Jesus, Interrupted

Jeannie Greer looked at the stories you people near Portugal Iris. This story had started with him, pleading with Jesus to rise to his house because his little girl was on death's door. And now here is Jesus stopping to take extended time to deal with a woman's chronic ailment or ailment is not life-threatening. She's cut in line. Jesus were a medical doctor. This decision would not just be insensitive, it would be Mao's Bible teaching ministry of Pastor, author religion Jeannie Greer.

I'm your host Molly benefits over halfway through our teaching series called the whole story discovering how every chapter of the Bible from beginning to end is all about the gospel today. Pastor Jenny walks us through the story of two people who came to Jesus, looking for physical healing will see these stories are so much more than just getting your prayers answered.

I'm sure you've heard this passage before but never quite like this. So let's get started yesterday titled this message, Jesus marked five event around verse 22 today we are going to see the story of somebody who caught the line so to speak, to get the Jesus and she does so because she's desperate and desperate people do desperate things. And while what she does may seem rude Jesus is reaction are is maybe even stranger and the whole encounter is going to teach us something very important about faith.

In fact, several important things about faith, even if it's not a good model for how to order food at a fast food restaurant because it shows us the kind of faith that Jesus response to that also shows us what Jesus wants from us when he does not seem to be responding to us. Mark five verse 22. Let's begin here in one of the synagogue leaders named gyrus. By the way is the leader of the synagogue. That means he would've been one of the leading officials in the city. One of the most important men in the town he came in when he saw Jesus he fell at Jesus feet.

He pleaded earnestly with him my little daughter is dying.

Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. What's striking about this is first of all, his posture toward Jesus. Grown men in those days, did not plead particularly men of that stature. It was considered shameful for Minna stature to show that kind of emotion and for a ruler to prostrate himself in another man's feet, but this man's little girl is dying and you see things differently when you are desperate.

Luke's account of the same event tells us that this was his only daughter.

The fact that she's 12 years old and that it's his only daughter is a pretty good indication that his wife and he probably thought that he will be able to have kids and they managed to have this one, so you're looking at someone who is very precious to him. This little girl meant the world to him and he's desperate so we please. Verse 24 so Jesus went with them first.

Verse 24 large crowd followed impressed around him and a woman was there and back crowd who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years now that's a very polite way in the New Testament to say that she had an uncontrollable menstrual flow which meant that not only was she sick, and likely in pain. She was unable to have children and even more.

She was ceremonially unclean, which meant that nobody could touch her.

She was not allowed to go in the public worship because she was unclean. She really should not be in crowds because you might touch somebody make them unclean. She's been this way for 12 years, which means that for 12 years. Nobody is touched or nobody is hugger for 12 years.

Nobody's laid a hand on her to pray for her. She is an outcast. She is lonely. Verse 26 she suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and she spent all that she had instead of getting better. She only grew worse. She spent her entire family fortune try to get various doctors to cure, but nothing's helped.

In fact, the attempted cures have just made her sicker.

She's given up hope. One of the thing that you will notice about this woman is not given a name. This is in contrast to gyrus you see who's got a name that everybody knows it back her whole story is supposed to be read in contrast to his he's got a daughter who is 12 years old and sick. She's been sick for 12 years. He is the ruler of the synagogue. She's not allowed in the synagogue. He was respected.

She was rejected. His was a household name.

Hers is a name. Nobody knows verse 27 when she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought if I just touch his close I could just touch his close I'll be healed.

You have to wonder what exactly had she heard maybe she heard the prophecy given by Malachi. Malachi 42 when the Messiah came, he would rise with healing in his wings. We know that already. By the time of Jesus that was alleging that a grown up at the Messiah would be so powerful that even the wings of his garment.

The fringes of his garment would possess healing power, so maybe she heard that maybe she thought you maybe just maybe this is my chance.

But here's her dilemma. She's not even supposed to be in public. I told Jim Casey touch somebody made them unclean, but this is her only chance and so she risks the public scorn she fights her way to the crowds trying to keep her face covered up so that we will recognize who she is and expose her come. By the way, I love that the crowds could not keep this woman from Jesus and I say that because I see a lot of people who get From Jesus by what they assume everybody else is going to think how I was a bit of make jokes around the jokes about me around the office appearance you say that I find I joined the call.

The woman says forget the crowds I got to know the truth about this man because he just might be able to change my whole life, so she fights her way through the crowd to him and as he goes by.

She reaches out and just touches the him of his close word touch there. By the way, verse 28 literally means clutch Millward.

She grabbed it and she pulled it verse 29. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering was like to grab hold of a rope and she pulled it in this and rang the bell and power run out of him.

Verse 30 at once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. Notice the passive nature of how that stated it's presented as if he is not even in control of it. Which leads me to ask you a theological question. Ready, there's a theological question is Jesus not in control of his miracles is God, not sovereign over the outpouring of his power. Of course he is. It's presented this way because Mark is trying to teach us something about the faithfulness of Jesus and that is that he responds to faith so reliably that it might as well be a reflex so he turns around the crowd and he asked who was it who touched my clothes now again this he really not know Shirley, he's God he can figure this one out on his own. Here's how I see when my kids were younger, I'd come down and there are three, four kids are set down in the living room and there's a lid off of the cookie jar and all your free my kids that there were clean faces watching TV one got chocolate cereal or their face and so I say, was one of you guys in the cookie jar. Now I'm not asking that because I don't know. I'm asking that because I'm getting one of them a chance to come clean. Of course Mike is was like minerals on mom's friends were cookie grandma on her computer actually don't know what happened at what Jesus is doing here is he's inviting her to come forward and publicly confess what she's done because you see there's always this in a very important public dimension to all great acts of faith God wants you to own it was one of the reasons we say baptism is so important here you not supposed to keep your love for Jesus private.

You're supposed to declare it. That's is important for you as it is for everybody else.

God wants you to own it publicly. Well, the disciples who are told you not always the spicy history goes in the bag. They think Jesus is genuinely asking the question, so they say well, Jesus, you see the people crowding around you and yet you ask who touched me. The disciples have this amazing ability to fill silence with stupidity and you almost can picture Jesus going really dies you really thought I didn't know that there were a lot of people around me that were touching me and thank you for all your amazing insight.

By the way, these are going to be the appointed leaders of God's church in the coming years. You almost get the impression that Jesus is going to build his church not because of the awesomeness of his leaders. But despite their severe lack thereof. Jesus kept looking around to see who would not. Verse 33 then the woman knowing what happened to her, came and fell at his feet and trimming with clear she told the whole truth. Something really really sweet here I think this scorned alienated woman is now coming forward in the sight of all she'd been trying to hide herself.

You want to be seen now trembling with fear, wondering, have I been caught.

Is he going to reject me also is eager publicly shame me. He knows I'm not supposed to be here.

He probably doesn't appreciate me and unclean womanist touched him. What happens next might be might be the most important teaching moment in the life of Jesus may be the most important teaching moment. All Scripture because it is the central question of all religion. What is it like to be exposed in all of your defilement all your guilt and all your shame before a holy God. Verse 34 he said to her daughter, your faith has healed you. The word daughter that he uses here scholars tell us, is a term of the most intimate endearment.

You would never use it of someone that you just met and by the way, this is the only person that Jesus ever refers to in the Gospels by that term. The girl that nobody wanted has just been called precious daughter by the ultimate father.

The girl that nobody would touch is embraced by the strongest and most tender arms in the universe.

The name that nobody else knew is precious to God.

Do you see the contrast gyrus is a dad who is pleading the cause of his daughter before Jesus but this woman has no father. So Jesus becomes her father to gyrus you're going to see that he will be the healer to this woman he will be both father and healer, because people comes to us whatever we lack to those who are lonely. He is the friend to those who are fatherless. He is the father to those who are guilty, he becomes cleanliness to those who are in shape.

He becomes their honor to those work for he becomes their riches.

He is everything and so he says, verse 34. Go in peace daughter and be free from your suffering mother something here that you and I for Americans and I know most of us are we usually miss.

But if you're a Jew or a Muslim, you immediately pick up on it but I love telling the story to Muslims a lot more than I love. Tell it to you people because they always see something in it. We don't see and just reading the story there jolted by as you tell it, here is this woman unclean and defiled touching somebody that everybody regards to be a holy man. What happens when an unclean thing touches a clean thing. While the clean thing gets defiled by the unclean. I you know most of you know that I live for a couple years as a missionary over in a Muslim country and on while zero single I live with this family. I'm very strict Muslim family came quite close, close with the family and so their prayer in their with their wealthy. Now they had a prayer room in the house and so on but to get to it yet. All Pat Wright has my room so they had a teenage daughter and she would make her way to the prayer room. Sometimes I would see her come in and I would just hide like right behind my door in which you will abide jump and touch her face. At which point she would get mad and she would like to start things or to wash again exam unclean, clean them out. A Muslim is you have to go wash.

I would not suggest doing that, by the way, with a Muslim woman with your very very close to them and their family.

But when somebody that is unclean, touches somebody who is clean and the one who is clean gets defiled by the unclean.

That's what you have to watch again, wash again, we understand that concept with sickness. What happens of a sick person comes in close contact with a healthy person if I'm sick and you're well your wellness does not make me healthier. We don't say my kid is sick. I think I'll drop them off in the nursery with all the well kids so that their wellness will rub off on my kid if you think that way, please go to a different church. Okay if I'm sick and I sneeze on you and you get sick we say I gave my cold to you.

That doesn't mean unfortunately that I don't have my cold anymore. That would be pretty awesome right like I just gave it to you, you know, if he I just give it to you and the Nazis of the art inhabit what it means is now we both have because when the unclean touches the clean and the clean thing becomes unclean here is also shocking about all of this in this story.

When the unclean thing touches the clean thing.

When the sick one touches the one who is well.

See the unclean becomes clean see the sick becomes healthy so it raises the question what has happened to the uncleanness.

That's the million-dollar question of the Gospels, the answer is Jesus silently and invisibly takes it into himself.

You see is going to end his life on the cross where he literally becomes our sin and bears are shame. Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would bear our griefs and carried our sorrows that he would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The core of the gospel is substitution on the cross. He took our defilement and our condemnation so that he is healing his cleanliness is fellowship with the father could be passed into that didn't just begin at the cross, that will certainly be ultimate moment of it.

It happen all throughout the life of Jesus. Here you see him taking her uncleanness and taking it into himself. Our moment of salvation is being illustrated here. We touch Jesus in faith and the guilt and the shame and the penalty of our sin passes in the him and his wholeness and his purity and his forgiveness and his son ship with the father passed on to us. This woman goes home to her family and Jesus heads to the cross. Verse 35 while Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of gyrus.

The synagogue later knows you forgot about gyrus. You probably had Mark reminds us again who gyrus is since it's been so long since we thought about it.

See all this is just great for this woman but poor gyrus.

This story had started with him, pleading with Jesus to rise to his house because his little girl was on death's door.

And now here is Jesus stopping to take extended time to deal with a woman's chronic ailment or ailment is not life-threatening.

She's cut in line and her issue is something that could easily wait another hour right and she's had for 12 years.

Surely she can wait another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, this little girl is at death's door missing is you in the medical community will merely recognize this.

If Jesus were a doctor if Jesus were a medical doctor. This decision would not just be insensitive, it would be malpractice and he does it intentionally, and then the worst happens while Jesus is talking with this woman literally as he's in the midst of a conversation. A message comes from gyrus's house. Her daughter's death.

So why bother the teacher anymore, and now comes gyrus is great test of faith. Why bother is you think the situation is so hopeless but not even Jesus can help. Do you know how many potential miracles have died with the thought, why bother. It is never too late with Jesus it's always time to bother verse 36 overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, will be afraid, just believe he did not let anyone follow him, except Peter James and John the brother James and when they came to the home of the synagogue later Jesus all commotion with people crying and wailing loudly when he said to them. While this commotion and wailing some of the worst moments in my life have been when I was with someone after their child die this guy his 12-year-old little girl is dead and Jesus looks at him and his wife and he says why are you crying is Jesus being insensitive. The question is that many says the child is not dead but asleep or 40, but they laughed at him is not a laugh like they think he's confused. This is bitter scorn. This is you insensitive fool put them all out. He took the child's father and mother and the disciples were with him and he went in with a child wise and he took another and then he said to her, Talitha Kuhn, Talitha, which means little girl Talitha say scholar say that this is a very very tender term that could almost be translated sweetheart. Kuhn get up not be thou resurrected or come forth, but nothing regal resurrection sounding simply sweetheart get up I get the image when I read out of sitting on the bed and on the edge of the bed of my-year-old girl in a summer afternoon when she's been napping and say hey sweetheart's son, God. Here we have Jesus facing the most feared devastating enemy.

The human race is ever known. Death and he treats her like you waking up a little girl from a nap, or 42 and amelia girl said she begin to walk around. She was 12 years old at this they were completely astonished. We spent the remainder of my time telling you the meaning of the stories for us.

Here's the first meeting shows us how Jesus delivers us from death don't get this wrong. A lot of people do these stories are not primarily about how to get miracles from Jesus. They are pictures of how we become Christians. They are reenactments of what it looks like to be converted to Jesus. You see we are all like this woman. Our sin has left us diseased and unclean. We are guilty and cast out on like this woman who was suffering through no direct act of around were in this dish it everywhere in this condition because of our sin like this woman, we are hopeless all the cures have failed education can fix and scientific progress hasn't fixed it hung romantic relationships, having fixative for a lot of us turn right way we think. All that is good is get married in my life will be complete. But like I told you lonely and insecure. Single people become lonely, insecure, married people event to become worse. None of these things on this scientific progress education biggest scientific progress in education simply made us more sophisticated and how we pursue our selfishness. Dorothy Sayers was a British socialist in the early 20th century British socialist who bully the education equality and scientific progress would cure all the problems of mankind.

Then she said I live through World War II through this essay afterwards called Kreider chaos. She was a big influence on CS Lewis said we were given to believe that humankind talking about her as a British social.

We were given the believe that humankind consisted of essentially good human beings gradually evolving into higher better beings that we as a race were essentially teachable and so she said the appalling outbursts of B steel ferocity in the totalitarian states talking about Russia and bend Germany in the obstinate selfishness and stupid greed of unregulated capitalist societies were not merely alarming to us. They were the outer negation of everything in which we have believed the psychologist will say that modern psychology is built on the theory of Carl Rogers that humans are essentially good you did not remove the things or keep them from being good. What you see with Jesus is a totally different story. Education can fix that relationships will fix it. Scientific progress will fix it.

Religious rules will fix it so to religious rules is like telling an alcoholic not to crave beer anymore. He might agree she might agree that her craving for wine or craving for beer is not good, but they can't just make themselves stop. Religious rules can tell us how we ought to be religious rules cannot make us that way told you that religious rules are often like railroad tracks that point us the direction that we ought to go but they are powerless to move the train on the tracks that take something entirely different.

Not only did these things not fix our problem like this woman.

These things tend to just make it worse really religious proud and selfish people are worse than regular proud and selfish people not true. You resided from selfish people boy from religion and become even more really educated, proud, selfish people are worse than regular, proud, selfish people really ranch proud, selfish people are worse than regular proud problems like pride and salvation is are not geared by education your bonsai progress on your by government regulation only cured by something entirely different like this woman, we are fighting the crowds we have to reach out for Jesus intentionally cure her broken world with their message for today is definitely think about what it would look like if the world simply embraced Jesus right now. Thank you for listening to Summit life with pastor JD Greer will continue this message tomorrow pointing estimate miracles in the power of the gospel contains messages from her teaching series called the full story overview of the major themes of the Bible and learning how to hold back from Genesis to Revelation is really just one story, the story of Jesus we been at this for a while now so if you miss any teaching along the way. You can find it@jdgreer.com to go along with this series we have any resource simply called the books of the Bible cards. This set of cards will help you as you read to make connections with the context of the original audience. Each card includes an illustration representing the bed details about the back three key traits gleaned from the book where the blood points to Jesus in the gospel, and finally a reflection question to help you apply the books message to your life. Using each of the 66 cards as you read through the Bible to help you better identify where you are in the grand narrative use them around the dinner table to discuss his family will review them every few weeks to keep the overviews of each, but half a mind so you can apply these concepts in your personal time with the Lord we want to spend Arnie's helping you really understand how and because we believe it.

Hope we so desperately need for today. We'd love for you to have this resource as a reference for any time you're reading here, but the Bible they come as our way of saying thanks you don't need to support this ministry is funded by listeners like you. We are so grateful for the books of the Bible cards when you give today by calling 868-335-5320 868-335-5220 easier you can get and replace the current online.com hi Molly maid events. We are so glad. Don't forget to listen again tomorrow and tackles the challenging topic for this impossible ever try that you had so will see Wednesday on life.

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