The Contagion of Holiness Text: Mark 6:53-56
Introduction: A Desperate Pandemic
We live in an age that is terrified of contagion. We are taught to fear the air we breathe, the hands we shake, and the people we meet. Our entire culture is oriented around the fear of catching something, the fear of sickness, the fear of uncleanness. We are experts in quarantine, social distancing, and sterilization. But this is simply a material manifestation of a much deeper, spiritual truth. The world is sick. It is terminally ill with sin, and it knows it. The fever, the aches, the deep spiritual malaise, it is everywhere. And so, people run. They run to politics, to entertainment, to medication, to self-improvement, to anything that promises a moment's relief from the ache of a meaningless existence under a silent heaven.
The scene that Mark paints for us in the land of Gennesaret is a picture of this spiritual pandemic breaking out into the open. It is a scene of raw, unvarnished desperation. This is not a polite, orderly queue at a doctor's office. This is a frantic mob. They are not coming to Jesus with developed theological treatises on the nature of healing. They are coming with a chaotic, desperate, last-ditch hope. They have heard that there is a man who is different, a man who carries life with Him, and they want to get near Him. They are not entirely sure who He is, but they know He has what they do not. And so they run, they carry their sick on pallets, they clog the marketplaces, all for the chance to get close enough to touch the hem of His robe.
This passage is a profound disruption of our tidy, sanitized sensibilities. It shows us what happens when the absolute, transcendent holiness of God in the person of Jesus Christ walks into the middle of a world wracked with the consequences of the fall. The normal rule of the Old Covenant was that uncleanness was contagious. If you touched a leper, you became unclean. If you touched a corpse, you became unclean. The flow of contamination was always from the sick to the healthy, from the unclean to the clean. But with Jesus, the law is reversed. Holiness has become contagious. Life has become contagious. Wholeness has become contagious. When the sick touch Him, they do not make Him unclean. He makes them clean. This is the gospel in miniature. This is the great reversal that Christ brings into the world. He does not flee from our sickness; He invades it and conquers it.
The Text
And when they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him, and ran about that whole region and began to carry here and there on their mats those who were sick, to the place they heard He was. And wherever He was entering villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces, and pleading with Him that they might just touch the fringe of His garment; and as many as touched it were being saved from their sicknesses.
(Mark 6:53-56 LSB)
An Uncontainable Presence (v. 53-54)
We begin with the arrival and the immediate recognition.
"And when they had crossed over they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized Him," (Mark 6:53-54)
Jesus cannot be hidden. He and His disciples cross the sea, likely seeking some measure of rest after the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on the water. But the moment His foot touches the shore, the secret is out. "Immediately the people recognized Him." The word "immediately" is a favorite of Mark's. It conveys a sense of urgency, of rapid escalation. There is no slow build-up of public relations. Jesus's reputation, the sheer force of His person and power, precedes Him like a shockwave.
This recognition is crucial. They see Him, and they know who He is, at least in a functional sense. They know Him as the one who has power over sickness. This is not yet the full-orbed confession of Peter, "You are the Christ," but it is a starting point. They recognize that in this man, the power of God is uniquely present. And this recognition is not passive. It is not a matter for quiet contemplation. It is a catalyst for frantic, explosive action. The presence of Jesus in a place changes everything. It introduces a new and disruptive reality. He is not a private religious figure to be cordoned off in a synagogue. He is a public reality who commandeers the attention of the entire region.
This is a direct challenge to the modern, secular attempt to privatize faith. Our world wants a Jesus who stays in His lane, a Jesus who can be moored to the shore of our personal lives but who does not get out of the boat and walk into our marketplaces. But the Jesus of the Bible is not so easily contained. Where He is present, He is recognized, and where He is recognized, He cannot be ignored. He is Lord of the shoreline and the city square, the village and the countryside.
A Frantic Faith (v. 55)
The recognition of Jesus immediately unleashes a flurry of activity.
"and ran about that whole region and began to carry here and there on their mats those who were sick, to the place they heard He was." (Mark 6:55 LSB)
This is a picture of what we might call a "rumor-driven faith." They heard He was there, and they acted. They ran. They did not form a committee or conduct a feasibility study. They grabbed their sick friends and relatives, hoisted them onto their sleeping mats, and started running toward a rumor. This is not a sophisticated, nuanced faith. It is a raw, desperate, and deeply practical faith. Their theology might have been messy, but their need was clear. They believed that nearness to Jesus was the answer to their problem.
And in this, they were profoundly correct. There is a lesson here for our over-intellectualized and often anemic Christianity. Sometimes we are so concerned with getting all our doctrinal ducks in a row that we forget the simple, desperate act of running to Jesus. These people understood something fundamental: whatever their problem, Jesus was the solution. Their action was a confession of their own inadequacy. They could not heal their loved ones. The doctors had failed. The priests had no power. But they had heard of this man. Their faith was not in their own understanding or in the quality of their own belief, but in Him.
Notice also the communal nature of this response. They "ran about that whole region." They were telling others. "He's here! The healer is in Gennesaret!" This was not a private quest for a personal blessing. It was a corporate explosion of need and hope. They carried the sick who could not come on their own. This is a picture of the church's mission. We are to be the ones who run and tell the region that the Healer has come, and we are to be the ones who carry those who are paralyzed by their sin and sickness to the place where they might meet Him.
The Public Square and the Humble Plea (v. 56a)
The desperation of the people leads them to commandeer public spaces for the purpose of seeking healing.
"And wherever He was entering villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the marketplaces, and pleading with Him that they might just touch the fringe of His garment;" (Mark 6:56a LSB)
Jesus's ministry is not confined to sacred spaces. He is moving through the ordinary places of life, villages, cities, and the countryside. And wherever He goes, the need of the people transforms the public square into a place of divine encounter. The marketplace, the agora, the center of commerce and social life, becomes an open-air hospital ward. They lay the sick right in the middle of everything, forcing a confrontation. They are not ashamed of their sickness, and they are not subtle in their request.
Their plea is striking in its humility and its focused superstition. They were "pleading with Him that they might just touch the fringe of His garment." This echoes the faith of the woman with the issue of blood just a chapter earlier. The "fringe" refers to the tassels, the tzitzit, that devout Jews wore on the corners of their outer garments in obedience to the command in Numbers 15. These tassels were to serve as a reminder to keep God's commandments. There was nothing magical about the tassels themselves. But in the minds of the people, they represented the very edge of His holy power. Their faith was not that they needed a long audience with Him, or a special prayer. They believed that the slightest contact with the person of Jesus was sufficient.
We must be careful here. Jesus is not endorsing a theology of relics or magical objects. The power was not in the cloth. The power was in Christ, and it was His sovereign will to heal those who approached Him in this way. He accommodates their crude, tangible faith. He does not rebuke them for their simple, even superstitious, request. He meets them where they are. This is a profound display of grace. God does not demand that we come to Him with a perfect and complete theology. He asks that we come. He honors a faith that, however weak or ill-informed, reaches out to Him and to Him alone as the only source of help.
Sovereign Power, Saving Touch (v. 56b)
The final clause of our text gives the glorious and sweeping result of these encounters.
"and as many as touched it were being saved from their sicknesses." (Mark 6:56b LSB)
The result is absolute and unqualified. "As many as touched it were being saved." There were no exceptions. There were no partial healings. There were no failures. Everyone who made contact with Him in faith was made whole. The verb "saved" here is sozo, which can mean physical healing, but it is also the primary New Testament word for spiritual salvation. Mark is making a deliberate theological point. The physical healing that these people experienced was a sign, a pointer, to the deeper spiritual salvation that Jesus came to accomplish.
This is a demonstration of the sheer, unadulterated power of Jesus Christ. The healing flows out of Him effortlessly. He is not strained by the crowds. He is not diminished by the constant demand. He is a fountain of life, and all who come to Him are restored. This is not the work of a modern faith healer who depends on atmosphere, emotion, and the power of suggestion. This is the sovereign work of the Son of God, in whom all the fullness of deity dwells bodily.
The contagion of His holiness is overwhelming. The sickness of an entire region is being rolled back by the mere touch of His clothing. This is a foretaste of the victory He would win on the cross. On the cross, He would take all the sickness of our sin upon Himself, and through His resurrection, He would unleash a power that not only heals our bodies but saves our souls for all eternity. All we must do is touch Him by faith.
Conclusion: Touching the Unseen King
This scene at Gennesaret is more than just a historical account of miracles. It is a living parable for us. We are the sick lying in the marketplace of a fallen world. Our diseases are spiritual: pride, lust, bitterness, unbelief. And like the people of Gennesaret, we often try every other remedy before we turn to the only one who can heal.
The good news is that Jesus is still walking through the marketplaces of our world by His Spirit and His Word. He is not physically present for us to touch, but He is spiritually present and accessible to all who call upon Him in faith. To touch the fringe of His garment today is to lay hold of the promises of God in Scripture. It is to cast yourself upon His mercy in prayer. It is to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.
The faith of the crowd was messy, chaotic, and desperate. And God honored it. This should be a tremendous encouragement to us. You do not need to clean yourself up before you come to Christ. You do not need to have all your questions answered. You simply need to recognize your sickness and His power to heal, and you need to run to Him. You need to push through the crowds of your doubts and fears and distractions and fall at His feet.
The fundamental truth is this: holiness is contagious. His righteousness is imputed to all who touch Him by faith. His life swallows up our death. His wholeness mends our brokenness. Do not be content to lie on your mat in the middle of the marketplace. The Healer is passing by. Plead with Him, reach out to Him, and lay hold of Him. For as many as touch Him are saved.