Latest / Deep-Grace Diving with Tim Wright and Terey Summers / #34 When Life Meets Death
Transcript
- 0:15Hey friends,
- 0:16let me be one of the last to wish you a very happy new year.
- 0:21SPEAKER_00: even though John and I are recording today on January 1st.
- 0:24So I technically,
- 0:25I could see a happy new year,
- 0:27but we're releasing this a week later.
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: So a late happy new year to each and every one of you.
- 0:32SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Deep Grace Diving Podcast.
- 0:34SPEAKER_00: My name is Tim Wright here with John D. Burgess.
- 0:38SPEAKER_00: And Terry today is home recovering from some sort of flu bug.
- 0:42SPEAKER_00: So we are glad that John can join us today.
- 0:47SPEAKER_00: And just wanna say to all of you,
- 0:49thank you so much for the kind words that you're sharing about
- 0:52the podcast.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: We're glad that you're finding it helpful.
- 0:55SPEAKER_00: And if you do find it helpful, please share it with your friends.
- 0:58Send them the link,
- 0:59send them to Apple,
- 1:00send them to Spotify,
- 1:01the Deep Grace Diving podcast.
- 1:03The more the merrier as we continue our walk through the Gospel
- 1:08of Mark together,
- 1:09highlighting mainly the stories because they're a little easier
- 1:13for us to dive into
- 1:14SPEAKER_00: with our imaginations.
- 1:17SPEAKER_00: And today, John, we've got, it's a lengthy story,
- 1:21But it is an interesting story because of the themes that tie
- 1:25it together.
- 1:27I've titled this When Life Meets Death,
- 1:30and we're going to see why here in just a moment.
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: We're looking at Mark chapter 5, verses 21 and
- 1:38SPEAKER_00: through 43.
- 1:39SPEAKER_00: And John, I believe you have got this up in the New Living Translation.
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: And once again,
- 1:45SPEAKER_00: folks,
- 1:45SPEAKER_00: it's a little longer story,
- 1:47SPEAKER_00: but I think it'd be good to hear it before we talk about it.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: So John D.
- 1:50SPEAKER_00: Burgess,
- 1:50if you would turn on that amazing reading voice you have and
- 1:55that voice that you
- 1:56SPEAKER_00: use in the law court.
- 1:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm ready.
- 2:00When you've got that jag moment and they're on the stand and
- 2:03you say that one
- 2:03sentence that the Perry Mason moment that breaks them and
- 2:07brings the whole jury to
- 2:09SPEAKER_00: their feet.
- 2:10SPEAKER_01: I'm still waiting for that moment, unfortunately.
- 2:13But I'm wondering what it says about you and I that we're
- 2:15spending our New Year's
- 2:17SPEAKER_01: Day studying for,
- 2:18SPEAKER_01: preparing for,
- 2:19SPEAKER_01: and recording a podcast.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: It seems like we are really committed.
- 2:22SPEAKER_01: That's right.
- 2:24SPEAKER_01: Well, God bless you and God bless those folks that are listening as well.
- 2:29SPEAKER_01: Better to listen to one on New Year's Day,
- 2:31SPEAKER_01: I think,
- 2:31SPEAKER_01: than study for it and prepare one and record it.
- 2:33SPEAKER_01: So in any event, here we go.
- 2:36SPEAKER_01: This is from the Gospel of Mark, starting with verse 21.
- 2:41Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side
- 2:45of the lake,
- 2:45SPEAKER_01: where a huge,
- 2:47SPEAKER_01: large crowd gathered around him on the shore.
- 2:50SPEAKER_01: Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived.
- 2:55SPEAKER_01: When he saw Jesus,
- 2:56SPEAKER_01: he fell at his feet,
- 2:57SPEAKER_01: pleading fervently with him,
- 2:59SPEAKER_01: My little daughter is dying,
- 3:00SPEAKER_01: he said.
- 3:01SPEAKER_01: Please come and lay your hands on her.
- 3:03SPEAKER_01: Heal her so she can live.
- 3:06SPEAKER_01: Jesus went with him, and all of the people followed, crowding around him.
- 3:10SPEAKER_01: A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding.
- 3:14SPEAKER_01: She had suffered a great deal from many doctors,
- 3:17SPEAKER_01: and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them,
- 3:20SPEAKER_01: but she had gotten no better.
- 3:22SPEAKER_01: In fact, she had gotten worse.
- 3:25She had heard about Jesus,
- 3:26so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe.
- 3:30For she thought to herself,
- 3:32if I can just touch his robe,
- 3:33I will be healed.
- 3:35And immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her
- 3:38body that she had
- 3:38SPEAKER_01: been healed of this terrible condition.
- 3:42SPEAKER_01: Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone from him.
- 3:46SPEAKER_01: So he turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my robe?
- 3:49SPEAKER_01: His disciples said to him, look at this crowd pressing around you.
- 3:53SPEAKER_01: How can you ask who touched me?
- 3:56SPEAKER_01: But he kept on looking around to see who done it.
- 3:58SPEAKER_01: And then the frightened woman,
- 4:00SPEAKER_01: trembling at the realization of what happened to her,
- 4:02SPEAKER_01: came and fell to her knees in front of him,
- 4:05SPEAKER_01: and told him what she had done.
- 4:07SPEAKER_01: And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: Go in peace.
- 4:13SPEAKER_01: Your suffering is over.
- 4:16SPEAKER_01: While he was still speaking to her,
- 4:17SPEAKER_01: messengers arrived from the home of Jairus,
- 4:19SPEAKER_01: the leader of the synagogue,
- 4:20SPEAKER_01: and they told him,
- 4:21SPEAKER_01: Your daughter is dead.
- 4:22SPEAKER_01: There's no trouble in the teacher now.
- 4:25SPEAKER_01: But Jesus overheard them and said to Jairus, Don't be afraid.
- 4:29SPEAKER_01: Just have faith.
- 4:31And then Jesus stopped the crowd and wouldn't let anyone go
- 4:34with him except Peter,
- 4:35SPEAKER_01: James,
- 4:35SPEAKER_01: and John,
- 4:36SPEAKER_01: the brother of James.
- 4:38SPEAKER_01: When they came to the home of the synagogue leader,
- 4:41SPEAKER_01: Jesus saw much commotion and weeping and wailing.
- 4:45SPEAKER_01: He went inside and asked, why all this commotion and weeping?
- 4:49SPEAKER_01: The child isn't dead.
- 4:51SPEAKER_01: She's only asleep.
- 4:53SPEAKER_01: The crowd laughed at him.
- 4:55SPEAKER_01: But he made them all leave,
- 4:56and he took the girl's father and mother and his three
- 4:58disciples into the room
- 5:00SPEAKER_01: where the girl was lying.
- 5:02Holding her hand,
- 5:03he said to her,
- 5:04Talitha Combe,
- 5:06which means little girl,
- 5:08get up.
- 5:09And the girl,
- 5:09who was 12 years old,
- 5:11immediately stood up and walked around.
- 5:13SPEAKER_01: They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.
- 5:16SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what happened,
- 5:20SPEAKER_01: and then he told them to give her something to eat.
- 5:25SPEAKER_00: All right,
- 5:25SPEAKER_00: there is at least a podcast worth of stuff in those two stories,
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: which are tied together,
- 5:33SPEAKER_00: as we'll see,
- 5:33SPEAKER_00: by the number 12 and by death and faith and life,
- 5:41SPEAKER_00: of course.
- 5:42Could have called this the heart and soul of faith would be
- 5:45another way to talk
- 5:46SPEAKER_00: about it because we do see differing examples of what faith looks like.
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: Just to step back and give a quick context to the story,
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: it has been a while since we've been in the Gospel of Mark together,
- 5:58SPEAKER_00: took a little break over the Christmas season.
- 6:01The story right before this is when Jesus has been over on the
- 6:06wrong side of the lake,
- 6:08SPEAKER_00: the pagan side,
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: and there he casts the legion of demons out of the man into the pigs,
- 6:17SPEAKER_00: and then the pigs,
- 6:17SPEAKER_00: of course,
- 6:18SPEAKER_00: rush down into their death.
- 6:22SPEAKER_00: So when it says that he crossed again in the boat to the other side,
- 6:25SPEAKER_00: it means he comes back now to the Jewish side of the lake.
- 6:30SPEAKER_00: And right away, we've got this great crowd around him.
- 6:36SPEAKER_00: And his fame,
- 6:37SPEAKER_00: even though many times Jesus has said,
- 6:39SPEAKER_00: don't tell anybody about me,
- 6:42SPEAKER_00: there they are.
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: And they want to hear him.
- 6:44SPEAKER_00: They want to see a miracle.
- 6:46And those who hang around are going to see a couple of them,
- 6:48actually,
- 6:49as they go along.
- 6:53So John,
- 6:53as you,
- 6:54there are obviously a lot of things to tease out in this story.
- 6:57You and I have done this story together a few times in our
- 7:00men's Bible study.
- 7:02What are some of the things initially as you were reading the
- 7:05story stood out for you?
- 7:08Yeah,
- 7:10I think that I always have,
- 7:13I think,
- 7:13unusual parts of a story that stick out mostly to me.
- 7:16SPEAKER_01: And so I'm always amazed that
- 7:20at the way he tells it right it's sort of beautifully written
- 7:22in that um you have
- 7:24this plea at the very beginning and then we sort of take a
- 7:28pause from that and then
- 7:29we come back to that a little bit later and to me you know if
- 7:33those of us who have
- 7:34children if our if our daughters or sons are suffering in any
- 7:37way that is that's
- 7:39top of mind that doesn't go away and so it's just interesting
- 7:43to me that um
- 7:45SPEAKER_01: that there's a little bit of, I hear you and I got it.
- 7:47SPEAKER_01: And then I turned to this and then I come back to this right there.
- 7:50SPEAKER_01: And there's probably a lesson there in patience,
- 7:53SPEAKER_01: which I am still trying to learn and don't really learn very well.
- 7:57SPEAKER_01: Um,
- 7:58SPEAKER_01: I think that number two,
- 7:59SPEAKER_01: it's always amazing to me that,
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: and I think this is maybe the only part in the gospels where there's a,
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: there's this discussion of some,
- 8:08SPEAKER_01: some healing energy being transferred and,
- 8:11SPEAKER_01: and feeling that and,
- 8:13SPEAKER_01: and,
- 8:13SPEAKER_01: um,
- 8:14SPEAKER_01: I,
- 8:14SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 8:15SPEAKER_01: I love the,
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: the,
- 8:16SPEAKER_01: the woman coming back to Jesus and with complete trepidation,
- 8:21SPEAKER_01: like what's going to,
- 8:21SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: obviously like,
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 8:23SPEAKER_01: am I in trouble type thing?
- 8:25SPEAKER_01: And then honestly,
- 8:26SPEAKER_01: my favorite part of this whole,
- 8:29SPEAKER_01: this whole part is the very last sentence where after he,
- 8:34SPEAKER_01: after he,
- 8:35SPEAKER_01: he raises this little girl,
- 8:38SPEAKER_01: it's totally amazing,
- 8:39SPEAKER_01: right?
- 8:40SPEAKER_01: I mean, what just happened in this house is,
- 8:42SPEAKER_01: is a miracle.
- 8:44SPEAKER_01: And we use that,
- 8:45SPEAKER_01: we sometimes throw that word around lightly in today's culture,
- 8:48SPEAKER_01: and we shouldn't,
- 8:49SPEAKER_01: right?
- 8:49But what happened here is without adequate description of the
- 8:54amazement that
- 8:55SPEAKER_01: happened in this house.
- 8:57SPEAKER_01: And Jesus could have just left,
- 8:59SPEAKER_01: but he actually takes a moment and says,
- 9:01SPEAKER_01: please give her something to eat.
- 9:03SPEAKER_01: And to me, that's so tender and caring.
- 9:06SPEAKER_01: And apparently getting raised from the dead is hard work, right?
- 9:09SPEAKER_01: Because you're hungry and I can just see all the bewilderment.
- 9:13SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like,
- 9:15SPEAKER_01: in my mind,
- 9:15SPEAKER_01: thinking,
- 9:16SPEAKER_01: okay,
- 9:16SPEAKER_01: I'm moving on now,
- 9:17SPEAKER_01: but you probably want to get her a little something to eat.
- 9:20SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 9:21SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a wonderful little part of the story.
- 9:24SPEAKER_00: And as you were telling it,
- 9:26my mind leaped to the story in John where Jesus has been raised
- 9:29from the dead.
- 9:31SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that he does,
- 9:32SPEAKER_00: first things that he does with his disciples is he eats a meal with them.
- 9:36SPEAKER_00: And how important that was.
- 9:39SPEAKER_00: And partly,
- 9:40SPEAKER_00: of course,
- 9:40SPEAKER_00: Jesus is here as attending to a girl who has been sick,
- 9:43SPEAKER_00: who's probably very weak.
- 9:46has crossed from death back into life and so needs some food to
- 9:49sustain her,
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: get her energy back.
- 9:51But also,
- 9:52if you actually see her up eating,
- 9:53you know,
- 9:53well,
- 9:54she's not a ghost.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: She's a real person.
- 10:00And so on many levels,
- 10:03this story,
- 10:04without saying it,
- 10:05this story is just so rich and so deep.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: So let's go back,
- 10:10and this time we're going to walk through almost verse by verse
- 10:14because there are
- 10:15SPEAKER_00: so many good things here.
- 10:17SPEAKER_00: So we'll tie John in and out during this.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: So Jesus gets out of a boat.
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: We think this might be somewhere near Capernaum,
- 10:28SPEAKER_00: which was on the northern side of the Sea of Galilee,
- 10:30SPEAKER_00: which was Jesus' home base.
- 10:33And there was in Capernaum,
- 10:35there was and are still the remnants of a synagogue.
- 10:40And when we think of synagogues today,
- 10:42we usually think of houses of worship.
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: But in Jesus' day, they weren't first and foremost houses of worship.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: They were community centers.
- 10:49SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of different kinds of meetings would be there.
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: And one of the meetings they would have would be their Sabbath gathering.
- 10:57And so the leader of the synagogue wouldn't necessarily be the
- 11:02primary speaker,
- 11:04SPEAKER_00: although he might be,
- 11:05but he's also sort of the events coordinator and doing all the
- 11:09work that happens in
- 11:10SPEAKER_00: the synagogue.
- 11:11SPEAKER_00: And interestingly, as we will come up here in just a moment,
- 11:16Part of the job of the synagogue leader is to sort of make sure
- 11:21that the synagogue stays pure.
- 11:23SPEAKER_00: And so he's the gatekeeper.
- 11:27SPEAKER_00: Those who are impure, you know, maybe they've been too close to a leper.
- 11:32SPEAKER_00: Maybe they have been too close to a corpse and haven't had time to...
- 11:37SPEAKER_00: go through the process of ritual cleansing.
- 11:39SPEAKER_00: Maybe a woman is in the midst of her menstruation period.
- 11:43SPEAKER_00: All these different things that make someone impure.
- 11:45It's his responsibility to make sure that they aren't in the
- 11:50synagogue in those
- 11:52SPEAKER_00: times when they shouldn't be.
- 11:54And then right away he encounters someone who would not be
- 11:57allowed into the synagogue.
- 12:00SPEAKER_00: And this is the one with the bleeding problem.
- 12:02Now,
- 12:03Tim,
- 12:03there's probably things that make the synagogue ceremonially or
- 12:09ritually impure.
- 12:10SPEAKER_01: That's probably a very long list.
- 12:12SPEAKER_01: I mean, you just threw out three or four.
- 12:14SPEAKER_01: We could be talking about 100 items.
- 12:17SPEAKER_01: Sure.
- 12:17SPEAKER_01: Or more.
- 12:18SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 12:18SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 12:19Yes,
- 12:20and we think of the big ones because they're the ones that tend
- 12:24to be mentioned the most.
- 12:26SPEAKER_00: A menstruation problem,
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: if you've been around someone who had a skin disease,
- 12:34SPEAKER_00: you can't go in if you've got leprosy.
- 12:37SPEAKER_00: And if you buried someone,
- 12:39there were a certain amount of days that you had to remain away
- 12:43from other people
- 12:44SPEAKER_00: and then go through the ritual baths and so on.
- 12:47um so yeah so those would be the kinds of things that that it
- 12:52you know it's
- 12:52different but it's not a like sort of saying look if you've got
- 12:56a cold or if you've
- 12:57got covid if you've got pneumonia you probably shouldn't be
- 13:01around people we don't
- 13:02want this thing spreading yeah and now these were on a little
- 13:06different level in
- 13:07some ways because they were not just physical things but they
- 13:10were also related to
- 13:11SPEAKER_00: spiritual understandings but
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: Yes, that was his job.
- 13:15SPEAKER_00: And he's the one who comes to Jesus.
- 13:18SPEAKER_00: And he is begging Jesus for his help,
- 13:23SPEAKER_00: saying,
- 13:23SPEAKER_00: my little daughter,
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: and it'll be interesting now,
- 13:25SPEAKER_00: he calls her little daughter here,
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: and we're just using English,
- 13:27SPEAKER_00: so I haven't dived into the Greek.
- 13:29My little daughter,
- 13:30and she's 12,
- 13:31so she's a little daughter,
- 13:33is at the point of death.
- 13:34SPEAKER_00: Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live.
- 13:40SPEAKER_00: So Jesus went with him.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: Now here we see,
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: in an instance,
- 13:47SPEAKER_00: an act of faith in that he comes to Jesus and asks for Jesus' help.
- 13:59SPEAKER_00: It's also in some ways an act of desperation.
- 14:05SPEAKER_00: If Jesus doesn't come, Jesus is his last hope.
- 14:10SPEAKER_00: And part of the reason why we can read into that
- 14:13SPEAKER_00: is because in the next story, Jesus is the woman's last hope.
- 14:19SPEAKER_00: And so we have two people who are expressing faith,
- 14:22SPEAKER_00: not as in this strong confidence,
- 14:26although there may have been some of that because they've heard
- 14:28of Jesus and they
- 14:28SPEAKER_00: know what he can do.
- 14:31But like many of us,
- 14:31they're coming to Jesus out of real need and desperation.
- 14:34SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I need your help.
- 14:37SPEAKER_00: I have nowhere else to go.
- 14:38SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: And that is...
- 14:43SPEAKER_00: faith that obviously Jesus recognizes and Jesus responds to.
- 14:49SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes when we talk about faith or we hear people talk about faith,
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: it's having this deep trust in God,
- 14:54SPEAKER_00: this deep confidence.
- 14:57SPEAKER_00: It's knowing beyond all doubt, certainty.
- 15:02SPEAKER_00: My hunch is that for these two people who are in deep trauma and crisis,
- 15:08SPEAKER_00: it's pure adrenaline fueled by need
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: that is the background and backdrop to their faith.
- 15:17SPEAKER_00: And there's, it's okay.
- 15:20Because it's not,
- 15:23in the end,
- 15:23it's not about their faith,
- 15:24it's about Jesus who heals them.
- 15:27SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so can we say this, it might be a mustard seed faith?
- 15:32SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure.
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's something there.
- 15:36SPEAKER_00: There's something about Jesus.
- 15:38They just didn't snatch this out of the air and think,
- 15:41well,
- 15:42hey,
- 15:42look at that guy.
- 15:43SPEAKER_00: I'll bet he could heal my daughter.
- 15:44There's something about Jesus that has moved faith in them,
- 15:47has drawn them to Jesus.
- 15:49SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is the source of their faith.
- 15:52SPEAKER_00: But they may not have a lot of details about him at this point.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: They maybe just know, hey, this is a guy who heals.
- 15:57SPEAKER_00: I need someone to heal my daughter.
- 15:58SPEAKER_00: I need someone to heal my body.
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: I'm going to that guy.
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: So yes,
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: there's something there that Jesus has,
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: that at least the reputation of Jesus has implanted in them.
- 16:11SPEAKER_00: And then that motivates them to go to Jesus.
- 16:14SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is still the source, the object of faith.
- 16:17SPEAKER_00: And I would say the source of faith for them,
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: even though in this case,
- 16:21SPEAKER_00: it comes across as some desperation.
- 16:23And many of our listeners,
- 16:25many of us,
- 16:25you and I,
- 16:26we've had those moments when we just,
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: We don't know where else to turn.
- 16:31SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, you got to do something.
- 16:34SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:34And unfortunately,
- 16:36doesn't always act in the way that happens in this story.
- 16:42And but what these stories are trying to do is give us a sense
- 16:46of who Jesus is at this point.
- 16:48SPEAKER_00: So obviously,
- 16:49they're going to focus on the stories where we see a physical
- 16:53healings to create
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: more faith than us.
- 16:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I'm going to ask you about that.
- 16:58SPEAKER_01: I'm going to foreshadow here, right?
- 16:59SPEAKER_01: So like they're doing in the story.
- 17:01SPEAKER_01: I'm going to,
- 17:01SPEAKER_01: of course,
- 17:02SPEAKER_01: the big question,
- 17:03SPEAKER_01: and I don't want to disrupt your flow here,
- 17:06SPEAKER_01: but the big question,
- 17:06SPEAKER_01: of course,
- 17:07is what do we say to those folks who are crying out in
- 17:11desperation with their
- 17:11SPEAKER_01: mustard seed of faith and they don't see action?
- 17:14SPEAKER_01: They don't see what they're asking for.
- 17:16SPEAKER_01: But you can save that till later if you want.
- 17:18SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I think we need to.
- 17:20SPEAKER_00: for like another podcast 10 years from now.
- 17:25SPEAKER_01: That'll be helpful.
- 17:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we'll get there.
- 17:29SPEAKER_00: So a large crowd is following Jesus,
- 17:31SPEAKER_00: pressing in on him,
- 17:32SPEAKER_00: which means that they're so close that they're bumping into him,
- 17:36SPEAKER_00: they're jousting him.
- 17:39SPEAKER_00: There was a woman who'd been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years.
- 17:45So in one way to think about it is a woman who has had her
- 17:48menstruation period
- 17:50SPEAKER_00: continually for 12 years.
- 17:53SPEAKER_00: You and I can't relate to that.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: A lot of people in our audience surely can.
- 17:58SPEAKER_00: She'd endured much under many physicians,
- 18:01SPEAKER_00: had spent all that she had and was no better,
- 18:03SPEAKER_00: but rather grew worse.
- 18:05SPEAKER_00: So she's out of hope.
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: Jesus is her last resort.
- 18:10She heard about Jesus,
- 18:11came up behind him in the crowd,
- 18:13and touched his cloak.
- 18:15SPEAKER_00: For she said, if I touch his clothes, I will be made well.
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: Now,
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: one of the things that I learned when I was in Israel,
- 18:21SPEAKER_00: and then later had this confirmed,
- 18:24was that there was a belief among some people that the way you
- 18:29knew you were the Messiah...
- 18:32or that someone was the Messiah was you could touch his,
- 18:35it would have been him.
- 18:36SPEAKER_00: You could touch the hem of his robes and you would be healed.
- 18:40SPEAKER_00: And so guys,
- 18:41SPEAKER_00: some Orthodox Jews would walk around with long tails on their cloaks,
- 18:48SPEAKER_00: on their robes,
- 18:50SPEAKER_00: so that people would be able to reach out and grab them.
- 18:52SPEAKER_00: And if people reached out and grabbed their robe and were healed,
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: they would know that they were the Messiah.
- 18:58SPEAKER_00: And so whether this was a biblical concept or a popular notion,
- 19:05this woman has the sense of that storyline that if she can just
- 19:10touch Jesus and if
- 19:11SPEAKER_00: he's the real deal,
- 19:12SPEAKER_00: which she thinks he is,
- 19:15SPEAKER_00: she's gonna be healed just by touching his clothes.
- 19:17SPEAKER_00: Now, why would she do this so incognito?
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, she's deeply embarrassed.
- 19:26the shame of living with that kind of impurity all of her life
- 19:30meant that she was
- 19:30SPEAKER_00: pretty much ostracized all the time from people.
- 19:35SPEAKER_00: She's a woman.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: And once again, we have a nameless woman.
- 19:41And she really shouldn't be in that crowd because everybody
- 19:45she's bumping into,
- 19:45SPEAKER_00: she's making impure.
- 19:49And so here we have another one of those stories where rather
- 19:51than Jesus taking on
- 19:52SPEAKER_00: the impurity...
- 19:54By being touched by her,
- 19:56the person who's impure takes on a new purity by the touch of Jesus.
- 20:00SPEAKER_00: So he reverses the process.
- 20:03SPEAKER_00: So by touching Jesus, technically, he would have been made impure.
- 20:06SPEAKER_00: But instead, he wasn't made impure.
- 20:08SPEAKER_00: She was made pure.
- 20:09SPEAKER_00: She was made whole.
- 20:10SPEAKER_00: Again, the bleeding stopped.
- 20:14SPEAKER_00: And for whatever reason, Jesus senses this.
- 20:19SPEAKER_00: And the reason why he calls her out is not to shame her.
- 20:25SPEAKER_00: but to assure her, not to shame her, but to assure her.
- 20:29SPEAKER_00: First of all, to let her know, yeah, you were really healed.
- 20:31SPEAKER_00: It's not just in your brain.
- 20:32SPEAKER_00: It's not just in your mind.
- 20:34SPEAKER_00: You're not going to walk away three minutes from now.
- 20:37SPEAKER_00: And then it's going to start again.
- 20:39SPEAKER_00: He wants her to know she's really healed.
- 20:41SPEAKER_00: And he also wants to say something significant to her.
- 20:47SPEAKER_00: And he does it by calling her daughter.
- 20:52So she's not just this nameless,
- 20:55impure woman who's completely on her own.
- 20:59SPEAKER_00: She's a daughter.
- 21:00SPEAKER_00: She's the daughter of God.
- 21:01SPEAKER_00: She belongs to the community of faith.
- 21:05SPEAKER_00: So she receives a deep word of affirmation.
- 21:10SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago,
- 21:10we talked about lepers never being touched and what it must
- 21:13have been like to be
- 21:13SPEAKER_00: touched by Jesus for the first time.
- 21:16And now in another way,
- 21:18Jesus touches her,
- 21:19but through the language of love.
- 21:23SPEAKER_00: This woman who has been told by doctor after doctor,
- 21:26SPEAKER_00: you're not going to get well,
- 21:27SPEAKER_00: you're impure.
- 21:29SPEAKER_00: She's not able to marry.
- 21:32SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus calls her daughter.
- 21:34And how moving that must have been for her in that moment to
- 21:38realize that God saw me,
- 21:40I matter.
- 21:45SPEAKER_00: Your faith has made you well.
- 21:47SPEAKER_00: And that's always one of those verses that can trip people up.
- 21:52SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by your faith has made you well?
- 21:57And again,
- 21:58I don't think what Scripture is saying is that my faith moves
- 22:01Jesus to act.
- 22:03SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus' actions that move me to go to him.
- 22:07SPEAKER_00: And that's what happened for this woman.
- 22:09SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the source of her faith.
- 22:11SPEAKER_00: It was his healing ability that moved her to take the risk.
- 22:16But in this case,
- 22:18your faith has made you well,
- 22:20was your desperation made you well.
- 22:23SPEAKER_00: Your risk-taking made you well.
- 22:25Because you took time,
- 22:26you took that moment to reach out to me,
- 22:30it resulted in your healing.
- 22:33SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: and Tim,
- 22:35SPEAKER_01: this is such an important point,
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: and I've heard you preach on it many times,
- 22:41SPEAKER_01: but this is super important because for those folks that are listening,
- 22:46SPEAKER_01: who are pleading and asking Jesus to intervene for them,
- 22:54SPEAKER_01: and whatever that is,
- 22:55SPEAKER_01: maybe it's a health thing,
- 22:57SPEAKER_01: maybe it's a family thing,
- 22:59SPEAKER_01: maybe it's a money,
- 23:00SPEAKER_01: whatever that is,
- 23:01SPEAKER_01: and you're pleading,
- 23:03SPEAKER_01: it's easy for us,
- 23:04SPEAKER_01: if we don't see immediate action,
- 23:07SPEAKER_01: it's easy for me to say,
- 23:08SPEAKER_01: well,
- 23:09SPEAKER_01: then what's wrong with my faith?
- 23:11SPEAKER_00: That's right.
- 23:12SPEAKER_00: That's right.
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: And that can kind of walk me down a little bit of a dangerous road.
- 23:17SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 23:18SPEAKER_00: Very dangerous road.
- 23:19SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:20SPEAKER_01: So can you kind of talk to me a little bit about that?
- 23:23SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 23:23So we always need to understand these verses within the larger
- 23:28context of the story of Jesus.
- 23:31SPEAKER_00: And the story of Jesus,
- 23:32SPEAKER_00: the larger story of Jesus,
- 23:35SPEAKER_00: is that in the person of Jesus,
- 23:36SPEAKER_00: God broke into human history in a unique way.
- 23:41And God broke into human history in the person of Jesus to
- 23:45bring to us the
- 23:47SPEAKER_00: beginnings of the kingdom of God,
- 23:50SPEAKER_00: the reign of God,
- 23:51SPEAKER_00: the rule of God in the world.
- 23:53SPEAKER_00: And this is what it looks like.
- 23:56When the rule of God fully breaks into the world,
- 24:00broken bodies are put back together.
- 24:03SPEAKER_00: The dead are raised to life.
- 24:04SPEAKER_00: The poor are fed.
- 24:08SPEAKER_00: Enemies are loved.
- 24:11SPEAKER_00: peace reigns.
- 24:13SPEAKER_00: That's what it looks like when God rules the world,
- 24:17SPEAKER_00: as opposed to when the Roman Empire rules the world.
- 24:20SPEAKER_00: And when the Roman Empire is ruling the world,
- 24:21SPEAKER_00: or any other government system,
- 24:23SPEAKER_00: no matter how good they claim to be,
- 24:25SPEAKER_00: when they rule the world,
- 24:27SPEAKER_00: lives are broken,
- 24:28SPEAKER_00: wars are fought,
- 24:30SPEAKER_00: the rich get richer,
- 24:31SPEAKER_00: the poor get poorer.
- 24:33SPEAKER_00: Happens in every system.
- 24:36SPEAKER_00: In the kingdom of God,
- 24:37SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes and shows an upside-down world,
- 24:39SPEAKER_00: a topsy-turvy world when God rules.
- 24:44SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus came, he didn't bring the fullness of the kingdom of God.
- 24:49SPEAKER_00: We still live in this now-not-yet world.
- 24:54SPEAKER_00: God is present.
- 24:55SPEAKER_00: The spirit of Jesus is alive and well.
- 24:59SPEAKER_00: But people still die.
- 25:02SPEAKER_00: People still get cancer.
- 25:04SPEAKER_00: People still go through mental illness.
- 25:05People pray and their prayers aren't answered the way that they
- 25:08had hoped because
- 25:10SPEAKER_00: this is what real life looks like.
- 25:14SPEAKER_00: And until Jesus comes back, this will be the story of life.
- 25:20SPEAKER_00: And it traces itself all the way back to Genesis.
- 25:23SPEAKER_00: This is what real life looks like.
- 25:25SPEAKER_00: But the difference is we don't go through it alone.
- 25:30SPEAKER_00: God intervenes with grace.
- 25:32SPEAKER_00: God hangs on to us when we can't hang on.
- 25:35SPEAKER_00: God gives us hope.
- 25:37SPEAKER_00: God uses us to make the world around us a better place.
- 25:42And so the Christian story is that God has come to put broken
- 25:49things back together.
- 25:51SPEAKER_00: But it's a process.
- 25:53SPEAKER_00: It's not every broken thing is put back together right now.
- 25:58SPEAKER_00: Things still break.
- 26:00SPEAKER_00: Again, people still die.
- 26:02Part of our call as Christians is to be the purveyors of
- 26:05healing and wholeness.
- 26:07Part of the way that the world is healed,
- 26:09part of the way that God acts is through us.
- 26:14SPEAKER_00: But yes, every human family will go through crap.
- 26:23SPEAKER_00: When life hits,
- 26:24SPEAKER_00: real life hits,
- 26:26SPEAKER_00: and it's not indiscriminate,
- 26:27SPEAKER_00: it hits all of us,
- 26:28SPEAKER_00: from the wealthiest to the poorest,
- 26:31SPEAKER_00: hits all of us.
- 26:33SPEAKER_00: Uh,
- 26:33SPEAKER_00: but the message of the gospels,
- 26:34SPEAKER_00: we don't have to go through it alone and it's not meaningless.
- 26:38SPEAKER_00: It's not purpose less.
- 26:41SPEAKER_00: Uh,
- 26:41SPEAKER_00: there is in the midst of it,
- 26:43SPEAKER_00: there can be joy,
- 26:44SPEAKER_00: there can be life,
- 26:44there could be celebration because the good news of God's love
- 26:48for us carries us through.
- 26:51SPEAKER_00: And,
- 26:52SPEAKER_00: and so it's always,
- 26:53SPEAKER_00: the emphasis is always on the promise of God,
- 26:55SPEAKER_00: not my faith,
- 26:56SPEAKER_00: the promise of God,
- 26:58SPEAKER_00: the love of God.
- 26:59SPEAKER_00: Um,
- 27:01SPEAKER_00: And if we focus there,
- 27:03SPEAKER_00: it at least helps us open our eyes up to be able to say,
- 27:08SPEAKER_00: okay,
- 27:09SPEAKER_00: God,
- 27:09SPEAKER_00: where are you at work today?
- 27:12SPEAKER_00: My wife still got cancer.
- 27:15SPEAKER_00: The chemotherapy is ripping her apart.
- 27:17SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking metaphorically here.
- 27:19SPEAKER_00: That's not the case for Jan.
- 27:20SPEAKER_00: She's doing pretty well.
- 27:22SPEAKER_00: The chemotherapy is ripping her apart, but where can we see you today?
- 27:25SPEAKER_00: How are you in our lives today?
- 27:29SPEAKER_00: And at the very least,
- 27:30it's just to say there's more to this story than what we're
- 27:36seeing right now.
- 27:37SPEAKER_00: And the resurrection tells us that.
- 27:40SPEAKER_00: At the cross, the story looked over.
- 27:43SPEAKER_00: The story looked over, even for Jesus.
- 27:48SPEAKER_00: But there's more to the story to come.
- 27:51SPEAKER_00: And that's what helps us get through.
- 27:53SPEAKER_00: And then every once in a while...
- 27:55SPEAKER_00: as happened in these two stories, something really miraculous happens.
- 28:01SPEAKER_00: And I've seen that a few times in my ministry,
- 28:04SPEAKER_00: not tons,
- 28:06but there have been times when we prayed for people and that
- 28:12thing they had was gone.
- 28:15SPEAKER_00: You know, you're going into surgery next week, hip replacement surgery.
- 28:20SPEAKER_00: I am.
- 28:21SPEAKER_00: You've got a broken hip, so to speak.
- 28:24SPEAKER_00: and Jesus is going to heal you through the people who operate on you.
- 28:30SPEAKER_01: I sure hope so.
- 28:31SPEAKER_00: And you are placing your faith in them,
- 28:34and the reason why you have faith in them is not because you've
- 28:37suddenly mustered faith,
- 28:38SPEAKER_00: but because you sort of know their credentials.
- 28:40SPEAKER_00: They do these things.
- 28:41SPEAKER_00: They fix hips.
- 28:43You can trust them because they fix hips,
- 28:44and so you're going to place your life in their hands.
- 28:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 28:48SPEAKER_00: And essentially that's what faith is.
- 28:50SPEAKER_00: There's a picture in the Old Testament
- 28:54SPEAKER_00: of two pillars of a temple.
- 28:58SPEAKER_00: And it is holding, it is supporting a beam.
- 29:01SPEAKER_00: And it's those two pillars that keep the whole temple up.
- 29:10SPEAKER_00: And the picture of faith there is that faith is resting on the pillars.
- 29:15SPEAKER_00: It's not the temple that's really the actor there.
- 29:22SPEAKER_00: They're passive.
- 29:23SPEAKER_00: What's active are the two pillars holding it up.
- 29:27SPEAKER_00: And so in many ways, faith is not even something we do.
- 29:32SPEAKER_00: It's a passiveness.
- 29:34SPEAKER_00: It's surrendering ourselves.
- 29:36SPEAKER_00: It's leaning back into God's grace.
- 29:39SPEAKER_00: It is God who is active, not my faith.
- 29:43SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't mean I don't believe things.
- 29:44SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean I don't trust and hope.
- 29:47SPEAKER_00: But it's always Jesus who heals, not my faith.
- 29:52SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see that here in the next part of the story.
- 29:56SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus goes in and they say, look, she's dead.
- 30:01SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, no, she's not dead.
- 30:03SPEAKER_00: She's just sleeping.
- 30:04SPEAKER_00: And they laugh at him.
- 30:05SPEAKER_00: There's no belief there at all.
- 30:09SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus still walks in and raises that little girl to life again.
- 30:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 30:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 30:16SPEAKER_01: And to your point, she certainly doesn't have any faith.
- 30:19SPEAKER_00: She has no faith at all.
- 30:20SPEAKER_00: She's dead.
- 30:21SPEAKER_00: That's right.
- 30:22SPEAKER_00: Because she's dead.
- 30:22SPEAKER_00: That's a very good point.
- 30:23SPEAKER_00: And let's remember,
- 30:24SPEAKER_00: we've said this before,
- 30:26SPEAKER_00: that all of us are dead in our trespasses and sins,
- 30:29SPEAKER_00: according to Paul.
- 30:31SPEAKER_00: And dead people can't make decisions.
- 30:35SPEAKER_00: So we can't save ourselves.
- 30:37SPEAKER_00: Dead people have no faith.
- 30:40Now,
- 30:40it's a little,
- 30:42you know,
- 30:42that's a spiritual metaphor for us saving ourselves.
- 30:46SPEAKER_00: We still, I mean, let's face it.
- 30:50Obviously,
- 30:51this woman who had the bleeding problem could have said,
- 30:54I've got a bleeding problem.
- 30:55SPEAKER_00: There goes Jesus.
- 30:56SPEAKER_00: You know what?
- 30:56SPEAKER_00: Not today.
- 30:57SPEAKER_00: He's too busy.
- 30:57SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to bother with him.
- 30:59SPEAKER_00: And she wouldn't have been healed, right?
- 31:02SPEAKER_00: She went to Jesus.
- 31:04SPEAKER_00: She took a risk.
- 31:05SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus is commending her for, taking the risk.
- 31:09SPEAKER_00: but he's still the one who healed her, not her faith.
- 31:12SPEAKER_00: Otherwise she just could have stood there and say,
- 31:14SPEAKER_00: okay,
- 31:15SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to heal me right now and then be healed.
- 31:17SPEAKER_00: And then you don't need Jesus anymore.
- 31:19SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 31:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 31:21SPEAKER_01: And I think what's occurring to me too is that,
- 31:24SPEAKER_01: and I haven't seen this before,
- 31:25SPEAKER_01: is that when he says your faith has made you well,
- 31:28SPEAKER_01: I feel like he's talking about the three days leading up to this,
- 31:33SPEAKER_01: when she heard that this guy,
- 31:34SPEAKER_01: Jesus might be walking by and what was she going to do?
- 31:37SPEAKER_01: And then that morning when she's,
- 31:39you know,
- 31:39getting dressed and she's like,
- 31:41I,
- 31:41you know,
- 31:41I've got nothing else.
- 31:42SPEAKER_01: Maybe this is the one thing I, it's that whole process, right?
- 31:46Of this internal dialogue and this,
- 31:50this torment that she's going through.
- 31:52And sometimes it's easy to read it and just distill it down to
- 31:54the moment she
- 31:55SPEAKER_01: touches the hem,
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: but,
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: but maybe it's everything.
- 31:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 31:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 31:58SPEAKER_00: There's a lot more to it than that.
- 32:00SPEAKER_00: And of course, Jesus healed her, not her faith, Jesus healed her.
- 32:04SPEAKER_00: And it was Jesus who inspired in her, the,
- 32:08SPEAKER_00: the desire to take the risk in the first place.
- 32:11SPEAKER_00: So it didn't come out of nowhere.
- 32:13SPEAKER_00: A couple of interesting pieces here,
- 32:18SPEAKER_00: of course,
- 32:18we've got the woman who's been bleeding for 12 years and the
- 32:22little girl who was 12
- 32:23SPEAKER_00: years old.
- 32:26SPEAKER_00: And the number 12 has a sense of completeness around it.
- 32:31SPEAKER_00: We know that there are 12 tribes of Israel, there's 12 disciples.
- 32:37SPEAKER_00: So there may be a little play that Jesus brings to completeness,
- 32:41SPEAKER_00: the healing in the woman and the bringing of the life to the girl.
- 32:45SPEAKER_00: An insight I came across today that I thought was really interesting.
- 32:51This woman has had,
- 32:54for 12 years,
- 32:55she has been dealing with an ongoing menstruation issue.
- 33:00The 12-year-old girl is at the point now where she's going to
- 33:04begin menstruating.
- 33:09and what sort of connection is there in that story between the
- 33:12woman who is richly
- 33:16SPEAKER_00: impure and,
- 33:17SPEAKER_00: in fact,
- 33:18SPEAKER_00: is sort of dead relationally to the world because of this illness.
- 33:21She can't have interaction with people and a dead woman and the
- 33:24dead girl.
- 33:26And then the other insight I saw was neither one of them could
- 33:31get married in their condition.
- 33:34SPEAKER_00: So obviously the 12-year-old girl can't get married because she's dead.
- 33:39But she is now at the age when she can start thinking about
- 33:41getting married.
- 33:42SPEAKER_00: We think that Mary, Jesus' mother, was maybe 13.
- 33:45SPEAKER_00: So it could be now that she is close to marriage age.
- 33:49This would be about the time they would start thinking about
- 33:51engagements and so on.
- 33:53And the woman who is bleeding for 12 years can't get married
- 33:57because she's ritually impure.
- 34:00And so both of them relationally are in a challenge,
- 34:04and Jesus comes and fixes that as well.
- 34:09SPEAKER_00: In both cases, Jesus goes, and in both cases, Jesus heals.
- 34:17SPEAKER_00: And he is the source of healing, and that's why we say life meets death.
- 34:23SPEAKER_00: Jesus always meets death with life.
- 34:26SPEAKER_00: It can come in the form of hope.
- 34:27SPEAKER_00: It can come in the form of a word of encouragement.
- 34:30SPEAKER_00: become the form of healing.
- 34:32SPEAKER_00: Jesus always meets death with life.
- 34:36SPEAKER_00: And life always has the final word, not death.
- 34:41SPEAKER_00: Grace always has the final word, not hopelessness and despair.
- 34:46And it's okay to go to Jesus when we are out of options and
- 34:53when we're not even
- 34:54SPEAKER_00: sure if we can believe it.
- 34:55SPEAKER_00: We're just, we're desperate.
- 34:57Jesus,
- 34:57I don't know if you can do this,
- 34:58but I'm desperate,
- 34:59don't know where else to go.
- 35:01SPEAKER_00: And then,
- 35:02SPEAKER_00: as we've kind of talked about,
- 35:05SPEAKER_00: and this is where it always gets a little challenging,
- 35:06SPEAKER_00: when the answer isn't what you would hope or expect,
- 35:10SPEAKER_00: where do you see God at work?
- 35:14SPEAKER_00: How does God show up?
- 35:17SPEAKER_00: And sometimes those answers are years in the making.
- 35:23SPEAKER_00: This is a woman who's been,
- 35:24SPEAKER_00: she's been ill for 12 years,
- 35:26SPEAKER_00: 12 years before Jesus intervenes in her life.
- 35:35SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there are people who for years struggle with things.
- 35:39SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, they even do all the right things as this woman did.
- 35:48SPEAKER_00: And still nothing quite works.
- 35:49SPEAKER_00: And then,
- 35:51SPEAKER_00: that answer comes.
- 35:52SPEAKER_00: But when they look back,
- 35:54SPEAKER_00: ah,
- 35:54SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 35:55SPEAKER_00: the grace of God was there here,
- 35:56SPEAKER_00: here,
- 35:57SPEAKER_00: here,
- 35:57SPEAKER_00: here,
- 35:57SPEAKER_00: and here.
- 35:57We just couldn't see it because we were so caught up in our,
- 36:00our pain and our hurt.
- 36:01SPEAKER_00: So it's now not yet,
- 36:06SPEAKER_00: but I think for us,
- 36:07SPEAKER_00: the big word is now somehow in some way,
- 36:09SPEAKER_00: Jesus is always involved.
- 36:11SPEAKER_00: Um, even though we may not always be able to, to see him.
- 36:16SPEAKER_00: And, uh, we've had,
- 36:17We've had some of those dark nights of the soul in our own
- 36:20family where,
- 36:21Jesus,
- 36:22what the heck?
- 36:23SPEAKER_00: Why can't you speed this up?
- 36:26SPEAKER_00: And part of it is just this is how life works.
- 36:31SPEAKER_00: Life can be hard.
- 36:34SPEAKER_00: God still throws the robes of grace around us, as Genesis 3 reminds us.
- 36:39SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's easy.
- 36:41I know listeners are amazed that I'm getting a hip replacement
- 36:44at the age of 35,
- 36:45SPEAKER_01: but that's in fact what's happening.
- 36:48SPEAKER_01: But along with that... It would take 20 years.
- 36:53It's easy for me to forget to thank God and to thank Jesus for
- 36:59the healing he's
- 36:59SPEAKER_01: going to do through a surgeon.
- 37:02It's also easy for me to see what I perceive as unanswered
- 37:07prayers in my life.
- 37:10SPEAKER_01: Let's use the metaphor of the person who's being devastated by cancer,
- 37:15SPEAKER_01: metaphorically speaking,
- 37:16SPEAKER_01: in my family,
- 37:17SPEAKER_01: to see that in my perception that that prayer is not getting answered.
- 37:24SPEAKER_01: and then to condemn myself for my lack of faith,
- 37:26SPEAKER_01: my inability to pray right,
- 37:28SPEAKER_01: my inability to live a godly life,
- 37:30SPEAKER_01: and bring that on myself.
- 37:31SPEAKER_01: Those are both easy things for me to do.
- 37:33SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, and very normal.
- 37:37SPEAKER_00: And, you know, sometimes we can talk about, is it okay to be mad at God?
- 37:42SPEAKER_00: And the short answer is yes, I can take it.
- 37:46SPEAKER_00: But in this case, we have two stories of people who are desperate,
- 37:52uh,
- 37:52Jesus is their last resort and Jesus doesn't turn them away
- 37:56because of that.
- 37:57Jesus intervenes,
- 37:59heals,
- 38:01um,
- 38:01one passively,
- 38:02you know,
- 38:03he's touched,
- 38:04uh,
- 38:04he's not even asked.
- 38:06And then one where a lot of the people don't even believe that
- 38:09he can do it in the
- 38:11SPEAKER_00: face of unbelief.
- 38:12SPEAKER_00: And, um, uh,
- 38:15SPEAKER_00: And I think if there's one takeaway for us,
- 38:19SPEAKER_00: it's the one thing we can always count on,
- 38:22SPEAKER_00: always count on,
- 38:23SPEAKER_00: is when we cry out to Jesus,
- 38:25SPEAKER_00: he always shows up.
- 38:28SPEAKER_00: What that looks like, we can't always say.
- 38:31SPEAKER_00: But he always shows up because he'll never leave us nor forsake us.
- 38:34SPEAKER_00: Because nothing can ever separate us from God's love.
- 38:37SPEAKER_00: Neither height or depth, sickness or death.
- 38:40SPEAKER_00: Nothing can ever separate us from God's love.
- 38:43SPEAKER_00: And
- 38:44Sometimes when life is hard,
- 38:46what you need is a God who shows up and gets you through it.
- 38:49SPEAKER_00: Amen.
- 38:51SPEAKER_00: All right, John, we're going to come back.
- 38:53SPEAKER_00: We're going to do another one next week together.
- 38:55We're going to continue to let Miss Terry heal up,
- 38:58and then we're going to let you heal up.
- 39:01SPEAKER_00: Sounds great.
- 39:01SPEAKER_00: Big surgery.
- 39:02SPEAKER_00: So thank you, everybody, for listening.
- 39:05We,
- 39:06again,
- 39:06hope that if you enjoy this podcast,
- 39:08you will share it with your friends.
- 39:12You can just share this,
- 39:13of course,
- 39:14or you can send them to Apple,
- 39:15send them to Spotify.
- 39:17SPEAKER_00: We're available there.
- 39:18SPEAKER_00: The Deep Grace Diving Podcast.
- 39:22SPEAKER_00: Tim Wright, Terry Summers, John D. Burgess.
- 39:25SPEAKER_00: Have a good week.