Mark 5: 21-43 – woman healed by touching His garment

One thing I believe is interesting is that a large crowd was gathered around Jesus and ‘pressing into him.’  Yet as we read the story of the healing found in Mark 5:21-43, there is only one person who was healed from touching Jesus.  What separated one woman from the rest of the large crowd?  I see the crowd around Jesus was interested in what He had to say and I bet they were waiting to see what would happen next.  But then I see this woman who is completely desperate to be healed.  She has tried every other source to find healing and she has ended up broke with a problem that has only grown worse.  She is utterly helpless and in dire need of someone who can help her.

So this woman’s circumstance and posture of her heart is different from that of the crowd simply because she is in such distress for help.  Not only does her circumstance set her apart, her hunger for more sets her apart.  Being aware that she needs help awakened a longing in her that was not found in others.  However, probably the most crucial aspect that was different about this woman from the crowd was her faith.  For she said in her heart, “If I can just touch His garments, I will be healed.”  I see no room for doubt in this statement.  She was determined Jesus power was not just in Him, but it was around Him, flowing out of Him, that even the garments on His body were so anointed it could heal any sickness, at any moment.  She was not asking for Him to pray for her, she understood the glory coming out of Him could heal her and that would be enough.  Many people touched Jesus at this scene, but she was the only one healed!  She believed!  And her belief literally took the power from Jesus!  This is amazing revelation of our identity, because she did not even ask, as a daughter SHE TOOK WHAT WAS HERS!

I see this woman as not wanting to be a disturbance to Jesus so I see her as never actually wanting to ask Him to heal her.  It’s almost as if she thought the whole thing would be done in secret.  “I’ll just touch Him, be healed, and then go about my way.”  Little did she realize that He could feel the power leaving His body!  Yet I find it so ironic that while Jesus knew someone grabbed literally power from Him, He didn’t know who it was!  Is not this interesting?  Although it is probably more likely that He did know, and was simply testing her and His disciples!

I see His disciples so shocked when their Master said, “Who touched Me?”  I see their faces get so perplexed.  I love how Jesus can ask one question and His disciples become so confused and lost!  I feel like His disciples even ask in astonishment and perhaps even sarcasm.  “You see the crowd pressing in on You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ “   They had no clue what He meant by this question.  But Jesus was not merely asking who touched His shirt; He was asking ‘Who took power from me?’

It is very interesting to meditate on the fact that ‘touch’ in Greek means ‘to fasten fire to, to kindle.’  I find this so intriguing!  I do not know much about the Jewish culture, but would it be correct to translate Jesus’ question, “Who set fire to My clothes?”  It reminds me of how John the Baptist said we would be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  God, I ask You right now, give me the burning!  Father, send forth the Spirit of Fire on my school and me in Jesus Name!

This brave and courageous woman was poor in Spirit.  She was hungry for healing, desperate for His power, and full of faith.  She is the perfect picture of how we must be with our relationship with Jesus—empty of every good thing, and so desperate to get to Him we will go to every measure to get to Him.  After she touched Him, she may have been afraid or embarrassed of her desperation, but notice of Jesus responds to her!  He calls her ‘daughter.’  At once, she was found so accepted, that He identified her as being in the same family of God Almighty!  She went from being most disgraced to most honored, simply by her faith in Jesus!  Our Lord is gracious and abounding in love.  Praise Him!

Mark 2: 1-12 – a paralytic healed

I love this story about the paralytic being healed because it is such a drastic miracle—for me at least!  It is not simply Jesus opening eyes or opening ears.  This guy was paralyzed from head to toe so much so he could not walk!  But apparently he had people in his life that cared enough for him, they thought it was a good idea to bring him to Jesus.  I see one of them getting the idea now—“Hey, if Jesus healed all those people the other day, why couldn’t He also heal our paralyzed friend?”  I imagine the paralytic’s friends talking to each other and getting excited for how they could get their friend to Jesus.  They were so confident, “If we can just get him to Jesus, He will be able to walk!”

So they carry the paralytic to Jesus.  “Now is the time!  Jesus is in town!  Get the bed ready, call the friends over, we are taking him to Jesus to be healed tonight!”  I see them carrying this man to Jesus with such expectation, even laughing along the way.  Then they get to the home.  The crowd is so large at Jesus’ home they can’t get through any doors.  But what I love about these guys is that they did not give up so easily!  They were not about to carry their friend all the way over just to carry him back!  So what did they do?  They put together their creative minds and said, “Though we cannot get through the door, we can dig out the roof.  Here, I’ll go get some shovels.”  Can you imagine?  Men on top of Jesus’ roof creating a hole in it!  Did it ever cross their minds, “Am I trespassing?  Will Jesus be upset about the roof being gone?  Am I going to be able to repair this once our friend is healed?”  I do not know if any of those thoughts came into their minds, but they dug a hole big enough in the roof they were able to drop the paralyzed man to Jesus.  This man was probably so secured on the bed so he did not fall off.  What a disturbance this must have been!  Imagine Jesus teaching and then pieces of dirt falling on you.  “Oh my!  The roof is coming in!”  I see Jesus sitting there with a grin on face, fully ready and calm to respond to what’s about to happen.

Then Jesus responds to this turn of events.  A normal man would immediately respond in frustration and anger, “What are you doing to my roof?!  I’m calling the police!”  But Jesus did not respond that way.  I actually see Jesus getting slightly drunk in the Spirit watching all this unfold.  I bet Jesus said something like this in His heart–“There is a man, and his friends, so desperate for healing, they are coming in from My roof!   I love this!”  So what did Jesus really say?  The very first word was a word of endearment, acceptance, approval, and love—son.

The following statement just blows all our minds—“Your sins are forgiven.”  “What!  Jesus he came here to get healed from being paralyzed, not to be forgiven.  Please don’t miss the point Jesus!”  I can see the paralytics friends thinking these things.  And did the paralyzed man even ask for forgiveness?  The scriptures do not mention that, but we see that anytime someone has great faith, this is the first thing Jesus says.  I see Him saying it with extreme delight.  “They believe in Me!  I forgive them!  I love My children and I will heal them no matter what!”

Like the leper we say to Jesus “If You are willing.” Only too find we are the ones who have to be willing; for Jesus is the one who is waiting for us to come to Him kneeling at His feet asking Him to break into our lives. We also have to come to the realization that not matter how nasty we are in our sin, even though we don’t feel like we’re good enough, Jesus wants to take our nastiness away more than we do. Because He wants the perfect ten, even though we feel like we deserve a two or a three. So for the leer to ask Jesus “Are You willing?” I can imagine Jesus screaming out in His heart with such compassion “I’ve been waiting so long for you to say that! I want you to fly like the wings of eagles. Don’t you understand that I picked you from the beginning and want to hold on to you forever?!”

At the same time the leper had so much faith that Jesus was able to cleanse him from this evil that consumes him on a daily basis that he ran up and fell at His feet in desperation. The openness, the boldness, and the desperation for purity; we could learn a little from this guy.

But Jesus stretched His arm out, with compassion in His eyes, saying “I am willing; be cleansed.”  Jesus has the same heart towards us in our time of desperation and need of Him. We say “God, I need You! I can’t do this, but You can. Please God save me.” And He comes back with soft and gentle whisper “I am willing; I will save You.”

He is with us and all around us; He waits for the chance to save us from the muck of our lives, and to wash away our leprosy.

Verse 41 shows us how much love is in Jesus. This describes a perfect image of His outlook on us. It says He was moved with compassion. Do you get that? This man moved the God of the universe! How crazy is that?

Anyway, immediately as Jesus spoke that, the man was healed from his leprosy. The power shown through Jesus, that all He has to do is speak it and it’s done. The power of the tongue is very well demonstrated in this verse.

Jesus then warned the man not to say anything about what just happened to anyone, but to be a testimony like that of what Moses’ law says. Which we find the actions speak louder than words to those who don’t believe, or in this case, provoke those who don’t believe into seeing the great majesty of our King; but of course to protect Himself from death, because it wasn’t His time.

————————————————- Mark 5:21-43————————————————21 Jesus how You brought peace and Your Holy Spirit presence that attracted so many to have followed You by the sea. How we long for You Jesus, to go out of our comfort zone to see You beautiful majesty. 22 A ruler of the synagogue came to Jesus by the name of, Jairus.  Jairus ran to Jesus falling at His feet. Jairus was desperate, he didn’t care about reputation, or what the people might say, all he wanted was his little girl and knew he couldn’t do anything to help her. So Jairus humbled himself in front of all these friends and family to confess to Jesus that he need Him. 23 “Come lay You hands on my daughter so she can live.” With earnest passion in his heart and tears in his eyes, this man was desperate for a miracle. We need to get desperate for Jesus, we get so comfortable, and so self sufficient that we don’t get desperate for Him who we long for. This guy knew he couldn’t do it and had faith that this Jesus could. We need to get desperate for Him.

24 Jesus heard the man’s cry and went on to Jairus’ house. The people were eager to follow Jesus as He went to Jairus’ house, and so they followed with pushing and shoving.  But Jesus still went out to save this little girl even though the crowd wasn’t that easy to move through. 25-26 A women who had a bleeding condition for twelve years saw Jesus and remember all the wonderful stories she heard about healing. You see the doctors couldn’t help her with all the pain she was in. She grew despite and in need of a savior from this suffering.  This women can be seen as the church in suffering, looking around for the next thing to stop the pain and hurts, so we go around to different sources to take away our conviction. But if we don’t look to Jesus and remember His awesome wonder that is able to take away the spirit of death, we will never be healed. She knew what it felt like to not have pain and bleeding, so she looked for ways to get rid of it, but instead it made things worse. Jesus is the only one who can heal us, we have to remember Him and to know Him so that He can heal us. 27-28 She ran to Him and touched His garment. Sometimes all we need is to touch a little of Jesus to get the heart awakened, but we have to seek Him out through the crowd.  30-32 Jesus hears our cries in the midst of commotion in the world and He turns and searches us out. 33 When we feel the presence of God we fear and tremble and come to Him with our confession because we love Him and do not want to upset this awesome wonderful King. 34 Jesus comforts us though saying “Go in peace.” He is so wonderful to lift us up and bringing us to better understanding in Him. He heals us from our afflictions and delivers us from the evil around us. (Thank You Lord for lifting me up when we feel down. We love You Jesus.) 35 We think of our problems are too big for Jesus, or to small, so we say “Don’t bother Him with that, it is useless.” But Jesus knows that nothing is too big or too small 36 Again this shows us that Jesus is in total control, He has so much confidence and is so willing to help us that He says “Just believe.” That’s all we have to do, but sometimes it feels easier to say then do. But Jesus comforts us in these hard time even though everyone else says “It’s impossible.” 37 Sometimes Jesus just brings us through the hardest times by ourselves. He gets us away from all these distractions in life to show His awesome power and to affect our inner core. 38 We get so wrapped up into this world, when hard times come we give up and start to wallow in our misery instead of taking a stand against that thing which hinders us. 39 Jesus comes through our doors of the heart sometimes saying “Why make the commotion. It’s not as bad as you think. I can help.” He builds up our faith in Him knowing that He can take care of my deepest fears. 40 When we ask Jesus to come into our house we do sometimes ridicule Him, putting our expectation elsewhere. Jesus is so faithful though that He doesn’t leave, but puts those things that hinder us, out of our lives. 41 This part is so awesome! “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” He is so comforting in the time of trails and tribulation. How He says to us when we feel so dead to Him and needing life again “Arise, I am with You now, you don’t have to fear anymore.” 42 So we rise up in peace with the Lord who is with us, and feel like staying there forever in His majesty. He is amazing. 43 He tells us that this is a kiss, no one but you should know it, and then takes care of us as we are so reliant on Him for everything we do. He gave us life to live and to be with Him, and to be humble knowing we can’t do it, but He can.

Mark 3:1-6 Jesus heals on the Sabbath
The tone of the passage feels tense and frustrated. Jesus is facing the Jewish religious leaders on the Sabbath. They are trying to set Jesus up- they care more about their religious rules, the traditions and interpretations of the law they’ve come up with than the needs of people, which the law was given for to begin with. They are angry and self-righteous, just looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. I can feel Jesus’ compassion for the man with the withered hand. He’s a son of Israel who is being oppressed by the enemy, and Jesus has come to bring His kingdom, and set the oppressed free. I feel his joy at the thought of releasing the man from this bondage-maybe he was injured sometime in life, or even had been crippled from childhood. Jesus even feels a sense of satisfaction as the enemy is being defeated in the man’s life and His Father is being glorified. But He feels angry and frustrated with the Pharisees. They are the men who are supposed to be the shepherds of Israel-good shepherds care about sheep, take care of them, bind up and care for their wounds. Yet these shepherds only care about themselves, their own increase and position of authority over the people. But Jesus truly is the good shepherd, and has come to destroy the works of the devil.
I can imagine the man with the withered hand. What must he have felt that day? His day started out like every day before. Did people avoid him? Did they consider him cursed because of his infirmity? Maybe he wondered if God cared about him or saw him at all. Or maybe he wondered if this happened because of some sin. I imagine him coming into the synagogue and finding a place at the back, where fewer people would stare at his hand.
Then the day Jesus comes to their synagogue… everyone is silent when He walks in. All eyes watch Him. They whisper… what will He do? What’s He going to say? The Pharisees are there, and the man with the withered hand too. Everyone knows it’s the Sabbath. Will He heal? What will the Pharisees do? There is angry muttering and rustling from the Pharisees and an excited buzzing from the rest of the people. Jesus calls the crippled man forward. All the people hush, hold their breath. Confrontation is imminent. Jesus challenges the Pharisees with His question. Stony silence. They refuse to answer Him. Jesus looks around at them all with anger and pain- Oh, that they had hearts of flesh to feel the pain of the suffering of others! Their own countrymen, even! Their stubbornness causes Jesus great grief and pain. So He heals the man with a word. What joy the man must have felt! To have complete use of his hand again after so long. To be whole, finally. But for the Pharisees, it only proved what they suspected to begin with. Jesus would turn their whole system upside down. He was threatening all the power and authority they had enjoyed for so long. So they had to find a way to get rid of Him.
I’m personally responding to Jesus’ relentless love for the broken. He is unafraid to break all the man-established rules of engagement to meet the needs of broken people. He has the power and the intention to make them whole. He is so zealous. So passionate to heal. It fills Him with joy to heal, probably especially on the Sabbath. I imagine Him saying, the Sabbath was made for healing! It was made for restoration! It touches my heart that I can trust Him with the brokenness in me; He wants to heal it, He is kind and gentle towards me. But I also recognize when I read this passage that sometimes I don’t feel like I’m the broken one, but the one like the Pharisees, with something to protect. I know my own tendency towards religious striving. But when I see how good and right it is that Jesus violates the traditions of men in order to heal, I want to be like Him, and not cling to my own ideas of what’s right.

Mark 5:21-43 Jairus’ Daughter and the Hem of His Robe
The mood of the text is busy-it’s loud, lots of commotion. People are trying to get close to Jesus. His disciples are around Him. The crowd wants to see Him do a miracle. And they’re on their way to Jairus’ house, so they’re moving. And this lady sneaks up, reaches out and touches Jesus’ clothes. The courage it must have taken on her part-because she was unclean because of her bleeding. For twelve years! She was unclean for twelve years. I’m not sure exactly what that would have meant for her, to live unclean for so long. Could other people touch her? Because by touching her they would become unclean too. But when she touched Jesus, He made her clean! The old hymn comes to mind ‘His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.’ Also then, she probably couldn’t go to the temple to worship God because of her uncleanness. What was it like for her to be isolated from human touch and God’s presence for so long? And on top of it all, she had spent all her money on doctors trying to cure her. What kind of treatments did they attempt on her? It says she suffered much from them. How much humiliation and suffering had she endured? Enough to make her desperate. She must have hated living in that condition more than she feared rejection. I can feel her desperation through the text. Like, this was her last shot, and she was going for it, no matter what. And I sense her hope and faith that Jesus really was the Messiah. I’ve heard Jews at that time read Malachi 4:2, talking about ‘the sun of righteousness, arising with healing in His wings,’ and they had a tradition where they called the tassels on the prayer shawls they wore, wings. So when she came up to Him, she touched the tassels on His prayer shawl, because she believed He was the one prophesied about in that passage. But anyway, Jesus clearly seemed to understand she had faith in Him being the Messiah. I wonder how it must have pleased Him to see her faith, because she pressed through so many obstacles to lay hold of her healing. And then Jesus is so kind and wise, He called her out after she got healed. It’s like He knew that physical healing wasn’t enough for her-she needed to experience His acceptance of her to restore the damage done to her soul, emotionally and spiritually.
I love this story. Jesus’ compassion and attentiveness are awesome. He stopped the whole crowd, rushing toward Jairus’ house to interact with this woman. The way Jesus treats women, like precious daughters; He truly is like no other man. And He’s completely in control of Himself-the crowd is rushing on, Jairus is frantic to get Jesus to his sick daughter, I’m sure, and Jesus is going along with them-but when the woman is before Him, he has time for her.
I think God likes desperation, but I have to admit, my heart doesn’t really understand that. He allowed the woman to experience all she did for twelve years before she got healed. I imagine it was pretty amazing for her when she was instantly healed, but I guess, if I’m really honest, it’s hard for me to connect and open my heart to God who allows suffering to go on seemingly for so long. It’s hard for me to understand. I feel like I have understood and accepted it theologically, and I understand and believe that as sinners and rebels against God, we (and I) certainly deserve much worse. And yet, I still think there’s a part of my heart I have shut off and closed. I think it started (most noticeably) when I had cancer when I was 16. For six months, I went through really intense chemo. Looking back, I can see I experienced a lot of loss and pain-loss of half my junior year, loss of my independence and health. And the way I dealt with it was to suppress the strongest emotions and grit my teeth and just take whatever pain I had to, because I had no other choice. Maybe the physical pain was so draining, I didn’t want to face the emotional and spiritual pain along with it… I was a dedicated Christian the whole time, so I had the theology to know in my head that God is good, and somehow this was for my own good, to build my character or something. I never allowed myself the option of being consciously angry at God. I would have told you I wasn’t angry at Him, but I think I really was. The one time I can consciously remember feeling angry was when my doctor (who was Pentecostal) came to my house with some people from his church to lay hands on me, praying for healing and praying in tongues. I remember feeling so angry and resistant in my heart. Since then, I guess the way I have dealt with pain has been to reason things out in my mind and shut down my heart. I realize I really do have a hard time entering into the Scripture emotionally or really being able to relate to God emotionally and to trust Him. I trust Him a little bit, for fairly small things, but I guess I have believed that He isn’t really trustworthy because He’s allowed me to experience a lot of pain, and I couldn’t really see Him acting very decisively to make it stop. Ministry times are often difficult for me… I think because my heart is closed, I have a hard time feeling anything at all. Maybe that’s part of why I’m here now; to finally deal with this issue in my heart and to get breakthrough. That would be really awesome for me, I think.

As I began to place myself into the  scenario that takes place in Mark 5, I immediately realized that I have some terrible misconceptions of how Jesus acted toward His people. The scene begins with Jesus on a beach and a growing crowd is forming around Him. The first thing that happens is a man falls on his knees and begs Jesus to come and heel his daughter who is dying. In these scenes with the large crowds as rather irritating. How would I feel if people were shoving around me and pushing me around? Jesus, however does not feel that way. I realized that in my mind I always see these crowd situations in the gospel as a kind of parade. I think I get this from movies about Jesus that I have seen. It’s like the people are shouting out to Him and Jesus waves and smiles. Sometimes He’ll reach out His hand and touch someone. The disciples act as His body guard while Jesus just tries to get through, His mind preoccupied with other things. It would be like the president walking though a crowd of people who is thinking about how important He is and how small they are and how he needs to go get things done. This is not how Jesus was thinking at all. I was amazed as I thought about the fact that Jesus was thinking about every person in that crowd above Himself. I really can’t even imagine what that would be like because I don’t think I have ever witnessed and event where the person being followed is not concentrating on His own power and influence but is incredibly undone with real, true love and compassion for the people around Him. What does that look like? When I think of crowds thronging someone it just makes me irritated and think “I wouldn’t want to be in that hot and smelly crowd of people.” Jesus, however, was standing with the ones He had longed to be with since creation. God was getting to touch His people. Christ’s very name expresses His joy at this reality – Emmanuel. I honestly have no grid to understand what this looked like. A ruler begging a peasant and a weak bleeding woman fighting her way through the thronging crowd just to touch Him. JEsus was like a father in the crowd – He knew every one of those people better than they knew themselves. Jesus was not a president walking through the people but a knowing father and shepherd who was meeting their gaze with full understanding in His eyes. How powerful it would be to catch this Man’s eyes and when He looks at you, you realize He is closer to you than your best friend from kindergarten, or your brothers and sisters, or even your spouse. How powerful!

Mark 2:1-12 Jesus heals the paralytic

I love picturing this scene! Jesus is at home; people find out and come to him. So many come, in fact, the place is packed to the point you can’t even get through the doorway. But still a faithful little bunch come along with their paralytic friend and are completely determined to bring him to Jesus, regardless of how full the house may be. So they make a hole in the roof!! That’s insane! To be so unrelenting and bold before Jesus… We sit in our pews trying not to be disruptive during worship, and these guys are trashing Jesus’ house to get to Him! I love it! I just don’t see how the whole excavation process could have gone very well. I picture big chunks of ceiling falling on people, and just a huge mess (but maybe that’s just me). But man, I want that kind of a faith and passion! Our lives are generally so easy… we’re not desperate. We don’t need to be desperate. We want for nothing, so why would we go out of way for the ‘unnecessary’? Lord, let us groan for You!! So anyway, they get the opening done and lower the kid down to Jesus so He’ll heal him. You can almost feel their excitement when He sees them and they’re thinking, “He’s gonna do it!” Then Jesus goes and pulls one of His crazy fake-outs and instead of saying the guy is healed He says, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” What was that?! Don’t get me wrong, that’s a big deal! Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy on us! But honest, if I were the guy in the bed, I think I’d be seriously disappointed. Maybe even a bit mad. Here everyone’s making this big scene, making holes in roofs, probably devising some funky system to lower the guy down, and after all that, right when Jesus is (presumably) about to say, “Rise – take up your bed and walk” He pulls out this ‘forgiveness of sins’ business! Oh, God… You’re so weird! I would be lying if I told you I wouldn’t have thought to myself, “Don’t mess with me, Jesus!” But of course, once everyone starts freaking out cause He’s ‘blaspheming’ He goes and shows everyone up by validating Himself by then healing the man and then everyone’s amazed. And there’s a new skylight too.

John 5:1-18 Healing at the pool of Bethesda

‘Take your mat and walk.’ That line’s always stuck to me. To this day I still don’t really know why. Maybe it’s that one As Cities Burn song, but i think it’s more than that. I mean, Jesus could have just said, “Get up.” and he would’ve been healed. It’s not like Jesus was that concerned about him not forgetting his mat… Why did He word it that way? Sometimes I think of it as if all paralytics had this very specific type of bed that everyone knew was specific to them (think wheelchair – most people don’t have wheelchairs unless they’re handicapped in some way). So when he took it and started walking with it people would be like, “OH MAN!!” but I don’t really know. For all I know, it was just some random little mat someone gave him cause they weren’t using it anymore and it had not real meaning at all. Then again, it could be a way of telling the man not to forget what the Lord has done for him. As humans, we are so quick to forget the Lord and His goodness! That’s so terrifying!! We must heed the warning given us in Deuteronomy: And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish (Deut. 8:19).

Just today was discussing it and I was thinking how Jesus knew full well it was the Sabbath and the man was not allowed to carry his mat. I mean, the Pharisees reprimanded him almost immediately after Jesus healed him. it would seem Jesus, as He always would, was further breaking off and freeing the people (and us!) from the spirit of religion. It’s so, so crucial to learn not to listen to and obey religion, but rather to hear Him. To do as He does. To follow the only way.

9/21/09

So in Mark 1:40-45, Jesus heals a man with leprosy or some unusual skin condition, as the commentary in my Bible says the Greek word for the condition is not necessarily but can mean leprosy. I just think the picture is so beautiful though! Here is this man with leprosy who was most likely normal before. Suddenly he gets this skin disease, and his life is completely ruined. He suddenly becomes the scum of the earth because he is sick, though nothing about his person has changed. No wonder Jesus had such compassion for him! His heart was burning for him, and he was the only one who could give hope of restoration to this man! The sick man was hoping that Jesus would have compassion on him, unlike others who bypassed him. He said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” so he must have asked others to help him but had gained know assistance or sympathy. This is why God’s coming to earth is so beautiful because his kingdom truly is for the weak, the sick, the humble, and those without power. Also, this man received immense joy at the same time of his healing, more joy than those without sickness and in power. Essentially, he gained more than what he had before, more than those who turned the backs on him. It’s such a beautiful picture, and it’s so just! Reading this makes my spirit go, “Yes” inside. It’s so satisfying to know the truth of the way things were created to be: without sickness, without pain, suffering, sadness and abandonment. Praise God! I wonder why Jesus always told people to share what had happened. It’s kind of ridiculous cause I would be telling everyone if I was healed like that! My nose was actually unplugged today during a healing prayer, and I told tons of people about it; I don’t know how I could keep from sharing a healing like this. I looked on and saw that Jesus couldn’t enter because the man shared the event with everyone in the town, so I guess Jesus was trying to keep a low profile to heal as many people as he could, or maybe it would have worked better with his plan if the man had cooperated. I don’t think this should be applied to the present day though, unless God specifically tells you not to. That’s an issue of obedience though, like the only times when we do something unusual is because God tells us to, but that can be manipulated so people have to be careful. I also love how Jesus wanted to keep in accordance with the law when he told the man to go through with the ceremony of cleansing. I guess his new salvation plan couldn’t replace the Law until he died and rose.

I’m quite frustrated with the Pharisees every time I read about them. They’re so stubborn and ignorant! Everyone else believes in Jesus but them cause they’re so stuck in the Law and the old. They taught and waited for God to return to the earth, and they completely missed it! They were expecting someone to come as a king, ready to throw off the Roman Empire, though. Looks like they didn’t fully understand the scriptures. I think it’s kind of funny why God picked Israel because they truly are the most stubborn people on the planet. I mean, Jesus literally heals right in front of them and does crazy stuff, and they think he’s possessed or something! If God can bring salvation to Israel, then there’s definitely hope for anyone!

Anyway, it really is the greatest news that Jesus is here and there is hope for those who are powerless on the earth, and he wants to keep healing in the present day. I’m completely convinced that anything can be healed now, but this was a topic that was always cloudy to me, growing up in the church. Of course, I only went to a bunch of churches in Hutch, so there was that stagnant, small-town phenomenon where everyone kind of feels the same way about ideas and such. So I haven’t necessarily gotten the same representation of all American churches, but I bet there are some similarities between all of them. Anyway, no one could give me a good reason why sometimes people are healed instantly and other times they’re not. Being here at IHOP I know now that God doesn’t give people his power to just use freely and for their own glory. So there’s a lot of factors that play into healing and sickness. A big one is God’s timing of things, so it’s important to move with him and his Spirit. It’s important to know his will for the current time. Also, what people consider quick or slow and good or bad are different than God’s standards. There are really just a lot of factors like someone being judged or that people must come to God with their own will and heart. There’s still a lot I’m kind of unsure about with God’s power and will, but that’s why life is a continual journey. Of course, God won’t reveal everything about himself because we wouldn’t be as dependent on him if we knew everything. Plus, that would cause us to act differently than following his will, and I’m really just babbling with my own thoughts here J.

Here’s a discussion I had with the Holy Spirit as Jesus. His dialogue begins with J:, and my dialogue begins with P:.

P: Lord, you are the great and mighty healer. Nothing is impossible for you, and what’s amazing is that you want to do it anyways! So sometimes you heal us when we don’t even ask for it!

J: That’s right. I long to make you well, to comfort you in your pain, to save you from all the evil and the hurt. That’s why all you need to do is ask for me to come, and I’ll be right there. It’s like a kid with a secret that’s dying to tell someone. What’s funny is that he tells people he has a secret but doesn’t tell them the details. He’s just waiting for someone to ask him what it is! I’m the same way. I’ve told you what I can do and that I want to heal you and do amazing things for you. I’m just waiting for you to ask me!

P: Wow. It really is that simple.

J: Oh ya. Satan just twists it up so that you never ask of me or believe. He won’t have that power forever, especially when I really begin to pour out my Spirit and manifestation. You will have to be following Satan to not believe, which many will be doing in the end of the times.

No Mega Church for Jesus – Mark 5:21-43, Jarius’ daughter, the crowd and the women with the flow of blood (09.11.09):
Peter must be so confused in Mark 5:21-43. He is used to the Pharisees trying to trick Jesus or at least seeing their anger towards Him, but this Jarius, a ruler from the Synagogue, comes begging. I’m sure Peter is getting incredibly excited that one of the leaders of the institution is on their side now. He’s probably thinking that their ministry is about to explode and things will be much easier from this point on. All the people around them are bumping into Jesus and the disciples. It’s like they’re walking through a mosh pit and Jesus is the center of attention. Everyone is touching Him.
Thoughts begin to run through Peter’s mind, like, “Look, everyone loves us, and even the rulers of the synagogue are begging for our help now.” Then Jesus does it again. First of all, He speaks in parables no one can understand, then He sent away a man who wanted to be His disciple. Jesus just isn’t good at running a public ministry, and now look at Him. He’s freaking out about people touching Him, and they’re in the middle of huge a crowd of people, who only came to touch Him. Peter and the rest of the disciples see the negative influence this type of odd behavior could have on their ministry and speak up. “Jesus there are like hundreds of people touching You right now, and You are trying to figure out who touched You? Everybody has touched You!”
I’m sure at this point Jesus smirks a little and reveals attributes of the healing power of the Holy Spirit. He explains that one of the hundreds touched Him and at that touch power went from Jesus to that person. He goes on to explain why all the others didn’t receive the power upon their touches. “…Your faith has made you well…” At this time Peter and his eleven friends forget about their ministry ambitions and revel once again at the power of healing. Jesus didn’t even touch the women that was healed. He didn’t even know she was there until He healed her. He is all powerful, and, at the same time, He is so merciful that He heals the faithful without even knowing.

Jesus the Omniscient – Mark 5:21-43, Jarius’ daughter, the crowd and the women with the flow of blood (09.12.09):
Jesus is all knowing, so unless He forfeited His knowledge pertaining to whom touched Him He had a different agenda in asking, “Who touched My clothes,” He already knew the answer. It could very well be that He forfeited this type of knowledge when He put on flesh and became a man, but what if He didn’t? What if He was trying to teach the disciple’s how healing worked? This very encounter may have been what lead to Peter’s healing of the paralytic in Acts 3. It could also have been Jesus’ desire to have the woman testify of the healing she received. These two reasons may have been why Jesus asked His question, but there is one more that really excites me.
What if Jesus knew that messengers were coming to tell Him that Jarius’ daughter was dead? In this case His disciples would see His faith as He knowingly walked to a house, where the girl had been dead for quite a while (for many had gathered to mourn her passing) and resurrect her. This is a double dose of teaching on healing by faith. Any of these four reasons could be the answer to why Jesus asked His question. All have great depths of revelation into Jesus as a healer and teacher.

Healing Touch and Spoken Word – Mark 5:21-43, Jarius’ daughter, the crowd and the women with the flow of blood (09.12.09):
It is cool that when Jesus heals the women with internal bleeding it is done only by touch. She had faith, touched Him and received healing. Then, when Jesus heals Jarius’ daughter the healing comes when He speaks. He does touch her. He took her hand and told her to get up. I think that the speaking has something to do with a verbal expression of faith. When the bleeding woman touched Him she already had faith to be healed while Jesus wasn’t trying to heal her. When Jesus was actually trying to heal Jarius’ daughter He touched her and then spoke out, in faith, for her to arise. In Mt. 17:20 Jesus shows the power of spoken faith, that is that it can move mountains. In all this His disciples are learning how to walk in faith. This is the same model Peter uses when He heals the paralytic in Acts 3. He spoke out faith to the lame man and then took his hand. This laying on of hands and speaking out faith is connected with apostolic power.

Love Conquers All – Mark 3:1-6, The man with the withered hand (09.13.09):
Jesus is the greatest teacher. He enters into the synagogue on the Sabbath and heals, while asking if it is lawful to do so. In this, He shows that the purpose of the law is not only to reveal and avoid sin, but also to protect love. To do works of love is far more important than keeping the law. The Pharisees watch Him heal a man and still hate Jesus for going against the rabbinical law. Jesus offends them to teach the kingdom of heaven, that is good over evil and life over death. Healing is one of His methods of teaching.

Faith Healing – Mark 3:1-6, The man with the withered hand (09.13.09):
As with the woman with the flow of blood and Jarius, the man with the withered hand shows much faith that leads to his healing. First of all he has faith in the new rabbi that has entered into the local synagogue. He listens to Jesus’ exhortation about the law and trusts His teaching over that of the Pharisees. This would be like me listening to a hitchhiker over the scholars and theologians. Wow! Perhaps the man’s greatest showing of faith comes when he stretches forth his withered hand. In that culture many would have chalked up his deformity to his own sin or the sins of his fathers, so it would have been a mark of disgrace. He would have been used to keeping his withered hand concealed and hidden, but when Jesus teaches on healing and asks him to stretch out his hand he doesn’t hesitate. He simply stretches forth his disgraced hand. Such great faith again leads to healing. It is by faith in the Father that Jesus so easily healed and by faith in Jesus that the apostles and the healers of today release this gift, but, just like the man with the withered hand and the women with the flow of blood, the one being healed should have faith as well.
–Cody M. Lents

“You may call God love; you may call God goodness; but the best name for God is Compassion.”   (Meister Eckhart, 13^th century mystic)

 

There is no attribute more personal to me than the Compassion of God revealed in the face of Christ, the Word made Flesh.  I was born with a bone and joint disease that has left me in and out of hospitals throughout my childhood and adulthood, in body casts from my shoulders to my ankles, on crutches, and even in wheelchairs at times.  It’s a disease with a medical prognosis that worsens year by year and involves all my joints.  Thus, I’ve had over ten surgeries already, two hips replaced, and needless to say, I live in chronic, sometimes very debilitating pain.  On my journey with the God who Heals, I have been taught many formulas, I have been introduced to all kinds of “natural remedies or cures,” and I have been prophesied over too many times to count (gratefully).  I have swung like a pendulum between Sovereignty and Faith and then found a holy resting place within Jesus’ heart where the tension between these two abides.  But through all of that, I have discovered that what, or rather Who, I really needed is a Person.  Healing, not to mention the strength to endure in the delay, and everything in between is found only in Jesus Himself… not a formula or a philosophical idea about sickness or healing, not man’s opinions on what I should do, not the doctors (though they are very important and necessary), and not my own faltering plans to somehow fight hard enough or be strong enough.

 

What I need is to commune with the God who heals and find Him in the face of Christ.  I need to behold the One who is the Author and Finisher of my faith, so that I may have a faith rooted in Reality Himself that can never be shaken even when the storms come (and they do come).   I need to hear Jesus’ words and know His heart for me here… right here, in the delay, I need my Deliverer to show up right in the middle of the “prison” of sickness and speak to me in this place. And He has.  I find Him in the pages of His story which serve as an everlasting record of this unfathomable thing called the Incarnation – God took on flesh and walked around on the earth talking to people, touching people, listening to people, eating meals with people, loving people, healing people, and dying for those He loves.  Every action, every word, every move Jesus makes reveals who God is.  I find Yahweh in the Hands reaching out to touch a leper, cast out of society and unclean to all.  From these untouchable ones, He did not cringe – He did not withdraw – Jesus reached with holy hands and a fully exposed heart to cleanse them.  Suddenly the untouchable were touched.  Suddenly the broken were whole again.  Suddenly the unclean were cleansed and not by just anyone, but by God in the flesh.  Jesus is Compassion Incarnate.

 

Throughout the Word of God, the Holy Spirit was very specific about revealing this dimension and reality of God’s heart.  In Exodus 33, God says, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  And then in chapter 34, we see Yahweh declare His name to Moses, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands…”  (Exodus 34:5-7)   In Psalm 145, verse 8, David says of the Lord, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  But the very fullness of the self-revelation of the compassion in God’s heart was exposed in the life of our Lord, Jesus Christ.   God said, Himself and through His holy prophets, “I am kind, compassionate, abounding in love… this is who I AM.”  But never was the message made so clear as it was coming from the Man who created the galaxies and walked across the rugged lands of Judea through seas of suffering souls and did not look away.  He took it all into His heart – there was no hardness of sin to protect Him.   He was the Man of Sorrows.  Jesus is so close – He touches us here, He speaks to us here, He is with us here… even in the hard places. No matter what lies the enemy would try to send as arrows into our hearts… they will all fall short, because He’s not far off, God came near.

 

For me, like many with chronic pain, it is in the night when the pain is usually more significant and sleep is hard to find that the words of the psalmist come alive in my heart, “On my bed I remember You.  I think of You, Jesus, and meditate on You through the watches of the night.  Because You are my help, I sing underneath the shadows of Your wings.  My soul clings to you…” (Psalm 63)

 

And in those moments, my mind and my soul will turn to scenes like Mark 5… and there He is, God in the flesh, walking by the Sea surrounded by a throng of people… GOD walking around on the dirt which He used to form the very flesh that He was now clothed in!  A certain ruler of the synagogue had come imploring Jesus to help him, for his only daughter was dying.  And Jesus went.  No hesitation – no asking about this child’s faith, if it was “enough”…  Jesus went to this little girl because He loved her.  God walked down that road with a small 12-year old girl in His mind whose hand He would soon be taking into His own.  When He arrived, Jesus and a select few including the parents of the girl would go to find a child lost to death… but not to Him.  Jesus would reach His hand and gently wrap it around the hand of this little one who He knit together so wonderfully and carefully in her mother’s womb, whose every hair on her head is known of by Him…oh hear the heart of flesh in the Second Person of the Trinity beating for this child…  ”I know you… you are Mine”…”I love you”…  ”Arise!”  

 

Yet on His way to her house, as the crowd was pressing all around Jesus, there was a woman, a woman I understand all too well.  A woman who for years had suffered in pain, spent all she had searching for some form of treatment or help, only to get worse… pitied and even despised… a desperate life broken by sickness that would not relent.  She has heard about this Jesus, that wherever He goes, healing and miracles follow.  She might have been a little skeptical after so many years of coming up empty handed, but still the childlike hope within her had to believe… so she searched Him out.  She pushed her way through fighting crowds and those that casually dismissed her frailly standing there, limping unnoticed in her weakness through their midst without help or regard… she fought in weakness, every step she took required more than she could bear, but she had to get close to Him.  If only I could touch his clothes… that’s all it would take if He is truly who I think He is… just the hem of His garment.  One more struggling step and a lunge is all it would take… and she throws herself down in the dust through the crowd to reach for the last piece of His robe trailing beside Him.  

 

Light.  Life.  Relief. 

 

Everything stops.  He turns, “Who touched me?” 

 

“Me.  I’m sorry… it was me,” she says in fear and trembling, all the eyes in the crowd now watching her with Him.

 

But instead of the callous disregard or anger that she half expected, He looked down at her in the dirt… and smiled.  Eyes full of love and compassion, He reached His hand to hers and pulled her out of the dust.  “Daughter… my daughter, you are free.”

 

Though in those moments of fellowship with God, I may not be instantly and completely healed in a physical way, I find Jesus there… the Word made flesh… and He sets me free and gives me rest.  This is my way to His heart.  It never fails.   And this is my way into faith and believing.  I can trust Him… Jesus is good.  He’s good.  He’s good.  And He’s near.

 

When I feel far away, I search Jesus out where I know I can find Him… in the pages of the Gospels.  There are nights I feel as though (in a very small and insignificant way that hardly compares to most of the suffering experienced across the globe) I am huddled up in my little “prison cell,” no light, alone, no comforts (though truly I have all the comforts in the world)… just me, raw and weary, clutching the Word made flesh for every breath… and Jesus breathes.

 

As a father has compassion on his children,
       so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him,

For He knows our frame;
         He remembers that we are dust.  (Psalm 103:13-14)

 

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.  I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”   (Lam 3:21-24)

 

He is not so far that we cannot find Him, so mysterious that we cannot understand who He is and how He loves us.  God came near… John says it best:  “We have heard… we have seen with our eyes… we have looked upon and touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  The Life appeared; we have seen and we testify, and we proclaim to you the Eternal Life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”

 

May the fullness of the revelation of God, Jesus Christ, be yours today… and mine… as we ponder Him in our hearts and clutch, with every fiber of our being, the Word made flesh.

Mark 5:21-43

This is such a beautiful passage I think.  I picture Jesus, getting off the boat and immediately swarmed by people all around, barely giving him room to breathe.  My bible actually says they “thronged about him” (v.24).  So Jesus is on his way to Jairus’ house to heal his little daughter when this woman with a blood disease comes up from behind and touches his garment.  This woman is so beautiful to me.  She has been through physician after physician – with not only no help, but she is now worse than when she started.  It reminds me of times in my life when I’ve been searching and searching for freedom in an area of my life, for inner healing, and I’ve gone to all the wrong places.  No one could truly help me…

So finally this woman hears of Jesus coming and thinks “yes, I believe that only if I can touch his garment, I’ll be made well.”  Wow!  That truly is incredible faith.  I wonder if He was her last hope, her only hope…she must have been in utter desperation.  I absolutely love what Jesus does after she touches his garment.  He says “Who touched my garments?” (v.30).  Now, there are people everywhere and certainly he has been touched numerous times before she touches him, however, her touch is the one he feels.  He pays attention to the cry of the desperate – even if it’s only a reach, no voice, just a reach to try and make contact – believing that yes, He truly is the great healer, the only one to meet her need.

I really believe that there was more than a healing that took place in this touch.  There was a connection.  As she shares with him what happened when she touched his garment, he looks at her and says, “Daughter…”  Wow.  I find myself not able to go on as I suddenly realize that I am amidst a very intimate moment.  Jesus now has not identified this woman as simply a random woman longing for healing…no, he refers to her as “daughter.”  This is so beautiful.  He knows her.  Here he acknowledges that she is very special to him.  Her desperate longing for him has touched a place in his heart that not even Jarius’ daughter touched, as he spoke to her saying “Little girl…”  Although Jesus very much cared for that little girl, she did not receive the title of “daughter” as the bleeding woman had.  And this woman was no child!  She must have been about the age of Jesus!  How does it even make sense that he would call her “daughter”?!  Of course what comes to my mind is that in this holy moment, the Father now is absolutely manifesting himself through his Son.  They are one in every way in this moment.  My goodness.  The great beauty of God.

What I also began to think about is the way in which Jesus encountered both the woman and the little sick girl.  He was taken to the sick girl, while the woman had been the one to approach him.  I think there is something to be said about this.  I’m not saying Jesus didn’t have great love for the little girl.  I believe he definitely did!  He healed her and made sure she was taken care of.  But his heart was tenderized in a different way with the coming near of the bleeding woman.  She wanted him, she reached out for him, she believed him…Jesus was taken aback, almost caught off guard the instant the woman touched him.  He loves to be approached, reached out to!  She was drawing near in a way very different from the rest of the crowd.  There was a cry of desperation in her as she reached out for just one touch.  She would be satisfied with just one touch.  Wow.  He looks upon those who come near to him (by their own desire) and calls them “daughter” or “son”.  They belong to him.  He is claiming them.  He is saying “you are mine.”  I can imagine that as this now-healed woman gazed back into the loving eyes of her Father and Beloved, she was never to be the same.

Oh Jesus, you are so beautiful.  Again, you reveal your heart for the lost, the broken, the hurting.  You are so kind!  Thank you for your Word!  Thank you for revelation of your heart for those who draw near to you!  Thank you that you notice and never will turn us away – you will stop what you are doing to look upon the one who has reach out for you.  Hallelujah!

Mark 2:1-12

This is crazy – the same thing happens in this passage!  Oh Jesus, you are awesome.  Okay so in this chapter, Jesus is being swarmed once again by a crowd but this time inside of his home.  Again, there is one who is desperate to see him, to be near him – a paralytic.  So desperate in fact that this paralytic gets four men to remove the roof and lower him in!  I can imagine after the first failed attempt at getting near Jesus, the crippled man saying something like “Alright men, we’re not giving up. There must be another way.  I have to get closer!  How about the roof?”

So again, Jesus looks toward the one that is coming to him in all desperation and faith, believing that if only to be near him, he might be made well.  Here comes the best part…Jesus looks at the paralytic and says, “My son…”  Wow!  Apparently Jesus is driving this point home today of drawing near to him with a heart of desperation, going to any means to be close, and in that place He calls me his own.  It’s not about the ailment; it’s about the heart in the one seeking him.  Oh Jesus.  You are so beautiful.  Father, again you come forth through your son and speak identity into one of the least of these – a crippled man, probably had been crippled his whole life.  What kind of Man are you Jesus?  You take note every time of those in need!  Those who do whatever they must do in order to see you, to touch you, to be close to you – for they believe you will heal them.  They are desperate.  You are their only hope.  Oh God, that you would be my only hope!  Help me not to look to others when I’m in need.  Help me to draw near to the One who is filled with kindness and tenderness and will remind me that I belong to His family.  Jesus, you love to love us, to change us forever in the place of encountering your heart for us…

Mark 1:40-45

As the man limped along the road, he looked at the flowers that dotted the ditches on either side of him. Their colors were so vibrant, so beautiful that all he wanted to do was pick them and look at them. but whenever he beheld them, the stark contrast between the beauty of the flower and the hideous scars on his hands caused him more despair than he could bear.
But the day dragged on, he grew tired. Finally consenting to his broken body’s demands, he sat down to rest for a while. As he gazed on the flowers, he noticed that one of them along edge of the gravel. It had been crushed, probably by some traveler whose thoughts were occupied by more “important” things. He leaned over and looked at it. It had turned brown from several days under the sun without anyway of accessing the water in its roots. One of the petals was torn. Yet it was still beautiful.
A commotion began to arise up ahead from the path. Soon, a crowd appeared over the crest of the hill, a large group of people walking and excitedly talking. As they drew near him, they all suddenly grew silent, and moved to the far side of the road, and passed him without speaking or making eye contact. One man, however, did look at him from the middle of the group. Their eyes met, and, instead of immediately turning his head down in shame, the leper looked into the man’s eyes. He did not see disgust or fear, but something… different. The last thing he had seen in his father’s eyes the day he had been banished from his town. He saw deep concern and love.
But those around the man continued to bustle on their way, and he was soon forced avert his warm gaze to those around him, who began to ask him questions.
“Yeshua, where should we stay tonight? What will we eat? Did you see the way that Pharisee looked at you when rebuked him?”
The leper overheard all of this. He had heard of this man, a Galilean man who was said to be the Messiah. He now felt even more embarrassed. He had been near the One who was from God, and had dared to fix his filthy gaze upon Him. But as the renewed despair began to creep back, the man’s eyes burned in his mind. The love, the concern that he had detected from Him… maybe this God-man would not be disgusted with him…
With a boldness that he did not understand, He jumped up and ran up to the crowd that was drawing off in the distance. He began to shout the name he had heard the men around Him use.
“Yeshua! Yeshua!”
The crowd stopped. Some of the men’s eyes around Him grew wide with shock; others contorted their faces with displeasure that this unclean fellow had dared to approach them. For a moment, those faces taunted him. But he remembered the face of the Man in the middle of the crowd. He walked into their midst, all of them drew back from him. Except one.
“What is it you want?” He asked him.
“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” he said, now trembling.
A warm smile grew on His face. His eyes met his again. He stretched out his arm, and placed his hand on the lepers shoulder. The leper had not felt the touch of another person in almost 2 years. Tears began to roll down his broken cheeks.
“I am willing,” He said, smiling, “be cleansed.”
Immediately, all of his dangling strips of flesh and bandages fell to the ground he looked at his hands, they were smooth and had color again. With overwhelming joy rushing through his mind, he looked up at Yeshua again. His eyes were still loving, but this time his voice was more stern.
“Tell no one of this. But go to the priest in your home town, and present yourself to him, just as Moses commanded.”
With that, He turned and kept walking. The crowd, for a moment, remained still, staring at him. He looked into the eyes of the men who had brought him shame, and now saw embarrassment in their eyes. He walked out of their midst.
Returning to the place where he had been sitting, he bent down to pick up his pack. As he did, he noticed the flower again. It was no longer dry and crushed, but was, in his opinion, more beautiful than the rest.

Mark 2:1-12

In the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, we, at first, see Jesus healing only the man’s internal wounds. His first priority was to remove the garbage in the man’s life, not just to make him physically well. I think this speaks volumes about the priorities of God. Yes, He absolutely does care about the state of our physical bodies. He Himself bore our frame and knew our sickness. But what must have troubled Him more was the internal disease that haunts us still. This is not a matter of “will Jesus heal or won’t He?” He will heal. But I believe He wants to bind up our most grievous wound first. Our souls are all desperately sick, and we don’t realize it. But our great physician does. We, in our weak comprehension, can only focus on the most prominent symptoms we show. But He sees what is really causing all of our problems.
There is so much more of this story to unpack. We could talk about the role that the faith of the man’s friends played in his healing. How angry did Jesus feel towards the pious scribes who questioned His works?
Here’s what I think about this passage. Jesus killed two birds with one stone. First, He dealt not only with the paralytic man’s physical impairment, but with his spiritual state as well. But He also exposed and struck down the gross religious mindset of the day. Jesus pretty much rocks at doing this stuff.