HOW FAITH BEGINS

#1 · April 7, 2008, 10:14 am

Quote from Forum Archives on April 7, 2008, 10:14 am
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
HOW FAITH BEGINS

April 6, 2008

Text: Mark 5:25-34

Even though Easter was a couple of Sundays ago now, I am still hung up on the message of the cross, resurrection, and salvation. In reality, thats not a bad hang-up to have. For the Christian, every Sunday is a celebration of the victory of Jesus and the salvation message. As a matter of fact, Christians in early colonial America refused to celebrate an Easter Sunday because there was no Sunday that was more Easter than any other Sunday. Anyway, Gods gift of salvation mercy is fulfilled in our life when we accept by faith that Jesus removed our guilt through his sacrifice. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2. Even though we know how vital faith is in our relationship with God, how does faith begin?

The woman in this Gospel testimony is a good place to find an answer to such a question. The woman, who remains nameless, is an insignificant figure. In her day, she was not a person of very high esteem. She was, first, a woman and, therefore, a second-class citizen. Women were just not afforded much of a standing in that time and culture. She was not Roman, so the Romans would have had nothing to do with her. It is reasonable to assume that she was Jewish, but the care she should have received from her own people would not be there because she was "unclean;" she had "been subject to bleeding for twelve years." In all likelihood, she had a miserable existence.

Even the text seems to testify to her despised status. It pops up in the middle of the account of Jairus' daughter. And while that main event is occurring, this woman dashes onto the stage for a brief moment. She appears in the midst of a shoving crowd; just one of the many thronging about Jesus that day. In spite of all these contributing factors that would cause this woman to remain completely unknown, this encounter captured the Gospel writer's attention. Surely there were other encounters with Jesus that would have struck him as more significant. No doubt, this poor woman was a distraction to those who were focused on the request of a synagogue ruler - an important person. Surely this woman's problems could wait as they raced to Jairus home to tend to his sick and dying little girl.

Yet even amidst this clamoring, excited crowd, Jesus displays an amazing thing about himself. While he is no doubt buoyed by the confidence of the crowd and while the immensity of his task of healing a dying girl may be running through his mind and the vast amount of suffering pressing about him looking for help nearly deafens him, we find that this poor, pitiful woman is not too little for him, and the touch of her trembling, outstretched hand is not too insignificant.

How often this similar theme is found in the Gospels: the One whom the whole world cannot contain makes himself small enough to enter into the loneliness of one single human being and then to be there to such an extent that it seems only he and the person in need are the only people in the whole world. In each poor, struggling castaway, he saw his Father's child, whose misery oppressed him, whose sorrow clutched his throat, and whose guilt burdened his own heart. That is the reason he can be available to that one small woman; that is why the house lights go down and the stage lights come up on only these two figures - as if they alone existed. There they are, the Savior of the world and this one lonely person who needs Jesus enough to make a crazy, mixed-up attempt to come in contact with him.

Crazy? Mixed-up? Well, yes. There is no indication that she had any idea of who Jesus was. There was no title used - such as "Son of God," or "son of David." Instead, the simple rumor that this man possessed marvelous powers was enough to prompt her to give him a try. Doctors had failed her, so she ran to this healer from Nazareth in a desperation move. This woman lived in the thought-world of primitive magic. She believed that a single touch could bring a cure. To her, Jesus was not Messiah; he was some sort of enchanted figure from the world of magic. Would she not, out of her desperation, have reached out to a demon if she thought healing would be there?

It is easy to think, then, that before Jesus could deal with this woman, he would have to correct her wild ideas - her strange heathen-like mythology. He would need to have a heart-to-heart talk with her about the utter nonsense of magic and about the true nature of his person. Yet, nothing like that occurs. Instead, he helps her at once: "Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering."

That is Jesus Christ. He doesn't set forth conditions which I must fulfill before I can find him. He doesn't tell me, "You are looking for me in the wrong way." On the contrary, whenever he notices even a trace of hunger and thirst and longing for spiritual peace, he is there at once - totally and without reservation.

Yet in how many wrong ways do we seek him? It doesn't have to be the way of magic. It can also involve quite different misunderstandings. Some use Christianity as a religious mooring for a morality that humanity cannot do without. For a society, we argue, cannot exist without certain standards of value. These values seem to be best preserved through religious indoctrination; therefore, Jesus becomes the patron saint of social order. Or we tell ourselves that, through its message of love, Christianity sees to it that society remains properly humane; or we say that Christianity watches over the individual and "the infinite worth of the human soul" when the mass threatens to absorb our individuality; or we say that the Judeo-Christian tradition provides us with the necessary Western ideology to withstand the challenges from other cultures.

It was a similar mock-Christian agenda that led the crowds to shout "Hosannah!" on the day of his entry into Jerusalem. Jesus rode triumphal into Jerusalem not because the crowds understood who he was, but because the crowds misunderstood who he was. This was also why, a few days later, the same people cried out "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Jesus had betrayed their misunderstanding.

It is this same mock-Christian agenda that we see today in newspaper columns and that we hear from political and cultural speeches. This whole mock-Christian phraseology rests on a horrible misunderstanding of who Jesus Christ really is. He wants to bring us home to the peace of his Father and to remove from us everything that stands between us and God. To put it in a quite childlike, uncomplicated, and yet consciously arresting way - he wants to bring us to heaven to live with him there.

Beyond this main point, he wants to allow us to share in all the other benefits. In Jesus' school, we learn to understand the infinite worth of the human soul because he died for each one of us. He will help us to find support in him when we are besieged by false ideologies of redemption. He will even arouse our conscience to provide a society with balanced freedom, order, and compassion.

But all of this comes to us only beside of and along with our first, childlike striving after Jesus and his kingdom. When we elevate these other by-products into our main concern, and speak of Christianity like a magic potion to be used to bring us some type of luck, then it's as though we are driving the wrong way down a one way street. Even though I am convinced that there is no higher ideology for any culture than Christianity, I know full well that it is not Christianitys main purpose to create a society. Jesus Christ suffered and died to remove our sins, not to establish a certain type of government.

Jesus does not demand that we present to him a thought-out, well-tested doctrine before we turn to him for help. If this were the case, then we could have a doctrine of salvation without a savior. We could present a so-called Christian body of ideas without needing to believe in Christ.

Even if this is our starting place, though, and even if we are off base with regards to who Jesus is or what he desires, then this minimum Christianity is nevertheless the equivalent to that momentary contact which the bleeding woman tried to make to Jesus' robe. This is how faith begins. We may only have a hold on the very fringe of his robe, but the one who is honest in grasping for that outer fringe and holding tightly to the Savior has the promise that Jesus will turn and ask, "Who touched my clothes?" This is the greatness of Jesus Christ. Long before we have disentangled ourselves from our misguided ideas, he is already present. Long before we feel the touch of his peace, his rescuing arms are already embracing us. And long before we have lost our way and walked off the cliff, he has caught up with us.

The woman found her healing, but Jesus also gave her more than she bargained for: "He turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched my clothes?'" He demanded that the person who sought him now step forward and be recognized. She couldn't continue to hide in the surging mass around them. Jesus required her to step up to him with her need and her cry for help, presenting herself openly and publicly.

There were many in the crowd that day, and no doubt many others bumped up against Jesus. Only one woman went away changed, but she had to confess that she needed his help. She had to answer the question, "Who touched my clothes?" The fact that her bleeding stopped was not the salvation of this woman. The great transformation and change in her life occurred when she was challenged, when she had to present herself before Jesus to experience him and to hear his rescuing word.

The woman lived with her issue of blood for twelve long years. Not only was it an illness to her, it was also a curse. From Mosaic laws, we learn that a woman with a flow of blood was considered unclean - she was to be shunned as a leper. She was an outcast from her people.

And so, when confronted by Jesus himself, she finally "came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth." By her touch, she had made Jesus of Nazareth unclean; she had infected him with her curse. By her monstrous deed of sneaking up behind Jesus and touching his garment, the woman had transferred her uncleanness - her burden - onto him.

In this moment, this confused, helpless woman, within the framework of her heathen ideas, grasped the mystery of the Savior at a deeper level than many theologians and world-wise thinkers. She made Jesus unclean by touching him. She saddled him with her suffering and, by her bold touch, made him a companion in her affliction. She had her life's burden taken away by him and pulled him down into her deep misery. With her poor hand, she unwittingly pointed to the mystery of the cross. You can see that this is where Im still hung up on the cross, resurrection, and salvation.

Although it was not her original intent, this woman made Jesus her savior. In so doing, she has made him into precisely what he wants to be for us. That is why he went to the cross. She trembles because she suddenly realizes what she has done. She has brought the Son of God into her own darkness, and that contradicts everything that one naturally considers permissible and appropriate to God.

What she did unwittingly, however, is actually the miracle message of the Gospel: there is no depth to which Jesus will not go in order to become our Savior. We don't have to become different from what we are. We don't need to become religious in order to come near him. He comes for us wherever we are: in the highways and the byways; in the places where we have dirtied our hands; and in the darkness where we suffer our greatest anxieties and fears. He comes for us wherever we are.

This is the good news from God himself. This is how faith begins: not with a well-thought-out doctrine of salvation, but with a trembling hand outstretched, a simple belief, longing to touch even just the hem of his garment. No matter what our age, or our condition, or how well or sick we are, each of us are invited to hear these words of Jesus: "Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com
-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org   

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

HOW FAITH BEGINS

April 6, 2008

Text: Mark 5:25-34

Even though Easter was a couple of Sundays ago now, I am still hung up on the message of the cross, resurrection, and salvation. In reality, thats not a bad hang-up to have. For the Christian, every Sunday is a celebration of the victory of Jesus and the salvation message. As a matter of fact, Christians in early colonial America refused to celebrate an Easter Sunday because there was no Sunday that was more Easter than any other Sunday. Anyway, Gods gift of salvation mercy is fulfilled in our life when we accept by faith that Jesus removed our guilt through his sacrifice. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2. Even though we know how vital faith is in our relationship with God, how does faith begin?

The woman in this Gospel testimony is a good place to find an answer to such a question. The woman, who remains nameless, is an insignificant figure. In her day, she was not a person of very high esteem. She was, first, a woman and, therefore, a second-class citizen. Women were just not afforded much of a standing in that time and culture. She was not Roman, so the Romans would have had nothing to do with her. It is reasonable to assume that she was Jewish, but the care she should have received from her own people would not be there because she was "unclean;" she had "been subject to bleeding for twelve years." In all likelihood, she had a miserable existence.

Even the text seems to testify to her despised status. It pops up in the middle of the account of Jairus' daughter. And while that main event is occurring, this woman dashes onto the stage for a brief moment. She appears in the midst of a shoving crowd; just one of the many thronging about Jesus that day. In spite of all these contributing factors that would cause this woman to remain completely unknown, this encounter captured the Gospel writer's attention. Surely there were other encounters with Jesus that would have struck him as more significant. No doubt, this poor woman was a distraction to those who were focused on the request of a synagogue ruler - an important person. Surely this woman's problems could wait as they raced to Jairus home to tend to his sick and dying little girl.

Yet even amidst this clamoring, excited crowd, Jesus displays an amazing thing about himself. While he is no doubt buoyed by the confidence of the crowd and while the immensity of his task of healing a dying girl may be running through his mind and the vast amount of suffering pressing about him looking for help nearly deafens him, we find that this poor, pitiful woman is not too little for him, and the touch of her trembling, outstretched hand is not too insignificant.

How often this similar theme is found in the Gospels: the One whom the whole world cannot contain makes himself small enough to enter into the loneliness of one single human being and then to be there to such an extent that it seems only he and the person in need are the only people in the whole world. In each poor, struggling castaway, he saw his Father's child, whose misery oppressed him, whose sorrow clutched his throat, and whose guilt burdened his own heart. That is the reason he can be available to that one small woman; that is why the house lights go down and the stage lights come up on only these two figures - as if they alone existed. There they are, the Savior of the world and this one lonely person who needs Jesus enough to make a crazy, mixed-up attempt to come in contact with him.

Crazy? Mixed-up? Well, yes. There is no indication that she had any idea of who Jesus was. There was no title used - such as "Son of God," or "son of David." Instead, the simple rumor that this man possessed marvelous powers was enough to prompt her to give him a try. Doctors had failed her, so she ran to this healer from Nazareth in a desperation move. This woman lived in the thought-world of primitive magic. She believed that a single touch could bring a cure. To her, Jesus was not Messiah; he was some sort of enchanted figure from the world of magic. Would she not, out of her desperation, have reached out to a demon if she thought healing would be there?

It is easy to think, then, that before Jesus could deal with this woman, he would have to correct her wild ideas - her strange heathen-like mythology. He would need to have a heart-to-heart talk with her about the utter nonsense of magic and about the true nature of his person. Yet, nothing like that occurs. Instead, he helps her at once: "Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering."

That is Jesus Christ. He doesn't set forth conditions which I must fulfill before I can find him. He doesn't tell me, "You are looking for me in the wrong way." On the contrary, whenever he notices even a trace of hunger and thirst and longing for spiritual peace, he is there at once - totally and without reservation.

Yet in how many wrong ways do we seek him? It doesn't have to be the way of magic. It can also involve quite different misunderstandings. Some use Christianity as a religious mooring for a morality that humanity cannot do without. For a society, we argue, cannot exist without certain standards of value. These values seem to be best preserved through religious indoctrination; therefore, Jesus becomes the patron saint of social order. Or we tell ourselves that, through its message of love, Christianity sees to it that society remains properly humane; or we say that Christianity watches over the individual and "the infinite worth of the human soul" when the mass threatens to absorb our individuality; or we say that the Judeo-Christian tradition provides us with the necessary Western ideology to withstand the challenges from other cultures.

It was a similar mock-Christian agenda that led the crowds to shout "Hosannah!" on the day of his entry into Jerusalem. Jesus rode triumphal into Jerusalem not because the crowds understood who he was, but because the crowds misunderstood who he was. This was also why, a few days later, the same people cried out "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Jesus had betrayed their misunderstanding.

It is this same mock-Christian agenda that we see today in newspaper columns and that we hear from political and cultural speeches. This whole mock-Christian phraseology rests on a horrible misunderstanding of who Jesus Christ really is. He wants to bring us home to the peace of his Father and to remove from us everything that stands between us and God. To put it in a quite childlike, uncomplicated, and yet consciously arresting way - he wants to bring us to heaven to live with him there.

Beyond this main point, he wants to allow us to share in all the other benefits. In Jesus' school, we learn to understand the infinite worth of the human soul because he died for each one of us. He will help us to find support in him when we are besieged by false ideologies of redemption. He will even arouse our conscience to provide a society with balanced freedom, order, and compassion.

But all of this comes to us only beside of and along with our first, childlike striving after Jesus and his kingdom. When we elevate these other by-products into our main concern, and speak of Christianity like a magic potion to be used to bring us some type of luck, then it's as though we are driving the wrong way down a one way street. Even though I am convinced that there is no higher ideology for any culture than Christianity, I know full well that it is not Christianitys main purpose to create a society. Jesus Christ suffered and died to remove our sins, not to establish a certain type of government.

Jesus does not demand that we present to him a thought-out, well-tested doctrine before we turn to him for help. If this were the case, then we could have a doctrine of salvation without a savior. We could present a so-called Christian body of ideas without needing to believe in Christ.

Even if this is our starting place, though, and even if we are off base with regards to who Jesus is or what he desires, then this minimum Christianity is nevertheless the equivalent to that momentary contact which the bleeding woman tried to make to Jesus' robe. This is how faith begins. We may only have a hold on the very fringe of his robe, but the one who is honest in grasping for that outer fringe and holding tightly to the Savior has the promise that Jesus will turn and ask, "Who touched my clothes?" This is the greatness of Jesus Christ. Long before we have disentangled ourselves from our misguided ideas, he is already present. Long before we feel the touch of his peace, his rescuing arms are already embracing us. And long before we have lost our way and walked off the cliff, he has caught up with us.

The woman found her healing, but Jesus also gave her more than she bargained for: "He turned around in the crowd and asked, 'Who touched my clothes?'" He demanded that the person who sought him now step forward and be recognized. She couldn't continue to hide in the surging mass around them. Jesus required her to step up to him with her need and her cry for help, presenting herself openly and publicly.

There were many in the crowd that day, and no doubt many others bumped up against Jesus. Only one woman went away changed, but she had to confess that she needed his help. She had to answer the question, "Who touched my clothes?" The fact that her bleeding stopped was not the salvation of this woman. The great transformation and change in her life occurred when she was challenged, when she had to present herself before Jesus to experience him and to hear his rescuing word.

The woman lived with her issue of blood for twelve long years. Not only was it an illness to her, it was also a curse. From Mosaic laws, we learn that a woman with a flow of blood was considered unclean - she was to be shunned as a leper. She was an outcast from her people.

And so, when confronted by Jesus himself, she finally "came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth." By her touch, she had made Jesus of Nazareth unclean; she had infected him with her curse. By her monstrous deed of sneaking up behind Jesus and touching his garment, the woman had transferred her uncleanness - her burden - onto him.

In this moment, this confused, helpless woman, within the framework of her heathen ideas, grasped the mystery of the Savior at a deeper level than many theologians and world-wise thinkers. She made Jesus unclean by touching him. She saddled him with her suffering and, by her bold touch, made him a companion in her affliction. She had her life's burden taken away by him and pulled him down into her deep misery. With her poor hand, she unwittingly pointed to the mystery of the cross. You can see that this is where Im still hung up on the cross, resurrection, and salvation.

Although it was not her original intent, this woman made Jesus her savior. In so doing, she has made him into precisely what he wants to be for us. That is why he went to the cross. She trembles because she suddenly realizes what she has done. She has brought the Son of God into her own darkness, and that contradicts everything that one naturally considers permissible and appropriate to God.

What she did unwittingly, however, is actually the miracle message of the Gospel: there is no depth to which Jesus will not go in order to become our Savior. We don't have to become different from what we are. We don't need to become religious in order to come near him. He comes for us wherever we are: in the highways and the byways; in the places where we have dirtied our hands; and in the darkness where we suffer our greatest anxieties and fears. He comes for us wherever we are.

This is the good news from God himself. This is how faith begins: not with a well-thought-out doctrine of salvation, but with a trembling hand outstretched, a simple belief, longing to touch even just the hem of his garment. No matter what our age, or our condition, or how well or sick we are, each of us are invited to hear these words of Jesus: "Your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

http://www.bhfirstbaptist.com

-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org