Mother's Day (2)

He Knows My Name

Psalm 139:15–17 NLT

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!

Introduction:

Since September, we’ve been looking at some of the women in the Bible at our monthly Ladies Brunches. (By the way, there are only two left before we take a break for the summer, so if you can make it on May 20 and June 17, I encourage you to come)

We talked about some well-known women, like Eve, who is to blame for all that is wrong with the world! We looked at Hagar - a servant who was misused and mistreated but seen by God. Genesis 16:13 “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.””

We learned that there are three Tamars in the Bible. What? Yes, three. You can find them in Genesis 38, 2Samuel 13, and 2 Samuel 14:27

We looked at the beautiful story of Ruth and the surprising story of Rahab. We see Tamar, Ruth and Rahab mentioned again in Matthew 1 in the genealogy of Jesus.

Rachel and Leah showed us sibling rivalry to the extreme! We read about Deborah and Jael - women of valor - a prophetic judge and a brave warrior. We looked at Hannah, Mariam, Mary and Martha, and, of course, Mary the mother of Jesus. Such amazing women! Just the mention of their names brings to mind their stories and the lessons they teach us. What about the women in the Bible who are NOT known by name? Their stories are no less valuable to us. So, we’re gonna look at three of these nameless women this morning.

The first woman’s story is so powerful that it is mentioned in three of the four gospels. We know her as the

woman with the issue of blood

While we don’t know her name, we DO know quite a bit about her. We know that she had been bleeding for twelve years. We also know that the laws of the land would indicate this woman be considered “unclean” and therefore she wouldn’t have been allowed to worship in the temple or go to the markets. Anything or anyone she touched would also become unclean. This meant she likely couldn’t touch the ones she loved most - her family and friends. We sort of had a taste of this during the Covid season. Remember? We couldn’t hug, shake hands or high-five anyone. Just imagine if these restrictions went on for twelve years!!! She wouldn’t have had any real community connection FOR 12 YEARS!

Mark 5:26 NIV

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.

I’m sure this woman must have felt that this is how her life would end - alone, helpless, and hopeless. She had run out of money and options. BUT, she had heard about Jesus! She KNEW that if she could just touch His clothes, she would be healed. We know that large crowds followed Jesus wherever He went at this point in His ministry. He had been doing a lot of “out of the box” teaching and had already performed many miracles. As word spread, the crowds grew. The news of Jesus somehow reached the ears of this poor, sickly woman, it sparked a flicker of hope. She had a new determination - she HAD to get to Jesus.

When she finally got to where Jesus was, He was already on His way to the home of Jarius, a synagogue leader. His daughter was very sick and he wanted Jesus to come to his house to heal her. The determined woman pressed through the “great crowd” that “thronged” about Him. Mark 5:24

Mark 5:24 ESV

And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.

Finally she got close to Jesus.

Luke 8:44 (NIV)

She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

Mark puts it like this

Mark 5:29 (NIV)

Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

How amazing! To be free from the pain and discomfort she had been experiencing for TWELVE YEARS! Gone in an instant! The story doesn’t end there though.

Jesus knew what had happened. He looked over the crowd and asked, “Who touched me?” Can’t you just hear laughter in Peter’s voice as he responds, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you!” Luke 8:45

Luke 8:45 NIV

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

The newly healed woman must have known that a man so powerful that mere contact with His clothes would heal her would certainly figure out who He had healed! In both Mark and Luke we’re told that she went to Jesus in fear and trembling and fell at His feet and told Him the whole story.

“Was she afraid she’d be exposed as an unclean rule-breaker who shouldn’t have even been there?”

“Jesus didn’t berate or humiliate her in front of the enormous crowd. Only He could have known in that moment just how much she had suffered or how she had courageously and humbly bundled all her hopes into the simple act of touching the hem of His garment” (The Women of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream)

Matthew, Mark and Luke record Jesus calling the woman “daughter” and telling her “your faith has healed you”.

Though His power was clearly the source of her healing, Jesus identified her faith as having activated her cure.

“After more than a decade of suffering, bad news, and financial ruin, she was finally free - healed in an instant - all because she dared reach out to Him for help when every earthly avenue had ended up in nothing but loss and despair.” (Women of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream)

We never learn what her name was, but God knew her name.

The second nameless woman is known as

The Woman at the Well

The longest conversation that Jesus had with a woman in the Bible is found in John 4. Most remarkably, she is not even a Jew - she’s a Samaritan, an ethnic and religious outsider. Most Jews did everything they could to avoid traveling through Samaria, but not Jesus! We’re told in John 4:4

John 4:4 NIV

Now he had to go through Samaria.

Not only did He travel through Samaria, but He actually STOPPED there: John 4:5-9

John 4:5–9 NIV

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus question was counter cultural for two reasons: 1) Jews shunned the Samaritans - a people birthed from intermingled Jews and pagans after the Assyrian captivity.

2) Jewish men did not speak to women in public, especially women of ill repute!

While most women came to draw water in the morning and evening, this woman came at the hottest part of the day - around noon. She came alone. This was most likely to avoid seeing other people, especially those who would have known her reputation.

Jesus tried to reveal His identity to her in John 4:10

John 4:10 NLT

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

She doesn’t understand what He’s trying to say to her. She’s still stuck on the physical water. John 4:11

John 4:11 NIV

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

It’s worth noting how Jesus spoke to this marginalized woman. It’s a method His disciples asked Him about several times. They always wanted to know why it was that He spoke in indirect, roundabout ways - in parables and metaphors. Often with His disciples it was about spurring them to deeper thinking so they could fully understand the heart of Jesus’ message. Needless to say, there was a learning curve. Here we can see Jesus’ wisdom again, as He speaks to the Samaritan woman in a way that is confusing at first, but leads her to understand the deeper truth.

Jesus was engaging her in conversation, getting to know her and showing concern for who she was. The dialogue He started with sparked an opportunity for connection. When she asked about Living Water, He had a response for her in John 4: 13-14

John 4:13–14 NIV

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

She may not have fully understood what He was talking about, but she DID know what it meant to be thirsty. She knew that she had to drag heavy pots along a dry, dusty road to the well every day. If this strange rabbi had a magical way to eliminate this task, she was all in!

John 4:15 NIV

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Instead of trying to convince her the He wasn’t talking about physical thirst, He guided her to the conclusion that would change her life forever. Jesus made the application of His truth a very personal connection for the Samaritan woman:

John 4:16 NIV

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

Oh, now He’s meddling! He’s getting all up in her business and it makes her a bit uncomfortable. You can almost hear her tone change from excitement to embarrassment John 4:17-18

John 4:17–18 NIV

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

There was no mistaking, Jesus knew things about her that she never told Him. He SAW her. He KNEW who she was. She was not quite ready to engage in a conversation about her personal life, so she turned the attention to Him.

John 4:19–20 NIV

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

What Jesus said next was the key to everything He wanted to communicate to this outsider:

John 4:21–24 NIV

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Jesus is saying, “Look, it doesn’t matter WHERE you worship! It’s about WHO you worship!” She is really trying to understand but she just isn’t getting it. So she says

John 4:25–26 NIV

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

“Wait a minute! Jesus decided that this was the time and place when He would proclaim that He was the Messiah, and to this person, a Samaritan woman...

“He wasn’t in the temple courts teaching. He wasn’t standing on a mountaintop as thousands hung on His every word...

He was talking to a woman who, by every rule of the day, He shouldn’t even have acknowledged. Yet He reached into her world and dropped a truth bomb - and boy, did it have a ripple effect!” (The Women of the Bible Speak - by Shannon Bream)

So, this woman’s excitement returns after what Jesus said to her. She’s beginning to understand. The next verse makes me laugh a little:

John 4:27 NLT

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”

You can picture them looking at each other, then at Jesus, then at the woman, and then at each other again. “You ask Him! I’m not gonna ask Him, YOU ask Him!” LOL. They know that Jesus shouldn’t have been talking to this woman - to this Samaritan. But they also have been around Him long enough to know that He never did anything without a good reason. So, they’ll let it slide for now, and maybe ask Him about it later.

Meanwhile, this woman without a name can no longer contain her excitement.

John 4:28–29 NLT

The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”

Jesus SAW this woman for who she was and instead of pointing a finger and telling her she had to straighten her life out, He lovingly showed her a better way. As a result, this nameless woman, who once avoided people because of her shame, ran through the village, telling everyone about this man who just may be the One they’ve been waiting for. Many people believed in Jesus as a result of her testimony.

The final nameless woman we’ll look at today is the

Proverbs 31 Woman

Now, Prov. 31 is probably the most preached Mothers’ Day text in the whole Bible. It appears to be a checklist of what every Christian wife should be. Let’s read it:

Proverbs 31:10–31 NLT

Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She finds wool and flax and busily spins it. She is like a merchant’s ship, bringing her food from afar. She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plan the day’s work for her servant girls. She goes to inspect a field and buys it; with her earnings she plants a vineyard. She is energetic and strong, a hard worker. She makes sure her dealings are profitable; her lamp burns late into the night. Her hands are busy spinning thread, her fingers twisting fiber. She extends a helping hand to the poor and opens her arms to the needy. She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes. She makes her own bedspreads. She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns. Her husband is well known at the city gates, where he sits with the other civic leaders. She makes belted linen garments and sashes to sell to the merchants. She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness. She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness. Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!” Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.

I don’t know about you, but I think I scored about 35% on this test! That’s a FAIL for sure! If this is supposed to be our goal, then it’s no wonder we feel shame and discouragement when we can’t live up to it!

In my research, I found a couple different theories about who the “Virtuous Woman” is.

From equippingwomen.com “ It’s important to remember:

“While scholars aren’t in 100% agreement, the Proverbs 31 woman likely was not real. Rather she is simply a compilation of the best traits of Godly women as a whole.”

(equippingwomen.com)

The Gospel Coalition states:

“Even if you didn’t know anything about the audience or the context, just look at all this woman does! She’s perfect in every way!”

“She beats the sun out of bed in the morning to make food for her husband and all their servants, She stays up all night making merchandise to sell the next morning.”

“She’s both a night owl and an early bird! She makes food, makes the clothes, earns the money, and deals with the kids. It makes you wonder what in the world was left for the husband to do!”

“Why would Solomon produce a whole book about pursuing wisdom and finish it by saying, “Now, go marry Wonder Woman!”? That’s not his point.” (the gospelcoalition.org)

This article goes on to say that Solomon was encouraging young men to seek wisdom as they would a desirable wife. Wisdom affords emotional and spiritual security, good decision-making skills, honour and esteem from those around us, the ability to be a good father or mother, trust from our spouse, and the ability to bless those around us.

Proverbs 4:7 NLT

Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment.

We don’t know if the Proverbs 31 Woman was an actual woman or a metaphor. But either way, we can lean something from the list. Seek wisdom in our everyday things. Grow. Develop Godly qualities and characteristics. Always seeking to become all that God has called us to be.

Conclusion

You may feel nameless. Like no one sees you or really knows you. God does. God knows your deepest struggles, your pain, the things you try to hide from everyone around you. He knows the real you. He loves you - unconditionally. He wants to heal your pain and your brokenness. He loves you more that you can understand. His desire is to see you living free. Free from guilt, pain and regret. He knows your name. He sees you.

Let’s pray...