PRESS PAST IT
A devotional that is today's Sermon!
Read: Mark 5:21–34 NIV
Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman
21 When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. 23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him.
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 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. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”
32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Pastor John’s Take:
Let me start with a confession.
We just moved into a new neighborhood… and I am conducting surveillance for the Kingdom.
I’m not nosy.
I’m observant.
I’m not peeking.
I’m pastoring from a distance.
And the other day I watched a dad teaching his kid how to ride a bike — and that child was dressed like he was entering a low-speed demolition derby.
Helmet.
Elbow pads.
Knee pads.
Probably had a backup helmet for the helmet.
Meanwhile, when my dad taught me how to ride a bike, I had two pieces of safety equipment:
Hope.
And a hard head.
And I remember yelling,
“YOU STILL HOLDING ME?!”
And my dad yelling back,
“I’m holding you!”
And then suddenly…
I met Jesus and asphalt.
Here’s the lesson:
You discover balance after somebody lets go.
And that’s where some of you are right now.
You’re pedaling.
You’re wobbling.
You’re wondering if God is still holding on.
But maybe what feels like abandonment…is actually advancement.
Maybe He didn’t drop you. Maybe He’s developing you.
And that tension — that wobble — is exactly where Mark 5 begins.
YOU ARE NOT YOUR ISSUE
In the middle of a crisis — Jairus’ daughter dying — Mark introduces us to a woman.
Not by name.
By problem.
“A woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years…”
She doesn’t get Mary.
She doesn’t get Ruth.
She gets a diagnosis.
And that’s how the enemy works. He renames you by your struggle.
You’re not gifted — you’re inconsistent.
You’re not healing — you’re behind.
You’re not developing — you’re too much.
But hear me clearly:
Your issue is something you have — not something you are.
She had a flow — but she wasn’t the flow.
She had pain — but she wasn’t the pain.
She had been bleeding — but she was still breathing.
And as long as you’re breathing, God is not finished.
DESPERATION PRODUCES DIRECTION
Leviticus said she was unclean.
Translation?
Untouchable.
Isolated.
Excluded.
For twelve years she lived like a walking warning label.
She couldn’t worship.
Couldn’t hug.
Couldn’t belong.
And the text says she “suffered many things under many physicians.”
That’s Bible language for:
She paid people to disappoint her.
Twelve years.
Not a bad week.
Not a rough season.
A decade-plus of “maybe this time”… and it never was.
But here’s the pivot:
“When she heard about Jesus…”
That’s it.
That’s the shift.
Because sometimes the end of your options is the beginning of your direction.
Desperation is not your enemy.
Desperation is often your invitation.
You don’t come to Jesus when everything works.
You come when you finally admit:
“This isn’t working.”
FAITH MOVES
She didn’t make an appointment.
She didn’t submit a prayer request card.
She didn’t wait for Jesus to call her out.
She thought:
“If I can just touch Him…”
That’s trust.
Trust moves without proof.
Trust reaches without control.
And let’s be honest:
We say we trust God…
But we still Google the diagnosis after prayer.
We still text three friends to confirm the prophecy.
We still ask for a sign… and then a confirmation sign… and then a backup sign in case the first two signs were unclear.
That’s not wisdom.
That’s control with a Bible verse on it.
At some point…Faith has to pedal.
PROXIMITY IS NOT FAITH
She presses through the crowd.
And don’t romanticize that.
The crowd isn’t just people.
The crowd is shame.
The crowd is fear.
The crowd is, “What if nothing changes?”
She wasn’t supposed to be there.
But faith will make you move anyway.
She touches Him.
And Jesus stops.
The disciples say,
“Everybody is touching You.”
Jesus says,
“No. Somebody touched Me different.”
Everybody brushed Him. Only one believed Him.
Proximity ain’t faith.
You can sit in church so long you grow spiritual calluses…and never reach.
JESUS RESTORES IDENTITY
He could have kept walking.
He could have let her slip away healed but hidden.
Did you know that the Savior of the Universe is interruptible.
But He turns around.
Not to shame her.
To restore her.
And He says one word: “Daughter.”
For twelve years she was unclean.
In one word she becomes family.
She wanted a quiet miracle.
Jesus gave her a public identity.
Healing fixes symptoms.
Wholeness restores belonging.
The devil renamed her by her wound. Jesus renamed her by His love.
And here’s the gospel in plain language:
God doesn’t love you because you trust Him.
You can trust Him because He already loves you.
PRESS PAST IT
Now let’s go back to the driveway.
To the wobbling.
To the moment you realized the hands weren’t there.
Sometimes God steps back…
not to abandon you…
but to let you ride.
The power didn’t flow until she reached.
Jesus was already present.
Already powerful.
Already moving.
But nothing changed for her…until she pressed.
You cannot pull power with closed fists.
If you stop in the crowd, you stay in the condition.
If you let shame stop you, you stay labeled.
But if you press…
He will stop.
If Jesus will stop for that unnamed woman…
He will stop for you.
He stopped for the excluded.
He stopped for the desperate.
He stopped for the reaching.
But you have to trust enough to reach.
Faith doesn’t just believe He can.
Faith reaches like He will.
He may have let go…
but He didn’t leave.
So press past it.
Press past the crowd.
Press past the label.
Press past the disappointment.
Because what you press through determines what you pull from Him.
And if He stopped for her…
He will stop for you.
Now reach.
The Best Is Yet to Come, If you will Reach
Rev. John Roberts
Faith is everything! Believe that Jesus is the key to everything!