Desperate Faith
This is a true story from God's Word.
Jesus was on his way to visit a sick, young girl, and a large crowd gathered around him, pressing in on every side. In this crowd there was a woman who was also very sick. She had a bleeding problem that had plagued her for 12 years. It had made her unclean, unable to be apart of society. She was an outcast. She had been to doctor after doctor to try and remedy the problem, but, even after spending all of her money, her suffering only grew worse. She had almost lost all hope. But then she heard that Jesus was coming to her town. She knew that if she could even just touch the hem of His robe, she would be healed. She pressed her way through the crowd, and reached out for Jesus. With just a brush of her hand on His robe, she felt the bleeding stop. She knew that she was healed.
Suddenly, everything stopped moving. Jesus stopped in the midst of the crowd and said, "Who touched me?" His disciples were bewildered by his question, and said, "Master, this large crowd is pressed in against us: everyone is touching you!" But Jesus continued to ask, for he had felt his power leave him. The woman knew she could not go unnoticed, and revealed herself, bowing low at Jesus' feet, and told him the whole story about how she had been healed.
Jesus smiled and said, "Daughter, your faith has healed. Go now and be free from your suffering."
I have been camped out at this story for the past two days as I've been studying in Mark 5. It is such a rich story, and the Tim Keller study has helped me even more to relate to it and learn from it. I just wanted to share the story & some thoughts that I've been learning from it the past few days, so here we go.
The definite theme that came up for me was that of desperation. In both this story and the story of Jarius that it is embedded in, it is found. The woman in the story had tried other avenues of healing, having been to many doctors, but had come up empty. She had nothing left, except for a desperate plea for help. And it manifested itself in an outstretched hand, one that was full of faith that just one touch could heal her. True faith realizes that nothing else can satisfy our deepest and most desperate needs, except for a Savior. True faith is desperate.
"Only when we begin to see that nothing in the world really, finally, satisfies at all, can we come to Christ with anything but the right attitude." (cf. CS Lewis' chapter on Hope in Mere Christianity--read this, it's short, but SO good.)
One of the questions Keller asked was: Why, with a large crowd pressing in on Jesus, was only this woman's touch the one that unleashed Jesus' power? It was a question I had never thought of before. But her touch was different. It was desperate. It was deliberate. So often we come to Jesus like the crowd, flailing our arms about, expecting Him to touch us with something. We don't come with desperation in our tired hands, not needing a touch from Him, but needing to touch Him. This woman knew she needed to touch Him, that he was her only hope. That was what caused faith to unleash his power over her.
He also touched on the weaknesses in this woman's faith, another thing that we rarely talk about. She thought that she had to touch him, that healing was dependent on her in some way. But we can look at many of Jesus' other healings and see that clearly it only takes a word, from Jesus, to be healed. There is no supernatural thing in her touch, but the element that ties all of Jesus' healings together, including the healing of our sin-sick souls in salvation, is faith. But the key is that His power is not dependent on the size or depth of our faith--that would denote work on our part. No, the key to faith is the object of faith, not the faith itself. "It's not the faith that saves us, but the object of faith." It's not about the quantity or quality of our faith, but about the all-sufficiency of the object of our faith, Jesus, who alone saves us.
Ever since Passion 2012 (that I was "at" via live stream), I've been thinking about divine interruptions. I've even had my own interruption, with what seems like the derailment of my whole life. This story is an example of one, and it teaches us that we need not try to rush Jesus. We should welcome every twist and turn in the story, because that is just how he works. And as we look back on it, we will see beauty, because that's just His way.
"Our faith must rest [solely] on HIM, not merely on our agenda for Him, nor on him as we wish him to be...God loves us and yet that doesn't mean we won't see storms. God is not asleep, but rather He refuses to be hurried. Don't try to hurry Jesus. He simply will not allow it. He's too wise & too happy to be hurried."
Stay desperate & dependent on nothing & no one but Jesus and on His plan for you [not your plan for him].
Jesus was on his way to visit a sick, young girl, and a large crowd gathered around him, pressing in on every side. In this crowd there was a woman who was also very sick. She had a bleeding problem that had plagued her for 12 years. It had made her unclean, unable to be apart of society. She was an outcast. She had been to doctor after doctor to try and remedy the problem, but, even after spending all of her money, her suffering only grew worse. She had almost lost all hope. But then she heard that Jesus was coming to her town. She knew that if she could even just touch the hem of His robe, she would be healed. She pressed her way through the crowd, and reached out for Jesus. With just a brush of her hand on His robe, she felt the bleeding stop. She knew that she was healed.
Suddenly, everything stopped moving. Jesus stopped in the midst of the crowd and said, "Who touched me?" His disciples were bewildered by his question, and said, "Master, this large crowd is pressed in against us: everyone is touching you!" But Jesus continued to ask, for he had felt his power leave him. The woman knew she could not go unnoticed, and revealed herself, bowing low at Jesus' feet, and told him the whole story about how she had been healed.
Jesus smiled and said, "Daughter, your faith has healed. Go now and be free from your suffering."
I have been camped out at this story for the past two days as I've been studying in Mark 5. It is such a rich story, and the Tim Keller study has helped me even more to relate to it and learn from it. I just wanted to share the story & some thoughts that I've been learning from it the past few days, so here we go.
The definite theme that came up for me was that of desperation. In both this story and the story of Jarius that it is embedded in, it is found. The woman in the story had tried other avenues of healing, having been to many doctors, but had come up empty. She had nothing left, except for a desperate plea for help. And it manifested itself in an outstretched hand, one that was full of faith that just one touch could heal her. True faith realizes that nothing else can satisfy our deepest and most desperate needs, except for a Savior. True faith is desperate.
"Only when we begin to see that nothing in the world really, finally, satisfies at all, can we come to Christ with anything but the right attitude." (cf. CS Lewis' chapter on Hope in Mere Christianity--read this, it's short, but SO good.)
One of the questions Keller asked was: Why, with a large crowd pressing in on Jesus, was only this woman's touch the one that unleashed Jesus' power? It was a question I had never thought of before. But her touch was different. It was desperate. It was deliberate. So often we come to Jesus like the crowd, flailing our arms about, expecting Him to touch us with something. We don't come with desperation in our tired hands, not needing a touch from Him, but needing to touch Him. This woman knew she needed to touch Him, that he was her only hope. That was what caused faith to unleash his power over her.
He also touched on the weaknesses in this woman's faith, another thing that we rarely talk about. She thought that she had to touch him, that healing was dependent on her in some way. But we can look at many of Jesus' other healings and see that clearly it only takes a word, from Jesus, to be healed. There is no supernatural thing in her touch, but the element that ties all of Jesus' healings together, including the healing of our sin-sick souls in salvation, is faith. But the key is that His power is not dependent on the size or depth of our faith--that would denote work on our part. No, the key to faith is the object of faith, not the faith itself. "It's not the faith that saves us, but the object of faith." It's not about the quantity or quality of our faith, but about the all-sufficiency of the object of our faith, Jesus, who alone saves us.
Ever since Passion 2012 (that I was "at" via live stream), I've been thinking about divine interruptions. I've even had my own interruption, with what seems like the derailment of my whole life. This story is an example of one, and it teaches us that we need not try to rush Jesus. We should welcome every twist and turn in the story, because that is just how he works. And as we look back on it, we will see beauty, because that's just His way.
"Our faith must rest [solely] on HIM, not merely on our agenda for Him, nor on him as we wish him to be...God loves us and yet that doesn't mean we won't see storms. God is not asleep, but rather He refuses to be hurried. Don't try to hurry Jesus. He simply will not allow it. He's too wise & too happy to be hurried."
Stay desperate & dependent on nothing & no one but Jesus and on His plan for you [not your plan for him].
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