I've started to have a devotion prior to every study/homework session I do. I've realized that it helps me to retain information a lot better than if I skip out on it. And so, tonight, as I prepared to begin my studies, I said a prayer, and opened my Bible. I am currently reading the Gospel according to Mark; and tonight I read chapters 3-5. I'm going to share what really jumped out at me.
Mark 5:21 - 43 details two stories that most Christians have heard before. It starts with a Jewish leader, a man named Jarius, who comes to Jesus because his daughter is sick. He had heard about Jesus' ability to heal and, no doubt, he believed his daughter could also receive that healing. He falls at Jesus' feet and tells Him that if He would just come and lay hands on her, she would be made whole. Jesus decides to follow him to his home.
As they are going to Jarius' house, a crowd follows and surrounds Jesus. From the previous chapters, we see that Jesus had just stilled the winds and waves and expelled demons from a man. No doubt, the people surrounding Him wanted to hear His words of wisdom and receive healing from various diseases. The King James Version says that the crowds thronged Him. A throng, by definition, is a densely packed group of people. So it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that people were touching and bumping into Jesus as He passed.
The Bible brings attention to one woman in this crowd. This woman had had "an issue of blood for twelve years." I googled what this issue of blood could possibly be. According to Bible scholars, the actual medical condition is not perfectly clear. What we do know is that to the Jews, she was considered unclean because of this issue and as such, we can compare it to a twelve year long menstruation period. She had been bleeding for twelve years straight. She had seen many doctors, had spent all of her wealth on them, but only got worse. She needed healing.
Subjectively speaking, I don't know if I would have had the faith she had. If I had spent twelve years going to doctors, only to realize that each visit left me worse than before, I probably would have given up hope. But this woman, when she heard of Jesus, she joined the crowd (even though she was unclean and should not have been there). She told herself that if she could just touch the bottom of His clothes - the hem of His garments - she would be healed. The realist in me has to point out that she was willing to risk being trampled on just to touch Jesus' robes. She was betting her life on the power of Jesus. Her faith prompted her to take action. She reached out and touched His robes and immediately the bleeding stopped and she felt the healing in her body.
Jesus, feeling the power leave His body, asked his disciples, "Who touched my clothes?" The disciples think this is an unreasonable question to ask, and I kind of agree. They were in a crowd of people, pressing together, trying to get closer to the Savior. People were being jostled left and right, and it isn't hard to figure out that Jesus was also being touched. But the touch that the woman gave had a different effect. When she touched Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus knew immediately that virtue had left Him. Jesus turned around and the woman, who had heard the question, presented herself to Jesus in fear. According to the Bible, she was literally shaking. After Jesus listened to her story and tells her that her faith made her well and that she should "go in peace and be whole of [her] plague."
The story of the woman with the issue of blood ends here. However, if we remember, the story wasn't about her. It was about Jarius and his sick daughter. As Jesus is talking with the now healed woman, one of Jarius' servants arrives and tells Jarius that there is no need for Jesus to come to the house anymore - his daughter has died. Jesus heard this statement and turned His attention to Jarius and says to him, "Be not afraid, only believe." Remember the woman who had been healed just a few seconds before? Do you remember that when Jesus asked who touched her, she was afraid? When someone loses a loved one, fear is not usually the first emotion people experience. It's usually grief or shock or anger.
Logically thinking, Jarius' fear would not have stemmed from the death of his daughter, but rather from the thought that maybe Jesus was too late. Jesus was a healer, yes, but was He able to bring the dead back to life? Jarius had just witnessed one miracle that honestly seemed impossible. After all, a woman had just been healed - and all she had done was touched Jesus' clothes. Jarius' faith was shown in that he continued to lead Jesus to his home, instead of telling Jesus, "It's too late. There's nothing you can do."
Jesus continued to walk with Jarius, and only allowed Peter, James, and John to come with Him to Jarius' house. When He got there, a whole production was on display. People were crying and wailing. Jesus looked at them and said (in my colloquial interpretation), "Why yall carrying on like this? The girl only sleeping." Those present stopped wailing to laugh at Jesus. The KJV says that they "laughed Him to scorn." Jesus put them out and then went into the room where the girl's body lay. He held her hand and then told her to get up and she immediately got up and walked.
It is important to note that Jesus put out all those who showed disbelief. I have heard people say that God can not work with disbelief, and I don't know if I think that he can't. What I do know and agree with is that He doesn't. The active faith shown by both the woman with the issue of blood and Jarius made the difference in their stories. Often times, God wants to work miracles in our lives. We use our lips to say that we trust God, but our actions prove otherwise. We say that God will take care of us, and then we turn around and say that we can't not work on Sabbath because we have bills to pay - even though God has explicitly told us not to work on Sabbath. We say that we know God can heal us of our sickness and then we worry and make ourselves even sicker. We claim that God can change our situations and then turn around and complain about the hand we've been dealt at every opportunity. That's not faith. Faith says, "If God calls me to do something, I'm going to take that first step, even if I don't understand how it's going to work out for me." It boldly proclaims that we will smile, even when we have every reason to cry. It gives us the courage to obey God, even when it will put us at odds with the world.
I also realized that Jarius' faith was probably strengthened by the miracle he had seen moments before Jesus told him to believe. Many other people had touched Jesus, but only one had accessed the healing power that He possessed. Even though the healing was not a resurrection, it put things in perspective. When we have had our faith tested, when we have seen the hand of God do what we thought was impossible, we have the duty to share it with others. The fruits of our faith hold the seeds of faith for our brothers and sisters. The testimony that God has allowed you to have is not to be selfishly held, but should be shared to encourage someone else and to remind them that God cares about our individual needs.
It is our faith that makes the difference in many of life's situations. Let us keep the faith, act on our faith and share the fruit of our faith. Remember, Jesus loves you and wants to work in your life. Let Him do it.
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