Jesus' Touch

[0:00] Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

[0:11] I was up this morning getting excited about this passage and then I saw the snow and my first thought was, man, I really hope we don't have to cancel worship. I'd much rather be with you all here in person than try to preach to you through a screen.

[0:28] So I appreciate you all being here. I'm glad you all made it. Of course, I'm certainly glad for those who made the decision that it was wise for them to stay home as well. So don't hear what I'm not saying, but I'm glad that we are all here together and I'm thankful that you're here.

[0:43] Special welcome if you're new or visiting with us. We're glad that you're here and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats, but because we're following Jesus together as one community and as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good, they don't need God's grace and no one so bad that they can't have it, which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in his word.

[1:11] We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark. You'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and his life and his death and his resurrection. And we come today to the second half of Mark chapter 5.

[1:24] You'll remember the last two weeks we've had these two stories that were pairs that went together. The first one was Jesus' power and control over nature. And the second one last week was Jesus' power and control over evil and demonic forces.

[1:39] This week we come against something interesting. We have what might be called a sandwich or a bookend or a split screen, which is a way of saying we have two stories. One wraps around the other.

[1:51] And so it's a way that Mark is putting these two things together. We have the bread of the story, which is about this man named Jairus, whose daughter needs to be healed. That story gets split in half and there's a story in the middle about this woman who needs to be healed from 12 years of bleeding.

[2:07] And when we run into something like this in the Bible, when we hit up against a sandwich, it is not by accident. It is something extremely intentional on the part of the narrator to connect these two stories to teach us something we would not learn otherwise if they were apart.

[2:23] And so we're going to do both of these stories together this morning, which means we're going to have a slightly longer passage. It also means I'm going to say something, not everything, because we're handling two stories at the same time.

[2:37] And so our focus, our strategy going in is we're going to look at what we learn by the fact that these are both together, which means we're not going to talk about every detail of every story.

[2:47] We're not going to answer every question. In fact, not all my questions are answered. These two stories raise all kinds of interesting issues. But as you listen this morning and as I read, I'm going to ask you to think about this question.

[2:59] Why are these two stories placed together? What is it that we learn from the two of them wrapped around each other that we wouldn't learn if we read each of them separately?

[3:11] And our focus is going to be two different questions. I bet you can't guess what they are. Question one, who is Jesus? Question two, how do we respond to him? And so with that, I invite you to turn with me in your Bible or in your worship guide or on your phone to Mark chapter 5.

[3:28] No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's word. And God tells us that his word is more precious than gold, even the finest gold, and it's sweeter than honey, even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.

[3:42] And so that's why we read now, starting at verse 21. And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.

[3:54] Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point of death.

[4:05] Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live. And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse.

[4:27] She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

[4:43] And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? And his disciples said to him, You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, Who touched me?

[4:59] And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

[5:10] And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Verse 35. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead.

[5:26] Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe. And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John, the brother of James.

[5:40] They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, Why are you making a commotion and weeping?

[5:52] The child is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.

[6:05] Taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was 12 years of age, and they were immediately overcome with amazement.

[6:20] And he strictly charged them that no one should know this and told them to give her something to eat. I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.

[6:31] Our Father in heaven, we praise you again, that you speak to us, that you haven't abandoned us, but instead you instruct us.

[6:43] We ask that you would remind us of the miracle that this is, the love that it shows from you. And we ask for your help this morning, that you would help us to focus and attend to your word.

[6:56] Lord, you would help us to hear and to understand, that you would challenge us, that you'd encourage us, that you'd show us Jesus, that you'd grow our love and our affection for him.

[7:08] You'd grow our reverence and our all of him, that we would look to him and see him more and more. And we ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

[7:18] Amen. We see at the beginning of this story, we are back to the area of Capernaum, which means we finished our little incursion over into Gentile territory, which we saw last week.

[7:33] And in verse 21, we see again, we're beside the sea, which is this setting that we've become familiar with. It seems to be a common location for Jesus. Perhaps he's using the sea again as this natural sound system where he's able to speak out and be heard by a large crowd.

[7:48] And we find here as he comes, verse 22, one of the rulers of the synagogue comes up to Jesus. Now, this should be probably the ruler of the same synagogue we saw Jesus preaching at in Capernaum earlier in the Gospel of Mark, but this is an unlikely candidate.

[8:07] And so there's a sense in which we should be surprised, and there's a sense in which this is to be expected. We should be surprised on the one hand that this is the ruler of the synagogue. The Jewish leaders, as we've seen, are not exactly on Jesus' side.

[8:22] In fact, Jesus presents something of a threat to their power and their identity. So that's the surprise. On the other hand, this is completely to be expected for this reason. Desperation is a great motivator.

[8:37] Desperation is a great equalizer. This man's daughter is at death. When you're in dire need, it matters less and less who's on your side.

[8:48] It matters more and more who can help. And so in that sense, it's exactly what we would be expecting, that this man would run to Jesus. We know that need and desperation levels the playing field.

[9:00] There are those who would come to Jesus only where they're in these extreme dire straits. And so we're in this unusual situation in this ruler of the synagogues coming up to Jesus.

[9:13] And by my count, as we look back over the gospel of Mark that we've seen so far, there are six people that Jesus has either healed or cast a demon out of. Now I'm wondering if you can name any of those six people, if you remember from the previous weeks.

[9:30] You can't because we weren't told their names. Not a single one of them. Last week, we found out the name of the demon was Legion. That's the name of the demon, not the man who was cured.

[9:42] We have no idea what his name is. And when we see a pattern break as we're reading a story in the Bible, that should raise our attention. We should ask ourselves, why is this detail suddenly changing?

[9:54] We didn't need to know the name of the six people who came before from the very beginning of the gospel. Suddenly, it's important that we know that this guy's name is Jairus. I'm gonna answer that in a bit.

[10:05] I want you to hold that question in your mind. Before we answer that question, we have to understand the distinction between clean and unclean because it's an important factor in this story.

[10:16] Now there's many terrible things that have come out of COVID over the last two years. There's one good thing that's come out for preachers and it's this. It is easier than ever before to explain the purity laws from the Old Testament.

[10:29] And so as we go here, I'm gonna talk in terms of COVID so you understand what we're dealing with. And as I talk about this, I know everyone's got their political opinions about COVID, okay?

[10:41] Whether you have opinions about masks or no mask, whether it's serious or not serious, whether you'd have a vaccine or not have a vaccine, just please put all of that to the side. That's not what we're talking about.

[10:52] I'm just using this. I'm not taking sides. I'm just using it as an illustration so we understand what's going on in the passage. So just track with me, okay? If you have COVID or you've been exposed to COVID, especially if you have it, there is a sense in which you are unclean.

[11:10] And there's three things you need to know if you're unclean. One, you can make other people unclean. So what happens if you're around someone who later is tested positive for COVID?

[11:21] Well, if you were less than six feet and you interacted for a certain amount of time, maybe if you gave them a hug, you're now considered exposed, which means you are now unclean. So unclean people can make other people unclean.

[11:34] Principle two, there's a separation. Once you're unclean, you're supposed to remove yourself from other people so you don't infect them as well. If you have COVID, you're supposed to quarantine. It's less true now, but if you were exposed, you were also supposed to quarantine for a certain amount of time to make sure you didn't make anyone else sick.

[11:52] So you can make other people unclean. You have to quarantine or separate yourself. And then there's a third element to cleanliness laws, and that is there's a way to purify yourself. There's a process by which you can make yourself clean.

[12:05] We know that process is twofold. Either you get your negative test, so you can prove to everyone you're clean once again, or you quarantine for a certain amount of time, right?

[12:16] That's your process to know that you have finished your time of uncleanness. You're pure now. You're no longer going to infect other people. So we've sort of lived this reality for the last couple of years where it's intuitive for us in a way it would not have been, say, back in 2019.

[12:35] In the Old Testament, it wasn't necessarily COVID, obviously, but there were all sorts of things that could make you unclean. And if you became unclean, you had the potential, just like we've talked about, to make other people unclean.

[12:47] There was this factor of separating yourself from the community for a while. There was a process of making yourself clean again. In fact, that's what we read about, John read for us in Leviticus chapter 15.

[12:59] And the purpose of this in the Old Testament was for it to be this object lesson that taught people about how holy God was. It was meant to be this daily practice that reminded God's people of the seriousness of moral purity.

[13:13] So it's a physical lesson about a spiritual reality. There were also some real health concerns that went along with the purity laws. So they're practical things that were meant to prevent sickness from spreading among the Old Testament community.

[13:27] It's with that background that we come to verses 25 and 26. So I want you to jump back in the story with me. We've met this man, Jairus, who's the ruler of the synagogue. Now we meet this other individual, this woman.

[13:40] We find out she's had a discharge of blood for 12 years, which is another way of saying she has been unclean for 12 years straight.

[13:50] There's been 12 years of her saying, don't come over to the house. I don't want to make you unclean. There's been 12 years of her being a social pariah.

[14:02] There have been 12 years of this woman being isolated. And we're told here she's penniless because she spent all her money on doctors. She is close to hopeless.

[14:12] I mean, imagine if you were some, I mean, you can think, right? If you were someone who was quarantined for a while, how hard it was to be isolated for maybe 10 to 14 days. Here's a woman who's been isolated, not for 10 to 14 days, but for 12 years.

[14:27] Even more than that, she has the hopelessness that's come from going to doctor after doctor after doctor and not being able to find a cure. We find out here, I believe it's verse 26, that she spent all the money that she has on these doctors.

[14:40] And so she has nothing left. It's in that context then that we are going to compare both of these characters. Remember, we're not reading this as two stories.

[14:51] We're reading it as one story. The purpose of Mark and Jesus here is for us to take this man, Jairus, and this woman and to put them side by side, to see them in that split screen.

[15:01] And of course, as we look at them, we see there's major differences between them. First, on the one hand, you have this prominent man and this unknown woman. You have a man who is confident and has no problem coming out in public and declaring before a great crowd to Jesus his need.

[15:18] On the other hand, you have this woman who is filled with shame and wants to stay anonymous. He is a ruler of the synagogue. He's on the inside track of those who are powerful and influential.

[15:30] She is on the outside. She's been separated and isolated for 12 years. He leads the religious community. She's unclean in the religious community. He is known and respected by the world.

[15:43] She is not. There's one more important difference. We know his name. We don't know hers.

[15:57] He is a person of note and power and influence in the community. She is a nobody. That's what we need to keep in mind as we come here to verses 30 and 34.

[16:11] Because she comes up, she's sneaking up behind Jesus, hoping to remain anonymous, hoping not to be seen. And it's the midst of that that Jesus decides to completely stop this great crowd that's following him.

[16:23] Verse 30, Jesus perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? Disciples think he's crazy here.

[16:34] Verse 31, they're asking him why he would be asking this question when he has this great crowd pressing in all around him. But Jesus won't let go of it until this woman comes forward and confesses that she is the one who has come to be healed by Jesus.

[16:49] It is during this stop that Jairus' daughter dies. Okay? Look at verse 35. While he was still speaking.

[17:01] In other words, Jesus is talking. There came from the rulers how some who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?

[17:12] Think for a minute about what's probably going through the minds of the crowd in Jairus. Jesus had an urgent situation where someone was on the brink of death and instead of making it in time, he needed to stop and chat for a little bit.

[17:29] In fact, had he not, maybe he could have made it to this house in time. If Jesus could just figure out his priorities and have the right sense of urgency, perhaps this child would not have died.

[17:43] Jesus pauses his work with a powerful man to stop and help a powerless, penniless woman.

[17:57] Jesus pauses his work with a powerful man to stop and help a powerless, penniless woman. Jesus pauses something that's incredibly urgent to deal with something that is not urgent.

[18:17] The point is this. Jesus does not give preferential treatment to the rich or the powerful. Jesus does not give preferential treatment to the rich and the powerful.

[18:31] you may have standing in this world. It does not give you standing with Jesus. Jesus does not choose the young over the old. He does not choose officers over the enlisted.

[18:44] Jesus does not choose people with a college degree over those who only have a GED. Jesus does not choose the rich over the poor. He does not choose those who are beautiful over those who are average or unattractive.

[18:55] Jesus doesn't prefer people whose names are known. And Jesus does not despise people whose names are unknown.

[19:06] Jesus does not prefer people who live in the Broadmoor over people who live in Fountain. Jesus does not operate according to the values and hierarchies of this world. And he gives us both of these characters side by side to drive that point home for us.

[19:25] As we come to the scriptures we want to look always for encouragement and challenge that God's word would stir us up and it would convict us. Our encouragement here is this you may be nameless to the world you are not nameless to Jesus.

[19:44] You may be nameless to the world you are not nameless to Jesus. You may be nobody to those around you. That doesn't make you worth any less in Jesus' eyes.

[20:01] James chapter 2 James tells us about this natural tendency among humans to treat the rich better than the poor. And he warns the church not to give in to this temptation.

[20:13] Jesus does not respect the things that this world loves and values. our challenge is this many people may be impressed with you Jesus is not.

[20:34] Many people may be impressed with you Jesus is not. Jesus does not care if you're the ruler of the synagogue. He does not care if other people know your name. He doesn't care if you have power and influence in a religious community.

[20:48] That does not get this man any sort of preferential treatment. If you've been to the airport of course you know when you line up there's two different lines.

[21:01] There's the regular line for the common people and you also have for the elites the TSA pre-check. And if you have TSA pre-check my understanding is I have not reached this level of influence yet but my understanding is you do not have to take off your shoes.

[21:19] You may not even have to take your laptop out. You get to go to a shorter line right? There's preferences that you get there's privileges that you receive. Some people are used to having a TSA pre-check in all the areas of their life.

[21:36] People will show you deference they will give you benefits and privileges if you are powerful enough beautiful enough young enough influential enough and it's easy to not even see it happen.

[21:53] Jesus doesn't have a TSA pre-check and even if the rest of the world gives you a shorter line Jesus will not.

[22:05] And so there are many powerful people who are surprised because they expect the same. The world gives them preferences and defers to them. They expect Jesus to do the same.

[22:18] And yet 1 Corinthians chapter 1 tells us this God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

[22:40] The point is this others might be impressed with you Jesus isn't. Others might overlook you Jesus doesn't. Others might be impressed with you Jesus isn't.

[22:54] Others might overlook you Jesus doesn't. He doesn't care that this man is a ruler of the synagogue and he's not put up by the fact that this woman is unclean.

[23:06] And what we see here is this picture of the gospel which is that your merit is irrelevant. The clout and power and influence that you have in this world means nothing in the kingdom of God.

[23:19] God does not care how much money you have how powerful you are. He does not give you any sort of special access. God does not operate according to the standards of our world based on what is urgent and not urgent.

[23:30] In his world he can choose to heal bleeding on his way to raise someone from the dead. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the one who does not give preferential treatment to the rich and the powerful.

[23:48] Now I've given you a list of all the things that this man and woman are different in. There's actually a lot of things that they have in common. They're both very similar.

[24:00] Both of them present situations to Jesus that would make him unclean. they present situations that would contaminate him. So verse 35 we find out of course we know that this woman's unclean right?

[24:15] She's been bleeding. We read that section in Leviticus 15 earlier. But then verse 35 we find out that this man's daughter is dead. In verse 41 Jesus touches this dead body.

[24:28] You know what makes you even more unclean perhaps than touching someone who's been bleeding? Let's try touching someone who's dead. Both of these situations present a threat to Jesus' ability as a Jewish man to remain ceremonially clean.

[24:48] And so Jesus accomplishes something. There's a lot of reasons I believe Jesus stops to talk with this woman. One of them is he gives time for this little girl to die. Jesus allows this situation to come to a point where he's going to become as unclean as possible.

[25:09] Because in a sense this woman and this man are much clearer than they appear. Now you might remember from our passage in Leviticus chapter 15 that it's touching that you need to be careful about when you're dealing with things that are unclean.

[25:21] And we see this theme of touching appear over and over again in this passage. Verse 23 Jairus comes and he wants him to lay his hands on his daughter.

[25:32] Verse 28 what does this woman do? She says if I touch even his garments I will be made well. Verse 30 there's this hope. Jesus says who touched my garments?

[25:46] What does he do with this dead girl? He takes her by the hand he touches her. Jesus chooses a variety of different ways to heal people throughout the gospels. He does not always have to do it simply by touching them.

[25:58] Here he does to highlight and underscore that he's doing exactly the opposite of what you want to do to remain ceremonially pure and clean. Jesus is putting himself in the exact situation where he is going to become the unclean one who has to separate himself from others.

[26:17] Except there's something that's different about Jesus than everyone else. we know this going back to talking about COVID. Being exposed to a sick person hurts you.

[26:31] Right? Being exposed to a sick person makes you exposed. However, the opposite is not true. Being exposed to a healthy person doesn't help you.

[26:42] So if you're exposed to COVID, you don't then find someone who's not infected with COVID and stay within them for six feet for more than 15 minutes and then suddenly you're healed. Right?

[26:52] It only works one way. You can infect other people with your presence. You cannot heal them with your presence. Exposure is a one way street except for Jesus.

[27:08] Jesus here is demonstrating both by his touching of this woman and this dead body that his cleanliness operates in a way that is not true for anyone else in this world.

[27:19] Most people would become unclean by being touched. Jesus touches and the opposite happens. He in fact makes these people clean. Jesus is able by his presence to reverse the impurity and the infection.

[27:34] Jesus is able to come and touch things that other people want to avoid and stay far away from. Jesus is able to be less than six feet and resolve the situation. In other words, Jesus is not just the one who doesn't give preferential treatment to the rich and the powerful.

[27:49] Jesus is also the one and the only one who is able to make unclean things clean. Jesus is the one and the only one who is able to come and bring real and full and ultimate healing.

[28:05] If you turn with me, you look page seven of your worship guide. We have this long quote about the Old Testament system, but I want you to look just at the last sentence. When Jesus, the clean one, touched an unclean sinner, Christ did not become unclean.

[28:20] The sinner became clean. Jesus has a power that no one else in this world does. Jesus is the only one who can change you and clean you.

[28:37] Jesus is the only one who can change you and clean you. Remember that these purity laws are meant to be an illustration of our spiritual lives.

[28:51] Jesus cleans these people physically. He's the only one who can do that spiritually. Jesus is the only one who can actually make you pure and able to stand before God.

[29:04] Jesus is the only one who's able to remove the spots and stains of our sin. Jesus is the only one who's able to come and bring us real, life transforming, heart changing, alteration to our lives.

[29:16] Jesus is the one who's able to empower us to make a 180 degree turn. Jesus doesn't prefer people. Jesus makes the unclean clean.

[29:30] That's who Jesus is. How do we respond to him? I mentioned before that desperation is an equalizer and desperation is a motivator.

[29:47] There are some things you wouldn't imagine doing unless you're desperate enough. Jairus probably didn't imagine that he was going to come begging Jesus for help.

[30:01] And this woman probably didn't imagine that she was going to go out in a crowd in the midst of her uncleanness, chase Jesus down secretly from behind and touch his cloak.

[30:15] And Jairus' need was great enough. This woman's need was great enough. There is a sense, brothers and sisters, in which God can only work with us as we give up control.

[30:31] There is a sense in which God can only work with us as and when we give up control, as and when we are powerlessness, we are powerless. Desperation made this powerful man come to Jesus.

[30:47] Desperation made this powerless woman chase down Jesus. Jesus' work with us does not happen within our comfort zones.

[31:01] God says, it is hard if not impossible to be in control and for God to be at work in your life.

[31:16] It is hard if not impossible to be in control and for God to be at work in your life. And of course that's what's happening here.

[31:28] Verse 23, this man's daughter is at the point of death. And there's few things you won't do to save your children. Verses 25 and 26, there are very few things that make you crazier than searching for a cure to a chronic illness.

[31:49] we come to Jesus with our powerlessness. And I'm going to be really blunt here.

[32:02] If you're not willing to be needy, if you don't recognize your need, Jesus isn't for you. If you're not willing to be needy, if you don't recognize your need, Jesus is not for you.

[32:19] need not just for the situations outside of you, need for the situation inside of you.

[32:32] If you say that you are a Christian, need is part of the package. Remember what I told you very first sermon, Mark chapter 1 verses 1 through 8. If you want to take the journey of Mark, you have to admit real need.

[32:47] That is the price of admission. I also told you we are not here for an intellectual exercise. We are not here to have profound insights.

[32:59] As we look at the gospel of Mark, we are here to be saved. We are here to come and bring our need to Jesus. Mark chapter 2 verse 17, And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick.

[33:18] I came not to call the righteous but sinners. If you want the gospel to be alive for you, this is the secret.

[33:30] If you find the gospel boring, this is why. If you want the gospel to be alive for you, this is the secret. If you find the gospel boring, this is why.

[33:44] Jesus could have spoken to this woman in a monotone. And as he spoke to her in a monotone, Jesus could have been reading to her the ingredients off the back of a Wheaties box.

[33:56] And I guarantee you she would not have found him boring because her need was so great. Jesus was her answer, her solution. If we want to have joy in the gospel, if we want it to be alive to us, if we want to escape it being something rote that we've heard many times before, there's an answer, there's one answer.

[34:25] We need to know, like this woman, that Jesus is the one who's able to make us clean. We have to know our need.

[34:36] If you know your need, need, the gospel is not boring. Jesus is not stale. Neediness is the price of admission.

[34:51] How do we respond to Jesus then? We come to him with our desperation. We come to him with our powerlessness. It's not simply need, though, that these characters show us.

[35:05] need. They also have faith. It's one thing to have need. It's another thing to bring that need to Jesus, believing he can do something with it.

[35:16] That's the other thing that these characters have in common. It's not just that they're in these powerless situations, but it's also that they believe Jesus can do it and they come to him for it.

[35:29] Verse 28, If I touch even his garments, I will be made well. Verse 34, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Verse 36, What does he say to Jairus?

[35:41] Do not fear, only believe. Having need is the first part. Coming with confidence to Jesus is the second part.

[35:53] That's part of what we do every week when we gather together as a congregation, and John or whichever elder it is, comes up and gives the congregational prayer. We are not simply doing that as some sort of religious exercise.

[36:07] What we are doing is saying we as a congregation are incredibly needy. Here's the places and the ways in which we're needy, and we have faith that God cares enough and he's powerful enough to do something about it.

[36:21] And so we come week after week together as a church on Sunday morning to do this very thing together. We do it as a community throughout the week as you share your needs with one another and with God in prayer.

[36:35] This is part of what we do as we walk as a church following Jesus together. We're admitting our need to Jesus and each other on the one hand. We're believing in faith on the other hand that God cares and he's powerful.

[36:50] We know our need. We bring our need. I mentioned earlier that there's a lot of different ways that you can become unclean.

[37:05] Perhaps the best way to become unclean is death. Jesus risks his cleanliness by coming to the dead body of this girl. He gives us a hint, a picture of what's to come later in the Gospel of Mark.

[37:23] because Jesus is not just going to go into a room and touch a little girl by the hand. Jesus is in fact going to go all the way to the cross. And he's able to make the dead live by himself experiencing death.

[37:40] Jesus is able to make the unclean clean by himself becoming unclean. Jesus brings the power here that comes from the cross, the power that he has as he stands and takes God's punishment for us, as he takes our uncleanness for us, as he takes our death for us so that we can live.

[38:05] This is not just a good story about Jesus. It is a story that points us forward to what Jesus is going to do fully and finally. Speaking of this story with a little girl, one man says this, Later on Calvary, Jesus would share again in death.

[38:25] This time it was our death. He would become unclean for our sake and bear God's judgment against our sin. In a sense, what he was doing here was but a preview of what he would do then.

[38:38] It was also a preview of what he will do at the end of time when he will take us by the hand and say, arise. That will not be in secret but in public.

[38:49] Every eye will see him. Even those who mocked him that day will see him and mourn, this time for themselves. Who is Jesus?

[39:05] Jesus is the one who doesn't show special treatment to the rich and the powerful. Jesus is the one who takes unclean people and makes them clean.

[39:15] How do we respond to him? We admit our need. We bring Jesus our need. And we believe that Jesus meets our needs.

[39:31] Verse 34. And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. Let's pray.

[39:44] Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your mercy and your compassion on us. That you're not just powerful, but you're also good. And you use that goodness to heal and cleanse us.

[39:58] We ask that you'd be at work in our lives, in our hearts, that you'd be moving us in humility to come to you, admitting our need to you and to one another. And that we would have the faith to come to you for the healing and the cleansing that you offer.

[40:11] We ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.