Mark Pt 24: Thank God for the Pain
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We are this morning finally picking up again in Mark’s gospel, its seems like a long time since we have indeed be with Mark, the last time we Jairus daughter and there the Lord demonstrated his power over death, and we skipped over a the event that happened between Jesus agreeing to go with Jairus and when he actually arrived. So lets pick up and get into the text, where we see Jesus display his power over disease.
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Introduction
We live a world today where there seems to be more physical aliments thats ever before, and with that there seems to be more lotions, potions, tablets and treatments available than ever before, ranging from the common to the quite obscure and slightly worrying.
The pharmaceutical industry is big business, as of 2016 the global market revenue was over 1 trillion dollars, interestingly a Forbes study in 2013 presented that the pharmaceutical industry companies have the highest profit margins across the big industry players, followed closely by the banking sector.
Regardless the point I’m making is that there is a lot of disease out there and there is a lot of desperation for cures for those diseases!
Not only is big business is physical cures, there is also big business in Spiritual cures.
Just as many see their need for physical well being, they are aware of their need for spiritual well being, and there are all sorts of avenues for that, from spiritualism, to Hinduism, to Buddism, there are all sorts of programs and plans, that offer to get you to place of enlightenment and inner peace...
Now if you know the word of God and the God of the word, then you are blessed to know that truth that the is only one way to fix the spiritual problem of man and that is to come to Lord Jesus in repentance and faith and ask him to save you.
However many in the world struggle with the simple truth of the Gospel, all the while trying any other cure that the world has to offer, and many putting there physical health above the spiritual, just like we have seen with the crowds that have followed Jesus, they want healing but no more! they want to take but they dont want to give their lives to Christ
I wonder is that you this morning, you come to Church to get something, but are not interested in giving anything, wether it be your time, your money or indeed your heart!
It’s amazing how these so called faith healers can fill stadiums, but the average Bible believing Local Church preacher, struggles to get double figures into the prayer meetings or Bible studies!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see such fervour and clamour for the spiritual condition instead of the physical condition.
The woman from our passage of text, comes to Jesus to get physical healing but what she ends up with is a much greater as she experiences the truth that just one touch from the King changes everything.
So let’s get into the text and firstly we see
The Woman’s Disease
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
Its Description vs 25
“issue of the blood”
Haemorrhage
continual bleeding down below
This would have rendered her unclean
Lev 15:19-27
now this woman didn't have this issue 7 days, no it was 12 years
12 years unclean
never mind the pain of the problem
there was separation it caused
from friends, family and loved ones
from social and religious life
she was effectively a leper
Its Deterioration vs 26
Her desperation would have led her to try all things
the suffered there doesn't mean put up with, it means endured with pain
she had been poked and prodded and endure all kinds of things
The Talmud, which is a body of Jewish civil and religious laws added to the Old Testament by the Jews, it listed eleven cures for this particular uterine haemorrhage that this lady had.
Listen to this, this is remarkable: some were potions, some were superstitions, and in one place it says, 'Take the gum of Alexandria, the weight of a small silver coin; of allum the same; of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, and given in wine to the woman that had an issue of blood. If this does not benefit, take of Persian onions three pints, boil them in wine. Give her to drink and say: 'Arise from thy flux', and if this does not cure her, set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand, and let someone come behind and frighten her and say, 'Arise from thy flux''.
In another place it actually recommends that the afflicted woman carry a barley corn - wait for it - which had been taken from the droppings of a white she-donkey, to be cured of this illness.
this woman has been through the ringer tried to find a cure, but instead of finding anything that helped, she found that her condition got worse
Maybe that’s were you are this morning, maybe you are struggling physically, and all the wisdom of men, all the prodding, pulling, potion, lotions and operations hasn't made a bit of difference, in fact its only made you feel worse, suffer more pain
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
I want to say to you this morning that pain gives us a platform .
A platform of testimony, what am I saying to the world in the midst of my pain?
Do I let my faith become the product of my circumstances or is God still good even if my circumstances are not?
The scope of his character and grace do not change when suffering comes.
As I trust God, even in my heartache, I let my life speak of a hope that extends well beyond what we can see or touch.
Christ comforts us so that we might share his comfort with a hurting world. Our pain produces a ministry of comfort that we can walk in.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
This woman had a terrible condition and it left her in a desperate position, but that desperation drove to Jesus, as we bare witness to
The Woman’s Determination
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
Her Action vs 27
Look at the angle she approaches from
“press behind”
remember she is an outcast
she come in from plain site to the front, she has to manoeuvre in from the back
one way! Jesus
She would have to push her way through the crowd
her desperation drove her determination
She need to be healed by the great healer of gaillee
“and touched his garment”
Often time’s people read a passage in the New Testament and “miss” what it meant in its context; for example, Jesus taking the cup of wine and matzoh during the Passover meal, immersion and something as simple as what it meant to “touch the fringe of His garment”.
The woman in the Gospels with the issue of blood touched “the fringe of Jesus’ garment” (Matthew 9:20, Mark 5:25, Luke 8:43, Luke 8:44). This word in sometimes mistranslated “hem”, but the more correct word is “fringe” (Strong’s word #2899). This woman touched the tzitzit i.e. the braids or tassels worn on the four corners of a Jewish man’s garments. The command to wear these fringes came from God and is outlined in (Numbers 15:37-41)
These tassels were there to remind each Jew of his responsibility to fulfill God’s commandments.
Before explaining how this works and the winding and knotting on a tzitzit, it is important to know thatin Hebrew, numbers and letters use the same symbols so the number 1 is “א” (aleph), the number 2 is “ב” (bet) and so on.
So how do the fringes of the tallit remind one of God and His commandments?
The numerical value of the word tzitzit (fringes) is 600. Each of the fringes contains 8 threads and 5 knots, making a total of 613. This number corresponds to the 613 commandments contained in the Torah. Yes, there are more than Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments summarize the essense of the others that follow in the book of Exodus. Yes, read on pastthe Ten Commandments, you will find many, many more commandments.In making the fringes according to Sephardi (Middle Eastern) tradition, one winds a long blue thread around the other white threads and in between are special knots. The first segment below where it is tied on the garment (or prayer shall, called a tallit) has 10 winds (the number 10 = the letter “yod”) then a knot, then 5 winds (the number 5 = letter “hay”) then a knot, then 6 winds (the number 6 = the letter “vav”) and then a knot and then 5 winds again (another letter “hay:), then a final knot. The 4 letters YHVH is known in English as the “tetragrammaton” (from the Greek τετραγράμματον, meaning “consisting of four letters”) and are the 4 letters in the Torah, Writings and Prophets (Old Testament) that are the Name of God. Since there are no vowels, we don’t know how exactly to pronounce this name but most Jewish and Christian scholars favour “Yahweh” as the closest likely pronunciation. Observant Jews do not attempt even attempt to pronounce the name of God because it is considered so holy, so when reading Torah they use the word Adonai (“Lord”). In most Christian Bibles, the word appears as “LORD” (all capitalized).
In making the fringes according to Ashkenazi(Eastern European) tradition there are 7, 8, 11, and 13 winds between the knots. The first three numbers equal 26, which is the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton. The remaining number equals the numerical value of the word echad (“one”) from the watchword of the Jewish people, the Shema (Deut 6:4) “Hear O Israel, the LORD our G-d, the LORD is one” . The word “one” (echad / אֶחָד) here is actually a plural unity and is the same word that is used for an army (one army made up of many individuals) or a bunch of grapes (on bunch made up of many grapes). God is “one”.
So whether knotted according to the Middle Eastern custom or from the customs of the Jews of the Diaspora, the fringes or tzitzit placed on the corners of one’s garments (or on a prayer shawl, called atallit) not only remind the Jew of the 613 commandments but also the very name of God (YHVH).
So, the “fringe of the garment” that was touched by the woman with the issue of blood was the tsitziyot (plural of tzitzit) or tassels of Jesus’ garment.
In fact, people all around the area knew that if they could even touch Jesus’ tzitzit, they would be healed…in fact if they did so, they were healed.
“When Jesus was in Gennesaret, the men of that place brought to Him all those in the surrounding area that were sick and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured”(Matthew 14:35-36)
“Wherever He would go, into villages, towns or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him that they might touch just the tassel of His robe. And everyone who touched it was made well.” (Mark 6:56)
His tzitzit represented His very Name and all His commands and touching them (and not even Jesus Himself) had the power to heal.
When we reverence His Name in prayer and in our lives and when we seek to obey His commands in all we do or say, we likewise “touch” His tzitzit.
Her Anticipation vs 28
she was determined as many others that her actions would see her healed
that touching Christs garment would do the trick
She came to Christ in anticpation
ADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Finally then we get the culmination of the events as with
The Woman’s Deliverance
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Her Cure vs 29
immediate
complete
Her Concern vss 30-32
Jesus responds
notice the disciples response
get notes from mcarthur on this
Her Confession vs 33
fell before him!
place of worship
she knew he was more than a man, he was messiah!!
Her Commendation vs 34
thy faith had made thee whole
again complete, permannet
more than physical
He now calls her daughter !
Conclusion
Dr. Paul W. Brand, the noted leprosy expert who was chief of the rehabilitation branch of the Leprosarium in Carville, Lousiana, had a frightening experience one night when he thought he had contracted leprosy. Dr. Brand arrived in London one night after an exhausting transatlantic ocean trip and long train ride from the English coast. He was getting ready for bed, had taken off his shoes, and as he pulled off a sock, discovered there was no feeling in his heel. To most anyone else this discovery would have meant very little, a momentary numbness. But Dr. Brand was world famous for his restorative surgery on lepers in India. He had convinced himself and his staff at the leprosarium that there was no danger of infection from leprosy after it reached a certain stage. The numbness in his heel terrified him.
In her biography of Dr. Brand, Ten Fingers for God, Dorothy Clarke Wilson says, "He rose mechanically, found a pin, sat down again, and pricked the small area below his ankle. He felt no pain. He thrust the pin deeper, until a speck of blood showed. Still he felt nothing...He supposed, like other workers with leprosy, he had always half expected it...In the beginning probably not a day had gone by without the automatic searching of his body for the telltale patch, the numbed area of skin." All that night the great orthopedic surgeon tried to imagine his new life as a leper, an outcast, his medical staff's confidence in their immunity shattered by his disaster. And the forced separation from his family. As night receded, he yielded to hope and in the morning, with clinical objectivity, "with steady fingers he bared the skin below his ankle, jabbed in the point--and yelled."
Blessed was the sensation of pain! He realized that during the long train ride, sitting immobile, he had numbed a nerve. From then on, whenever Dr. Brand cut his finger, turned an ankle, even when he suffered from "agonizing nausea as his whole body reacted in violent self-protection from mushroom poisoning, he was to respond with fervent gratitude, 'Thank God for pain!'"