An issue of blood

By Jon Rector

The homeless men staying in our mission are plagued with the sin problem no less, and probably no more, than you or I. The difference is that their sin problem has cast them into poverty and desperation. Sin is a disease for which only the goodness and mercy of God through Jesus Christ can provide a remedy beneficial to the sinner and glorifying to Him.

Some of our men have been plagued all their lives with yielding to temptation, selfishness, a refusal to make commitments or to be bound by their promises or a refusal to earn their own bread. Clinging to sin is a sign of a rejection of God; men are in our program cannot avoid being confronted by God’s requirement that they repent daily of their sins and work diligently to ward off the vices and temptations to which they have for too long yielded. Some have been buffeted by the sin disease and been in ruin for two years, some for 40.

Christ’s encounter with the woman who suffered an issue of blood for 12 years is helpful in seeing more the goodness of God and the right state of the heart that this good woman had.

Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew rose. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well.” Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

Jesus, knowing he had been touched by her, asks who touched him.

But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” (Mark 5:25-34)

The “disease” of sin will extend itself into eternity if it is not corrected. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned, we are told in Romans 5:12. In Revelation 20 there is a terrifying passage in which John tells of the final judgment in which “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

The woman Christ met had spent all her living trying to cure the disease. We are in much the same situation today. Society spends millions on “remedies” for the sin problem we face.

Psychiatrists, therapists, medications, on and on we can go the multibillion dollar industry of psychotropic medications for depression and a myriad of other “mental” problems. All that is needed is a willingness to give Christ control of your life.

Manmade remedies don’t make the sin disease go away, only grow worse. Sin – unconfessed and unforgiven — will drag us down. Like a cancer it will spread into our entire life. David’s sin kept increasing until he became an adulterer and murderer. 2 Samuel 11.

The men in Union Gospel Mission, and the people reading this post, are counseled by Scripture to take the position of the woman with the issue of blood. She “in the crowd.” She realized she was no better than anyone else. She did not try to make herself known she was simply a face in the crowd. Surely God scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. Proverbs 3:34.

Notice her humility as she gives a slight touch to Christ’s garments, from either behind or his left or right flank. She did not “throw herself at Him.” Because of her condition she was supposed to be an outcast from society. She knew that she needed to be inconspicuous. She lowered herself simply to touch the most external part of the Saviour, the God-man trudging by in the throng of listeners and curious neighbors.

“For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isaiah 66:2

Another thing to notice about this humility of spirit: “If I may touch but his clothes.” She made no claim to being a follower, being in Christ’s congregation or in his favor or within his notice. She could have bragged about being in the way with Christ. She could have gone on about being a “member of His congregation.” Much like one of the 5,000 that Christ fed could have bragged about “having lunch with Jesus.” But her attitude was that she just wanted to get closer to Him.

If you are a Christian, don’t be proud of having a sweet relationshp to Him. We should instead be dying with desire to be closer to Him. Augustine pointed out how crowds often have false friends in them when he said “mulitutudes still come similarly close to Christ in the means of grace, but all to no purpose, being only sucked into the crowd.”

Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Every human being is a sinner fallen short of the glory of God, and every person needs the Great Physician. This is the message of Union Gospel Mission to its beneficiaries and its benefactors. Christ works miracles.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9