September 22, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode, Pastor Ryan unpacks the powerful story of the bleeding woman in the Gospels—the moment she reaches out to touch Jesus’ garment and is instantly healed. What seems like a simple act of desperation is actually a profound display of faith, courage, and restoration.
Ryan explores how Jesus’ question, “Who touched me?”, isn’t about ignorance but about bringing her healing into the light—transforming private pain into public restoration. This story reveals what it means to be truly seen, named, and included by Jesus.
Whether you’ve ever felt overlooked, unworthy, or on the margins, this episode reminds us that faith connects us to the power of Christ and that His response is always to restore, not to shame.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amen.
Thank you, greta.
Let's pray this morning.
God, we give you thanks foryour presence here this morning
with us and we ask, as always,god, that you would come and
open our eyes and our ears andour hearts and all the ways that
we need it so desperately.
God, we just confess thismorning that, god, we need you
and we ask for your spirit tolead us and guide us, help us to
think creatively about thispassage and this question that
(00:23):
Jesus asks of this woman.
Think creatively about thispassage and this question that
Jesus asks of this woman, andmay you help us to be people who
ask great questions.
And we pray these things inyour holy and precious name.
Amen.
How many of you be seatedMorning everyone.
How we doing Good?
Hey, we are in the middle,actually middle the beginning.
We just started last week.
We're in the second week of oursermon series called.
(00:43):
This Isn't Rhetorical and ifyou were here last week, great.
If you weren't, you should goback and we're going to examine.
Jesus asks over 300 questions inthe Gospels.
I love that about Jesus.
So rabbinical thing to do.
Rabbis and Jesus was a rabbi,jewish rabbi, rabbis would ask
questions as a way of invitingthe listeners, the hear, hear us
into a wrestling match, into aconversation and dialogue.
(01:07):
Remember, in the rabbinicaltradition, in the Jewish story,
truth wasn't passed down as sortof a propositional truth
statement just to be memorized.
Truth was to be discovered, tobe wrestled with, to be
dialogued over and discussedaround tables and, you know,
along walks and around fires atnight, and these kinds of it was
(01:27):
a part of their very fabric, oftheir very lives.
And so Jesus is, of course,behaving like a Jewish rabbi in
the ancient world when he asks abunch of questions.
I love that.
Last week we talked about Jesuswhen he asks the disciples, the
first two that come to followhim, he turns around and says
hey, what are you seeking after?
What do you want?
What do you desire?
(01:49):
This week is a different one,and so I love a good question
and I mentioned this last weekbut and I'm convinced that you
and I are two or three questionsaway with anybody from
something very interesting.
I'll say that again I think youand I are two, maybe three
questions away with anybody fromsomething extremely interesting
.
The problem is you and I don'tever ask the question.
Many of us, unfortunately, aretoo absorbed in our own lives
(02:11):
and our own stories.
We don't really think aboutother people.
But I was at Starbucks a coupleof years ago and I finally one
of the times I got it right wasI was in Starbucks getting my
coffee and it was early.
I hadn't had my coffee yet, andso when I haven't had coffee,
if I do my best to not be agrouch or crabby until I get it.
So I was trying to just hold onby a thread until I got my
coffee and and um, but I wasgetting my coffee and the woman
(02:31):
at the at the counter gives methe coffee and I go oh hey, how
are you?
I'm trying to be polite, youknow I hadn't had my coffee.
I'm like what's the most lowhanging?
And she goes I'm okay.
And it was one of those momentswhere I'm like, oh, I noticed
what she said, how she said it.
My professor at Luther alwayssaid we should have a good ear
(02:51):
for the confession.
Now, sometimes the confessionsounds like, oh, I've been
struggling with anger.
Again, that's a confession.
But sometimes the confessionsounds like somebody who says
I'm okay.
And so again, in one of themoments I got it right, I said
oh, you don't sound okay, what'sgoing on and then that's two
questions in.
She goes well, actually I'm notdoing so well.
(03:13):
I said, oh, can I ask what'swrong?
What's happening?
I was waiting for my coffeeBecause actually my husband just
got diagnosed with canceryesterday.
Oh yeah, okay, so now we cantalk Three in and, uh, I'm like
how many.
So after talking with her, I'mlike how many times have I been
in this situation?
I'm just mystics.
I didn't ask the questions.
So Jesus was a wonderfulquestion asker, and I think many
(03:37):
times he would ask a questionjust to get some things to pull
on this thread in this person'slife, to go on an adventure with
them and see where it took them.
I think this story is just sucha story for this woman and also
for us, the readers, to beasked this question and go on
this adventure down the road,down the rabbit hole, to see
where it takes us.
So that's what we're going todo.
(03:58):
Are you ready?
Here's the scene Jesus and hisfollowers just got off of the
boat.
They were over across the lakein a place called the Gerasenes.
It's like a.
It's like a, a Gentile part ofthe lake, and he casts out some
demons out of this demoniac man,it's this crazy story.
Go back and read it just priorto this.
And they come back and whenthey land on this side of the
(04:18):
lake the Jewish side of the lakethere's a whole crowd of people
waiting for Jesus andimmediately you can tell it's
this crowded place.
There's people everywhere.
They want to see Jesus and talkto him, and he gets up the boat
and there they are.
Now this is also what we call asandwich story.
So see if you can notice this,there's a story that begins and
then it's interrupted by anotherstory and then the first story
(04:42):
ends at the end.
So you have like a sandwich.
You have the part one of storyone and you have story two that
interrupts it and then part twoof story one that ends.
And the gospel writers allthree of them, do this.
They're like hey, read this,both stories together, notice
the differences, notice thesimilarities.
They call it a sandwich story.
Fair enough, okay, I'm notgoing to tell you all the
(05:02):
answers, you've got to find themfor yourself.
But this is a sandwich story.
Notice the differences, noticethe similarities.
So here's how it begins.
Jesus shows up.
By the way we're calling thissermon.
Who Touched Me?
That's the question that Jesusasks who touched me?
Now here's what happens.
They show up on the lake, offthe lake, and there comes
thisibles.
It's on page eight.
(05:23):
I want you to follow along alittle bit and I want to ask you
a few questions.
841 on the right side.
We're gonna go Luke.
It's in all three of thesynoptic gospels, but synoptic
meaning there's Matthew, markand Luke.
They read very similarly John'sdoing his own thing.
So it's very different.
But so Luke, eight page 841 onthe bottom right there, page 841
on the bottom right there, andyou see if you can notice the
(05:43):
sandwich story.
But so read along with me.
So just then, this guy namedwhat's his name?
Jairus.
He's a synagogue leaver, sohe's a prominent man, he's well
known, he's named and everything.
And he shows up and he comes,he falls at Jesus' feet, begins
to plead with him to come to hishouse, for he has a daughter
who's about 12 years old andshe's dying.
(06:05):
So Jesus, of course, like yeah,I'll do that, let's go.
So they get ready, they'removing along this road, wherever
they are, and they're going tohead to Jairus' house.
Jairus, who's a synagogueleader, has a 12-year-old
daughter and she's sick and heneeds Jesus' help.
There's crowds pressing in allaround Jesus' point as they head
over to Jairus' house.
In fact it says this Well,actually I'll get there in a
(06:26):
minute.
So there's crowds everywhereand if you can imagine this
whole scene, they're going toJairus' house.
There's people everywhere andthey're pressing in on him on
both sides.
The text says and then the storyis interrupted.
Something happens on the way toJairus' house and here's what
happens.
It says now this woman comes upbehind him and she touches the
fringe of his cloak I love that.
(06:48):
She grabs, like the hem of hisgarment, the edge of his prayer
shawl and touches Jesus.
Now, imagine this scene.
You can hear the noise, you cansense the pressure all around
Jesus.
There's people everywhere.
You can even smell the I don'tknow the animals in the area,
the body odor you probably cansmell in this part.
And this invisible woman comesup and touches him and he says
(07:11):
this hey, who touched me?
So they're going to Jairus'house.
They stop and he's like hey,who touched me?
And immediately the Jairus storyis interrupted and Peter, who
isn't always the smartest guy,not always the sharpest knife in
the drawer, he kind of nailsthis one.
He says this I love it.
He's like Master, there'speople everywhere pressing
(07:34):
against you.
What do you mean?
Who touched you?
In other words, dude,everybody's touching you.
What are you talking about?
I love this story.
You can imagine there's peopleeverywhere and this woman sneaks
up behind Jesus and she toucheshim.
Well, jesus responds.
Jesus says this.
He's like yeah, I know that, Iknow there's people everywhere,
but somebody's touched mebecause I noticed that power has
(07:57):
gone out from me and I feel thedisciples are like whoa.
And in fact, matthew checkedJesus' Oura Ring app and his
Apple Health.
Yeah, something sucked out ofhim right in that moment.
Something happened.
By the way, the word here in theGreek is the word dynamis.
Everyone say dynamis Sound likeany English words.
We know Dynamite.
(08:19):
That's the word for power.
So dynamite is Okay.
Who knows who?
This is Nobody, because I I I'min the stars tonight.
Nobody knows dynamite.
A couple you're embarrassed toadmit.
Okay, we had a bet in the backthat you would know this song.
This is BTS, this K-pop band,dynamite.
(08:40):
If I played it, you wouldrecognize it.
Fine for you guys.
This is your.
Okay, fine, dynamite.
Fine, fine, try to have alittle fun.
But nobody wants to have anyfun with me.
Go home and on your apple musicor whatever you use, spotify,
uh, do dynamite bt.
You'll recognize this song.
Okay, point is there's like thisexplosion out of, I imagine
like this explosion out of jesus, like something happens that's
(09:01):
different than all the otherfolks touching him.
When she touches him, powergoes out of him.
You know, it's like thisdynamite explosion, something
that happens in between this manand Jesus, or this woman and
Jesus.
He expends a certain amount ofenergy.
By the way, don't be surprised.
If you're doing ministry, ifyou're a greeter, or if you're a
scripture reader, if you're apiano player whatever your
(09:23):
things are that you do here, ifyou're loving scripture reader,
if you're a piano player,whatever your things are that
you do here if you're lovingyour neighbor, if you're loving
your enemies, if you're prayingfor those who persecute you, it
will cost you energy.
I'm just telling you that.
This is why Sabbaths are superimportant, these kinds of things
to restore energy.
Sonia, by the way, is on hertwo-month sabbatical.
It's a Sabbath of rest andcommunion with God in order to
(09:43):
recharge.
She'll be back next Sunday, bythe way, but so keep praying for
him so he feels something goout of him.
Now he asked the question whotouched me?
Now, maybe he didn't know,maybe he's just like just
curious, well, who touched me?
I felt something, but who wasit?
I don't even know what's goingon, maybe, or maybe there's
something else happening withthis question.
(10:03):
Or maybe there's something elsehappening with this question.
Maybe Jesus knows somethingthat we don't know, or that the
disciples don't know, or thewoman doesn't know.
Maybe he knows some things andhe wants to kind of pull on this
thread.
As I mentioned earlier,remember, there's a lot of
meaning or a lot of words orquestions in the text that have
multiple layers of meaning.
That calls polysemy, notpolygamy, but polysemy.
There's multiple layers tothese words that Jesus uses, or
(10:27):
multiple layers of the questionsthat he asks.
And I wonder if this is anexample of polysemy, where he's
like hey, who touched me?
But he's asking a deeperquestion.
He's getting at somethingdeeper than just who was the
touch thing.
It's a chaotic scene, you canimagine.
There's people everywhere, allaround him, touching him,
pressing him on all sides, andthey're going.
Whose house are they going to?
Jairus' house.
(10:47):
He's the synagogue leader.
They're going to Jairus' houseand there's this invisible
person that comes up behind himsneakily, like a ninja, grabs
the hem of his garment, the edgeof his prayer shawl Maybe some
scholars would say the tzitzit,which is those little frays that
hang off the edge of his prayershawl and grabs him.
And Jesus can't see who it is.
(11:08):
He doesn't know who it is,allegedly, and no one around
them knows who it was.
Nobody knows who it was, ah,but we do.
We know who it is.
Look at your bible.
It's a bleeding woman.
We know who it is because thestory tells us a woman bleeding.
(11:28):
For how many years?
12 years now.
Women in the ancient near eastyou probably know this already.
But uh, women were.
Legally, they were restrictedwhat they could do with the law.
They couldn't do much.
Legally and socially they weremarginalized in almost every way
women were.
And economically they were veryvulnerable and religiously they
(11:50):
were limited what they could do.
Most of their value and worthcame from their family of origin
or from their childbearing.
So you have this woman who'sbeen bleeding for 12 years and
her name is what's her name?
I forget.
Would you look up in the 841?
What's her name?
I forgot what it was.
Sorry guys, what is it?
(12:17):
It doesn't say Hmm.
So this invisible womanbleeding for 12 years I don't
want to put her name in therebecause I don't know who cares,
touches the hem of his garmentand he feels power go out of him
.
How many years was she bleedingfor?
(12:37):
Yeah, 12.
Now, 12 is a significant numberin the Hebrew Bible and in the
Jewish story.
In the Christian story, 12 is,of course, the number of tribes
of Israel, the people whom Godchooses to bless the whole world
, the 12 tribes.
12 is the number of disciplesthat Jesus sort of gathers
around him.
He had more than that, but it'sthe 12.
He talks about a lot, as if tosay this mission I began with
(12:59):
Israel to bless the world, toredeem and renew the world.
That began in the tribes ofIsrael.
I'm going to renew it in thisnew covenant community with his
disciples.
And then you have this womanwho's been bleeding for how many
years Now?
This is a sign that thiscovenant community will look
like this.
Watch what happens.
I'm going to show you, I'mgoing to put on display what
(13:20):
outreach from God looks like,what a covenant community looks
like, when God is trying torestore and renew the world.
By the way, how old was Jairus'daughter?
Oh, okay, all right now.
Also, by the way, how old wasJesus?
When he goes to the temple,he's younger.
He gets lost.
He's apparently lost and hegoes and hangs out at the temple
.
They find him there.
How old were?
(13:41):
We told that he was.
Oh, that's funny, isn't it?
So it's a very significantnumber that Jesus is sort of
playing on here in the storyonce again.
Twelve, and here's the dealabout this woman.
She's been bleeding for 12years Now.
We know in Leviticus, leviticallaw, that this actually makes
her ceremonially unclean.
Here's the law.
I'm going to read the wholething because it's quite radical
(14:03):
, so pay attention.
It says this is in Leviticus,so this is old Jewish law.
When a woman has a discharge ofblood for many days at the time
other than her monthly periodanybody uncomfortable this
morning it's in the Bible andit's just basic biology or has a
discharge that continues beyondher period, she will be unclean
(14:24):
as long as she has thisdischarge, just as in the days
of her period.
Any bed she lies on while herdischarge continues will be
unclean, as is her bed duringthe period.
Anything that she sits on willbe unclean During her period.
Anyone who touches them will beunclean.
They must wash their clothesand bathe with water.
They'll be unclean until theevening.
You get the idea.
She's unclean in every singleway.
(14:45):
Ceremonially unclean, thatmeans that religiously she's
restricted.
She can't go into any religiousgathering.
Socially, she's isolated.
You can't go near people whenyou're unclean.
Ceremonially speaking.
Economically, she's probablybankrupt.
It's been 12 years she'sbankrupting and physically, I
imagine this woman is exhausted.
(15:05):
In other words, she's desperatefor somebody to help her.
12 years, you guys Bleeding,and she sneaks through this
crowd to touch Jesus.
Now in Mark's gospel we'll readmore about her.
Mark tells us that she'dsuffered a great deal under the
(15:25):
care of many doctors and hadspent all she had.
Yet instead of getting better,her condition only grew worse
After 12 years.
I have a good friend who hasthis condition called
endometriosis and she wasexplaining it to me and it's
this extremely painful thingthat happens mostly, if not
predominantly, in women.
It's this feminine disease thatyou have and it affects your
(15:49):
organs and high levels of pain.
And she was saying that, yeah,50, even 50 to 100 years ago,
there were many cases of womenwho had things like this
endometriosis that doctorsdidn't know how to explain it or
didn't bother to explain or gettoo down in the weeds on it and
these were thought to be crazyand they would commit them to
(16:13):
mental hospitals.
They called it female hysteria.
Can you imagine that's 50 yearsago, you guys?
Hysteria.
Can you imagine that's 50 yearsago, you guys?
They were undiagnosed and theywere considered crazy because
they'd had this pain that no oneknew how to fix it.
And they called it well, it'sjust female hysteria and let's
throw them into a mentalhospital.
This woman, desperate, bankrupt,isolated, excluded in every way
(16:40):
.
And yet she says this.
When she heard about Jesus, shethought to herself as she comes
behind him if I could justtouch his clothes, I'll be
healed.
If I could just grab hisclothes, I think that God could
heal me.
Something could happen if Ionly could touch his clothes.
And the text tells us that shewas healed.
(17:00):
When was she healed?
Immediately I dig thatImmediately.
Jesus didn't even know it.
Now here's the deal Becauseshe's unclean.
Anything she touches you readthat Leviticus passage anything
will become unclean.
That's how the directionalitygoes.
The unclean things make theclean things unclean.
(17:20):
I'll say that again, just soyou can follow here.
The unclean things make theclean things unclean.
So anybody she touches will nowbecome unclean and she's
touching a lot of people,because there's people
everywhere, like Peter says, andso she's making all of them
unclean.
I was in Thailand.
In Thailand, the Buddhist monksthere, when they walk down the
(17:42):
street in their orange robes,everybody parts ways because
they can't be touched,especially by women.
That's how their culture works.
So everyone just sort of partslike a sea because of the same
kind of thing, this ritualcleanliness.
And so she makes a lot ofpeople unclean, including Jesus.
Ah, but notice what Jesus does.
(18:03):
He sort of flips the script.
Jesus never becomes unclean,does he?
No, he makes her clean.
So in the old story the uncleanthing makes the clean things
unclean, but in the story thatJesus is telling and putting on
display, he makes the uncleanthing clean.
(18:28):
He's reversing this old story.
He's not affected by heruncleanliness Doesn't affect him
in any way, not at all.
It's like he just sort of likebounces right off of him, in
fact, the old law.
He reverses the curse of theold law.
Now, this is later, but inGalatians, paul beautifully
(18:49):
writes this by the way, jesuswith him, the sickness ends with
Jesus, it stops.
It doesn't keep going, it stops.
Now, I love this.
Paul in Galatians writes this.
He says Christ.
Now this is way after thisstory, but Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law bybecoming a curse for us.
When she touches him, hebecomes unclean, but somehow he
(19:12):
reverses it and he undoes it.
Cursed is everyone.
This is an old law too.
Cursed is everyone who's hungon a tree.
This is an old Leviticus law,that whoever dies on a tree or a
pole is cursed.
So he redeemed us in order thatthe blessing given to Abraham
remember the 12 tribes of Israelmight come to the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, so that,by faith, we might receive the
(19:34):
promise of the spirit.
Yeah, jesus is a curse reverser, and when she touches him to
curse this old law and all thatshe's doing, all her sickness,
her bleeding, it all ends andstops with him because he
reverses this curse.
I love it.
I love it.
Yeah, the curse, the sickness,the bleeding, it stops with
(19:55):
Jesus.
By the way, guess who's stillhanging out around the fringes
of this story?
Probably what's his name again?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What was her name?
Again, I forgot what was hername.
Oh, she's not named.
Hmm, jairus is over there like.
Oh, I knew I should have goneto the minute clinic this
morning instead of this, rightUrgent care would have probably
(20:19):
been faster this morning.
He's looking at his ticket.
He's like got 47.
He looks at her ticket she's 48.
She jumped the line, this crazywoman.
What are we doing, jesus?
I'm all about, this is great,but my daughter?
How old is his daughter?
12 years old, by the way.
She might be dead by nowbecause this woman tells Jesus
(20:40):
her whole story.
He's just hanging out on thefringes waiting.
This woman, though, who wantsto remain anonymous, who tries
to be invisible, not to disturbtoo many people, sneaks into the
crowd and touches him and thensneaks away, but Jesus refuses
to let her remain invisible.
I love this.
I remember one time I was inSalt Lake City Airport and I was
(21:02):
12 years old.
We were flying somewhere toCalifornia, I forget and I was
exhausted.
I just wanted to sit down andread a book.
We had a long layover.
We're waiting for our plane.
We're at the gate.
I'm just going to get my bookand find a spot to read.
I sit down near the gate and allof a sudden, the wall behind me
moves and it was.
(21:23):
Then I realized it wasn't awall, it was a door, and not
just any door, it was anemergency exit door.
You know the kind that makelots of noises and lights.
All I wanted to do was just sitdown and hang out, be alone and
have some time of solitude andrelax and that door kicked open.
(21:43):
I don't know how it did it, Ididn't hit the bar, it just
opened and that alarm startsgoing, lights are flickering,
people come running over to thisdoor.
I'm like son of a gun, peopleeverywhere.
What'd you do?
I don't know.
I just hit the door.
I'm sorry, you know.
Okay, it's fine, it's fine,it's fine.
Just the door of this kid hereopened.
I'm like, oh, now I'membarrassed, my face is flushing
red.
This is terrible.
I just wanted to hide out.
(22:04):
They all kind of leave.
Well, what happens in airportsis help kind of arrives in waves
.
It's that first wave left, thenanother wave comes.
What's going on here?
What's happening right overthere?
That kid, he's the one that didit.
That's me sorry.
That's me.
You know, those commercialswant to get away.
That was me, I just wanted toget away, so embarrassing.
(22:27):
Another wave, what happened?
Oh, that kid, that's me sorry.
I imagine this woman just wantedto sneak in there and touch his
garment, but he won't let her.
I dig that about Jesus.
And he asks her the question.
Actually, he asks everybody whotouched me.
Why would he even ask who cares?
Let her be healed, let's moveon.
Why does he ask her, what if heknew?
(22:48):
What if he knew something andmaybe the spirit told him or the
father told him or he had thissense of something important is
happening, and he pulls on thisthread.
He's like I'm going to ask aquestion, see where it goes.
Let's just see where thisrabbit hole goes a little bit.
What if he wanted to call herout for her sake and for the
sake of everybody watching?
What if he wanted to dosomething to kind of show
(23:09):
everybody?
What if she wanted to beinvisible because of her shame?
Undoubtedly 12 years of shameand embarrassment and exclusion
and isolation and exhaustion andmoney spent and she wanted to
just hide out.
But he doesn't let her.
(23:29):
Yeah, these are all thenarratives I imagine she was
living by.
I'm broke, I'm excluded, nobodywants me, I'm not invited to
anything, I'm a pariah, I'm justa menace to society, and that's
the narrative.
We all have these narratives welive by.
If you know this about yourself, you should pay attention to
them.
(23:49):
Some are not true.
And these ones she's living byand Jesus is like oh, you know
what?
I'm going to give you adifferent narrative.
It's time for a new one, areyou ready?
So he calls her out I love it.
And he makes her healing public.
He restores her publicly, infront of everybody, as if then,
(24:11):
to give her a face.
Oh hey, woman, where are you?
Come here, hey, we're going topause, hold on.
And like the spotlight is on herand she's healed, he gives her
an identity in this moment,calls her up in front of
everybody For her own sake.
He gives her a face, maybe evena name, because what was her
(24:34):
name?
I forget what they called herin the text.
What was her name?
Oh, yeah, it doesn't have one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe hewants to give her one, as if,
like he's walking into thisthree-star Michelin restaurant
with this raggedy old lady,young lady who's been oh no,
she's with me.
Yeah, she's with me, she's fine, let's go.
(24:56):
I dig that about Jesus.
See, he restores in every wayher humanity.
He fixes her body, so now she'sno longer unclean.
In that way he restores herdignity, her personhood, her
identity, her visibility.
He affirms her presence infront of everybody because she
was invisible and now she's gotsome presence, some substance.
(25:18):
And then he calls her by name.
What does the text say?
He calls her hey, daughter.
You know, this is the only timeJesus calls somebody daughter
in the Gospels.
He calls her daughter, he givesher a name.
I don't think this is like asentimental kind of a name Like
hey, sweetheart, maybe I thinkit's covenantal hey, look at me,
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you belong in my family.
Now Everybody, she's with me.
This new thing I'm startingit's with people like this and
like the lepers and the outcasts.
Remember they called Jesus adrunkard because he hung out
with drunkards and prostitutes.
I love that about Jesus she'swith me.
(26:05):
One time in YWAM years ago inColorado, I was a young 19 year
old kid.
We'd have teachers who wouldcome for a week, spend a whole
week with us, and I had thisdeep father wound as a young man
.
And this teacher came throughand taught on the father heart
of God.
His name was Jeff Pratt and webonded.
I remember I cried with him, weprayed together.
He was an incredible man and atthe end of that week he was
like hey, let's stay in touch.
I want to so badly because hejust was.
(26:26):
Really.
He ministered to me, so let's,should we exchange addresses.
This is back in the day and awhole year goes by.
I just I never wrote him and henever wrote me.
I just I forgot.
And a year later I was at awedding, his brother's wedding.
He was doing the wedding and Isaw him from afar.
I'm like, oh no, I feltembarrassed, like I hadn't
written him.
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I told him I would.
I felt I'm like, ah, I reallyliked him, I admired.
Now it's been a whole yearlater and he teaches all over
the world Every week's in adifferent city around the world,
knows thousands of people.
He doesn't remember me.
Me and Katie sat in the back ofthis church at my friend's
(27:08):
wedding, his brother's wedding,and Jeff was doing the wedding.
I kid you not.
At the end of the weddingthings all close up.
He's recessing down the aisle,music, things all close up.
He's recessing down the aisle,music's going.
I'm in the back kind of hidingout.
I'm embarrassed.
If he sees me I'm going to haveto oh, here's why I didn't have
time to write you and try toexplain.
Remember me, I'm, you know,walk out and he looks at me and
he goes oh hey, ryan, and I waslike I couldn't believe it.
(27:33):
I couldn't believe it.
Something deep in my soul gotfelt.
That was like dried andshriveled felt water just kind
of pour on it.
And Jesus says daughter, yourfaith has made you well.
Yeah, he calls her daughter.
He asks, not to shame her or toplay the blame game, but to
(27:55):
restore her.
But faith, in this regard too.
Faith is not some kind of awork, it's not something, it's
not some achievement, it's aposture of open hands, right,
it's just sort of her showing upthinking, hey, I'll try this.
He says to her, almost likeyour trust has opened you up to
(28:16):
receive what I was alreadygiving.
So when you come up forcommunion in just a minute,
you're going to come forwardlike this, just to receive, in
faith, what Jesus has alreadygiven.
Faith is this posture of trust.
It's not an achievement, not awork.
You didn't climb any ladder,she's barely snuck in there Like
.
I don't know If Jesus wouldhave asked her what do you want?
(28:37):
You know the question from lastweek.
What do you want?
You know the question from lastweek.
What do you seek?
She would have said you, I wantto touch you.
I'm after you, jesus ofNazareth, man.
By the way, jairus is stillthere.
I'll rush this part because Igot to get out of here.
(28:58):
But Jesus goes to Jairus' houseand the daughter is dead now
and she's been.
She's 12 years old and Jesus,as a rabbi, as a Jewish man,
can't touch folks who arebleeding.
And the other thing that youcan't touch corpses.
This is double pollution.
If you're Jesus, this istrouble, double trouble.
(29:19):
But remember the arrow.
He reverses the curse and thelittle girl comes back to life.
He heals them both.
He reverses the curse for bothof them.
Jesus dives into the suffering.
He risks being unclean, herisks sickness, death,
(29:39):
contamination for these twopeople.
I get tired of hearing thenarrative oh, god can't go
around sin, god can't be nearsin, he's too holy.
No, no, that's amisunderstanding.
Holiness simply means unique,set apart, different, and God is
definitely that.
God is not some.
You know a God who's wearing awhite, you know doctor's garb,
(30:01):
with his heel scrubbed and hecan't touch anybody.
That's not what God, no, that'sridiculous.
In Jesus, god dives right intoall this stuff, into the chaos,
into the things, into thepollution, and he reverses the
curse at every chance.
That's the heart of God.
I can't.
I can't be near this sin.
That's crazy.
He dives right in there and hereverses it in every way.
(30:23):
So, central Lutheran Church.
I think what he's also saying tothose who are watching and to
this woman and to Jairus and tothe daughter hey, be not afraid,
we're going to be okay, don'tbe afraid.
So, for those of you who arehere this morning, be not afraid
, we're going to be okay, don'tbe afraid.
So, for those of you here thismorning, anybody this morning,
(30:46):
who feels in many ways ignoredor forgotten, invisible, I want
to tell you you're seen.
Maybe those this morning whoare like the faithful, but the
anonymous.
And you're here and you show upand you're doing your thing,
but just anonymous, and I don'tknow if you have a name and
(31:08):
nobody says hi to me and nobodyacknowledges my.
I get it, but I want to tellyou you're deeply known and I'd
love to have you hear Jesus sayto you daughter or son, I see
you.
Also as a church.
(31:28):
I would love for us to lookaround.
And who are the invisiblepeople who are reaching out for
help?
Are we helping them?
Do we see them?
This Afghan family landed lastweek and Habib came through here
and we met him, incredible man,this journey from Afghanistan
and you got Jerry out hereraising, you know, collecting
coats for people that can't havetheir own coats.
(31:48):
You got tons of cool thingshappening here.
So we, as a church man, wenever lose our eyes to see the
people reaching out.
So, central Lutheran Church,may we also then jump right into
this stuff and not be afraid tobe contaminated, but may we
reach out and help people inevery turn, amen.
Amen.
Thank you, greta.
Let's pray this morning.
God, we give you thanks foryour presence here this morning
with us and we ask, as always,god, that you would come and
open our eyes and our ears andour hearts and all the ways that
we need it so desperately.
God, we just confess thismorning that, god, we need you
and we ask for your spirit tolead us and guide us, help us to
think creatively about thispassage and this question that
(00:23):
Jesus asks of this woman.
Think creatively about thispassage and this question that
Jesus asks of this woman, andmay you help us to be people who
ask great questions.
And we pray these things inyour holy and precious name.
Amen.
How many of you be seatedMorning everyone.
How we doing Good?
Hey, we are in the middle,actually middle the beginning.
We just started last week.
We're in the second week of oursermon series called.
(00:43):
This Isn't Rhetorical and ifyou were here last week, great.
If you weren't, you should goback and we're going to examine.
Jesus asks over 300 questions inthe Gospels.
I love that about Jesus.
So rabbinical thing to do.
Rabbis and Jesus was a rabbi,jewish rabbi, rabbis would ask
questions as a way of invitingthe listeners, the hear, hear us
into a wrestling match, into aconversation and dialogue.
(01:07):
Remember, in the rabbinicaltradition, in the Jewish story,
truth wasn't passed down as sortof a propositional truth
statement just to be memorized.
Truth was to be discovered, tobe wrestled with, to be
dialogued over and discussedaround tables and, you know,
along walks and around fires atnight, and these kinds of it was
(01:27):
a part of their very fabric, oftheir very lives.
And so Jesus is, of course,behaving like a Jewish rabbi in
the ancient world when he asks abunch of questions.
I love that.
Last week we talked about Jesuswhen he asks the disciples, the
first two that come to followhim, he turns around and says
hey, what are you seeking after?
What do you want?
What do you desire?
(01:49):
This week is a different one,and so I love a good question
and I mentioned this last weekbut and I'm convinced that you
and I are two or three questionsaway with anybody from
something very interesting.
I'll say that again I think youand I are two, maybe three
questions away with anybody fromsomething extremely interesting
.
The problem is you and I don'tever ask the question.
Many of us, unfortunately, aretoo absorbed in our own lives
(02:11):
and our own stories.
We don't really think aboutother people.
But I was at Starbucks a coupleof years ago and I finally one
of the times I got it right wasI was in Starbucks getting my
coffee and it was early.
I hadn't had my coffee yet, andso when I haven't had coffee,
if I do my best to not be agrouch or crabby until I get it.
So I was trying to just hold onby a thread until I got my
coffee and and um, but I wasgetting my coffee and the woman
(02:31):
at the at the counter gives methe coffee and I go oh hey, how
are you?
I'm trying to be polite, youknow I hadn't had my coffee.
I'm like what's the most lowhanging?
And she goes I'm okay.
And it was one of those momentswhere I'm like, oh, I noticed
what she said, how she said it.
My professor at Luther alwayssaid we should have a good ear
(02:51):
for the confession.
Now, sometimes the confessionsounds like, oh, I've been
struggling with anger.
Again, that's a confession.
But sometimes the confessionsounds like somebody who says
I'm okay.
And so again, in one of themoments I got it right, I said
oh, you don't sound okay, what'sgoing on and then that's two
questions in.
She goes well, actually I'm notdoing so well.
(03:13):
I said, oh, can I ask what'swrong?
What's happening?
I was waiting for my coffeeBecause actually my husband just
got diagnosed with canceryesterday.
Oh yeah, okay, so now we cantalk Three in and, uh, I'm like
how many.
So after talking with her, I'mlike how many times have I been
in this situation?
I'm just mystics.
I didn't ask the questions.
So Jesus was a wonderfulquestion asker, and I think many
(03:37):
times he would ask a questionjust to get some things to pull
on this thread in this person'slife, to go on an adventure with
them and see where it took them.
I think this story is just sucha story for this woman and also
for us, the readers, to beasked this question and go on
this adventure down the road,down the rabbit hole, to see
where it takes us.
So that's what we're going todo.
(03:58):
Are you ready?
Here's the scene Jesus and hisfollowers just got off of the
boat.
They were over across the lakein a place called the Gerasenes.
It's like a.
It's like a, a Gentile part ofthe lake, and he casts out some
demons out of this demoniac man,it's this crazy story.
Go back and read it just priorto this.
And they come back and whenthey land on this side of the
(04:18):
lake the Jewish side of the lakethere's a whole crowd of people
waiting for Jesus andimmediately you can tell it's
this crowded place.
There's people everywhere.
They want to see Jesus and talkto him, and he gets up the boat
and there they are.
Now this is also what we call asandwich story.
So see if you can notice this,there's a story that begins and
then it's interrupted by anotherstory and then the first story
(04:42):
ends at the end.
So you have like a sandwich.
You have the part one of storyone and you have story two that
interrupts it and then part twoof story one that ends.
And the gospel writers allthree of them, do this.
They're like hey, read this,both stories together, notice
the differences, notice thesimilarities.
They call it a sandwich story.
Fair enough, okay, I'm notgoing to tell you all the
(05:02):
answers, you've got to find themfor yourself.
But this is a sandwich story.
Notice the differences, noticethe similarities.
So here's how it begins.
Jesus shows up.
By the way we're calling thissermon.
Who Touched Me?
That's the question that Jesusasks who touched me?
Now here's what happens.
They show up on the lake, offthe lake, and there comes
thisibles.
It's on page eight.
(05:23):
I want you to follow along alittle bit and I want to ask you
a few questions.
841 on the right side.
We're gonna go Luke.
It's in all three of thesynoptic gospels, but synoptic
meaning there's Matthew, markand Luke.
They read very similarly John'sdoing his own thing.
So it's very different.
But so Luke, eight page 841 onthe bottom right there, page 841
on the bottom right there, andyou see if you can notice the
(05:43):
sandwich story.
But so read along with me.
So just then, this guy namedwhat's his name?
Jairus.
He's a synagogue leaver, sohe's a prominent man, he's well
known, he's named and everything.
And he shows up and he comes,he falls at Jesus' feet, begins
to plead with him to come to hishouse, for he has a daughter
who's about 12 years old andshe's dying.
(06:05):
So Jesus, of course, like yeah,I'll do that, let's go.
So they get ready, they'removing along this road, wherever
they are, and they're going tohead to Jairus' house.
Jairus, who's a synagogueleader, has a 12-year-old
daughter and she's sick and heneeds Jesus' help.
There's crowds pressing in allaround Jesus' point as they head
over to Jairus' house.
In fact it says this Well,actually I'll get there in a
(06:26):
minute.
So there's crowds everywhereand if you can imagine this
whole scene, they're going toJairus' house.
There's people everywhere andthey're pressing in on him on
both sides.
The text says and then the storyis interrupted.
Something happens on the way toJairus' house and here's what
happens.
It says now this woman comes upbehind him and she touches the
fringe of his cloak I love that.
(06:48):
She grabs, like the hem of hisgarment, the edge of his prayer
shawl and touches Jesus.
Now, imagine this scene.
You can hear the noise, you cansense the pressure all around
Jesus.
There's people everywhere.
You can even smell the I don'tknow the animals in the area,
the body odor you probably cansmell in this part.
And this invisible woman comesup and touches him and he says
(07:11):
this hey, who touched me?
So they're going to Jairus'house.
They stop and he's like hey,who touched me?
And immediately the Jairus storyis interrupted and Peter, who
isn't always the smartest guy,not always the sharpest knife in
the drawer, he kind of nailsthis one.
He says this I love it.
He's like Master, there'speople everywhere pressing
(07:34):
against you.
What do you mean?
Who touched you?
In other words, dude,everybody's touching you.
What are you talking about?
I love this story.
You can imagine there's peopleeverywhere and this woman sneaks
up behind Jesus and she toucheshim.
Well, jesus responds.
Jesus says this.
He's like yeah, I know that, Iknow there's people everywhere,
but somebody's touched mebecause I noticed that power has
(07:57):
gone out from me and I feel thedisciples are like whoa.
And in fact, matthew checkedJesus' Oura Ring app and his
Apple Health.
Yeah, something sucked out ofhim right in that moment.
Something happened.
By the way, the word here in theGreek is the word dynamis.
Everyone say dynamis Sound likeany English words.
We know Dynamite.
(08:19):
That's the word for power.
So dynamite is Okay.
Who knows who?
This is Nobody, because I I I'min the stars tonight.
Nobody knows dynamite.
A couple you're embarrassed toadmit.
Okay, we had a bet in the backthat you would know this song.
This is BTS, this K-pop band,dynamite.
(08:40):
If I played it, you wouldrecognize it.
Fine for you guys.
This is your.
Okay, fine, dynamite.
Fine, fine, try to have alittle fun.
But nobody wants to have anyfun with me.
Go home and on your apple musicor whatever you use, spotify,
uh, do dynamite bt.
You'll recognize this song.
Okay, point is there's like thisexplosion out of, I imagine
like this explosion out of jesus, like something happens that's
(09:01):
different than all the otherfolks touching him.
When she touches him, powergoes out of him.
You know, it's like thisdynamite explosion, something
that happens in between this manand Jesus, or this woman and
Jesus.
He expends a certain amount ofenergy.
By the way, don't be surprised.
If you're doing ministry, ifyou're a greeter, or if you're a
scripture reader, if you're apiano player whatever your
(09:23):
things are that you do here, ifyou're loving scripture reader,
if you're a piano player,whatever your things are that
you do here if you're lovingyour neighbor, if you're loving
your enemies, if you're prayingfor those who persecute you, it
will cost you energy.
I'm just telling you that.
This is why Sabbaths are superimportant, these kinds of things
to restore energy.
Sonia, by the way, is on hertwo-month sabbatical.
It's a Sabbath of rest andcommunion with God in order to
(09:43):
recharge.
She'll be back next Sunday, bythe way, but so keep praying for
him so he feels something goout of him.
Now he asked the question whotouched me?
Now, maybe he didn't know,maybe he's just like just
curious, well, who touched me?
I felt something, but who wasit?
I don't even know what's goingon, maybe, or maybe there's
something else happening withthis question.
(10:03):
Or maybe there's something elsehappening with this question.
Maybe Jesus knows somethingthat we don't know, or that the
disciples don't know, or thewoman doesn't know.
Maybe he knows some things andhe wants to kind of pull on this
thread.
As I mentioned earlier,remember, there's a lot of
meaning or a lot of words orquestions in the text that have
multiple layers of meaning.
That calls polysemy, notpolygamy, but polysemy.
There's multiple layers tothese words that Jesus uses, or
(10:27):
multiple layers of the questionsthat he asks.
And I wonder if this is anexample of polysemy, where he's
like hey, who touched me?
But he's asking a deeperquestion.
He's getting at somethingdeeper than just who was the
touch thing.
It's a chaotic scene, you canimagine.
There's people everywhere, allaround him, touching him,
pressing him on all sides, andthey're going.
Whose house are they going to?
Jairus' house.
(10:47):
He's the synagogue leader.
They're going to Jairus' houseand there's this invisible
person that comes up behind himsneakily, like a ninja, grabs
the hem of his garment, the edgeof his prayer shawl Maybe some
scholars would say the tzitzit,which is those little frays that
hang off the edge of his prayershawl and grabs him.
And Jesus can't see who it is.
(11:08):
He doesn't know who it is,allegedly, and no one around
them knows who it was.
Nobody knows who it was, ah,but we do.
We know who it is.
Look at your bible.
It's a bleeding woman.
We know who it is because thestory tells us a woman bleeding.
(11:28):
For how many years?
12 years now.
Women in the ancient near eastyou probably know this already.
But uh, women were.
Legally, they were restrictedwhat they could do with the law.
They couldn't do much.
Legally and socially they weremarginalized in almost every way
women were.
And economically they were veryvulnerable and religiously they
(11:50):
were limited what they could do.
Most of their value and worthcame from their family of origin
or from their childbearing.
So you have this woman who'sbeen bleeding for 12 years and
her name is what's her name?
I forget.
Would you look up in the 841?
What's her name?
I forgot what it was.
Sorry guys, what is it?
(12:17):
It doesn't say Hmm.
So this invisible womanbleeding for 12 years I don't
want to put her name in therebecause I don't know who cares,
touches the hem of his garmentand he feels power go out of him
.
How many years was she bleedingfor?
(12:37):
Yeah, 12.
Now, 12 is a significant numberin the Hebrew Bible and in the
Jewish story.
In the Christian story, 12 is,of course, the number of tribes
of Israel, the people whom Godchooses to bless the whole world
, the 12 tribes.
12 is the number of disciplesthat Jesus sort of gathers
around him.
He had more than that, but it'sthe 12.
He talks about a lot, as if tosay this mission I began with
(12:59):
Israel to bless the world, toredeem and renew the world.
That began in the tribes ofIsrael.
I'm going to renew it in thisnew covenant community with his
disciples.
And then you have this womanwho's been bleeding for how many
years Now?
This is a sign that thiscovenant community will look
like this.
Watch what happens.
I'm going to show you, I'mgoing to put on display what
(13:20):
outreach from God looks like,what a covenant community looks
like, when God is trying torestore and renew the world.
By the way, how old was Jairus'daughter?
Oh, okay, all right now.
Also, by the way, how old wasJesus?
When he goes to the temple,he's younger.
He gets lost.
He's apparently lost and hegoes and hangs out at the temple
.
They find him there.
How old were?
(13:41):
We told that he was.
Oh, that's funny, isn't it?
So it's a very significantnumber that Jesus is sort of
playing on here in the storyonce again.
Twelve, and here's the dealabout this woman.
She's been bleeding for 12years Now.
We know in Leviticus, leviticallaw, that this actually makes
her ceremonially unclean.
Here's the law.
I'm going to read the wholething because it's quite radical
(14:03):
, so pay attention.
It says this is in Leviticus,so this is old Jewish law.
When a woman has a discharge ofblood for many days at the time
other than her monthly periodanybody uncomfortable this
morning it's in the Bible andit's just basic biology or has a
discharge that continues beyondher period, she will be unclean
(14:24):
as long as she has thisdischarge, just as in the days
of her period.
Any bed she lies on while herdischarge continues will be
unclean, as is her bed duringthe period.
Anything that she sits on willbe unclean During her period.
Anyone who touches them will beunclean.
They must wash their clothesand bathe with water.
They'll be unclean until theevening.
You get the idea.
She's unclean in every singleway.
(14:45):
Ceremonially unclean, thatmeans that religiously she's
restricted.
She can't go into any religiousgathering.
Socially, she's isolated.
You can't go near people whenyou're unclean.
Ceremonially speaking.
Economically, she's probablybankrupt.
It's been 12 years she'sbankrupting and physically, I
imagine this woman is exhausted.
(15:05):
In other words, she's desperatefor somebody to help her.
12 years, you guys Bleeding,and she sneaks through this
crowd to touch Jesus.
Now in Mark's gospel we'll readmore about her.
Mark tells us that she'dsuffered a great deal under the
(15:25):
care of many doctors and hadspent all she had.
Yet instead of getting better,her condition only grew worse
After 12 years.
I have a good friend who hasthis condition called
endometriosis and she wasexplaining it to me and it's
this extremely painful thingthat happens mostly, if not
predominantly, in women.
It's this feminine disease thatyou have and it affects your
(15:49):
organs and high levels of pain.
And she was saying that, yeah,50, even 50 to 100 years ago,
there were many cases of womenwho had things like this
endometriosis that doctorsdidn't know how to explain it or
didn't bother to explain or gettoo down in the weeds on it and
these were thought to be crazyand they would commit them to
(16:13):
mental hospitals.
They called it female hysteria.
Can you imagine that's 50 yearsago, you guys?
Hysteria.
Can you imagine that's 50 yearsago, you guys?
They were undiagnosed and theywere considered crazy because
they'd had this pain that no oneknew how to fix it.
And they called it well, it'sjust female hysteria and let's
throw them into a mentalhospital.
This woman, desperate, bankrupt,isolated, excluded in every way
(16:40):
.
And yet she says this.
When she heard about Jesus, shethought to herself as she comes
behind him if I could justtouch his clothes, I'll be
healed.
If I could just grab hisclothes, I think that God could
heal me.
Something could happen if Ionly could touch his clothes.
And the text tells us that shewas healed.
(17:00):
When was she healed?
Immediately I dig thatImmediately.
Jesus didn't even know it.
Now here's the deal Becauseshe's unclean.
Anything she touches you readthat Leviticus passage anything
will become unclean.
That's how the directionalitygoes.
The unclean things make theclean things unclean.
(17:20):
I'll say that again, just soyou can follow here.
The unclean things make theclean things unclean.
So anybody she touches will nowbecome unclean and she's
touching a lot of people,because there's people
everywhere, like Peter says, andso she's making all of them
unclean.
I was in Thailand.
In Thailand, the Buddhist monksthere, when they walk down the
(17:42):
street in their orange robes,everybody parts ways because
they can't be touched,especially by women.
That's how their culture works.
So everyone just sort of partslike a sea because of the same
kind of thing, this ritualcleanliness.
And so she makes a lot ofpeople unclean, including Jesus.
Ah, but notice what Jesus does.
(18:03):
He sort of flips the script.
Jesus never becomes unclean,does he?
No, he makes her clean.
So in the old story the uncleanthing makes the clean things
unclean, but in the story thatJesus is telling and putting on
display, he makes the uncleanthing clean.
(18:28):
He's reversing this old story.
He's not affected by heruncleanliness Doesn't affect him
in any way, not at all.
It's like he just sort of likebounces right off of him, in
fact, the old law.
He reverses the curse of theold law.
Now, this is later, but inGalatians, paul beautifully
(18:49):
writes this by the way, jesuswith him, the sickness ends with
Jesus, it stops.
It doesn't keep going, it stops.
Now, I love this.
Paul in Galatians writes this.
He says Christ.
Now this is way after thisstory, but Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law bybecoming a curse for us.
When she touches him, hebecomes unclean, but somehow he
(19:12):
reverses it and he undoes it.
Cursed is everyone.
This is an old law too.
Cursed is everyone who's hungon a tree.
This is an old Leviticus law,that whoever dies on a tree or a
pole is cursed.
So he redeemed us in order thatthe blessing given to Abraham
remember the 12 tribes of Israelmight come to the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ, so that,by faith, we might receive the
(19:34):
promise of the spirit.
Yeah, jesus is a curse reverser, and when she touches him to
curse this old law and all thatshe's doing, all her sickness,
her bleeding, it all ends andstops with him because he
reverses this curse.
I love it.
I love it.
Yeah, the curse, the sickness,the bleeding, it stops with
(19:55):
Jesus.
By the way, guess who's stillhanging out around the fringes
of this story?
Probably what's his name again?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
What was her name?
Again, I forgot what was hername.
Oh, she's not named.
Hmm, jairus is over there like.
Oh, I knew I should have goneto the minute clinic this
morning instead of this, rightUrgent care would have probably
(20:19):
been faster this morning.
He's looking at his ticket.
He's like got 47.
He looks at her ticket she's 48.
She jumped the line, this crazywoman.
What are we doing, jesus?
I'm all about, this is great,but my daughter?
How old is his daughter?
12 years old, by the way.
She might be dead by nowbecause this woman tells Jesus
(20:40):
her whole story.
He's just hanging out on thefringes waiting.
This woman, though, who wantsto remain anonymous, who tries
to be invisible, not to disturbtoo many people, sneaks into the
crowd and touches him and thensneaks away, but Jesus refuses
to let her remain invisible.
I love this.
I remember one time I was inSalt Lake City Airport and I was
(21:02):
12 years old.
We were flying somewhere toCalifornia, I forget and I was
exhausted.
I just wanted to sit down andread a book.
We had a long layover.
We're waiting for our plane.
We're at the gate.
I'm just going to get my bookand find a spot to read.
I sit down near the gate and allof a sudden, the wall behind me
moves and it was.
(21:23):
Then I realized it wasn't awall, it was a door, and not
just any door, it was anemergency exit door.
You know the kind that makelots of noises and lights.
All I wanted to do was just sitdown and hang out, be alone and
have some time of solitude andrelax and that door kicked open.
(21:43):
I don't know how it did it, Ididn't hit the bar, it just
opened and that alarm startsgoing, lights are flickering,
people come running over to thisdoor.
I'm like son of a gun, peopleeverywhere.
What'd you do?
I don't know.
I just hit the door.
I'm sorry, you know.
Okay, it's fine, it's fine,it's fine.
Just the door of this kid hereopened.
I'm like, oh, now I'membarrassed, my face is flushing
red.
This is terrible.
I just wanted to hide out.
(22:04):
They all kind of leave.
Well, what happens in airportsis help kind of arrives in waves
.
It's that first wave left, thenanother wave comes.
What's going on here?
What's happening right overthere?
That kid, he's the one that didit.
That's me sorry.
That's me.
You know, those commercialswant to get away.
That was me, I just wanted toget away, so embarrassing.
(22:27):
Another wave, what happened?
Oh, that kid, that's me sorry.
I imagine this woman just wantedto sneak in there and touch his
garment, but he won't let her.
I dig that about Jesus.
And he asks her the question.
Actually, he asks everybody whotouched me.
Why would he even ask who cares?
Let her be healed, let's moveon.
Why does he ask her, what if heknew?
(22:48):
What if he knew something andmaybe the spirit told him or the
father told him or he had thissense of something important is
happening, and he pulls on thisthread.
He's like I'm going to ask aquestion, see where it goes.
Let's just see where thisrabbit hole goes a little bit.
What if he wanted to call herout for her sake and for the
sake of everybody watching?
What if he wanted to dosomething to kind of show
(23:09):
everybody?
What if she wanted to beinvisible because of her shame?
Undoubtedly 12 years of shameand embarrassment and exclusion
and isolation and exhaustion andmoney spent and she wanted to
just hide out.
But he doesn't let her.
(23:29):
Yeah, these are all thenarratives I imagine she was
living by.
I'm broke, I'm excluded, nobodywants me, I'm not invited to
anything, I'm a pariah, I'm justa menace to society, and that's
the narrative.
We all have these narratives welive by.
If you know this about yourself, you should pay attention to
them.
(23:49):
Some are not true.
And these ones she's living byand Jesus is like oh, you know
what?
I'm going to give you adifferent narrative.
It's time for a new one, areyou ready?
So he calls her out I love it.
And he makes her healing public.
He restores her publicly, infront of everybody, as if then,
(24:11):
to give her a face.
Oh hey, woman, where are you?
Come here, hey, we're going topause, hold on.
And like the spotlight is on herand she's healed, he gives her
an identity in this moment,calls her up in front of
everybody For her own sake.
He gives her a face, maybe evena name, because what was her
(24:34):
name?
I forget what they called herin the text.
What was her name?
Oh, yeah, it doesn't have one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe hewants to give her one, as if,
like he's walking into thisthree-star Michelin restaurant
with this raggedy old lady,young lady who's been oh no,
she's with me.
Yeah, she's with me, she's fine, let's go.
(24:56):
I dig that about Jesus.
See, he restores in every wayher humanity.
He fixes her body, so now she'sno longer unclean.
In that way he restores herdignity, her personhood, her
identity, her visibility.
He affirms her presence infront of everybody because she
was invisible and now she's gotsome presence, some substance.
(25:18):
And then he calls her by name.
What does the text say?
He calls her hey, daughter.
You know, this is the only timeJesus calls somebody daughter
in the Gospels.
He calls her daughter, he givesher a name.
I don't think this is like asentimental kind of a name Like
hey, sweetheart, maybe I thinkit's covenantal hey, look at me,
(25:42):
you belong in my family.
Now Everybody, she's with me.
This new thing I'm startingit's with people like this and
like the lepers and the outcasts.
Remember they called Jesus adrunkard because he hung out
with drunkards and prostitutes.
I love that about Jesus she'swith me.
(26:05):
One time in YWAM years ago inColorado, I was a young 19 year
old kid.
We'd have teachers who wouldcome for a week, spend a whole
week with us, and I had thisdeep father wound as a young man
.
And this teacher came throughand taught on the father heart
of God.
His name was Jeff Pratt and webonded.
I remember I cried with him, weprayed together.
He was an incredible man and atthe end of that week he was
like hey, let's stay in touch.
I want to so badly because hejust was.
(26:26):
Really.
He ministered to me, so let's,should we exchange addresses.
This is back in the day and awhole year goes by.
I just I never wrote him and henever wrote me.
I just I forgot.
And a year later I was at awedding, his brother's wedding.
He was doing the wedding and Isaw him from afar.
I'm like, oh no, I feltembarrassed, like I hadn't
written him.
(26:46):
I told him I would.
I felt I'm like, ah, I reallyliked him, I admired.
Now it's been a whole yearlater and he teaches all over
the world Every week's in adifferent city around the world,
knows thousands of people.
He doesn't remember me.
Me and Katie sat in the back ofthis church at my friend's
(27:08):
wedding, his brother's wedding,and Jeff was doing the wedding.
I kid you not.
At the end of the weddingthings all close up.
He's recessing down the aisle,music, things all close up.
He's recessing down the aisle,music's going.
I'm in the back kind of hidingout.
I'm embarrassed.
If he sees me I'm going to haveto oh, here's why I didn't have
time to write you and try toexplain.
Remember me, I'm, you know,walk out and he looks at me and
he goes oh hey, ryan, and I waslike I couldn't believe it.
(27:33):
I couldn't believe it.
Something deep in my soul gotfelt.
That was like dried andshriveled felt water just kind
of pour on it.
And Jesus says daughter, yourfaith has made you well.
Yeah, he calls her daughter.
He asks, not to shame her or toplay the blame game, but to
(27:55):
restore her.
But faith, in this regard too.
Faith is not some kind of awork, it's not something, it's
not some achievement, it's aposture of open hands, right,
it's just sort of her showing upthinking, hey, I'll try this.
He says to her, almost likeyour trust has opened you up to
(28:16):
receive what I was alreadygiving.
So when you come up forcommunion in just a minute,
you're going to come forwardlike this, just to receive, in
faith, what Jesus has alreadygiven.
Faith is this posture of trust.
It's not an achievement, not awork.
You didn't climb any ladder,she's barely snuck in there Like
.
I don't know If Jesus wouldhave asked her what do you want?
(28:37):
You know the question from lastweek.
What do you want?
You know the question from lastweek.
What do you seek?
She would have said you, I wantto touch you.
I'm after you, jesus ofNazareth, man.
By the way, jairus is stillthere.
I'll rush this part because Igot to get out of here.
(28:58):
But Jesus goes to Jairus' houseand the daughter is dead now
and she's been.
She's 12 years old and Jesus,as a rabbi, as a Jewish man,
can't touch folks who arebleeding.
And the other thing that youcan't touch corpses.
This is double pollution.
If you're Jesus, this istrouble, double trouble.
(29:19):
But remember the arrow.
He reverses the curse and thelittle girl comes back to life.
He heals them both.
He reverses the curse for bothof them.
Jesus dives into the suffering.
He risks being unclean, herisks sickness, death,
(29:39):
contamination for these twopeople.
I get tired of hearing thenarrative oh, god can't go
around sin, god can't be nearsin, he's too holy.
No, no, that's amisunderstanding.
Holiness simply means unique,set apart, different, and God is
definitely that.
God is not some.
You know a God who's wearing awhite, you know doctor's garb,
(30:01):
with his heel scrubbed and hecan't touch anybody.
That's not what God, no, that'sridiculous.
In Jesus, god dives right intoall this stuff, into the chaos,
into the things, into thepollution, and he reverses the
curse at every chance.
That's the heart of God.
I can't.
I can't be near this sin.
That's crazy.
He dives right in there and hereverses it in every way.
(30:23):
So, central Lutheran Church.
I think what he's also saying tothose who are watching and to
this woman and to Jairus and tothe daughter hey, be not afraid,
we're going to be okay, don'tbe afraid.
So, for those of you who arehere this morning, be not afraid
, we're going to be okay, don'tbe afraid.
So, for those of you here thismorning, anybody this morning,
(30:46):
who feels in many ways ignoredor forgotten, invisible, I want
to tell you you're seen.
Maybe those this morning whoare like the faithful, but the
anonymous.
And you're here and you show upand you're doing your thing,
but just anonymous, and I don'tknow if you have a name and
(31:08):
nobody says hi to me and nobodyacknowledges my.
I get it, but I want to tellyou you're deeply known and I'd
love to have you hear Jesus sayto you daughter or son, I see
you.
Also as a church.
(31:28):
I would love for us to lookaround.
And who are the invisiblepeople who are reaching out for
help?
Are we helping them?
Do we see them?
This Afghan family landed lastweek and Habib came through here
and we met him, incredible man,this journey from Afghanistan
and you got Jerry out hereraising, you know, collecting
coats for people that can't havetheir own coats.
(31:48):
You got tons of cool thingshappening here.
So we, as a church man, wenever lose our eyes to see the
people reaching out.
So, central Lutheran Church,may we also then jump right into
this stuff and not be afraid tobe contaminated, but may we
reach out and help people inevery turn, amen.
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