul National University a few weeks ago. The weather was so nice. He felt drawn into the hills. But then coming down, he noticed something strange in one of the trees. He walked closer to it, and saw that it was a person who had hung himself. Yang called the police. They came quickly, and identified the body as a person who had been missing for nearly a week. He was a middle school teacher. He had a wife and a couple of young children. When the police looked through his pockets, they found lots and lots of lottery tickets. It is such a sad thing. It is a time for weeping!
We need to shed tears for them, with hearts of compassion.
And here is the woman in Luke, so poor and frail, and so weak, and now she has heard some reports about Jesus. She must go to find out for herself. Maybe this one will be the one who can help me. And the more she hears about him, the more her hope grows.
We just wish she could have heard those reports a long time ago. She could have saved so much pain and agony(and money). And its interesting as Luke tells us that the woman had been ill for 12 years, he also tells us that Jesus is now on his way to heal the daughter of Jairus (who is 12 years of age). Perhaps the healing of the first, would give even greater confidence and great faith to Jairus for the second. We cant say, how God acts the way He does.
Its similar to the occasion in John 9, where the disciples find a man who had been blind from birth. They question Jesus and say, Whose fault is this Jesus? Did he sin, or his parents that caused him to be born blind? And Jesus says, Neither. It was not that the man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him.
And then Jesus healed him.
Well, the woman comes, pushing her way through the crowd, as the others are doing.
Trying to hide her face, really taking a risk by being out in public. Remember she should be in isolation, away from people. And her eyes must have sought him, and followed him and now glowed with hope and fear as she got closer to him, as she says to herself, If I can just touch the fringe of his outer cloak Ill be well.
She reaches out. She extends her fingers as she walks and stumbles along the street behind him. Shes reaching, hoping.
Every commentator says that whats shes reaching for are the tassels tied by a blue thread to each of the four corners of the outer garment. The outer garment was a square piece of cloth, which made a cloak to be hung over the left shoulder and hung down the back. At night, it could also serve as a blanket. On each of the corners of the cloth were small tassels, described in Numbers 15. They were there to serve as reminders to the Jews of their obligations to Gods law. And these are still worn today on the prayer shawls of the more orthodox Jews.
And now the woman reaches for it, stretching, staying behind Jesus, embarrassed by her condition. She feels that she has run out of options. So she reaches one more time through the air, and at last her fingers stroke against the material. Both Mark and Luke say, Immediately her bleeding stopped. Shes made whole again.
Thats the woman. Well come back to her in a moment.
But also in the story are the disciples. Peter is one of them.
Hes the one that after Jesus said, Who touched me? says, Master, theres people all around you, and theyre all pressing upon you.
Mark tells us that these were the words of all the disciples.
Perhaps Peter spoke them a little louder. This is typical of Peter. He has to get his word in for sure. Peter is saying, in effect, Jesus, your question is meaningless.
Its like trying to identify one individual who is yelling at a World Cup Soccer game in Seoul. It might be like trying to pick out the sound of one watch ticking at a clock shop.
But something I also hear them (Peter) saying is Lord, how can you be concerned with individuals. There are so many. Thats the voice thats still alive today, and sometimes I find it in my own heart. Sometimes I find myself in the busy department stores, moving with crowds. Sometimes I attend a sports event where thousands are in attendance. Other times I look out a window of an airplane and see a city of a 1,000,000 now no bigger than my fist, and find myself saying, Lord, how can you be concerned with individuals. They are so many. And the fact is the many are getting more numerous every day. There is just a huge sea of humanity around us every day.
Our present worldwide population is now passed the 6 billion mark.
The mystery and the beauty of the gospel is that He cares not just for the masses.
He knows each individual by name. The Bible says, Even the hairs of your head are numbered. And not one sparrow falls to the earth without Him noticing it.
And Jesus says, If God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O people of little faith? Then in 1 Peter 5:7, were told to cast our anxieties on Him, for He cares about you.
We live in the time when television can provide us the instantaneous cover of political campaigns, riots, and wars. So I dont think it is too difficult for us to imagine the scene, as Jesus pushes his way through the crowds, as they move at the same pace he moves. There are all the hands reaching, and children sitting on the shoulders of their fathers, and perhaps a couple of disciples going on in front, trying to clear a path for the Master.
Its noisy. Theres confusion.
Yet, the lovely thing about this story is that when were brought into it, all the other bodies and faces seem to disappear into a quiet blur, and all we really see are the woman, and Jesus.
And all Jesus really sees is the woman.
And even though Jesus says, Someone touched me, I know that power has gone out from me, he has already found her in the crowd.
Luke says, She saw that she was not hidden (could not go unnoticed.) Jesus had spotted her. She had hoped to quietly touch him from the back, and then disappear into the crowd again. But Jesus would not allow that. A lesson here is that one cannot quietly take hold of Jesus and slip secretly back into the world.
People think, Ill just get a little religion and Ill be happy, and Ill get to heaven.
Last time, we looked at the man who came to Jesus because he knew that he needed Him.
Dont misunderstand what I am saying. We need to get people to see their need for Him.
But on top of that, after they know they need Him, and come to Him, they need to also allow Him to change their lives.
And people come to Christ, and they try to touch Jesus with as little of their own lives as they can. Then they try to back away, to distance themselves just enough, so that their friends dont call them weird or fanatical. Listen again.
Here the Bible is telling us that in addition to touching Him, there has to be a public declaration. Thats why Paul says in Romans 10:10 that confession with the lips is a necessary part of salvation. One cannot be a closet Christian.
In one way or another, the world will know to whom we belong.
So as the lady came back before Jesus publicly, she acknowledges in the presence of all, who she was. She lets them know why she did what she did, and how she had received the cure. So, Jesus stopped the woman, not only for her own benefit, but also for the benefit of the crowd.
You see, the healing was more than merely physical. Jesus loved her enough to restore her broken spirit. Nothing really strengthens us more than a public declaration of our faith. Sometimes we are afraid to say the words. But then finally after weve looked someone else in the eye and say to them, I believe that Jesus is Gods Son. I wish that you did too, were made stronger by it.
Also, the lady was restored socially. Here were witnesses to her cleansing, who would accept her again to the synagogue and the Temple. And perhaps one day could have a husband again, and a family.
You see, thats the way that Jesus deals with us.
He wants us to be whole persons. He wants us to have the best marriages. He wants us to have the best kids on the block. He wants us to have the best jobs for our talents. Finally, he wants us to have the best possible relationship with Him.
And then, before the woman goes, Jesus looks at her again, and calls her something he calls no one else in all of scripture a term of sweet endearment.
He calls her, Daughter. How that word must have meant something absolutely special to her! She, who had for so long, belonged to no one. No one wanted a part of her life.
And all those years of loneliness, suddenly melt away, as Jesus looks at her with eyes of compassion and says, Daughter. Wow!
Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian writer, tells of a time he was walking down a street and passed a beggar. Tolstoy reached into his pocket, to give the beggar some money, but his pocket was empty. Tolstoy turned to the man and said, Im sorry, brother, but I have nothing to give. The beggar brightened and said, You have given me more than I asked for. You have called me brother.
To those who are already loved, a word of affection is just a small morsel. But to those starving for love, a word of affection can be a feast. And Jesus gave this woman a banquet!
And then to let her know that theres nothing magic in his clothing, he says, Your faith has made you well. It was your faith that brought you to me; theres no secret power in my clothes. You cant cut off a piece and take it with you.
There have been those who have done that, and who have sold the trinkets. These salesmen steal peoples money, promising this cure or that cure.
No, its not that. Jesus says it was your faith that caused you to act, and to come, thats what blessed your life. Thats what enabled the healing.
And people today, sit at home and pray and pray for God to enter their lives. They pray for God to save them. Lord, just enter my heart, and Ill be yours forever.
Thats a good wish. A wonderful wish. But its not enough.
And I suppose that Paul had prayed much when he sat in Damascus for three days, waiting for some news of what to do. Lord, help me. Lord, show me. Lord, do something with me. For three days, Paul asks the Lord to bless his life.
And finally, Ananias, a messenger of God, comes to Paul, and said, Paul, what are you waiting for? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. Ananias was saying, Let your faith be a faith that visibly responds to the call of God in baptism.
Thats how were saved today. We rise up and accept His gift.
Let Him bury us. Let Him raise us. And then we, like the woman who came to Jesus for healing, can go home in peace.
Jesus last words to her are Go, in peace. |
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