My lesson from last night.

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Jesus Christ: Our Healer
Mark 5:21-34

Message Outline

Introduction

Read Mark 5:21-34

Part I. What's going on?

A. Synopsis of the woman's story
B. Historical Notes
C. How was she healed?
1. Jesus healed her PHYSICALLY
2. Jesus healed her SOCIALLY
3. Jesus healed her SPIRITUALLY

Part II. So What?

A. Jesus Christ's primary purpose in coming to this world was to be a HEALER
B. When people are hurting, they often seek HUMAN SOLUTIONS to their problems
C. Only when we are SPIRITUALLY HEALED by Jesus, will we truly be cured
D. Jesus doesn't make us follow him;
therefore, we must COME TO HIM and TRUST IN HIM to be healed.
E. As followers of Christ, we are also called to HEAL those around us

Introduction: Group Exercise

-Share an experience where you've very sick before or you've been injured badly.

Read Mark 5:21-34: Sick Woman

What's Going On?

The woman in the story is seriously sick, though we're not sure with what. According to Jewish customs, a person with a disease was an outcast from society - an undesirable. As a contemporary example, imagine if the government had a law that if you became sick with HIV or cancer, you had to live in building outside of the city, away from your friends and family. Outcasted, you would have to rely on whatever food and money you can beg off people because nobody will talk with you, let alone give you a job. Instead of people trying to care for you, they want to get rid of you... that's what it was like to be sick during Jesus' time.

Jewish laws in the Old Testament had provisions for being sick with disesases like leprosy and the woman's condition. Both in the eyes of cultural customs and the law, good physical health was equivalent/symbolic to moral and spiritual purity - being a good person. Therefore, to be sick with a serious disease was the same as being a bad person, or evil. People would wrongfully assume that because you were sick, you had done something seriously bad to deserve it.

Obviously, the woman wanted to get better. She didn't want to be a social outcast. She spent everything she had on human solutions to her problem, and finally, without any hope, she heard about this guy named Jesus (v. 25-26). In events preceding this chapter, Jesus had already healed many different people and this was public knowledge - even today, people who don't know anything about Jesus or the Bible know that Jesus was a great Teacher and a Healer. By this time in his life, Jesus was starting to become a local celebrity thru his healings.

The woman was desperate for help, so she went to see him in person - she had spent everything she had on doctors trying to get better, but none of it helped. So she goes to see Jesus in person - but imagine going to see the one person who might be able to help you, and he's mobbed by a crowd of people. And not only that, an important man has asked Jesus to help him, so Jesus was on his way to heal someone else - how could she ever hope to get an audience with Jesus over Jairus, the synagogue leader?

Then she has an idea - since Jesus is this prophet, this holy man of God, maybe all she needs to do is touch his clothes and be healed. So she reached out to him and touched his cloak - and was instantly healed. To think that the person of Jesus was so holy, so perfect - that just a touch healed her from her disease! (v.27-29)

Now Jesus wasn't any fool - he knew exactly that the woman had touched him. Being God, Jesus had to be aware that this woman, sick and desperate for help, had reached out and touched him. So why did he say, "Who touched my garments?" (v.30)

Jesus desired to heal the woman more than physically - he wanted to heal her socially as well. By vocally announcing that someone had touched him, he gave the woman a chance to publicly tell her story. The crowd, by witnessing this miracle, would restore her to her place in society. If the woman had told her story, without the aid of Jesus' presence, it's doubtful people would have believed she had been healed.

But even more important than her physical and social restoration, was her spiritual restoration. Why did Jesus say, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your affliction."? (v.34) Jesus wanted to affirm her in a visible, public manner - again, not only to restore her socially, but to restore her in a spiritual way by saying, "Yes, because you believed and trusted in me, you've been healed." This was the most important of the three healings, because when you think about it - it was the one that really lasted.

So how does this apply to us?

Jesus was on his way to help an important person - but he didn't hesitate to stop to help the woman. In the same way, God is concerned with EVERY single person on Earth, no matter their place in society - man or woman, rich or poor, church leader or bum on the street. God came to our world as Jesus Christ because He cares - the primary purpose of Jesus Christ was to be a healer and work the greatest miracle of all - healing the separation between God and humanity. (famous verse John 3:16)

The woman in the story was sick, hurting - she needed a miracle. In the same way, when we are hurt emotionally/spiritually, we often first seek human solutions for our problems - but human solutions for the emotional and spiritual problems are often temporary or fail.

Maybe we do bad in school or academics, I seek to lose ourselves in playing sports to compensate. Or we're unpopular and don't have a lot of friends, so we're constantly online, playing video games, or going into chat rooms. Or maybe we have broken relationships with our parents, our family, and we get drunk at weekend parties to just so we don't have to think about how much it hurts. Human solutions to human hurts - we seek solace in doctors, books, TV, music, and movies - but nothing really lasts. Which is not to say human solutions don't have a purpose - there's nothing wrong with basketball, the internet, etc... the problem is that they fail to address the core problem that humanity is dealing with.

Everybody is sick or hurt in some way. We have many different sicknesses that comes from a one sickness that we've had since we were young - we were born broken and wounded, not in a physical sense, but a spiritual sense. We were born apart from God, separated by sin and our own imperfections. And like the woman, we will have to recognize at some point, when we have exhausted every alternative, that the only person who can cure us is Jesus Christ.

If we believe and trust in Jesus, he can heal us just like he healed the woman - we can be restored to having a relationship with our Creator, God the Father. But like the woman in the story, we must make it a priority to seek out God and Jesus Christ. God doesn't force us to believe Him - we have to choose to come to him and trust him. People have been gifted by God with free will; but part of the responsibility of having the ability to choose, is that we must make the right choice - we have to choose to let God into our lives

Another final note, is that for those of us who are Christians are called to be just like Jesus - and from this story, being like Jesus also means being a "healer" - to be somebody who seeks to "heal" those around us - our parents, our family, our friends, people at school, people at work. This week, you should think about somebody you know that you have the opportunity to restore and heal. Pray that God can help you be somebody who repairs the world around them.

Hurting people is easy - healing them is difficult. But God calls us to do the difficult thing because not only is it the thing that Jesus did - it's the right thing to do.
posted by G at 2:45 PM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33