Jesus has a number of healings in this chapter; the demon-possessed man, Jairus' daughter, and the woman with a bleeding problem. In each case faith is at work. Faith is a verb for Mark. Faith is not a collection of thoughts. Faith is the action that comes out of conviction. It is this kind of faith that heals or frees a person.
The demon-possessed man has been living in the cemetery like a wild animal, often injuring himself. He has all sorts of problems (legions of them!) Notice that the evil spirits recognize Jesus for who he is even though most people do not. Pigs are unclean for Jews so that may explain why the spirits went to pigs. Jesus' healing creates a buzz, mostly fear, even when people are faced with a man who no longer suffers. Even today, people are afraid that Jesus will make them do something or do something to them that will hurt them. Yet Jesus' track record is unblemished. Jesus heals. Note that the man's testimony seems more helpful than Jesus' deed. Those who hear him are amazed. Our testimony also has more power than just talking about God. We need to discover our God-stories and tell them.
With Jairus, we now have an upstanding, practicing religious authority believing in Jesus. Not all in authority want to derail Jesus' ministry. People believe the girl is dead by the time Jesus gets to her. He only lets his inner circle of friends; Peter, James and John go in to tend to the daughter. Notice that Jesus states that fear is a deal-killer for faith. Fear blocks all sorts of good things.
The woman with the blood illness believes so much that Jesus can help her, she presses through the crowd just to touch him. Jesus' friends find him a bit odd when he asks who touched him in a crowd of people. But Jesus knows the difference of a touch of curiosity or disorder and a touch of faith. Once again, a person's faith heals. Remember, faith is conviction put into action. Where do you need to put your convictions into action?
No comments:
Post a Comment