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December 13/14, 2014
Jason Meyer | Luke 8:42-48
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”—Luke 8:42–48
I am overflowing with thanksgiving for your generosity in “Funding the Filling” these past few weeks. Almost $500,000 has been given so far to reduce our mortgage debt. I pray that advent’s focus on the incomparable gift of Christ will cause gladness to well up and cheerful giving to flow out. With a little over two weeks remaining in our fiscal year, please join me in praying that God causes glad-hearted proportional giving to also grow among us. Please consider how you might participate in that joyful generosity to meet the financial needs that Bethlehem and others have at the end of the year.
Introduction
Does Anybody See Her?
We begin with a reminder of what the four candles of advent represent in this year’s sermon series. They stand for changed lives. Let me draw your attention to the fifth candle, the one that we light last. The fifth candle represents the coming of Jesus as the Light of the World. He is the candle that lights the other four. No one has the ability to light their own candle and cause it to shine. This advent we are watching as Jesus, the Light of the world (John 8:12), comes to create lights in the world (Philippians 2:15). These four changed lives are not ashamed to shine for him. They have been forgiven much, so they live to make much of him. The first candle represents the paralytic of Luke 5. The second candle represents the sinful woman of Luke 7. The third candle represents the woman with the flow of blood from Luke 8. The fourth candle represents the apostle Paul, the chief of sinners from 1 Timothy.
Casting Crowns has a song called “Does Anybody Hear Her?” that has a chorus that goes like this:
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even know she’s going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that’s tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
I wonder how many of you would say, “That is my story. I feel hidden, like no one here really knows me or hears me or would miss me if I left. I just blend into the background.” There are two variations of this story: those who are hidden and don’t want it that way, and those who are hidden and want to keep it that way.
The story before us today features a woman that no one really sees anymore. She is even at the point where she wants to keep it that way.
This story belongs to a section that consists of three stories. First, Jesus heals a demon–possessed man. Second, he heals a woman with a flow of blood. Third, he heals a recently deceased twelve-year-old girl. In this sermon, we will start by here surveying the scene as a whole so that we can see the unifying theme of all three stories. Then, we will return to the special features of our story that draw out the deeper beauty of redeeming love.
I think the main point in all three parts of the story is the same. The purpose is to show that Jesus is the unique Son of God who alone is willing and able to rescue. Our response should be to call upon him and receive the rescue by faith.
Each of the three stories in Luke 8 contains supporting details that make this overarching point and purpose clear, usually in the form of Luke’s commentary on the event. First, people tried to control the man with the legion of demons, but they could not.
He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.—Luke 8:29
Jesus, however, does not chain him, but frees and heals him so that he sat at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind (Luke 8:35). Jesus had so much authority over an army of demons that they were pathetically begging Jesus not to torment them (Luke 8:28, 31).
Second, doctors tried to help the woman with the flow of blood, but she spent all she had and was worse off than before. Luke makes the point emphatic: “She could not be healed by anyone” (Luke 8:43; Mark 5:25–26). She was healed with the mere touch of Jesus’ garment. Jesus emphasizes that her faith has saved her (Luke 8:48). She reaches out to him because she knows he alone can rescue her.
Third, Jairus’ daughter was sick to the point that only Jesus could help, so they sent for him. After she died they said to Jairus, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more” (Luke 8:49). Jesus hears these words of unbelief and brings Jairus (and the reader of the text) to the moment of truth.
But Jesus on hearing this answered him, “Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well.”—Luke 8:50.
In their minds, it is too late for anyone to help, even Jesus. They even laugh in unbelief at Jesus’ words when he says the child is not dead but sleeping. Luke says they laughed because they knew she was dead (Luke 8:53). But Jesus demonstrates why he and he alone can rescue when no one else can by raising her up (Luke 8:54).
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.
This woman is psyched out. I do not use that term lightly. I am not interested in clever, hipster terms to entertain you. Martyn Lloyd–Jones said that “the business of preaching is not to entertain, but to lead people to salvation, to teach them how to find God” (Sermon on Ps. 34:8, June 28, 1931). Let it be clear: I am not trying to entertain you.
I looked for a term to describe this woman’s mental and emotional state. Most people only see her physical state. It has become her calling card—even we refer to her as “the woman with the flow of blood for 12 years.” But we can’t just see people’s physical states. We are total people —we can’t be reduced to just emotional or physical or spiritual.
Sin has wreaked havoc on this woman. Here is the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Idioms Entry for psyched out: “to have a nervous or emotional trauma.” Trauma is the sense I get when I read about her. Here is the example the dictionary gives: “Another day like this one and I’ll psych out for sure. He looked at the bill and psyched out.”
Look at this woman’s life prior to Jesus’ coming. It is summarized in one verse. What would you say about your life if you only had one verse?
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. —Luke 8:23
We see her physical and financial condition in verse 43. Physical problems like this one came into the world through sin. The physical side of your life matters. In Jewish society, people could not separate certain physical matters from spiritual matters and social standing. She had a menstrual issue. The Old Testament Law taught that a woman was unclean during that monthly menstrual cycle. But what if the cycle never ended? It meant in that society that woman was perpetually unclean. Not a day had gone by for twelve years in which anyone, including herself, would consider her clean. In that state, she was an outcast, almost like a leper. A woman like that was always unclean. People didn’t welcome her touch; they feared her touch.
But she went from bad to worse. To top it all off, she had gone to multiple doctors and had multiple disappointments. Her hopes had been dashed multiple times. Now she had no money left. The closing phrase is especially bleak: “She could not be healed by anyone” (v. 43).
I know some of you can actually relate to this experience. You get poked and prodded and tested, your wallet takes a whopping, the medical bills pile up, and you are still not better, just worse for the wear at the end of the day. Your hopes are dashed, and so is the piggy bank.
This woman’s emotional and mental trauma is briefly on display in the next verse.
She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.—Luke 8:44
The Mosaic Law declared that anyone she touched would be made unclean, but someone greater than Moses and the Law is here. Unclean people do not have the power to make him unclean. He has the power to make unclean people clean. His purifying power is greater than any defiling power. Jesus is un-defilable and in-contaminable.
You need to see this because his power to save is the same way. There is a fountain filled with blood that no sin and no sinner could ever contaminate or defile. I know that there are people here who feel sure that they are too dirty and too defiled to embrace Jesus.
You may wonder, “Why would he ever want me?” You may even dare to hope a little that Jesus may receive you, but you feel so tentative because you have been rejected so many times before. You are psyched out. You really wonder if it could be true. She had the courage to just try a touch. Is it enough? You always get more than you bargain for when you come to Jesus. She wants the healing, but she also wants to stay hidden. Look what happens next.
And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”
Ever since the first sin, people have tried to hide when they feel shame, but God graciously will not let them hide. Jesus asks a question like the one God asked Adam and Eve when they tried to hide. “Who was it that touched me?” (v. 45).
Luke tells us that everyone denied it. Peter blurted out what most people must have been thinking: “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” It seems like an out-of-touch question. Doesn’t Jesus realize that many people have touched him? Why is he trying to single out just one? Why, indeed. It’s an excellent question. There is something no one is seeing—no one except Jesus.
Jesus says what no one else except he and the woman know. “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me”(v. 46).Now remember, Jesus is on his way. He has urgent business. A little girl is about to die. He doesn’t have time to stop and let this all play out, does he? There will be no anonymous healing on this day. Healing and staying hidden don’t go together. Jesus’ mission is that this woman will hide in the shadows no longer. I love the way the next verse starts—she realized that she was hidden no longer. What a megaton of meaning in that short phrase.
And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.
The woman saw she was not hidden. It was pointless to hide. She had been caught. Now watch the weight of emotion she displays. We now see more of her nervous and emotional trauma. Luke says that she is trembling. She probably does not know what Jesus is going to do to her. Will she be shamed again? Will she be rejected? I think she is trembling because she knows she is a lawbreaker.
So she falls down before him and tells the truth about everything, why she touched him and what happened after she touched him. I love the way that Luke sets the scene in spatial terms. She tried to come behind him, but now she is before him (v. 47). She now has to face him from the front, not from behind. She need not fear or tremble. He will not speak against her—he will speak out for her.
This fourth point makes me leap for joy. Hearing Jesus speak out for this woman that no one saw makes me yearn for us as a church to go and do likewise. Don’t you want to find the people who feel lost and alone in this church? It will take all of us being on the lookout so that people in our faith family no longer feel hidden. I am especially thinking of widows, orphans, minority groups, children, victims of abuse, the poor, the down-and-out, the disabled—those with outward disabilities and hidden disabilities.
Let’s listen in now to hear what Jesus says when he speaks out in defense of this woman. The first word he utters to her is shocking.
And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
He called her “daughter.” You have to see the significance of this. It is the only time in the gospels that Jesus says it to a woman. Furthermore, the whole context is very significant. That word has been used in this context with reference to the relationship between Jairus and his little girl. This is why he had to stop for this woman with a flow of blood, even though Jairus’ daughter was dying. Jesus had to stop for the sake of his daughter. Talk about a term of endearment! In the previous verse, she declared in the presence of all what he had done for her. Now Jesus declares in the presence of all who she is to him. She is spoken for—you belong to me—I am not ashamed to claim you as my own.
As he speaks out for her, he points out her faith: your faith has made you well. The word for “made well” is the word for “saved.” She is well all the way down to the soul—not just her body. Faith has saved her so that she can go in peace.
Jesus prizes saving faith. The Bible declares that it is a miraculous gift of God (Ephesians 2:9; Philippians 1:29; 2 Peter 1:1). But you don’t even have to go to Paul or Peter to see it. Luke has already made the point that Jesus marvels at faith in the previous chapter. A Gentile—a Roman commander of all people—believes that Jesus has such authority that he can heal from anywhere at any time. Listen to Jesus’ response to such faith.
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”—Luke 7:9
Even though two miracles happened, the healing of the centurion’s servant and the faith of the centurion, Jesus marveled only at the miracle of faith. The new birth is an absolute miracle. Here is what Martin Luther says about the meaning of Jesus’ marveling.
People deem it a great miracle that He made the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lepers clean. And certainly, they are great miracles. But Christ thinks much higher of that which comes to pass within the soul than of that which happens to the body. Therefore, by so much as the soul is more precious than the body, so great and so much greater is the miracle to be regarded which he praises here, than other miracles that happen to the body . . . It is a miracle, a great miracle, that a man should have such fine strong faith; therefore Christ exalts this centurion’s faith as if it were a miracle above all miracles (Martin Luther, Day by Day We Magnify Thee [Philadelphia, Fortress: 1982], p. 68).
Two miracles are present in this story too: the healing of the woman and the faith of the woman. Saving faith is the greater miracle. It creates peace with God. She can go her way knowing that it is well with her soul.
Evangelistic Application: Saving Faith
How many of you came into this church today like the woman in the first part of this story, feeling psyched out and fearful of failure and rejection and condemnation? Living in a fallen world is a traumatic thing. So many things go wrong. We need deep soul healing in a fractured world that impacts all of us—physical and financial, emotional, relational, mental, and spiritual. I don’t know your story. I don’t know how much each of you has been through. But I know some of your stories, and I understand why some of you are afraid that Jesus would reject you. It is hard for some of you to imagine that anyone could possibly accept you and speak such tender words to you.
The world wrongly thinks that peaceful circumstances will produce inner peace. But that is simply not true. There can be nothing happening around us, and we are still filled with boredom and anxiety and fretting. And when you get it, worldly peace is so fragile and fickle. You have to work to get it and then worker harder to guard it.
Jesus promised to give a different kind of peace, peace in the heart.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”—John 14:27
Biblical peace does not depend upon peaceful circumstances. That is why the Bible talks about a peace that passes understanding—because it transcends circumstances. Here is the best part.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.—Philippians 4:7
Do you see it? You have to guard worldly peace, but gospel peace guards you. The hope is not you in a different set of circumstances—it is Christ in you. That is the peace that Jesus gives at the end of the Gospels. Jesus comes into the midst of the disciples after the resurrection when the doors are locked because of the threat of persecution and gives his peace (John 20:19). When he had said this, he showed them his hands and side (John 20:20). This peace only comes through faith. But what is faith?
Faith is a misunderstood word. A good one-word definition of faith is reliance. The world talks about one kind of faith. Its message is “just believe.” That sounds good, but what are we believing? Should we believe in the message of “just believe”? You don’t rely on reliance. Sometimes the world says, “Believe in yourself” or “Believe in the goodness of others.” What a bunch of bunk. Looking at myself is precisely what makes me stop believing and lose faith. And looking at others makes me lose heart, too.
Biblical faith says, “Rely on Jesus.” That is the lesson the woman learned, and it is the message of salvation. We can’t save ourselves, and others cannot save us either. Jesus saves. Jesus alone. Faith rests in him alone. Faith in Christ is not ashamed to take him as our Savior and Lord. Faith falls at his feet and hears him say, “I am not ashamed to claim you as my own.”
Conclusion:
Does Anybody See Her? Jesus Does
A day of frightful judgment is coming for all those who reject and neglect the great salvation Jesus died to purchase. Those who rejected him will have to face his wrath. They will try to hide, but there will be nowhere to hide.
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”—Revelation 6:15–17
His wrath will be so great that people will try to have the Rocky Mountains crush them because that would be better than facing him. But Christians know that there is another option: you can remain hidden from him, or you can be hidden in him.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.—Colossians 3:3
Jesus is willing and able to save you. When we are saved we are so much his that we are no longer hidden from him, but hidden in him. Salvation is the deepest and longest lasting healing of all. It removes the stain that no one else can see or reach but that you feel deeper than any other. It also addresses your need to belong and your fear of rejection. Don’t you see? He will cleanse you completely and cover your shame. Through the gospel, you see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Through the gospel the face of Jesus says, “No condemnation.” He says, “I am not ashamed to call you the most intimate of names, like son or daughter, a name that says that you belong to me.” I have saved this sentence until the very end because it is the sentence that I want to ring in your heads and your hearts: Jesus alone is willing and able to save you. When we are saved by faith, we are so much his that we are no longer hidden from him, but hidden in him.
I hope you want to sing like I do.
What heights of love! What depths of peace!
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease,
My comforter, my all in all,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.
Sermon Discussion Questions
Four Broad Brush Strokes in Our Story
Main Point: Jesus is willing and able to save you so that you belong to him forever by faith and are no longer hidden.
Discussion Questions
Application Questions