Point of Contact

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear in any form and champion faith. The focus is on a woman with a blood issue who seeks healing from Jesus. There is speculation about whether she was a Jew or a Gentile. Regardless, Jesus stops to listen to her story and confirm her healing. The passage emphasizes that healing is still available today and that we should have faith in God's love and power. The importance of clinging to the truth of God's word and finding strength in His love is emphasized. The passage concludes by reminding readers of their worth and God's unconditional love for them. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Mark 5.34 He said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be cured of your disease. People would have feared this woman if they knew who she was. She had a disease of the blood, or an issue of blood, that caused bleeding. In Leviticus 15, it is clear that women with issues of blood for many days, at a time other than their monthly period, or had a discharge that continued beyond their period, would be unclean as long as they had the discharge. Blood is serious stuff to the Lord. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life. Leviticus 17.11 And the laws relating to blood and uncleanliness about it were there to remind us and have it always before us that the blood is special. It's not to be ignored. And this woman had had this issue for 12 years. Mark 5.25 Anyone touching her would also become unclean and need to undergo a ritual bath and wait until evening to be clean. Should anything happen to them during that time, they would die separate from the Lord, unclean and apart. They feared unclean people. They feared to take a chance of dying in uncleanliness. And it was a pain to have to take a ritual bath for something that was somebody else's problem. Unclean people were set apart so that they would not spread their uncleanness. For diseases, this was a health precaution. For issues like this, it was a spiritual precaution. In either case, they were provided for. They had dwellings. They were comfortable on the most part. But they were apart. Although it must be said that as time went on, some places of disease were just pits and not comfortable at all. This woman had lived a long time alone. Or had she? There's very little information about her in the Bible. She doesn't figure again in the narrative. It's almost like she wasn't part of the main community, which of course makes sense while she had the issue of blood. But if she had it for 12 years, she must have been known in the town. There were only about a thousand people living in Capernaum, and Jews would want to know who she was so that they could avoid contact. Why did she have to force her way through the crowd when they all would have willingly gotten out of her way? Wasn't the leader of the synagogue concerned that Jesus had contact with her since Jesus would now be ritually unclean? And if they went to his home, then himself, his sick child, and everyone Jesus came into contact with physically would also be unclean. There's no evidence that there's any of this concern. Why? Well, all of this narrative works if this woman was a Jew. She could have heard about Jesus through word of mouth, through the window of her home, or from neighbors, her relatives. Word certainly would have spread in the camp outside the town for those who were unclean because Jesus' healing ministry was so profound and so widespread. She would have hidden herself in a disguise or, you know, voluminous clothes so that no one would recognize her before she got to Jesus. And it was a really good reason for her fearful attitude when Jesus asked to know who touched him. She could be in real trouble over this. It all fits fine, and I have no problem with that. I've been taught that for years. But I've recently heard a different theory that makes a lot of sense. I heard it from an old recording of Dr. Vernon McGee, who lived from 1904 to 1988, host of the radio program Through the Bible, which began broadcasting in 1967 and is actually still active today. Dr. McGee raised the idea that the woman was a Gentile and not a Jew. And you know, it makes total sense. None of the Jews would particularly have known her since they would have lived apart from her anyway. There was a population of Gentiles in Capernaum. It was a bit of a town that was on the main roads from east to west, north to south. And that's not always the case in Israel. There was a very small population of Gentiles in Israel. Now, since Jesus owned a house in Capernaum and based his ministry there, she would have heard about him. Nowhere in the Word does it say that Jesus exclusively healed Jews, although it was unlikely there would have been many Gentiles healed because they generally didn't pay attention to Jews and their religion. But we do have records of Jesus dealing and healing with a few Gentiles, though. So it isn't totally out of the realm of the possible. Now, even a Gentile would know that the Jews were picky about purity, so she would have been nervous about telling all the truth, as Mark puts it in verse 33. She would also have been nervous being a Gentile woman in a thronging crowd of Jews. But it was the perfect cover for getting to Jesus since she could assume that Jesus would ignore her since she was a Gentile. Also, Jewish women would have been on the periphery of the crowd. Not many would have had the courage to get to Jesus through a wall of men Also, it mentions in the accounts of this incident in the other Gospels as well as here in Mark that she had suffered many things by many physicians. But there's no mention of her going to a synagogue or a temple to try and get help from Yahweh or the priests or the teachers of the law. Again, Jairus, the leader of the synagogue in Capernaum, doesn't seem to know her at all. In typical Jewish treatment of them at the time, all but Jesus ignores this Gentile woman. As you can see, there's a logic to it. I've really attached to this idea and I quite like the added dimensions that it brings to the story. But, as I said, there is little real information about the woman and the word. And all this is speculation and peripheral to the real issues of the situation. The real issue is the healing in Jesus' behavior. She was healed through touch by the Lord and not by Jesus. Jesus' presence was incidental, more of a catalyst or a point of contact than act of participation. Jesus didn't know it was happening until it had happened. Have you ever prayed for someone for healing? I have. I felt the healing power pass. It was like a wind. And I wasn't the source. I wasn't less in any way for it having left me. It was as if a fan had turned on for a moment somewhere behind me and the breeze passed by. But it was a distinct feeling. Was it like that for Jesus? Probably similar. It mentions that he perceived that power had gone out for him, verse 30. We know the Holy Spirit dwelt in Jesus, Luke 3, 21-22. But to perceive something is to become aware of it, to come to realize it. It's a gradual thing, not instantaneous. It's a, hey, did it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it did process. When Jesus knew that is what happened, he stopped. He did not stop when the healing occurred. He did not stop when the woman approached. He did not stop when she touched him. He stopped after the fact, after the healing, after it was all over. Jairus was pretty cool in all this, too. Doesn't complain, doesn't tap his foot in irritation. He lets Jesus do what he wants. He already had the assurance that Jesus was coming to his house, and he would have been impatient, but he's remarkably understanding here. Jesus, for his part, stopped because he was told to. Remember, Jesus did nothing that the Father didn't show him to do, and said nothing that the Father didn't tell him to say, John 15, 19 and 12, verse 49. Jesus had no more supernatural knowledge in himself than we do, but as a holy man, remember, he chose to be totally dependent on the Holy Spirit for guidance. And the Holy Spirit told him to stop, and that it was all right. Jesus also must have felt the urgency of the moment, perhaps even wondered if it was okay to stop since the girl was so near death, but the Holy Spirit knew it was fine. In fact, the Holy Spirit would know that the girl was actually already dead, verse 35, and that the Father was going to be glorified by the serious events about to occur, verses 40 to 43. So Jesus, always trusting in the Holy Spirit, stopped. Now people ask if healing is still for today, if it passed when the Bible was sealed as the 66 books and the 12 apostles, plus Paul and a few more originals, died. Others believe that God can heal today, but only does it when He wants to, according to His whim or will, depending on who you talk to. But here Jesus wasn't even a participant. The woman got healed independent of Jesus' wants or desires. Would He have healed her right away had she talked to Him? Or would He have, if she was Gentile, lovingly chastised her first like He did with the woman in Matthew 5.27? We know He would have healed her because we do not have a single instance where Jesus did not heal anyone who asked. Not once in all the time He was healing multitudes. Not one. That is significant because from Genesis to Revelation Yahweh is referred to as the God who heals. Exodus 15.26, Jeremiah 17.14, James 5.5, and Revelation 21.4, for example. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13.8. And Jesus always felt compassion and sought to heal. Matthew 14.14. This wasn't the only time in the Word that a man of God was simply the point of contact for the Holy Spirit. In 2 Kings 13.20-21 a dead body is thrown into a tomb, which is the bones of Elisha and the man is raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit seeks to heal us. He responds to our faith. Not the words of a person praying to be healed. There is no formula here. It is our human, rational, logical minds that need the words. The Lord only needs faith. It doesn't mean only faith is needed. The Father does what the Father wills. We seek to do His will and work in alignment with His will. But it's the Father who determines the times, places, and events. Look at the ministry of Jesus. You see that clearly. Jesus only healed people who had faith. But Jesus didn't heal everyone. Maybe not everyone had the faith to be healed. I don't know. I do know that we get what we pray for when we pray the will of the Father for His glory. John 14, 13-14. And we don't get what we pray for when we pray what we want for and in ourselves. James 4, 3. Jesus stopped and looked around until the Holy Spirit pointed the woman out. He wanted to know the story. He could have got it from the Holy Spirit. But Jesus seems to have wanted to confirm it from the woman. Or perhaps to the woman. You know, it's relatively easy to receive healing in the heat of the moment. You hear the word about healing. Your spirit is in tune with the Holy Spirit. You know God heals. You know you want to be healed. You know Jesus wants you healed. You know that healing was released for all time at the cross through Jesus' wounds. So you exercise your free will and faith and receive what Jesus is offering. You accept your healing. But what about after? What about when you're all alone and it's two weeks later? And you feel a pain or a stiffness. Some physical sensation. Or maybe you just get to thinking about it. Maybe you hear a sermon on healing being not for today. Maybe you hear that those faith people are nuts. Maybe you see a bad example of ministry and start to wonder if you've been swindled. The farmer sows the word. The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown. And when they have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. Mark 4, 14-15 The enemy has a vested interest in keeping you down, in stealing from you anything and everything that he can. John 10.10 Doubt can kill the healing. I've seen it. Failure to walk in the healing you have received inevitably leads to regression because faith is how the Lord works. Lack of faith inhibits the ability of the Lord to work in our lives. Matthew 13.58 and Mark 6.5 This is not God can't in being unable, but God won't because we have free will and the Lord will not violate his own law. Jesus listened to her and then confirmed the healing to her. Something that she could cling to in dark moments of the future when the enemy would come to try and steal it from her. When she felt an out of season cramping or noticed spotting. She could look back and hear his voice telling her that she was healed. Jesus was torn open so that we could walk in healing. Matthew 8.16-17 1 Peter 2.24 Jesus always stops to hear our story and confirmed to us that we indeed were healed. Jesus always wants us to accept healing. We believe by faith. We can receive by faith. It is for today and always. It is a work of the cross and that was accomplished once for all We have time for all of creation. Romans 6.10 We do not have to fear the return of sickness. Sickness has no place in the life of the redeemed. Galatians 3.13 So don't give it one. When we take communion we take bread and fluid to be the body and blood of Jesus. By taking it we are blessed. When God blesses the bread and water of his servants he drives sickness from them. Romans 3.25 Take communion over your sickness. Have faith in the Lord and receive by faith what he did on and through the cross. Do not fear but go in the peace of God knowing that your healing was accomplished, is accomplished and always will be accomplished. No recurrence, no return, no rejection of what he did. We can be cured. Glorify the Lord for he is mighty and can do great things. Yesterday, today and forever. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Isaiah 6.1 The Hebrew word for train shul means to hand down or by implication a bottom edge. In the law the Lord commanded a fringe on the hem of the garments to remind his people to keep his commandments. Numbers 15.38-40 and Deuteronomy 22.12 It was also found on the robes of the priests. Exodus 28.33-34 The hem was a reminder of what the Lord wanted for us and what the Lord can do for us when we are obedient to his will. It was a symbol of authority and power. This is what the woman with the issue of blood grabbed. Luke 8.43-48 This was probably what people were trying to touch as they thronged him. Luke 6.19 Healing came from that because the Holy Spirit wanted to remind them that there was healing and power in the authority Jesus had been given. As Isaiah shows us, the Father also has a hem. It is full of his power and authority. It comes down from him and fills the temple, spilling out everywhere around him. I am so grateful for that hem. There are times I feel beaten down when I don't feel that I can raise my head, much less my body, but I can always reach out, reach up and grab that hem. Grab it and hold on to the lifeline I have been given. To take hold of the truth of the word and not let go. To take strength from his laws and statutes, his constancy, his unchanging nature of love and correction by which we interact with him. To feel his glory as it fills the whole earth. No matter what is going on with me and what is around me, I have a hem to hang on to. To remind me of who is around me and who has me. Yahweh of Armies, the Holy One. How can you fear when that is who is on your side? As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I now you fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one and remember the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4 9-10 tells us by this God's love was revealed in us. That God has sent his only born son into the world that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.