What were some things you believed as a kid that you realized were total nonsense as an adult?

As a child, I wasn’t crazy about Sunday School lessons. However, I loved goldfish crackers. Thus, I loved going to Sunday School. They gave us unlimited goldfish at 10AM. How cool is that? I vividly remember being a little kid in a cramped classroom one Sunday morning while Mrs. Clark was teaching the Ten Commandments. I did not pay too much attention, but one commandment really stuck out to me. “Thou shall not commit adultery,” she explained. I instantly freaked out, knowing that I had broken this commandment.

Keep in mind, I was just a small child. I had zero clue what adultery actually meant. I thought she said “adult tree,” as in a large, grown-up tree. This was problematic, as my favorite activity was climbing onto the limb of a huge pine tree in my back yard and riding it like a bucking bronco. My whole world crumbled when I discovered that this activity was in direct opposition to the Bible. This moment instilled a far-fetched fear of forests in my heart.

Can you imagine how silly I felt when I learned what that word actually meant? However odd this example is, we do this all the time. There are concepts that we honestly thought we understood that get turned on their heads as we get older. One that I constantly see students wrestling with is the difference between religion and relationship. We often think of our faith as something that we get by learning rules and sitting in classrooms, but that’s not the case. Jesus wants an authentic, interactive, life-giving relationship with you. One that goes far beyond Sunday School classes and youth gatherings.

TEXT: Mark 5: 25 – 34
“A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 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. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

I wish I could call this woman by her real name. Maybe it was Megan, Bethany, or Kylie. We do not know. Mark simply calls her, “the woman with the issue of blood.” Let’s think about that for a second. Sometimes your problems can be so big, that they swallow up your identity. Have you ever had something consume you so much that you can only see yourself through the lens of your problem? You define yourself and shape your entire identity around a single struggle.

You just see yourself as the lonely kid who plays video games.
You just see yourself as the heartbroken ex who can’t stop thinking about why they don’t like you anymore.
You see yourself as less-than, not-good-enough, or even unworthy. Any time your mind wanders, it goes through a negative thought pattern.

Just like the woman in the story, an experience from Jesus will shift your entire identity. Even a small touch from Jesus can cause big change. Imagine being in this woman’s situation. Culture had shut her out due to her sickness. The religious leaders of the day labeled her as “unclean.” All the “holy” people wanted absolutely nothing to do with her, but she knew there was something different about Jesus. Imagine what was going through her mind when she reached out to Jesus. All of that pain was in her mind, but she still crawled through the crowd just to touch Him. She had to crawl past her history to reach her destiny. When we authentically experience Jesus, everything changes. Your whole identity shifts.

Look at the language Jesus uses to speak to her! He calls her daughter — and this reveals a relationship. This shows connection. This shows compassion. All of the religious ideas of the day rejected her, but Jesus accepted her. Religious practices, rituals, and regulations didn’t help her, but a relationship with Jesus healed her.

It’s crucial that you move from religion to relationship.

“Religion” is any attempt to look good enough for God through your own strength or fortitude. “Religion” is when you only walk through the motions on Sunday, but Jesus hardly crosses your mind outside of the church property. “Religion” is when you make following Jesus exclusively about keeping a list of rules and regulations like he is an all- seeing referee. A relationship is a constant connection with Him. It is when you choose to obey His Word, because you care about Him and know that He cares about you. It is understanding that Jesus is lavishly in love with you like a perfect parent working all things together for your ultimate good.