Bleeding but the Master's on His Way

Mark 5 holds one of my favorite Bible stories of all time. Just to give you a little background, the "Religious" People of the day were not liking Jesus at all! On the other hand, the common people of the day were eating Him up. He was popular. He had a crowd of followers. The "Every-day Joes" were hanging on to His every word.



Jesus and His Disciples get out of a boat and out pops a possessed man. Scripture said this man lived among the tombs. If fact, it goes on to say that this man was so possessed that shackles and chains couldn't bind him down, and he'd repeatedly cut himself with stones. But at the very sight of Jesus this man RAN and WORSHIPPED Jesus. Let's stop right here and make mention that even the demons HAVE to bow down and worship the Lord. How AMAZING is that? ... Jesus casts out the demons in this man named Legion and the next time we see Legion, He is sitting at the feet of Jesus. He's no longer living among the graves like a creepy Halloween Scary Movie character.  He's no longer cutting himself. The towns people don't have to tie him up in chains to the trees anymore. He's calmly sitting at the Feet of Jesus.

Jesus leaves this place because those same "Religious" people saw what happened with Legion and begged Jesus not to stay in their city. Jesus gets in a boat, crosses the Lake, and is immediately met with a crowd in His face. A man named Jairus comes to Jesus and tells the Lord that his daughter is dying. Jesus is on His way to see Jairus' daughter when He's interrupted by our Main Character. 

Here in Mark 5, we are introduced to a lady who was an outcast. She was hated, despised and rejected. She was an untouchable. Here we meet the Woman with the Issue of Blood.

Scripture says she spent all of her money trying to find a cure. The Gospel of Luke tells us that she went to numerous doctors but no doctor could heal her condition. Mark's Gospel tells us she spent all she had, saw everyone she could, and tried everything. And after all this she didn't get any better, but in fact grew worse. 

Now this "Untouchable" Woman made up her mind that she had only one option left, and that was to go to the One they call the Great Physician. Her "ordinary" doctors couldn't get the job done, but she had heard of One not so ordinary. She had heard of One not so familiar with Man's ways, but of God's ways. She had heard of One who had opened blinded eyes, healed the deaf ears, made the lame to walk, and even raised the dead to Life again. This "Untouchable" Woman made up in her mind that if I can just TOUCH HIM, I'll be healed.

Can you imagine the scene? This woman was "Untouchable". By Mosaic law, she was unclean! She would've had to have yelled out "I'm Unclean! I'm Unclean!" when she went out in public so as to give a warning to EVERYONE around her that there was someone Unclean in the vicinity. Can you imagine how embarrassing that had to have been? For 12 years she had to live through that. She had lost all her money trying to fix it. Her friends all left her. If she were married, this "Issue" could've been enough to allow her husband to divorce her. She had no one! 

Yet this Woman pushes through the crowd that was following Jesus. I imagine her on her hands and knees crawling through legs. Her hands and knuckles were getting crushed by the feet of those stepping on her but she kept pressing in to Jesus. She had made up her mind to TOUCH HIM. No crowd was going to stop her. No Code of Conduct, or Law of Moses was going to stop her from touching the One who gave that Law! Closer she gets. Tears running down her face. This was her moment! She finally sees the garment of the Lord Jesus. This was her chance. She stretches out. Unclean hands stretched out further than they've ever stretched, and finally she grasps the hem of His garment. 

Jesus stops! He turns to the crowd and asks, "Who touched Me?!" The Disciples are baffled, saying "Lord, are you crazy? Look around! EVERYONE'S touching You!" Jesus looks at His disciples and says "No I get that people are rubbing up on Me, but somebody just TOUCHED Me."

I find it interesting that so many people brush up against Jesus, but He knew when somebody TOUCHED Him! It's easy for us to brush up against Jesus. We can do that daily. We turn our radios to Christian Radio. We turn the channel when our favorite show gets a little too rough. We stop telling the jokes that really shouldn't be told. We may even show up to Sunday Morning worship every Sunday cause we're faithful. We are in the crowd around Jesus, but are we TOUCHING Jesus? Oh it's easy to brush up against Him. It takes Faith, Guts, and Action to reach out and TOUCH Him.

This Woman looks up and tells Jesus it was her. Jesus says "Daughter, your Faith has made you whole." And instantly, the blood stopped flowing. She was healed!

What's this saying to Me?

Maybe you find yourself like this Woman in Mark 5. Maybe you're not literally bleeding from your body for 12 years, but spiritually you've been bleeding to death for a long time. Maybe it's Porn. Maybe it's Jealousy. Strife. Lying. Money. Adultery. Homosexuality. Whatever the "Issue" may be, I want to give you some hope. You may be bleeding but the Master's on His way. All you have to do is push through. Push through the crowd. Push through your pride. Push through your embarrassment. Push through even your title preacher. Don't just brush up against Jesus. TOUCH Him. 

He's waiting for You.