We Can Come To Jesus………

 

 

One of the things we do almost instinctively as humans is to try to solve our own problems our way.  It is inserting to note that Adam and Eve did the self-same thing in the garden by covering themselves with leaves (Genesis 3:7).  Although we may know that is better to take all our problems and burdens to God we so often come to Him as a last resort.  Maybe we even think that He won't want to hear from us or that God somehow won't have the time for us. Or perhaps that He won't hear us when we speak to Him.  Maybe you are even feeling like that today? Well! let me tell you a well-known story……………….

 

Jesus has just crossed the sea after healing the demon-possessed man and was soon surrounded by a throng of people. I can imagine His disciples trying to clear a path for Jesus through the crowd.  If you have watched a famous person getting out of a car with their security people trying to protect them you will get the picture. News of Jesus traveled quickly and He was the person everyone was interested in. It is at this point that our first interaction happens when Jairus comes and falls at Jesus' feet. This synagogue roller came because his daughter was very sick and he thought maybe that if Jesus laid His hands on her she would be made well. This man Jairus was desperate for his daughter lay at the point of death and although he wasn’t certain about Jesus he was making a last-ditch attempt to save his daughter. Of course, Jesus agrees to go with Jairus.  But on his way, another person is waiting to touch Him.

 

In the shadows of this busy, crowded, and noisy street is a woman who has had a flow of blood for 12 years.  This woman was counted as unclean and so had been pushed outside of society having to do things like collect water when no one else was around.  She had tried many ways to stop the flow of blood many of which had been very painful and costly.  Yet the blood still flowed and she was absolutely desperate.  This woman had faith to believe that if she could only touch Jesus she would be healed.  This meant that she had to seek an opportunity to get into the crowd without being really noticed and out again.  Her hope was probably that everyone was so focussed on Jesus that they wouldn’t notice her.  When she hears Jesus coming she gets ready, the crowd is pushing and shoving and it is hard to really see which is Jesus.  She touches the hem of several garments as she crawls through the crowd in search of Jesus.  And then she touches the tassel of His garment and in that moment she knows that the flow of blood has stopped and she has been healed.  She begins to back out of the crowd but hears a voice an unmistakable voice, “who touched My clothes”?  The disciples are quick to answer, we are in a crowd so anyone could have touched you.  How you ask who it was when there are so many people around.  But Jesus knew that power had gone out of Him, He knew that this woman’s touch was different from all the others.  By now He is looking around the crowd to find out who it was.  I can imagine murmuring in the crowd and the disciples still trying to tell Jesus that it was just because of the multitude that His clothes were touched. Then His eyes meet with the woman and they both know it was her as she looked at Him she came in fear and trembling falling before Him.  The crowd has now parted and is gazing at this social outcast comes and falls at Jesus' feet. For this woman, the world went silent and it was as if the crowd just disappeared and she was left with just Jesus who was looking at her.  It is now that her trembling voice begins to speak as she tells Jesus the whole truth of the last 12 years.  The crowd to has fallen silent as they listen to this woman and wonder what Jesus will say and do.  Then Jesus speaks the words that will not only seal her physical healing but also restore her back into society.  In that very public place with many witnesses “Daughter, Faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” This beautiful moment of truth with Jesus not only healed her flow of blood but also made it possible for her to live her life normally and not in the shadows hiding away from the community about her.

 

I can imagine that the one person in the crowd who was most anxious at this seeming delay was Jairus. For him, time was very much of the essence as his daughter was dying. And his worst fears are realised as news comes that his daughter had died and that there was no need for Jairus to bother the Master any longer.  But this Moment was to be used to raise the faith of Jairus himself. As Jesus told him not to worry but to believe. When Jesus told the crying, wailing crowd at the house that the girl was only sleeping they mocked Him.  They couldn’t believe what He said.  But Jesus went and took the girl by the hand and she arose and walked about.  This twelve-year girl was completely healed and the people were utterly amazed.

 

The Jesus we read of in this story is the same Jesus we come to today.  When we come and touch Him He gives us His undivided attention. When we tell Him the whole truth of our sin or the problem that we face He helps, forgives and restores us. Jesus is never to busy to spend time with us. But we have to seek for Him and be willing to push through all that will try to get in the way until we have found Him.  We all know that many things will stop us from spending time with Jesus but we have to make that space and time. We can also learn from this story that when the answer to our prayers don’t come in the time or way we think God is still has heard and will answer we have to believe that little bit more. Perhaps God is wanting to do something far greater than we can imagine. 

 

Mark 5: 21-35