Created in His Image - Compassionate

Title: Created in His Image - Compassionate By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text: 34 “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Savanarola, a Roman Catholic preacher of the fifteenth century, one day saw an elderly woman worshipping at the statue of the Virgin Mary which stood in his city's great cathedral. On the following day, he noticed the same woman again on her knees before Mary. With great interest, Savanarola observed that day after day, she came and did homage before the statue.  "Look how she reverences the Virgin Mother," Savanarola whispered to one of his fellow priests.  "Don't be deceived by what you see," the priest responded. Many years ago an artist was commissioned to create a statue for the cathedral. As he sought a young woman to pose as the model for his sculpture, he found one who seemed to be the perfect subject. She was young,  lovely, and had a mystical quality in her face. The image of that young woman inspired his statue of Mary. The woman who now worships the statue is the same one who served as its model years ago. Shortly after the statue was put in place, she began to visit it and has continued to worship there religiously ever since.  The point ought to be clear. What she came to worship was a statue created in her own image!  People are continually doing that to God. As the cynic has said, "In the beginning God created man in His own image. Man has now returned the favor."

I. We can ask: “Who is the God whom you worship? What is He like? Is He really made in our image?”  No, thank God!!

A. Anyone who spends much time around religious people will encounter some whose god is a vengeful, capricious being who is as far removed from the God of the New Testament as night is from day.

1. C.S. Lewis said that he grew up believing that God was an "Old meany” looking around to see if someone is having a good time, to put a stop to it. Where do we get such ideas? Such a view of God must come from sinful twisted minds.

B. Some people lean completely the other way. They create a God who is their "buddy-buddy." He is the sweet grandfatherly figure who always is on our side.

1. A newspaper recently printed an amusing account of a high school football team in California that is defying the ban on prayer in public schools.  Bob Francola, coach of the Kennedy High School Cougars, said that his team has modified the practice to remove any religious references from its prayers. "I was still allowed to have a quiet moment with our team," he said, so instead I just ask the “Big Cougar” in the sky to help us out.  We are going to have to expand our theology to accommodate a quartet rather than a Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit and the Big Cougar in the sky.

II. Where do we get such ideas about God? God is neither an angry, vengeful ogre eager to punish, nor a pliable, insecure smiley-faced waiter eager to please. God is God. But more than that God is the God revealed in Jesus Christ. And the overwhelming image that Jesus gives us is of a God of compassion. That is the word we encounter in the sixth chapter of Mark.

com·pas·sion (kəmˈpaSHən/) noun: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

A. Jesus has been teaching and healing and now he is tired. He suggests to the disciples that they go away for some rest.  But the crowds found them. People came by the thousands to see and hear this man.

1. When Jesus saw them, the Scriptures say, "He was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd..."

a. That is God's view of Man, we are sheep having no shepherd. Dante opens his Divine Comedy with these words, "In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark wood." Such is the human condition. b. It’s dark and more.  It’s dark and totally corrupted by sin.

2. And God sees it all.

a. We’re all sick—sick with sin.  Sick unto death with sin.  And God sees our sickness. b. And we who are “sick” with sin can’t fix it.  When we try to take care of our sin it’s like this: We are like three burglars I read about who reportedly tried to open a safe in a small factory in Vang, Norway. They attached an explosive device to the door and hid in the next room until it went off. Unfortunately, the explosion was so powerful it demolished the entire building and buried them under a pile of rubble. The safe contained no money it contained explosives.   We think that our petty little sins don't amount to much. But God sees it all. He sees the broken families, the broken bodies, the unfulfilled potential of persons who thought they were simply blowing the door off of a safe containing jewels and discovered too late that it contained explosives. And God weeps.

B. But in spite of all this God has compassion.  And He didn’t just sit back and weep.  His compassion is tied to action.  So God Sent Jesus to be Our Shepherd.  And really this amounts to God, Himself, being our shepherd and living among us.  A shepherd who is God among us is indicated by several things in our text.

1. First our text tells us “Jesus began to teach them" (6:34). This is meant to show that Jesus is represented as a Moses figure who teaches his people in the desert.

a. It reminds of Deut 18:15, where Moses says that the Lord God will raise up "a prophet" like him from among the people: b. The loaves of bread point to an exodus/new exodus motif, with Jesus taking on the functions of both God and Moses in providing the basics, and fulfilling the promise that in the new exodus God's people would feed upon the way.

2. It is also meant to remind us of the passage in Numbers  [27:15-18] which describes the selection of Joshua as successor to Moses, so that the people will not be without a shepherd.

a. Here Jesus is portrayed as a new Joshua: the name of the two men is identical in Greek. b. And like Joshua, "who has the Spirit in himself,” Jesus has the Spirit within himself. c. Thus Jesus is, thus, to be seen as the one who will bring Israel fully to their true Promised Land and to their final rest

4. And Not only is God’s compassion seen in the feeding of the 5000, it’s seen in the aftermath of the miracle.

a. The twelve baskets" tells us that there is a basket for each of the twelve disciples, who are themselves the beginning and the foundation of the restoration of Israel. This keeps our focus upon God coming to his people Israel.  b. The new manna is for them all and there is plenty for the people of God.

5. And when you go further beyond this texts we see that the Creator God not only looks upon His children with compassion but that compassion has moved Him to redeem His children.

a. He sent Jesus to become a lamb slain for the sins of the world—the shepherd became the Lamb.   b. That is how God showed compassion by paying for our sin, the cause of our darkness, the cause of our blowing up the world around us, the cause of our misconceptions about Him.  And this is what we need more than anything else.

C. And further this same God has compassion on you here today. He has preserved for you the truth of His Word.

1. Now He, through His called servants, warns you, through His word, to repent of your sins and be turned from your wickedness lest you perish. He gives you His Gospel.  He absolves your sins and assures you of eternal life in Christ Jesus.

a. As Jesus used His disciples to carry food to the five thousand, so for you He uses the servant of the Word to carry to you what you need. As He multiplied the bread and fish for the people, so He multiplies His blessings to you by giving you Bread from Heaven--His own flesh and blood.  He gives to you as He gave to them. b. But now we are fed by the Word of God. We have water for Baptism. We have bread and wine for Communion. Once He gave Himself for you on the cross. Now He gives Himself to you here in the Word and in the Sacraments. And it is more than enough.

2. It’s Jesus who multiplies, Jesus who feeds.  It’s Jesus who like a shepherd feeding His flock gives to us what we could not supply for ourselves.

a. Jesus renewed people with the power of his compassion. b. Now it is Jesus who transforms us to be compassionate like Him. I like the ancient legend about the monk who found a precious stone. A short time later, the monk met a traveler, who said he was hungry and asked the monk if he would share some of his provisions. When the monk opened his bag, the traveler saw the precious stone and, on an impulse, asked the monk if he could have it. Amazingly, the monk gave the traveler the stone.  The traveler departed quickly, overjoyed with his new possession. However, a few days later, he came back, searching for the monk. He returned the stone to the monk and made a request: "Please give me something more valuable, more precious than this stone. Please give me that which enabled you to give me this precious stone!"  He’s really asking for compassion.

CONCLUSION: Yes, we are filled with misconceptions about God caused by our sin.  Sin destroys our thoughts about God and our lives .  But this text and others show us that our God is a God of compassion.  His compassion is seen in action.  He sent His Son to be the shepherd for His people.  This is a shepherd who was promised; a shepherd who feeds His people; a shepherd who became the Lamb to pay for the sin of all men; a shepherd who gives out the salvation we need; and a shepherd who makes us compassionate like Him.  Amen.

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The True Spiritual Head

Title: The True Spiritual Head By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text: Mark 6: 22 For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you."  23 And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom."  24 And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist."  25 And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter."  26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her.  27 And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head.

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, Being headless is one of the most terrible fates to contemplate.  It has come up in the news all too often recently – often those who cause that condition are themselves headless.  Our American history has a popular story accenting the terror of being headless.  In colonial times the fictional character Icabod Crane is terrified by a guy from his town who was acting like a headless horseman [Video: Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow]  This story is fictional.  But our text’s headless account is all too real and because of that even more frightening.  And it represents our natural condition in more ways than we’d care to admit.

I. Herod, who should be called Antipas, was the son of Herod the Great, who ruled when Jesus was born. Antipas was not really a “king” but a sub-ruler, entitled a tetrarch, more like a Duke or an Earl

A. Herod was living in sin with his sister-in-law Herodias, and John the Baptist was not afraid to tell him so. John spoke God's Word truthfully, but Herodias was angry at him, so Herod locked him up in prison.

1. But this was not good enough for Herodias.  She wanted him dead.  So she devised an evil plan.

a. On Herod's birthday her daughter danced for Herod and for all the important men who were gathered for his feast.  This was no ballet dance.  It was not some sweet little tap-dance routine performed by a young girl.  It was an erotic, lustful dance designed to accomplish one thing--put Herod into such a state of frenzy that he would boastfully and stupidly make an oath of generosity.  It worked.  Herod promised the daughter of Herodias anything up to half of his kingdom.  Her mother commanded her, "Bring me the head of John the Baptist!"  She went back to Herod with this request and that night, while men were singing, "Happy Birthday!" blood flowed in John's prison cell.  At this point Herod was not thinking with his head.  You might contrast this and ask, “Who’s really headless here?” b. If you play the game of chess, you are familiar with the pieces on the board – from the lowly pawn to the all–important king.  If one of your pawns gets “captured” – it’s not that big a deal. But if your king gets captured – the game is over. Pawns have little power – are usually used to set up other pieces or sacrificed to help clear the way for the other, more important pieces – like the rook, knight, bishop, or queen. Kings, however, while their movement is somewhat limited when compared to the other pieces – are the one piece you want to protect at all cost.  That’s the way it is in life, also – isn’t it?  People will strive to be a king – but nobody wants to be a pawn. The truth, however, is that even kings can end up being pawns (like Herod Antipas had become in today's Gospel account) –

2. Now Herod might claim that he had been tricked; that Herodias tempted him with her daughter into making a promise which cost John his head.

a. But he admits in verse 16, "I beheaded John the Baptist."  b. This is not to say that he was repentant of his sin, but it is more than our first parents were willing to admit.  They, too, were tricked...by a snake...by cunning Satan.  His evil plan was somewhat identical to the plan of Herodias.  She wanted John beheaded.  Satan wanted God's creation beheaded.  Herodias tricked Herod, and Satan tricked Adam and Eve.  When they took a bite of the fruit that he tempted them with, sin's axe flew and cut off their head!  [Video: Alice in Wonderland?]

B. Did you ever see a chicken with its head cut off?  It runs around wildly for a few minutes, as if it's looking for its head, and then it plops onto the ground, dead.

1. That was Adam and Eve.  When they sinned, they were cut off from God.

a. They were dead but didn't know it.  b. They ran around the Garden, not looking for their head, but trying to hide from God; and sooner or later they, and all of their children, would plop over and die eternally in hell.

2. And that's how you and I were born into this world.  As children of Adam and Eve, we were born without a head.

a. "Now pastor," you may be thinking, "You're wrong here.  We were all born with a head.  It even came out first, for most of us.  If we were born without a head, we would all be dead."  And so we were.  We were born "Dead in our trespasses and sins," Scripture tells us.  We may be born with a human head, but we are born dead in sin because we are born cut off from our true Head who is Christ. b. And just like Adam and Eve, we run around in life trying to hide from our true Head.  When you children disobey your parents, you are acting as if you had no head.  He has placed your parents over you to be your head in His place.  But when children, or any of us despise authority, and thus disobey the head over us, we are acting headless—without our true head which should be God.  Yes, we are acting like Herod.

II. When people of the world refuse to hear the words of God, it is because they are rejecting their Head. Herodias wanted John's head cut off because he spoke the Word of God truthfully.

A. People today want to live their sinful lives and they do not, like Herodias, want to hear what God says about it.  Or people of today are like Herod and hear what God says a little bit but to not take it to heart.  So by staying away from church, by staying away from the preaching and teaching of God's Word or not taking God’s word to heart, they, like Herodias or Herod, are acting as if they have no head.

1. And don't we all do this to some extent?  We like being our own head.  We want to live our life our way, not God's way.

a. But our head in not really a spiritual head.  Then we headlessly live life according to our will, our standards, our commandments, and not His.  b. And if God is not our head, we will die.  We may run around day after day, week after week, year after year through life, but eventually the chicken will fall to the ground. c. When we live headless lives we need to repent!  If you have been cutting off His authority over you, His words from your life, repent now before it is too late

2. Herodias may have thought that when John was beheaded, that would be the end of it.  No more guilt, no more anger, no more fear of punishment, no more preaching.

a. But after John came Jesus...preaching and teaching in the same way that John had...calling sinners to repentance.  And Jesus, too, they arrested; and like John, they cut Him off from the land of the living, nailing Him to a tree.  But the Head would not stay dead.  On the third day He rose again.  b. He did all this for us.  So we wouldn’t have to be headless.  So we wouldn’t have to drop over dead like a headless chicken.  He paid for mankind’s sin, for mankind’s rejection of God being our true head.  And now He, the Head of His church, gives life to His body.

B. You are that body. You are His church

1. Jesus is your Head placed upon you in your baptism.

a. And the life He now lives, He gives to you so that you live with Him and under Him in His kingdom.  Although you and I have rejected Him as our Head by our sinful lives, He forgives you.  Though we day after day continue to rebel against His words for us, thus placing His head on a platter, He continues to restore you as His body under Him through His words of absolution and His sacrament of undeserved love [grace]. b. Jesus is not an angry Head. He is not a revengeful Head.  He, as your Head, does not seek your destruction.  He is certainly not frightful like the Headless Horseman.  He even came looking for Adam and Eve to restore them, so He comes seeking you in His words of mercy, that through such words He restores you as His precious body.  He puts His life back into you.  He gives peace to your heart and hope to your eternal soul.  The words He gives you today restore Him to His rightful place as your Head, for His words of grace forgive your sins and put faith into your heart.

2. Our society is filled with people who are running around headless thinking they are not.  Doing what they think is right in their own eyes.  They do not acknowledge God as their true head.

a. Do you have a friend or loved one who is still running around like a headless chicken?  I have such dear ones and I'm sure you do too...friends and loved ones who have little or no regard for the hearing of God's Word...friends and loved ones who are really headless because they are living their life apart from Him.  b. Let us not be selfish with what we have been given.  Christ has covered you as your forgiving Head, and He deeply desires to restore them also under His headship.  Without Christ as their Head, our friends and loved ones may run for a while through life, but sooner or later they will fall to the ground and die.  We can give them Jesus today.  We can restore them to that place under their merciful Head as God works in and through us.

CONCLUSION: John's head, to this day, is cut off from his body.  Herodias made certain of that.  But you are not Headless.  Jesus is your Head.  You are His body.  He has restored you.  He forgives you.  And through you He now will work to forgive and restore lost sinners near and dear to you.  Amen

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Hidden Strength

Title: Hidden Strength By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text: Mark 6:3-5   3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary…?" And they took offense at him.  4 And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household."  5 And he could do no mighty work there.

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, I’ve always wondered about the reaction of Jesus’ home town people to Him as described here.  He came into town looking so ordinary—and that didn’t seem to go over well.

I. What if He had done it differently?  Maybe like this: As in the Star Trek scene where Picard has been captured and made a “Borg” the Borg Queen says “Resistance is futile.”  There’s two things I’ve got to note about this:

A. First that confrontation is quite frightening.

1. As you may know I’m a Trekkie, but every time I hear that “resistance is futile” stuff it makes my skin crawl.  It’s quite frightening.  Of all the villains I’ve ever seen the Borg are the most frightening to me.

2. Now don’t get me wrong God could come this way.  And Jesus could even come this way too.  Just look back in the Scriptures at Mt. Sinai.  The People of Israel were invited to the edge of that mountain where God was.  It was covered with smoke and thunder.  The people were terrified of being even close to God.

a. And God even said to Moses, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” b. Then the prophet Isaiah saw a mere vision of God and responded in abject fear. c. And you can find various other examples of the same thing happening whenever someone even comes close to God.

3. But if God only came this way, this would have made God a monster much like the Borg Queen and leave us frightened to death.

B. But let’s look at the results of this type of contact.

1. If God were to come and say “resistance if futile” and convert us by overwhelming force, what would that be like?

a. Maybe you’re not a “Trekkie” like me and don’t know about the Borg.  When they are assimilated they become worse than slaves.  b. They become like a member of a hive or an ant hill—mechanically serving the Borg collective.  All individuality is gone; That’s not a pleasant prospect.

2. I guess God could overwhelm us with his power and blast us into His kingdom.  But nothing of us would be left – we would be mechanical slaves like the Borg.  This is not what God wants at all.

a. Maybe an example of this would be Saul on the road to Damascus.  Jesus comes to him in glory.  And Saul ends up blind and unable to eat.  NO thank you.  Maybe the Borg give me the creeps because I think that God could have done that to us.  And we would deserve it.  Fortunately for Saul, Jesus did not leave him like that. b. it certainly would have been easier for God to do it the Borg way.  But it wouldn’t be very pleasant for us.

II. The problem is that because of sin those Nazarenes and us also tend to look for this type of contact from God.  But when you know the facts you realize that’s not what we should want at all. But that’s just what the Nazarenes wanted when Jesus came to town.  Jesus is the local boy made good, a rising star on the rabbinical circuits and all around wonder worker, the synagogue is packed to the rafters. Expectations are high. What’s He going to say? Will He do some miracles? He’s in front of the home crowd now, and they’re excited.

A. But there’s a strange undertow in this excitement, something not quite right. A murmur of discontent is trickling through the dense crowd. They’re hearing Jesus teach with great authority, but some are whispering in the back rows, “Hey, wait a minute! Who does this guy think he is, anyway?”  So they took offense at Him.

1. Think about it; nothing really stands out except His wisdom and His ability to work a few miracles.

a. He didn’t glow. He didn’t have a shiny gold nimbus hovering over his head that said “Jesus the Christ” like you see in the icons. b. He was just plain old ordinary Jesus. Mary’s boy. The carpenter. And that offended the hometown crowd. They were scandalized.  There is no powerful Borg confrontation saying “Resistance is futile.”

2. The incarnation of God is scandalous

a. It just doesn’t meet our ideas or expectations of a respectable God. God shouldn’t enter this world as the child of a Virgin, work in obscurity as a carpenter up in Nazareth of all places, be baptized by His cousin John and then announce to the world that He’s the messiah, the Son of God. b. And if that’s not already enough, His messianic victory, his moment of glory, his hour of power comes when He hangs in the darkness on a cross one very good Friday and rises from the dead one very good Sunday. c. And if that isn’t enough, He comes to deliver the gifts of His sacrificial life and death in, with, and under the humble, lowly, almost ridiculous forms of water, words, bread, and wine.

B. Do you see a pattern here? Can you connect the dots? God hides His power.  He’s nothing like a Borg Queen – quite the opposite.

1. The power of God to overcome Sin, Death, devil, the darkness, the power of God to save you is cloaked under the cover of weakness.

a. That’s why Jesus could do no mighty work there in His hometown. It’s not that He wasn’t able, as though Nazareth had messed with His divine mojo or something. It would have been contrary to orders, it’s contrary to the mission. Jesus is not a wonder working circus side-show. He knows that faith in miracles is no faith at all. Instead, he went among the villages teaching. They needed to be taught not entertained or not crushed to be like Borg drones. b. God’s works are turned upside down and inside out. No displays of power, no coercion.  He doesn’t use miracles to coerce people.  Jesus doesn’t put on a show. He’s not into celebrity.

2. And even His Word is vulnerable and rejectable.

a. The Scriptures don’t impress the skeptic looking for the spectacular. No golden plates delivered by angels, no obviously supernatural origins other than the general editorship of the Holy Spirit. Not even a radioactive glow or something to make you go “Oooooo.” Like Jesus in the hometown synagogue, the Scriptures are easily dismissed by those seeking “something more.” b. It is simply a cobbled collection of sixty-six books assembled over 1500 or so years all revolving around one theme – God’s grace in His Son. Their glory is hidden under weakness. c. Yes God  to us in weakness – Scripture’s words, baptismal water, Eucharistic bread and wine. The strength is hidden. The glory muted. The gift is rejectable. d. It comes in weakness like this: Steven was a young man who felt the call of God on his life. He came from a really close family. He finished college and then went off to seminary.  After finishing seminary he came back home before going to his first church. He visited with all of his relatives for about a week. He stopped by the church and talked to his hometown pastor. The pastor asked him if he would like to preach that upcoming  Sunday. Steven felt honored and took the pastor up on the invitation.  Sunday morning came and after hours, yes, even days, of preparation he stepped up behind the pulpit, looked out at the congregation of friends and relatives and started to expound the knowledge that he had learned.   Well, he had hardly begun, when his young niece, Kathleen, about six years old, stepped out into the aisle and put her hands on her hips, her left foot out in front of the other, her head cocked to one side. Then she said in a very loud and clear voice for her age, "Uncle Steven, you don't know what you are talking about!" (1)  I don't know how Uncle Steven finished that message. But undoubtedly it was an experience he will never forget.   Yes God’s Word comes through weak preachers too.

3. Yes, Jesus hides both His divine and human natures to visit you in His means of grace. This is how God has chosen to deal with us – hidden, quietly, gently, humbly, rejectably.

a. By means of Baptism,  Absolution and Communion, the Lord Jesus Christ is present with you here. b. Furthermore, He is present for your good: He speaks His Word of grace and life to you. He forgives your sins.  He desires that you have eternal life with Him in heaven. That is why He died on the cross. That is why He comes to you in His means of grace. And that is why He is present here: To save your life. Forever. The Son of God is here. To save you

B. But all over, as people got up for church this morning, their sinful side got up with them.

1. Among the discouragements that sinful side whispered were these: "It's going to be really, really hot in there”, and “the sermon is going to seem to take a long time”. Plus, if we go to the Communion service, it's going to take even longer.

a. And we'll be singing the same old stuff that we do every week. It's just the same worship, nothing special. The sinful side whispers all of these things to all of us--maybe not this Sunday, but then some Sunday soon. He does so for a reason: the sinful side doesn't want us to rejoice that Jesus is here. b. Because, you see, Jesus is here. He is present in these things. As we sing His Word in the liturgy, He is working through that Word to give you grace. As you hear His Word proclaimed, He showers you with forgiveness and life. As you receive His Supper, He shares Himself with you. And in Holy Baptism, He places His name upon you, and writes your name in the book of those who are saved.

CONCLUSION: You will be tempted every day to believe these things are far too familiar and ordinary to do any good.  But in spite of this, rejoice! Jesus comes to you. He comes to you with forgiveness and life and salvation. Forget little miracles like curing your body of some sickness... He comes to cure your soul of sin, so that He might raise you up, body and all, on the Last Day to everlasting life. The Lord Jesus comes to you, in means both humble and familiar, so as not to terrify you like the Borg might and drive you away, but so as to draw near to you with mercy and grace—to draw near to you and say, “I forgive you all of your sins.”

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The Cleansing Touch

Title: The Cleansing Touch By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text:  Mark 5:24-34  30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" … 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.  34 And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, two scenes from a movie were referred to me for this text.  It is from a movie entitled Spitfire Grill.  The movie opens with a young lady named Percy who is in prison.  You find out later that she was put there for killing her step-father, who had abused her. The young woman, Percy is released and sent to work at a dilapidated restaurant called the Spitfire Grill.  The grill is run by an old woman whose son haunts the countryside due to PTSD.  That town treated the young ex-con as if she were unclean. In spite of this the young woman is a breath of fresh air to the town.  One day Percy goes up into the mountains searching for the man she calls "Johnny B", who is the old woman’s son: He eludes her, and she finally sinks down in a clearing, looking out over the mountains. With a look of unspeakable suffering, she begins to sing "There Is a Balm in Gilead." Silently, "Johnny B" walks up behind her and places his hand on her head. It is a moment of healing for both of them.  These scenes have several ties to our text for today.  We have a broken woman.  We have sin sick souls. We have a touch that heals

I.  Maybe we can get a grasp on this text through the idea of uncleanliness, not unlike that seen in that town toward Percy.

A. In Jesus’ day we have those who were looked upon as unclean too, as the town saw that young ex-con.  In Jewish priestly thought uncleanness was infectious, a human being might incur it by contact with any unclean person or thing (Lev. 5:3)

1. The law regarded three forms of uncleanness as serious enough to exclude the infected person from society. These were leprosy, bodily discharges, and contact with the dead (Num. 5:2-4). 2. But it’s hard to present this idea of uncleanness to people today.  We just don’t think the same way today.  But maybe we can look at it like this:  unclean things are like things that cause us to say “Ugh!”

a. Sometimes when we see something disgusting we say, "Ugh!" Parents may add, "Don't touch it!" b. You're walking in the woods or hiking on a mountain and see some droppings on the ground, you go, "Ugh!" and try not to step in it. There are some icky things in the world that we try to avoid.

B. For reasons we don't fully understand, the ancient Hebrews were brought to feel the same about a few things. Certain animals, foods, diseases, body fluids, and dead things made the people say, "Ugh! Don't touch them!" Such things were "unclean."  If you touched them you became unclean. Anything or anyone that you touched became unclean.

1. And being unclean was the opposite of being holy.

a. Being unclean meant that you couldn't come to the holy temple to worship the holy God. Anything unclean was unfit to be in the presence of the holy God. If you were unclean, you had to go through a rite of cleansing in order to be welcomed back into society and into the presence of God. b. And also being unclean refers to the relationship between people or things and God. In some ways it may be like someone telling another, "Don't touch me!" There is something about the relationship that is estranged. Unclean things and people were estranged from God and each other. They weren't supposed to touch each other.

2. In some ways their view of unclean things is like our saying, "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch."

a. Contact with one of these unclean things made you an unclean person. There is some truth to this. If you hang around someone with a contagious disease, you are likely to end up with the same sickness. b. If you hang around with the wrong group of people, their bad influence may "spoil" you. There are some good reasons to stay away from certain people and things.

3. In theology the opposite works too, but only with Jesus.

a. He is the good apple who takes away the “ugh!” He takes away the uncleanliness of our sin.  He did this through the cross – all of our “ugh” went on Him.  He took it all upon Himself b. Jesus' holiness transforms the people's uncleanness. Jesus raises them up to his level. Jesus makes them worthy to be in the presence of God. Jesus, as the one good, holy apple, can make all the bad apples become good.

II. The woman of our text was considered unclean because of her flow of blood that would not stop. For twelve years she could not be touched by a man. She was separated from society.

A. And then this woman comes up and touches Jesus.

1. Just ….His garment, but she believed that even such a touch would make her well. And she was right.  But She broke the cleanliness rules.

a. For twelve years she suffered and despaired, and with one touch her body was healed. Imagine her tears of joy. Relief would have swept over her. b. She had come up to Jesus with a stricken heart. Now she walked away, passing through the crowd, her heart singing.

2. But then Jesus said “Who touched Me?”  These words caused her to freeze in her tracks.

a. He knew. Jesus knew what she had done. Dozens of people, maybe hundreds were milling around Him, touching Him, but Jesus knew what she had done. With fear and trembling she came back to Him. She fell down at His feet and confessed everything. She had dared to touch Him. She did not ask Him to heal her. She touched His garment all on her own. But then Jesus gave her sweet comfort: “Daughter, go in peace, your faith has made you well.” b. Of all the men, and women, and children flocking around Jesus she was he only one who was healed. Only this woman who knew and confessed that she was unclean was healed.

B. this woman came before Jesus in faith --knowing that she did not deserve to come, but she came anyway; She knew that she dare not touch Him, but she touched Him anyway.

1. Unlike that woman if you think you are not a sinner, then Jesus has nothing for you. But there is no one who can honestly say this. 2. But if you are burdened with sin; if you cry with David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God!” If you come, like this woman, with all of your uncleanness, then you have a Savior, as she did, who makes you well, who makes you clean, who forgives your sins.

a. In this Jesus mixes everything up. Jesus doesn't become unclean by contact with the unclean people. They don't bring him down to their level. Jesus' holiness transforms their uncleanness. The flow of blood is stopped. The woman is healed.  People say, "Ugh" but, Jesus has no ughs!! He has a hug -- or at least a healing touch. b. A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life. After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father's lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, "Honey, you are hugging me to death!" "No, Daddy," the little girl said, "I'm hugging you to life!" This was the greatness of Jesus. He took people where they were and hugged them to life. That is precisely what we see Jesus doing here in this dramatic passage.

III. Sometimes our lives may seem full of ughs. We may think that we are terrible, rotten, ugh-ly people. Jesus doesn't think so. To him, there are no ughs. Whomever he touches becomes clean and holy and beautiful.

A. And so for you. Jesus has come and has brought you in, away from all the crowds, away from the world which is perishing.  Jesus gives you His word of pardon and life. In this world there would be nothing but uncleanliness for you. But He is here, here for you. He has cleansed you.

1. The hemorrhaging woman’s faith made her well not because she believed in Jesus’ ability to perform a miracle but because she trusted in him as her Savior.

a. Jesus is not a faith healer. He is not a traveling magician who works through sleight of hand to create an illusion. b. And he most certainly is not a TV preacher who promises answer to prayer if you call the number on your screen and have your credit card ready.

2. His stripes, his wounds, heal us of our terminal disease of sin. And faith in Christ, the faith of the woman healed, is faith in the Son of God to save. It is trust in the promise that your sins are washed away.

B. And you know what? Jesus gives you his word on this. And He backs up his promise of healing with medicine.

1. In Baptism He washes you clean and makes you His child.  This is medicine effective for life.  And there’s more. At his altar, he gives you his body and blood to eat and to drink — the very medicine of immortality. Here you receive forgiveness of the malignant sins that ravage your soul. Here your merciful God grants you pardon and peace, and makes you his holy people. He equips and empowers you to live a life pleasing to him, yet is right there to pick you up when you stumble. 2. And His medicine is for eternity because on the last day He will reach down to where you lie in the sleep of death take your hand and say to you, “My son, my daughter, arise.” And He will raise you and you will run around for eternity with Him.

CONCLUSION “You are clean.” Jesus says that to each of us here this morning. It is as personal as the words He said to that woman in our text.  It’s as personal as the words spoken over you when You were baptized. It’s as personal as hearing that word of absolution spoken over you, when you hear  “I forgive you all of your sins.” It’s as personal as the Bread and the Wine in your mouth. “This is my Body given for you.” “This is my Blood shed for you.” The words “for you” bring hearts to believe, and they create and sustain the faith those words bring.  In all this he personally makes you clean to stand before Him as his child.  Amen

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