“When they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. 6:54 When they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, 6:55 and ran about that whole country and began to carry here and there on their pallets those who were sick, to the place they heard He was. 6:56 Wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places, and imploring Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were being cured.” (Mark 6:53-56)
In Mark 5, Jesus healed a woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years. Jesus called her daughter, which signified her as a true daughter of Abraham and a woman of saving faith. After she touched Jesus’ robe and was healed, He turned to look and see who it was that benefited from His healing power. She then became afraid and fell at His feet and told Him everything that happened. She humbled herself before the Lord, and He blessed her for it. (Mark 5:25-29)
In the passage set before us we see many people being healed by Jesus. There is one striking similarity between the healing of the woman and the multitude; both the multitude and the woman were healed after touching Jesus’ garment. It might be a stretch to connect the two stories, I do not think so. Just from the proximity of these stories in Mark there should be little doubt that the author was saying that it was this daughter of Abraham that inspired many people to seek out Jesus. People were being brought to Jesus in our story, believers always bring others to Jesus. The question that always needs to be answered, however, with regards to faith is what are people believing in?
In the case of this daughter of Abraham she said to herself, Jesus is so powerful, if I just touched His clothes, I’ll be healed. She snuck up behind Him and touched His garment, but ultimately she fell at his feet. In another case ten lepers met Jesus between Samaria and Galilee (Luke 7:12-19) and He healed them. Only one of the lepers turned to thank Jesus, and Jesus replied, “Where are the nine?” In the case of the one leper, Jesus said to him, “your faith has make you well,” but all ten were cleansed. Always in the Gospels there are massive physical healings, but very few spiritual ones. Many people were healed all throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, but few were saved – spiritually.
The multitude of people that came to Jesus asked to touch the fringe of His cloak, but why the fringe? The text does not say why, exactly. It does say that the daughter of Abraham fell down at Jesus feet, the place where the fringe most likely was located. She fell clearly out of homage to Christ. What is not so clear is that all the multitude wanted to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak because they honored Him as Lord. Often times the multitudes fall in line behind true believers and in doing so they think they also are in the kingdom. Saving faith, however, is not a group project, no one gets saved by doing what others do. Each person gets saved through their own personal saving faith in the person and work of Christ, or they do not get saved at all.
“Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.7:14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13, 14)
What about you do you have saving faith? If you do are you walking by faith today? If you have never asked Christ to save you, would you ask Him today?
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