I have pointed out how the sequence of events in the Gospels is significant. We looked at the calming of the storm on the Sea of Galilee and the exorcism of the legion of demons and how Jesus was demonstrating his absolute unrivalled authority over evil and chaos. This theme continues with the next two miracles. Jesus raises a dead girl and, on the way, a sick woman is healed just by touching the hem of his garment. The message of the whole miracle sequence from Mark 4:35 to 5:43 could not be more emphatic. Jesus is showing that he is Lord over all, nature, chaos, evil, sickness, even death. The healing of the woman who suffered from bleeding says something particularly important for then and now. For Jewish people bodily emissions like this rendered a person ceremonially ‘unclean’ and contact with them rendered others unclean too. This meant that they could not enter the temple courts. When this woman touches Jesus, however, he does not become ‘unclean,’ rather, she becomes ‘clean’. So, Jesus is not only declared by these miracles to have authority to defeat evil, rule nature and raise the dead. He is also shown to be the one who purifies those who are impure. If you feel the stain of spiritual impurity on your life, no matter how great this stain is, all you need to do is ‘touch’ Jesus in faith and you are made pure. You don’t need to do any great work to receive God’s grace. You only need to reach out to Jesus and he will change your life.
Reach out in faith to Jesus and ask him to make you pure.
Read Mark 5:21-43
