The word "hem" actually refer to the tassels. In ancient Israel, men wore four-cornered outer tunics with these tassels, or tzitziyot, tied to the four corners. This outer garment became known as a tallit, and eventually evolved into the more formal prayer shawl. The interesting thing is these tassels are in blue! Why? It was an instruction from God to Moses in the Old Testament. This instruction is found in Numbers 15:37-41.
So, when the woman touched the blue tassel, she was healed! Therefore, blue is always associated with "Grace".
Matthew 9:20-22
21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
Do note that she had actually broken the Law to be out in the public, and yet Jesus compliment her of her faith and it was her faith that healed her! Hallelujah! When we touched His Grace, He see our faith! Amen!
Sometime when we are not careful and keep focusing on our faith in God, it can become a barrier in itself and prevent God's blessing upon us. "Oh.. I must have more faith, oh, I must read my Bible more...." If we do that, we are back to self-effort, self-focus....Look to His Grace instead and He will see your faith. Amen! It is not for us to see our faith, it is for Him to see our faith. Our part is to see His Grace. Amen! Hallelujah!
And how do we find Grace in His sight? Ahhh... the very first time Grace is being mentioned is in
Genesis 6:8.
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
The word "Noah" mean "rest" in Hebrew. That why it make a lot of sense when Jesus said in
Matthew 11:28
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Looking to Jesus give us rest! It is not about being lazy and do nothing. It's about "resting" in the finish work of Christ!. Because He died on the cross, our sins are forgiven. Because He died for us, today we have the right standing with God. In other words, God is with us; God is not (and cannot) out to judge us! Amen!
Looking to Grace give us rest. What does that mean? Our lives as Christian should be like this, our trust is in the Lord. Our walk with Jesus should not be tough or heavy nor burden. If you find that being a Christian is so much tougher than being a non-believer, something is really wrong. Because Jesus says "I will give you rest!" He didn't say "I will give you more responsibility, more work, more ministry!"
Look at this verse again in Message translation...
28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Let's continue on our topic of seeing God's love.... Last week, we saw that from the story of Peter, Jesus entrusted Peter the responsibility of preaching the Gospel despite Peter's phileo love for the Lord. From the passage, we realized that God is not looking for our unconditional love. He does not want us to focus on ourselves; He does not want us to go back to Law. The Bible says If we go back to Law for justifying our righteousness in God, Christ has died in vain! Yes, this is what the Bible says. Let's go to Galatians 2:21
21 [Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through [observing the ritual of] the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain. [His death was then wholly superfluous.]
Very clear, isn't it? Here, it says "do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace of God. Because if righteousness comes through observing the Law, then Christ died to no purpose!"
Take some time to meditate on this verse. This is so so important for us as Christian to set our believes right.
Today, we will look at another passage... this time Mary Magdalene. This happen after Jesus was crucified and was buried in the tomb. Mary came to the tomb early in the morning. She found out the stone was rolled away and the tomb was emptied. She went back and told the disciples. They came, found nothing and went back. Let's continue the story from John 20:11-16
11 But Mary remained standing outside the tomb sobbing. As she wept, she stooped down [and looked] into the tomb.
12 And she saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they said to her, Woman, why are you sobbing? She told them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.
14 On saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing [there], but she did not know (recognize) that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you crying [so]? For Whom are you looking? Supposing that it was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you carried Him away from here, tell me where you have put Him and I will take Him away.
16 Jesus said to her, Mary! Turning around she said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni!—which means Teacher or Master.
Here we see a woman whose heart was all out for Jesus. She was at the foot of the cross, witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and she was also the first one to witness the resurrection of Christ.
Let's take a closer look at this passage and see if we can understand the Truth from here....
Verse 11 - Mary was weeping because she could not find Jesus's body. Here, it says "Mary remained standing..." In other words, Mary was not willing to leave like the disciples did... Can see that her heart was for Jesus.
Verse 12 - "she saw two angels...sitting" This is the first time in the Bible we see angels sitting. This speak of "rest". which point to the finished work of Christ.
Verse 13 - " ...they have taken away my Lord.." Yet another truth Mary's heart for Jesus. She personalized as "my Lord."
Verse 14 - Mary was all out to look for Jesus and yet when Jesus stood in front of her, she could not recognised Him because in her mind, Jesus was dead.
Verse 15 & 16 - Mary was very determined to find back her Lord. But only when Jesus called her, then she realized Jesus was with her.
So, what can we learn from this passage? We know that Mary's heart was for Jesus. She was not willing to let go and insisted on finding Jesus's body. But, something is not quite right here. Didn't she know or hear from Jesus that He is going to be resurrected?
Mary was delivered from demon-possessed by Jesus. She was one of the followers of Christ but yet her Bible doctrines was warped. Her heart maybe all out for Jesus but yet her knowledge of Jesus was limited. She never thought that Jesus will be resurrected and as such, she was looking for a "dead" corpse.
Look at our Lord Jesus... Look at how He response.. Jesus did not rebuke Mary " Mary, how come you don't know or don't believe I am going to resurrect today? How come after all the miracles you seen while with Me does not make you have more faith in Me?" This is not how Jesus response.
He called Mary by her name. Amen! Hallelujah! He did not let her go on with her broken heart...even though Mary has little knowledge about Jesus and His resurrection. He called Mary by her name which speak of intimacy. Can you imagine our Lord's first appearance after His resurrection was to someone whom knew Him little?
Such passage comfort us, don't you think? Because some time knowing little of Jesus, we tend to shy away from Him. We have the tendency to qualify ourselves before God. The truth in the Bible is " He neither leave you nor forsake you!" whether we know a lot or know Him little. He is always with us. That's our God!
With this, I'll lead you in a prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you for Your love. I love You because You first love us.
You demonstrated Your love for us by sending Your precious, one and only Son, Jesus to die on the cross for us.
Jesus took all our curse, our sin, our sickness, our poverty to the cross. So that in divine exchange, today, I stand on favored ground. I am great blessed, deeply love and highly favored in Jesus's name.
I may not have know everything about You nor what Jesus has done on the cross, I pray as I continue to cling onto You and Your Word, the revelation of Christ be upon me.
And Your love will keep me and protect me through the days of my life.
Thank you Father, in Jesus's name I pray. Amen!
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