This Day in History: 0000-10-07

October 7 – Mark 5:24-34

Jesus went with him, and all the people followed, crowding around him. A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten worse. She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind Him through the crowd and touched His robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch His robe, I will be healed.” Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from Him, so He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
His disciples said to Him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, ‘who touched me?'”
But He kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done. And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”

Can you relate to the woman in this story? Even if your struggles aren’t physical like hers were, do you ever feel like you’ve been disabled for so long, you don’t even remember what it was like to live another way? Do you feel overwhelmed beyond hope for something better? Have you spent more time and money on “experts” than you have, only to find your suffering seemingly increase?

Have you responded with the faith this woman had?

Oh friends, are we desperate for Him? Do we sincerely believe that if we can just “touch” Him, just get close to Him, we can be healed? Do we claw and fight our way through the crowd and the chaos to get to Him, believing with everything we have that He is our only hope? Perhaps, if we did, we might experience a supernatural healing!

I am struck by the fact that Jesus took the time to stop and talk to her. He didn’t really need to know who touched Him… he knew! He’s God! He took the time to do it, though, forcing her to have the courage to step forward and claim what she had done.

Is He asking us to do the same? Does He want us to step out in the crowd and boldly declare the healing we’ve received through Him?

Perhaps, some of the healing comes in the telling! Perhaps, as we nail that stake in the ground, we will hear the tender words of our Savior as He looks on us with compassion and declares, “My precious child, your faith has made you well! Go in peace. Your suffering has ended!”