Mark 5:27 – Part 2: Being Right v’s Being Weird

When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him
in the crowd and touched His garment.

She came behind him… why? Why not to His face like Jairus did? As I mentioned to you before, under Levitical law, this woman could have been killed for coming out. She didn’t want Jesus to see her for fear of her life.

Isn’t that interesting?

This woman, at this point in her life has enough faith to believe that Jesus will heal her. But notice the method she is believing for. She will sneak up behind, touch his clothes and sneak off again without anyone knowing. Why would she come up with such a plan as this?

Obviously, she feared for her life. She must have had some strange ideas about Jesus to think that He would order for her to be killed, or at least draw enough attention to the situation that she would have been questioned by the religious leaders of the time.

In other words, these strange ideas resulted in some form of bondage in this woman’s life. This is one of the reasons I believe that Jesus stops and talks with her (more on this later).

I know so many people that have such faith in their lives – especially for certain things, but with that they carry some of the weirdest ideas I have ever come across. But God still works through them because that is where their faith and knowledge are based. I used to have, and some would argue, still do hold some strange beliefs and ideas about Jesus, but God brought me through it. I didn’t need a theology degree (thank God!) to get healed, and neither did this woman. She didn’t need perfect understanding of Jesus or what He stood for. She didn’t have to be perfect, and she didn’t even have to know Him that well, she just had to believe.

And that is what she did – odd as her views were, but she believed none the less. And she got healed. God doesn’t demand you to be right,  He just demands that you trust! It seems odd because that is the opposite way to society these days.

If you think about a child, they have a faith that is unquestionable – especially in their parents. They are creative. They are just not right though! They don’t paint within the lines. They don’t say the right thing. They do exactly the wrong thing and exactly the wrong time in front of exactly the wrong person. They don’t sing in tune, they don’t dance to the beat and they don’t be creative in the “right” ways.

So we spend the next 18 years teaching them to be right.
They paint inside the lines.
They dance to the beat.
They can still do the wrong thing, but at least it wasn’t seen!

It is OK to teach people to be right. But lets not teach them to be right at the expense of teaching them to be themselves, or in exchange for their creative abilities.

We take new Christians and teach them to be “right”. They have to do things in a certain way, stop this, do that and everything else in the middle. We teach them how to be right, instead of how to be themselves.

I am not saying this is bad, nor am I saying that this is good. God can cope with weirdness. He can cope with people not being “right”. That is the reason He sent His Word and His Spirit to us. He just cannot cope with our unbelief.

Don’t strive to be right at the expense of your faith. It is not worth it.

I would worry so much about doing the right thing that I never did anything. "I don’t want to get in the flesh" or "I need to make sure that I am in the will of God" were all ideas that I once held. They are not bad ideas, but sometimes they were excuses for not doing anything.

We try and avoid being extreme, but we become extremely boring. RIght is good. God will show us what is right. I learned a great expression at Bible School – "it is easier to turn a car when it is moving". The Apostle Paul wanted to go somewhere and do some cool things for God. Rather than sit there and wait for some divine call – he started to move. As he was moving – he knew he was heading the wrong way so he kept adjusting his course until he knew he was on the right path.

Sometimes we have to do the same thing. It is better to have a little wildfire than no fire at all.