Insight Radio Show, led by Mary Rodland
Sunday, August 19, 2024
Anglican Diocese of The Bahamas & The Turks & Caicos
Insight Radio Show led by Mary Rodland
The Anglican Church in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands presents InSight, a program sponsored by the Anglican Church Man. Good evening. My name is Mary Robland and I'm from the parish of Holy Cross. My technical producer is Ramon Sweetin. Welcome to InSight. This program is sponsored by the Anglican Church Man. Blessed be the Lord our God, by whose grace we are yet alive. Blessed be your son Jesus Christ, by whose rising we are set free. Father, we come together in the name of your son Jesus Christ our Redeemer to offer you our worship, praise and thanksgiving. To you belong all power and glory, you are the source of all goodness. Let our worship bear witness to your peace and saving power. Through your spirit, may we ever rejoice in the abiding presence of our risen and ascended Lord. O gracious light, pure brightness of the ever-living Father in Heaven. O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed. Now as we come to the setting of the Son and our eyes behold the vast polite. We sing your praises, O God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices. O Son of God, give her of life and to be glorified through all the worlds. At mercy upon us, most merciful Father, in your compassion, forgive us our sins known and unknown. Things done and left undone and so uphold us by your spirit that we may live and serve you in the newness of life to the honor and glory of your name through Jesus Christ, our Lord, our men. Let us pray. Almighty God, you have given your only son to be for us a sacrifice for sin and also an example of God be life. Give us grace to receive, thankfully, the fruits of his redeeming work and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life. Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, our men. I am the Magnificat. ♪ My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. And my spirit exiles in my Savior, for he has moved with mercy on my loneliness. And my name will be forever exalted. For the might he caught has done great things for me. And his mercy will reach from age to age. And holy, holy is his name. And holy, holy is his name. I am the Holy, holy is his name. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Our reading for this evening is taken from the Book of Mark chapter 5 verses 25 to 34. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak because she thought. If I just touched his clothes, I will be healed. Immediately, her bleeding stopped and she felt her body that she had been freed from her suffering. But once Jesus realized that the power had gone out of him, he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" "You see, the people are crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and you asked who touched your clothes." But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it and the woman knowing what had happened to her came and fell at his feet and trembling with fear told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace, peace and be freed from your suffering." Today is the 13th Sunday after Pentecost. Pentecost is the longest season of the Church. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church as we read in Acts chapter 2. We have all either had medical problems or will have medical problems. That is how life is. So we all can relate in some way or another to our Gospel reading for this evening. Just a few verses before our reading for this evening and a few verses after our reading, we will find that this miracle of the woman with the issue of blood is sandwiched between the miracle of the healing of Jarrus' daughter. These two healing miracles were happening at the same time. The daughter of Jarrus was 12 years old and that is exactly how long this woman had suffered. The daughter was at the point of death and the woman was not far behind. The woman could have taken courage from the fact that Jesus was going with Jarrus and as for Jarrus, he could have taken encouragement from the fact that Jesus stopped under way and gave someone else a complete healing. We don't know if Jarrus and the woman had ever reflected on it later, but God often brings people together and works so that they can take encouragement from what he is doing for one another. So let's have a look at the story of these two miracles. In verse 21 to 24, we are introduced to Jarrus. He was the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum. Jarrus' daughter had brought great joy to his family for 12 years, but she was now dying. In desperation to save her life, he had only one hope, and that was to get to Jesus. In verses 25 to 34, we read of the account of the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. This woman had a lot of issues. She had a physical issue. The passage does not tell us what caused her bleeding, but we know for 12 years she had been slowly bleeding. Her body was barely able to keep up with reproducing the blood she was losing. She probably felt weak, tired, and anemic all the time. She had a financial issue. Verse 26 states that she had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. She had a relational issue. Because of her bleeding, under the law of Moses, she would have been declared unclean. Her husband could not touch her. She could not enter the place of worship. Whatever she touched became unclean. She had been living in the shadows for 12 years. And she had a spiritual issue. People of her day viewed people like her as cursed by God. They would assume she was sick because of some sin in her life. They had this view that people who suffered from illnesses or misfortune must be guilty of some sin and that God was punishing them. So as hard as it may have been for her with her condition, she made a way through the crowd in desperation to save her life. She had only one hope, and that was to get to Jesus. Two desperate people from two different worlds with the same hope to get to see Jesus. So the story of these two miracles begins with Darius pleading with Jesus to come and heal his daughter. On his way to heal Darius' daughter, Jesus was interrupted by a woman who touched his garment. Jesus realized what had happened, and when he looked around, the woman fell at her feet trembling with fear and told him about her condition. Jesus stopped, healed her, and freed her from her suffering. While Jesus was speaking to her, we find that in verses 35 to 43, goes back to Darius with a report that Darius' daughter was dead. But Jesus, unfazed by the report, continued his way to Darius' house and healed his daughter. From the account of these two stories, the similarities are not accidental. They are carefully put together by Mark. Both stories are females restored by Jesus' touch, a younger woman, and a more matured woman. Jesus addressed these women affectionately. The older woman he addressed as daughter, and the younger one as little girl. Both the duration of the woman's illness and the age of the daughter are given as 12 years. In both instances, Jesus came in contact with someone unclean. According to the ritual of the day, the hemorrhaging woman was unclean, and she should have not been in the crowd at all. The younger woman who is now dead was the file too. To touch your corpse, men that you were unclean until you went through a certain ritual purification. But in both cases, it was not Jesus who became unclean, but Jesus who made the unclean clean. When we read verse 22, we read of a parent anguish. It states one of the rulers named Darius came there, saying Jesus he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him. My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed. Any parent who reads that verse can feel the man's anguish, but there was faith in that statement too. In verse 23 it states, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." He expected healing. And verse 24 simply states, "So Jesus went with him, interrupting his public ministry for this very private urgent appeal." On His way to see Darius's daughter, Jesus is interrupted by this woman. There's no doubt that Jesus is slowed up by this woman. And it is right after the encounter with this woman that the report comes that Darius's daughter has died. So how can we relate to this passage some 2,000 years later? First, the stark contrast of these two people of faith. Darius's name is mentioned. He was a well-known man in his community. But we are never told the name of the woman. She was a poor cast away. She was disgraced and had lived the last 12 years of her life in shame. Both the wealthy and the poor had a common desperation, and that was to be healed by Jesus. You see, God does not look at a person's status of wealth. He looks at the heart. He wants us to trust him. Maybe you have suffered enormously, and you're suffering sometimes, have feelings of doubt, insecurity and fear. Or maybe just plain, you're just plain frightened of the future. And thoughts such as, "What will my future be? Can I trust God with my future? May cross your mind." My friends, a reading for this evening gives us hope that if a broken, disgraced, fearful, frightened woman in the first century has a faith praised by Jesus, then be too can trust him. The faith in this double healing passage is faith that is not only desperate but broken. It is not the faith that the strong, it is the faith of the weak. It is not the faith that the bold, but the faith of the frightened. Secondly, this passage teaches us that Jesus comes as a doctor to the sick. He comes as the strong comes for the weak. He comes for the broken, the bruised and guilty. So no matter what we are going through today, Jesus is our healer. He is our comforter. He wants us to reach out to him by faith and be healed. Sometimes we feel that our problems will keep us from God. This woman had many problems, but she reached out and touched his garment, and he was there ready to help. We should never allow our fear to keep us from approaching him. But let us learn from the example of this woman so that we too may hear the voice of Jesus say to us, "Your faith has healed you." Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Let us pray. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, be your unworthy servants, give you most humble and hearty thanks for all of your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for your creation and preservation and all the blessings of this life, but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And give us, we pray, such a sense of your mercies that our hearts may be infinitely thankful and that we show forth your prayers, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen. I Him touch the hem of His garment. [Music] Oh, and it's Jesus, no way it's Jesus, it's Jesus in my soul, where I have touched the hem of His garment, and His God has. Let me hold. Oh, and it's Jesus, who know it's Jesus, it's Jesus in my soul. Oh, I have touched that hem of His God, and His love has made me whole. Oh, and it's Jesus, who know it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus. Oh, and it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus. Oh, and it's Jesus in my soul, where I have touched the hem of His God, and His love has made me whole. Oh, and it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus. Oh, and it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus. Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus. I have touched that hem of His God, and His love has made me whole. Oh, and it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus, who knows it's Jesus. Now to him, who is able to do immeasurably more than all that we can ask or conceive by the power which is that work among us, to him be the glory of the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord gives compliments upon you, and give you peace, and give you peace, and give you peace, the Lord let give his face to shine upon you, and be great. And be gracious, and be gracious. The Lord be gracious, gracious and to you. Amen. Amen. You have been listening to Insight, a presentation of the Anglican Church in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. If you feel the need for pastoral help, you may visit the Anglican preached in your area. Good night, and thank you for listening. [MUSIC PLAYING]