Family Worship (June 14)

Imagine you are playing outside in the stickiest, goopiest mud ever. Your hands are covered in brown slime. If you go inside and hug your mom, what happens? Her clean clothes get muddy too! In our world, dirtiness always spreads. If you touch something messy, you get messy. If you catch a cold and sneeze near your brother, he might get sick too. That is just how things usually work. But what if there was someone so incredibly clean and powerful that the opposite happened? Imagine if you had muddy hands, and when you touched a clean towel, the mud instantly vanished from your hands, and the towel stayed perfectly white! That sounds like a superpower, right? In today's true story from the Bible, we meet Jesus, who has exactly that kind of amazing, backward power to make broken things completely brand new. Let us explore His wonderful healing love.  

Mark 5:21-34
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.”

Discussion Questions

1. How do you think the woman felt during those twelve long years when she was sick and nobody was allowed to touch her? Why was she trembling with fear after she was finally healed?  
2. Why do you think Jesus stopped the whole crowd just to look for her and call her His "daughter" instead of letting her walk away secretly? What does this show us about His heart?  
3. What is a "messy" feeling, a mistake, or a sad thing in your life that you can talk to Jesus about, knowing that He delights to listen to you and help you?  Interactive

Family Activity: The Pepper Chase
Goal: To visualize how Jesus’s power drives away sickness, sin, and uncleanness rather than being polluted by it.
Supplies Needed: A shallow bowl or plate, water, ordinary black pepper, and a small drop of liquid dish soap.
Instructions:
1. Fill the shallow bowl with water.
2. Have the children sprinkle black pepper generously all over the surface of the water. Explain that the pepper represents the "messy," broken, sick, and sinful things in our world that normally spread and make things dirty.
3. Ask a family member to dip a clean, dry finger into the center of the pepper. Notice how the pepper sticks to their finger, making it dirty. This is how the world normally works—uncleanness spreads.
4. Wipe that finger clean. Now, place a tiny drop of dish soap onto that same finger. Explain that the soap represents Jesus—the one who is completely pure, holy, and powerful.
5. Have them dip the soapy finger directly into the middle of the bowl. Watch in amazement as all the pepper instantly rushes away to the outer edges of the bowl, leaving the water around the finger perfectly clear!
6. Discuss how Jesus has "backward power." When He touches our messes, His cleanliness wipes out our dirtiness, making us perfectly clean!  

Prayer
Dear God, thank You so much for sending Jesus to be our holistic healer. We are amazed by His backward power that drives away our sin and sickness instead of being ruined by it. Thank You that Jesus loves us so much that He calls us His own sons and daughters. Whenever we feel sad, sick, or worried, help our family to run straight to Jesus in faith, knowing He is always delighted to help us. Guide our family this week to share His big love with our neighbors. In Jesus's name, Amen.

Memory Work:

New City Catechism
23. Why must the Redeemer be truly God?
That because of his divine nature his obedience and suffering would be perfect and effective.

Memory Verse
Matthew 6:9-13
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
    but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’