Go In Peace
Pr Edi Giudetti
15-12-2019
Many might be the days of our week that can be filled with fear and distress, discomfort of diverse kinds. Questions that might arise from deep within us that we don’t even understand. They affect us in ways that we don’t like and we long for comfort.
To those who know the Lord there is a refuge, a shelter to hide under in times of need. The Lord gathers us as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and it is a joy to be so wonderfully sheltered. But often, no sooner had we departed from that shelter that the fears chance to arise again.
The passage we are looking at this morning shows to us a logical command and end for a life that has been made whole, one that, when well considered provides a sustained comfort and enduring peace. Such a comfort and a peace that also enables us to comfort others.
CONSIDER THE CONTEXT
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
Luke 8:40-48
If this day is an example of the workday of the Lord, we might consider our own days.
Much occurs in this passage.
The Lord returns from across the Sea of Galilee where he had recently delivered a man who was possessed with a legion of Devils. Now returned, the crowds were pleased to see him and, having waited patiently for him, received him gladly.
No sooner had he arrived, a Ruler of the Synagogue named Jairus fell at his feet and besought him for the sake of his dying daughter.
I wonder at the Lord even at this, there is a crowd about him, all seeking after his attention, he is in great demand, desiring to preach the Gospel of the kingdom and the resurrection of the dead, but he hears the pleas of this loving father and turns to help him directly.
But there is more going on.
The crowd ‘throng him’ says the passage. The indication is that of a multitude of people are giving him little if any space as he walks.
The disciples are with him and we can imagine them attempting to protect the Lord and do all they can to ensure his way is not hindered, suddenly from nowhere the Lord stops.
The disciples stop.
The crowd stops.
A woman, trembling and fearing, knowing what was done in her (Mrk 5:33), stops.
45 And Jesus said, Who touched me?
…… Who touched me?
The disciples are a little stunned at such a question, Jesus is pressed on every side and yet he is somehow aware of a touch that is distinct from all others.
THE WOMAN:
For twelve long and difficult years she suffered her disease (Mt 9:20-22), but more than this, time after time her hopes were raised, physician after physician took money from her promising, “this time is different, this time you will heal”, but it was never different.
Some of the medications were benign, they made no difference at all, some made her worse, and yet time after time, with promise after promise, her hopes would be raised and then dashed once more.
Perhaps that is why Mark uses words more descriptive of her experience, saying she “had sufferedmany things of many physicians” (Mrk 5:26).
There was no Medicare in those days, no social welfare program available, it was of her own money that was to be spent.
We don’t know how she earned the funds, we are not told of a husband or of an inheritance.
No doubt any attempt to work in her condition would have been filled with difficulty.
The physicians, like those of today, never guaranteed their work. Like the doctors and surgeons of today, they are happy to take the money even though their medical mixtures fail to do what was paid for.
Sadly, the money that was spent for the betterment of her health, but the passage tells us she grew worse instead.
She paid money to get sicker!
SHAME
But for twelve long years there was also the shame of being tarnished with the label of “unclean”. Together with that label comes separation from that which her people enjoy.
The Old Testament teaches that a woman, during the time her ‘flowers were apon her’, was unclean and she was separated from congregational worship.
But if her issue endured beyond the standard cycle, so too her separation.
Turn back to Leviticus 15:25;
“And if a woman
Leviticus 15:25;have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if itrun beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall beasthe days of her separation: she shall be unclean.”
For twelve years the form of worship toward the Lord that she might otherwise attend to with other women, was sealed from her. The Temple was closed to her, she remained separated.
She would watch her brethren walk together to the synagogue, but she remained home. Every feast that people would speak about attending at the Temple in Jerusalem, would exclude her.
Once per year, for the last twelve years, all the City would gather their lambs, prepare their food and excitement would be had before the town would empty as they made their way to the great Temple in Jerusalem, but Passover was closed for her.
That was her plight and her sorrow and her suffering
Mark records that
“When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole”
(Mrk 5:27-28)
In Marks account you can almost feel her hope, and you can almost imagine her desperation to ‘touch but his clothes’.
The press against Jesus was great enough to have been noted in all three accounts of this event in the Gospels.
Was she just in the right place at the right time?
Did she fight her way through the crowd to get to him?
Did they open the way for her?
We don’t know.
But we do know she believed Christ to be her only hope.
COMMENT:
NB: Do we not find this to be the reality when man comes to the end of himself? Only when man exhausts all other avenues would they come to Christ?
They attempt all else to be fulfilled in life, to have their own sufferings comforted through all the machinations of a multitude of medicinal placebos only to grow worse?
Perhaps that is when they see you good Christian!
Perhaps you appear at the right place at the right time with good tidings in your hand.
Will you hide yourself or will you share the only true comfort with them?
RETURN:
If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole
Jesus is the great physician. His reputation already preceded him.
We could imagine her thoughts of what she knew of him;
- Can he that turned water into wine, that gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and made the lame to walk heal her of her issue?
- Can the one who raised the dead and was obeyed by the sea when he commanded “Peace, be still”, cleanse the unclean?
She KNEW he could.
If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole
What peace she would have if she could but touch his clothes.
O how she longed to be made whole, how she longed to hear the words from his own lips that “peace” would be her state for all the days she would yet live.
Know Who it is That Speaks
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
Who is it that speaks, and with what authority can a command be given where peace is END the result?
Can we also have hope while we yet struggle ourselves with a variety of maladies?
I hope to answer this from this text this morning.
When we think of some of the most difficult things we have gone through in life, the one thing we would love to have is comfort and peace as we go through them.
We don’t often have peace because we don’t know how things will turn out, so together with that trouble there is worry that we will never see the end of it. We think that only at the end of it is it possible to have peace.
I’m sure you know what I mean.
We might hear words like,
- “it will be ok”,
- “you’ll be fine”,
- “it will work out in the end”
- “this should fix the problem”,
- “take this and you and you’ll be right in a few days”
- “Go in peace”.
Those words might all mean something to you but depending on who says them will determined how much faith you can have in their authority.
I have a procedure booked in that will remove the metal in my leg and repair some damage to my knee. The surgeon that will do the work has done it hundreds of times and thinks nothing of the procedure, so that brings me comfort.
I have a degree of peace.
But I also know there will be a document I will need to sign that warns of the things that could go wrong, so the peace I have is not absolute peace, just a degree of peace.
This woman knows all too well how this goes.
If it were just another physician telling her to “go in peace”, she would not have confidence, even if she immediately felt temporarily well.
After many years, many physicians and an empty purse, it is anxiety and not peace that has been her dominating emotion.
There are times we put great confidence in people to successfully do what they are expected to do.
- The Pilot to land the plane safely at your destination;
- The teacher to adequately teach our children
- Governments to work for the general good of the people
But we have no guarantees, we are not necessarily at peace that such people will complete their work faithfully.
Between the pilot, teachers and Governments, only the pilot has any vested interest in the endeavor. Like the woman’s many physicians, the others have no true vested interest.
Our comfort or lack thereof, has no real bearing on those that have no vested interest in our peace.
But this woman knows this is no ordinary physician, this is “Him”, And he said unto her.
She Knows Who It Is That Speaks!
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
And he
Mark 5:29 says “and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague”
Jesus Christ has the most personal interest of all.
- His life hinges on bringing the most wonderful peace of all, that is, peace with God.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
(Rom 5:1)
To have Peace with God is the ultimate peace of all. To live lives filled with fear and anxiety is contrary to the command of Christ to “go in peace” and contrary to the positional state of their very being.
There is not a person on Earth who would not love to know that they have Peace With God.
The thought is so valuable, that thinking of not ever having peace with God seems to eventually manifest itself even in the denial of his existence.
The multitude of ‘false ways’ that have been laid out before them, have only confused them all the more and they have set God behind their backs, trusting there is no such peace necessary.
Paul reflects their misery as a result saying;
Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known:
Rom 3:16-17
But there is Peace, and this woman knew it, sought for it, and made her way to touched it.
Jesus Christ did not only come to bring Peace With God;
- His stated purpose was to clear away the confusion of the Lost, and to bear witness to the truth.
Look at John 18:37
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
He who’s stated purpose in coming was to bear witness to the truth. John 14:6 speaks of him being The Way, The True and The Life Jesus is the very personification of the truth.
No truth is of a lie and God cannot lie. If his command to the woman is to “go in peace” then there is a peace that naturally comes from her renewed state.
She is healed of ailments in life, her faith saved her; our faith saved us, we have been healed of death itself!
Our temporary ailments we commit unto the Lord, we trust in him for recovery from them, all our ills are ALL TEMPORARY.
In the meanwhile, we trust in him to work in our hearts to bring about a perfect work in life, indeed an abundant life.
Which brings me to the third explicit purpose of his coming
- His came to bring abundant life
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I
John 10:10am come that they might havelife, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Her confidence was well placed, her peace could be assuredly settled.
After twelve long years of being disappointed with the best that man could do, BUT the Physician who’s stated purpose of coming was to bring life, would bring it ABUNDANTLY.
Beloved all the healing work that Jesus did was to fulfill the sign of his coming.
Miracles signs were the expectation of the Jews that would reveal the long-awaited messiah when he comes.
When John the Baptist sent his own disciples to ask Jesus “Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?” (Lk 7:20). It was Jesus who testified evidence of himself saying;
Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached
The Miracle of healing was a sign.
But the ultimate healing and the ultimate peace that the physical healings were to identify, was peace that comes through the salvation of the soul, PEACE WITH GOD.
BRINGS ME TO THE LAST STATED OBJECTIVE;
- It is found in Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
It was he who seeks and saves that says to you “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)
Know What it Is He Commands
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
Comfort, there is nothing more wonderful that an anxious and fearful and even desponded soul can experience than comfort.
Confidence she would ever be delivered from her disease. When we go through sickness we like to think of it as temporary, and it is, always, but we don’t know how long that “temporary” is!
For this woman it was twelve years.
Had she known the duration at the beginning perhaps she would have settled in for the journey and taken some comfort, but it is somewhat debilitating to be enduring such trials and not know it is temporary, it is difficult to get any comfort and impossible to feel at peace.
In his book “Mans Search For Meaning” Victor Frankyl, imprisoned with a number of Jews in a German Concentration camp during the second world war, observes most of his fellow inmates deteriorate before his eyes as the concept of enduring suffering without an identifiable time limit, takes its toll.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his Noble Prize wining work ‘The Gulag Archipelago’, tells of the horror of the work camps in the Russian Soviet Union in the days of Joseph Stalin, that resulted in the torcher and death of over 60,000,000 people in Russia between 1918-1956.
How the ‘Organs’ (those who worked for the Gulag system) would ensure the breaking point of their victims through the passive use of repeated false hopes from the moment of their interrogation, all through years of torture and imprisonments, and rolling terms of encampment.
Sometimes they were to suffer just the single 8 year term, sometimes double, most times indefinite.
Suffering is greatest of all when we have no timeframe for it.
This is what makes hell itself so damning to the soul, this is why the Lord was so desirous to give his life for the souls of all mankind that eternal comfort may be gained by them.
It was Jonathan Edwards who spoke respecting time and suffering for the damned, attempting for his hearers to even begin to conceive of that hell which removes all comfort;
“We can conceive but little what it would be: we can think of lying in a fiery oven, or such a furnace as is used for the running [of] metals or melting stones and sand into glass, for an quarter of an hour, full all over of quick sense, but can conceive of but little of this; and if we could conceive fully of it, it would give no idea [of the actuality]—the shadow is too faint, [and] ’tis doubtless as nothing to it. If you had endured one such quarter of an hour, it would be dismal to think [of], and if you knew that there was danger of your enduring another such quarter of an hour—though only a thousand years hence—it would greatly affect you.
But if to endure this one quarter of an hour be [so terrible], what would it be to endure [such torment] throughout all eternity? Thus it will surely be with you, if you continue [as you are]: through an endless eternity, that eternity that has no end, to which millions of ages bears no greater proportion [than a quarter of an hour, for it] never will be nearer to [an] end.”[1]
No, If we can imagine the discomfort of the woman in the midst of her 12 years of suffering, ignorant of an end yet hopeful of an end, what more of the inmates of Auschwitz and Dachau, what more of the Gulags of the Soviet Union?
What of the impossible discomfort of them who come to know there is no end nor hope in hell for eternity?
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
Now consider the infinite comfort of those who’s faith has made them whole?
- The woman, healed of her disease through faith; we, healed of sin through faith.
- Hers is the comfort in the temporal life; ours is the comfort of eternal life.
Know Why It Is He Commands It
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
It was her faith.
She knew who it was that had come to her city. She knew it.
She knew him not only by reputation, but being, no doubt, a daughter of Abraham, she knew him by promise.
- Like the Samaritan woman at the well, who said “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things” (John 4:25).
She knew him by promise that it would be messiah that is to “take away the sin of the world” as written by the prophets.
- Like Martha, yet another woman who recognized him for who he is, confidently affirmed confessing; “Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” (Jn 11:27)
- Like Peter, the disciple, when requested who he trusts Jesus to be said “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16)
- This is the one that Nicodemas came to enquire of, seeking whether or not he is indeed the Christ that should come.
Turn to John 10:24
Certain that there was a recognition of who Christ was and what his purpose was. Even his antagonists desired to know, not by faith but from his lips and they too enquired saying;
“Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us
(John 10:24-31)to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gavethemme , is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.”
Though they saw the signs, and though they heard it from his own lips, yet they would not believe.
Faith is never a question of ability, it is always a question of the will.
Turn to Matt 26:63.
Even the Chief of all the Jews demanded to know, during his trial of all places, the High priest demanded Jesus reveal his identity plainly crying
“But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. 65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 66 What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death“
Beloved, this is the only consistent way to think of Christ, you have no right to ever think of him in any other way.
Either Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, or he is an mad lying criminal who is guilty of Death.
If you are listening to this sermon and sitting on the fence thinking Jesus is a good example to follow, or a teacher with good lessens for living life, then you are a fool.
Jesus gave you no such option.
He is either the lamb that should come into the world, or he is a fraud.
He either died to give his life for the sin of the world, to save them from the eternal hell for which all are bound, or he was a mad man.
But spend no more time thinking of him as an option other than Buddha, or Confucius or Gandhi or any other ‘false way’.
The suffering woman was made whole by her faith. She believed this was indeed the Christ that was promised to come.
The Bible says he is a light to the gentiles. That he has indeed come as a light in this world and there is no other option concerning him, you have no right to think of him any other way, make your decision on him, weigh the evidence, is he a lunatic and a liar or is he the Lord?
Is he who the Bible presents him to be, or is he and the Bible an astronomical concoction?
Your eternal comfort depends on your answer to this question.
If you choose to believe the truth, then be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole;
Jesus commands the woman to be of good comfort, only because her faith and made her whole. She trusted that Only Christ could heal her, she has tried every other false way, and none helped.
I too tried a multitude of false ways.
Boxes of self help books are found under my house, none could heal my sinful soul. Though around me people might have thought I was not so bad, I knew the sin of my heart and I had no comfort until my faith in Christ made me whole.
How I pray your soul has no rest, day nor night until your eternity is secured in Christ.
I don’t mean to be nasty in this, but I truly do pray that the fear of eternal discomfort terrorises your mind until it finds peace in the only one who died to secure it.
You know the truth, then have the courage to humble yourself.
Know What It Is That Results
And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
The result, Peace.
It is the true end of faith, peace.
Comfort is the experience; peace is the descriptive end.
The woman heard the natural conclusion of her faith logically presented by the one who has all authority to know;
be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace
‘Go in peace, go knowing that the affliction of your body that has troubled you for 12 long years is over. No more will it be revisited, no more money will be spent on false ways of healing it, life can begin anew and comfort will be your experience, peace will be your stay’.
Peace is the natural result of comfort.
It is that settled state in which the heart may rest
Peace is knowing that, in Christ, “all things work together for good.”
Peace is knowing that no matter the trials of this temporal life, hope of eternal life is secured, and a joy to look forward to.
Sabina Wurmbrand, in her book “The Pastor’s Wife”, tells of her frightening and cruel ordeal in a Soviet Prison Camp in Romania, she relates this comforting account of the difference of her hope compared to those who have lost it.
“Society” women were often the most pitiful. Life was harder for them than for anyone. They’d lost the most, in the material sense; and they had the fewest inner resources to fill the gap. A rubble of old games of bridge, hats, hotels, lost weekends and lovers rattled about in their heads like junk in the back seat of a car. Their nerves gave way first, as did their soft white hands. After work, women came to religious prisoners and asked, begged even, to be told something of what we remembered from the Bible. The words gave hope, comfort, life. We had no Bible. We ourselves hungered for it more than bread. How I wished I’d learned more of it by heart! But the passages we knew we repeated daily and at night, when we held vigils for prayer. Other Christians, like me, had deliberately committed long passages to memory, knowing that soon their turn would come for arrest. They brought riches to prison. While others quarreled and fought, we lay on our mattresses and used the Bible for prayer and meditation, and repeated its verses to ourselves through the long nights. We learned what newcomers brought and taught them what we knew. In this way an unwritten Bible circulated through all of Romania’s prisons.
Wurmbrand, Sabina. The Pastor’s Wife ..
[1] Jonathan Edwards, Sermons and Discourses, 1743–1758, 2006, 25, 218.
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